Knoebels 5/26 - extreme snappage

I was at Knoebels today from about 12:30 to 6:30. Phoenix and Twister both seemed to be running smoother than the last time I was there, although I only rode the front of Twister and Phoenix only has one rough spot anyway. But the real highlight of the day was the Flyers. When I got there, there were two operators, an old guy and a young guy. It looked like maybe the younger one was being trained. A few rides ahead of me, the old guy gets in for a ride and proceeds to snap all over the place, not just a few times but constantly. Then on the next ride, something incredible happens: he starts telling people, while the ride is running, how to snap! The ride after that, he tells me that they've had to lower the speed of the ride 4 times in the last few years because they had someone spin 360 degrees and twist the cables. Then it's my turn, he asks me if I know what I'm doing, I say I've got the general idea, he gives me a few pointers and then says that I shouldn't worry, if it gets too bad he'll just slow it down a little. I had a pretty good flight, although when the wind picked up it didn't seem to take much effort. It was a very long ride too. I got some pretty good slack but didn't have any really violent snaps. The flyer behind me must have though, because as I'm walking out I hear him telling the rider that when they snap that hard he likes to check the cables before the next ride. I was pretty stunned at all of this after reading all the complaints about snapping being banned at PPP last year.

It wasn't banned at PPP last year. There was just one ride op in particular who complained about extreme snapping. That's cool that the ride op was giving pointers. Man, I wish I was at Knoebels this weekend.

Gawd! I remember the old guy at West View park that would threaten to evict you for life if you even accidentally got the thing to make a slight jump!

:O

Anti-Theme Park Mentality! What a change from what happens at so many parks. This is another reason why Knoebels is so special.