Kings Island 7/29/03 Congo Falls record

The Morning of July 29th 2003

The day was one of the hottest of the summer of 2003. Andrew had just arrived the night before, and I was leaving the next day, so today had to be the day to break the record. In the past Kevin, Zak, and Andrew had attempted to break the Congo Falls (Intamin chute ride) straight ride record of 76. Today we would become champions, or so we thought… Morning rolled around, I dragged my butt off the fold-out, and put on my orange shorts, and a t-shirt. I pulled myself up the stairs, “too early” I thought. Sue was making pancakes to aid us on this grueling feat burdened upon us. Andrew was already up, Zak was in the shower (for what reason I don’t know, the water in the ride is dirty anyway), and Kevin was nowhere to be found. As soon as the pancakes are done Kevin shows up along with Zak, who announces “Are we ready today boys”. We all tiredly agree, and continue eating. We finally leave the house around 9:45, intelligently taking Zak’s car. The reason why it was a good idea will be revealed later. Ten o’clock, right on time. We all stand staring at the Eiffel tower on International Street (dry). Then as the first train on Son of Beast caresses the first hill we hurriedly make our way to Congo Falls to start the day. Just when we reach Action Zone I notice Congo Falls is dry! Not a speck of water except the bit in the lake. Of course we are all devastated. “What! The rides closed! How are we gonna break the record?!?” we garbled to each other. After finding an attendant working the Top Gun/Son of Beast queue, we ask why the ride wasn’t running. The attendant told us that Congo Falls didn’t open until noon…two hours wasted. To Adventure Express we went. What a pleasant Arrow mine train. I love this ride, if I knew what the record was I would break it in a heart beat. We rode AE two or three times and headed to Racer/recaR. Kev and I went on recaR, while Zak and Andrew rode forward. The race was heated, but a lot of fun when we kicked their butt, Go Red! I think Backward Racer always runs faster so if you want to make a gamble of it…you know what to do. From Racer to Vortex we go. Vortex is one of those coasters that can be thrilling at anytime of the day. The ride’s pace never changes with wind, or rain, or sun. My favorite looping coaster for sure. Beast let us down, because it was having “Beast issues” so no dice there, more AE time, and one last race on Racer. The moment of truth came upon us when 11:30 hit. From backward Racer’s lift I could see employees doing their thing over at Congo Falls. I announced it to my comrades (woops), and they got excited. To Grandmothers house we go… “Here it comes!” Whaaaaaaasssshhhhllllooooossssshhhhh the water came crashing down thousands of gallons at a time. We were sitting at Stunt Crew Grill waiting for that fateful moment. When the water came we ran to the entrance, it was only 40 feet, but we ran. The trashcan blocking us from our prize was surprisingly full since the park had only been open two hours. We got a wave from the crew in the station that we could enter the line and we did. We slowly marched to the front, touching the sacred sign. The sign told me he would like to remain anonymous in this report. As we entered the station house a slight chill came upon all of us.

Boat One – Lap One

“Just so you know we are going to be here all day” Zak states to the operator. “Is that right” she says. “Yeah, we are going to break the record of 76 rides in a row”.“A lot of people try, but give up after seven or eight rides”“We aren’t ordinary people”

Boat Six – Lap Twenty One

At this point we where getting to know our ride ops pretty well. Steph was the girl working the buttons and switches on the control tower. She was a very nice girl, 18 years old, Blonde, the works. I felt bad for her because it was such a hot day, although we couldn’t notice because of the massive amount of water we had endured thus far. Mike was twenty three years old and working at the park to make a little extra cash for college. Lap twenty one was special because Mike had just gotten of his shift at Congo Falls in this rotation, so he rode with us realizing that we might make it to our goal. He rode with us three time and drenched himself, and then had to go back to work Face/Off. Steph decided to ride with us on twenty four because she would be leaving us as well, but not for good.

Boat Four – Lap thirty three

The worst of our trouble was gone. This young guy, probably eighteen, who had been unloading the boats, had left. He seemed upset with us, maybe he was jealous who knows. From this point is where fun started to happen, we got our first re-ride (no leaving the boat). Our soon-to-be friend Holly was a manager. She was twenty one and very nice looking. She had heard the story from Steph and Mike about these four guys that were on a quest. She had to come see for herself and switched a shift with someone to work Congo Falls. A new ritual had been occurring since lap one where we would give the ride operator a high five upon exiting the station in our boat. It was Standard Operating Procedure at that point to give everyone in the boat a high five as well.

Boat Two – Lap forty seven

“Move, he’s coming, hurry!” were the words used at the time. Occasionally we had to get off the ride and walk all the way around again to re-enter the line so others could ride (we had dedication to set a record, but we weren’t jerks). This little pudgy kid had been following us for 10 laps now, and wouldn’t leave us alone. He said he’d been on the ride seventy times already today. We immediately knew this was a lie because we hadn’t seen him until just recently (and it’s not a packed ride either). Our warped minds started to ponder ways to get rid of him, he was taking our fame! We gave Holly the 411 on the kid so when we got out of a boat, the kid followed then we would hang out in the station of awhile and hop back into the boat and she told the kid he had to go back around. I lied about being jerks…we are just pure evil. The poor kid did stick around for another ten laps of so, and finally gave up.

Boat Three – Lap 66

Lunch came and gone, Chilly Cheese Coney’s really whip the Lama’s behind. We where re-visited be an old friend. It was Steph; her rotation had sent her back to Congo Falls once again. Because it was getting close to Seven o’clock she decided not to ride with us again. Our minds were beginning to become oh so fragile with the extreme cold setting in. our body’s (Air temp. was 97 degrees still).

Boat Five – Lap 76

“Woo! Yeah! 76 baby!” We tied the record, and a new spark of energy surged. “How high do you guys want to go?” Kevin asked.“A Hundred” mentions Andrew. And so a new quest began. Holly dropped by for occasional visits to see what lap we were on. Steph and Holly were very excited to see us come into the station (soaked) with huge grins on our faces. Steph had to leave to work Face/Off and said she’d be there the rest of the night and that we should stop by when we’re done because she’d make a plaque type deal with our names and photo on it. After Steph left, Holly gave us some bad news. “The record is eighty-seven rides in a row”. We were crushed; all that riding and nothing yet to show.

Boat One – Lap Ninety

After finding out from several of the employees that Holly was a liar, we decided to end before we froze. Lap ninety involved the original boat we started in, and consisted of nothing but us four. We divvied up the boat, and realized that Andrew’s splash down yelling expression “That’s alotta dimp” wore off three laps ago. To our surprise Holly came over the intercom in Action Zone and announced “May I have everyone’s attention please. The new Congo Falls record holders are about to plummet their ninetieth time today. They have been riding this ride since Noon.” We where psyched up, and we decided not to hide from the water on this last drop, but to lean into the water waves as the parted past our bodies. We had not done this since the “50’s”. After exiting the boat at 9:44pm we went and bought an $18 disposable camera to take our pictures. Andrew said it was well worth it, and made the purchase. We met back up with Holly in the station of Congo Falls, and she took our photo. Then we said our goodbyes and went to talk to Steph about the whole adventure. I forgot how loud Face/Off was when it came barreling through the station, so our conversation was kept brief. We all gave her a big sloppy hug, and left the ride’s exit. I found a penny on the ground from 1990 so I had it smushed into the Adventure Express logo. When we sloshed into Zak’s car we noticed out foul aroma, and decided it was a good idea that we didn’t take Sue’s minivan, or a lot of cleaning would have to be done to the leather seats.

Congo Falls record holders, 90 times – Kevin, Zak, Andrew, and Adam July 29th 2003

*** Edited 4/26/2004 9:43:05 PM UTC by OrientExpressKid***

Congratulations. That really is something to brag to the grandkids about.

Wow, that was entertaining to read. I really liked this part:
“Yeah, we are going to break the record of 76 rides in a row”.“A lot of people try, but give up after seven or eight rides”“We aren’t ordinary people”

Congratulations. I am inspired to go on a quest of my own now. How did you guys know about the current record?

Very impressive guys. Congrats. I wish I could do Congo Falls 90 times, but I have ADHD (no joke either) and I would just space out and head on over to Delirum before I hit 20.

Yeah, it was tempting to quit due to the coldness. We stuck it out, but man was I pruned. I had to fly back to South Dakota the next day, and bought one of those vaccuum bags so my shorts wouldn't get everything wet. Sue took a picture of us that morning (dry), and I look back and laugh at how foolish we were. *no one got sick*

-ADAM