Mitch Hawker's 2004 Wood Coaster Poll is underway!

I know this site traditionally opposes spamming, but seeing as Mitch's poll is held as one of the best gauges of ride popularity, I'd share it with all of you who haven't gotten an e-mail yet or are just hearing about it for the first time. The ballot and instructions can be found at http://www.geocities.com/wcoasterpoll/

The method is a little complicated, but the algorithm is really spectacular and is amazingly accurate. So while you all take a minute and get out to vote tomorrow, don't forget to take some time this month to try and fill out the Wood Coaster Ballot too!

--Dave (spreading all kinds of election love since 2003 when he turned 18 and could legally vote!)

Sent my ballot in last night :)

Damn Gonch, do you EVER go to sleep? ;)

Huh... I really expected the second post to be from someone saying the poll suXorzz!!!111 or something. I guess we need to wait for the results for that tired conversation to happen.

I sure hope Blue Streak gets more props this year. Talk about some upstop-slammin' fun this year...

No, I'm pretty much 24/7

Sugar, Caffeine and Nicotene - the diet of champions!

(or the eternally awake :) )

My "out of the blue" coaster for the year was Silver Comet at Martin's Fantasy Island. Really a great ride that I hear next to no one mention. Scored a solid 3 on my poll.

Other than that, not too much deviation from the norm other than my unhealthy adoration of Coney's Cyclone and my putting a certain raved about PA woodie near the bottom of my top ten.

I'm so weird when it comes to wood.

I supposed giving SFA's wood high ranking could be considered weird, but they get lots of raves around here - they just don't seem to land very well in the polls.

Does this count as voting or do I still have to go vote tomorrow?

You mean today... ;-)

That's what happens when you don't sleep!

I agree with the sentiments on Blue Streak -- I've definitely thought that coaster was something special since I first rode it in '01 and people are so skeptical when I tell them how much I love it. Then again, these are the same people to whom I say, "Mean Streak? Oh, it's not so bad..."

Of my two out-of-the-blue woodies, the biggest shocker for me was definitely SFA's Wild One. Not an airtime beast like my top choices (all but Lightning Racer, my other "OotB," at #5 are well-known for negatives), but maybe just because it exceeded my expectations for what an SF-maintained woodie could be. It was even more shocking when you factor in that, for whatever reason, Roar didn't really do much for me. Go figure.

Least shocking moment on my ballot? My hometown woodie, Rotting Lumber, has yet to budge from the bottom of the barrel! ;)

I feel a little bad about placing Blue Streak second last on my ballot. Of course, there were just 6 wood coasters on it, but still, maybe we should've given it another chance. On the other hand, it hurt us around thrice as much as Mean Streak and my wife's initial comment was "well, it's nice to get some perspective on how much coasters have developed over time". I couldn't help but agree.

Stampida in Port Aventura Spain got the number one spot.

---

Nitro Dave said:

Least shocking moment on my ballot? My hometown woodie, Rotting Lumber, has yet to budge from the bottom of the barrel!

---

Right you are, same here...still the bottom of my chart!

Well if you don't vote, you can't complain :)

I like this poll as I feel it is the fairest one out there. It also follows a coasters performance from year to year and is based only on those who have ridden said coaster and compared them to others they have ridden.

I find it easiest to vote worst to first. Pick out all your coasters delete everything else and then vote one through whatever.

Chuck

Didn't you know Me and Gonch run the nite shift? Now if only he'd get on AIM once in a while so I could bug him there...;)

Ha! I totally forgot, Tekno. I still never reinstalled it.

I need to get around to that.

Hmmmm, what's NEW and exciting for my woodie ballot this year?

Tx Giant, Tx Cyclone, Frontier City's Wildcat, Zippin Pippin, Arkansas Twister, and last (but DEFINITELY not least), Clementon's Tsunami...

Many coasters moved up or down, but the biggest change might be MSAP's Starliner, that thing was like a "bat out of Hades" this year....I'm hearing whispers that it may be demolished rather than sold, and that plain suXXXorz!1!!

"Wood, it's ALL about the maintenance..."
"Wood, it's what's for dinner"
"Wood, cause everything else is JUST a steel coaster"

The folllowing are in no particular order.

--Improvements--

1] Knoebels Twister. Not sure what they did to it but its running better than it ever has.

2] Conneaut Lake Park Blue Streak. Vettel trains, night rides in the dark, fireworks blasting overhead. Highlight of the year for me.

--New wood--

1] William Grove's Cyclone. Hella-fun and nowhere near the scary, falling-apart no-maintenance disaster I'd heard it was supposed to be. Of course it was so rough in spots one could do nothing but laugh, but I enjoyed Cyclone a lot. In fact I rode it 5x!

2] Arnolds Park Legend. Thighs, meet Mr. Buzz Bar! Deliciously violent air put this coaster firmly in my Top 10.

3-5] Mt. Olympus Theme Park's Pegasus, Cyclops, Zeus. Total anticipointment. Pegasus...ok, its a kiddie woodie so naturally its not going to be too exciting. But what about the hype surrounding Cyclops and Zeus? I'd hoped Zeus would be another Timber Terror. It wasn't. And I'd heard tons of kudos about Cyclops' last drop, but Raven and Ghostrider's infamous drops were much, much better. Thank god for the cool kart tracks. At least there's hope in Hades!

6] SFGAm's Viper. Everyone told me 1:3 was the seat and it was...the seat to take a nap in! We rode this in the AM and because the park was crowded and I never got to return for a back seat ride. I can definitively say this is better than SFMM's Psyclone ;) Further judgements will be reserved for another time.

7] Zingo! Just can't seem to get enough of this one ;)

mOOSH

*** Edited 11/2/2004 9:08:33 PM UTC by Mamoosh***

New wood for me this year was.

1 Conneaut Blue streak

2. Waldameer's comet

3.4.5 PCWs Wild Beast, Mine buster and Scooby

6 Preditor

7 Sea Breeze's Jack rabbit

8. MFI's Comet

Best of that bunch= Wild Beast

Most surpisingly good to me= Jack Rabbit at Sea Breeze. The more I rode it, The more I liked it.

Best overall was probably Comet.

Not as bad as I'd heard, Preditor

Chuck, who will hit Moosh's trip next year and do Timbersfest (3rd time) Dells, Minn, Arnolds and probaby swing down to branson.

Personally I just can't rate wooden coasters. The experience just depends so much on the time of day weather conditions and where you sit I just can't do it.

---

Mamoosh said:

--New wood--

7] Zingo! Just can't seem to get enough of this one

---

I could say something but all I'm going to do is smile so you know that wasn't lost on everyone!

Three new top 10 woodies for me this year:

1. Thunderhawk
2. Phoenix
9. Twister

PA rules...
*** Edited 11/2/2004 10:08:08 PM UTC by Vater***

My only new wood was Thunderhead, but with the rides I had on GA Cyclone this year, it might as well be new-to-me.

Also, 'tis funny that this poll started on election day. *** Edited 11/2/2004 10:39:31 PM UTC by thepinkdoomofmonkeys***