My journey through life as an enthusiast.

Hey, I'm quoting Jeff! Haven't done this in years. But it's because he said it best:

Jeff said:

But it is interesting to me how I do feel a little more like a park enthusiast than a coaster enthusiast.

That's exactly it. There was a time when it was about going from park to park as quickly as possible and riding all the roller coasters. Before my wife was my wife, we went to Atlanta and literally spent a couple hours in Visionland (back when it was called Visionland) and Lake Winnie. We missed out on most of what those parks had to offer! Well, the small amount of Visionland that wasn't Rampage, anyway. Now, it's about the entire park experience. I was reading another thread where someone said they enjoyed their few hours at Seabreaze, but I could (and have) spent an entire day there even though it's easy to run out of things to do around mid-afternoon. I enjoy spending time in a park during the day and a night, seeing it in all different kinds of light (pun somewhat intended.) Lately I've maintained I could go to a park and not ride much of anything and perhaps one of these days I'll prove that to myself.

Coaster enthusiasm is a weird thing. First, everyone who commented about the weirdness of the majority of people involved in the hobby are right. I don't want to sound mean but the majority of coaster enthusiasts display a level of social ineptitude that is a few steps beyond disturbing. When I go to the rare enthusiast event, I find myself shaking my head as much as I find myself having a good time. I'm sure it's always been that way, I guess I just didn't notice. I do notice that a lot try to "sell" the idea to others, almost like a religion... and it usually revolves around Cedar Point. The endless complaining about everything bothers me but I accept it as part of a hobby because anyone who is truly passionate about anything is going to be critical about the details, whether their thing happens to be sports, classic cars, video games, movies or antiques.

What gets me the most is how the hobby has changed. I've been a member of ACE since 1990 (a gift from a friend of the family) and it's interesting to compare enthusiasm back then to enthusiasm now. In the early 1990s, ACE News and Inside Track were the two ways you got your coaster news, and very often you were riding the year's new coaster at the local theme park by the time the newsletter arrived in the mailbox to announce it. There was also a huge push for coaster preservation- enthusiasts would write to parks in an attempt to get them to buy and relocate one of the moment's many standing-but-not-operating wood coasters. Classic parks were disappearing and people were alarmed... and it turns out they had every right to be alarmed. Knowing that Camden and Conneaut are two of the very last old-school neighborhood parks is weird because there was a time not too long ago that you had Whalom, Williams Grove, Joyland (KS), Bell's and Americana (to name a few) on that list. Now, news is delivered instantly via a great number of websites and we're lucky if there's one "Bay Beech/Zippin Pippin" story among the Harry Potters, Intimidators and Green Lanterns.

My interest in the hobby ebbs and flows. There was a time I was really into it, then not... then got into it again, and now not so much. Maybe it has to do with my preferred kind of park having mostly been wiped off the map and everything being owned by a few corporations, or maybe it's just other aspects of life getting in the way. Either way, more of my life has been spent as an enthusiast than not and as much as my interest wanes from time to time, I don't see it ever leaving me. A strange hobby... but which ones aren't?

You should try a CB event. It's definitely a different vibe.

I have only been to two coaster events: BooBuzz last year and Coastermania this year. BB crowd was too small and the event oo short to get much of a feel of the folks in attendance. But seemed pretty normal. Weirdest thing to me was riding MF without any screams.

Coastermania seemed to be a big mix of folks. Some were the geeky/trekkie/trekker types that have been referenced here. Some seemed to be teens/20 something folks who liked coasters. Others were families/parts of families who also liked coasters. I was part of or overheard a couple of bizarre conversations but most were again pretty normal.

I think as others have noted, the issue is whether you are a fan or fanatical. Fanatics of anything can be a bit crazy, odd and/or annoying. Typically, its a very small group with respect to any activity/hobby/interest that are truly fanatics.

And I agree with the notion that kids change your view of parks/rides. I went to CP once a year until I had kids and then took a couple of years off when they were infants/toddlers. Then when I started taking my kids to parks (CP mostly), I discovered/rediscovered a lot of rides that I had either never ridden or hadn't ridden in decades. I enjoyed all of the Camp Snoopy rides with my kids. Not so much myself but because they did so much. Not sure I had ever ridden Troika before but it became my daugther's favorite ride for a while (still is one of her favorites especially if we get a purple car) and thus I loved riding it too. She now loves Iron Dragon (a ride on which I could otherwise take a nap) and so do I riding it with her. Same is true of the Disney coasters and other rides at other parks we visit. I think she is likely at the end of the line of terms of more thrilling rides though she did like Windseeker.

My son is totally the opposite. Until he was 4 ft, I didn't ride any coasters (other than Iron Dragon or Disaster Transport or sneaking off for 10-15 mins to ride Blue Streak). When he hit 4 ft, we went on the 48" coasters gradually over a 3 year period. I figured I grew up with them as they were build (many of them when I was an adult) so why should he ride all of them right away. Now he will ride anything and everything. Had a great time with him at coastermania power riding everything we could during all of the ERTs. He is more consistent with how I experienced parks as a kid (we typically went on the bigger rides and avoided the smaller rides/shows, etc.). My daugther brings me to other aspects of the parks. Its all good. As others have said, a day at any park beats a day at work.

I've been on a few TPR trips in the past, and they kinda critique the roller coasters a little bit too much. But, on their trips you can find certain clicks that are on the trips to just have fun, and not over analyze the coasters they are riding. Unless your riding Mean Streak, and your analyizing how rough and boring it is.

My experience is that a coaster club has helped me get out of that over analytical state and just enjoy myself in all amusement parks, wether it is Six Flags or a local fair.

Felt it was an appropriate time to bring this back and reflect a little. This past weekend, I met up with some great friends, rode some great rides, had some regional cuisine, saw some special places of historical significance - just about everything that makes the hassle involved with the travel of this hobby worthwhile.

This weekend I enjoyed my first rides on the (happily) relocated Little Dipper at Great America. I'd ridden the coaster before at its previous home at Kiddieland. It was great to see the ride running, curved station intact, with lights, signage with historical information...just awesome. Kudos to Great America for recognizing the value of restoring this ride to the people of the Chicago area! Only the second time I've ridden a wooden coaster in two locations, the other being FL's own Starliner (which hopefully will have another "resurrection" soon). Among a bunch of other good rides at the Gurnee park, I enjoyed some very solid rides on Viper - good, but not the best I've experienced on Viper. Rode American Eagle (forward and backward)....red side forward was pretty much an amazing ride, the blue side backward was a little more sluggish and a lot rougher. Of course, Whizzer was the first ride at the park and obvious sentimental favorite, and the Dark Knight coaster was the first "new-new to me" coaster, but I'm all about the wooden coasters. Having worked at an 84 Lumber for a couple years, it was seeing the construction of Gwazi that really HOOKED me in the first place. Who'd have thought that you could build something more "fun" than a deck, dock, pole barn, horse stables, etc., with all that treated lumber!

So, anyhow, more travel and food, more time with friends, and a trip to Green Bay. Green Bay was really "the destination" for this trip, due to the construction of the "new" Zippin Pippin". This ZP has "the goods", and with all due respect to John Miller, a lot more zip than the original. Bay Beach was a really nice PARK - a place to picnic and hang out with the family, walk along the shore, and maybe catch a ride or two. A real place for local residents to stop by, maybe collect the extended family for grandma's birthday party, join up for the train ride before heading home full of brats and cake. A throwback to a simpler era. (Stop laughing, Gonch!). ;)

On the trip, I managed to eat cheese curds for the first time (fried, and yummy). Had an "Italian beef" sandwich, something you simply can't get in FL. Had a "bratburger" with a bratwurst patty on top of a delicious burger. What could be more American than overeating while sampling the regional cuisine?

The bratburger was at a place holding a wedding reception - directly across from Lambeau Field. Huge NFL and NBA, NCAA football and basketball fan, I take pictures of stadiums and arenas all over the place. Finally getting to see the hallowed shrine was a real treat. Or, as the young girl says in the commercial while taunting the Saints fan, "We call it the Lombardi Trophy". Gotta love that!

Thoughts of Moosh came up as always when getting together with mutual friends, and I can't imagine I'd know even half the people I do without his influence. I've been at this know for about a dozen years, and honestly, if I were to become unable to ride ever again, I'd still be at HWN and PPP every chance I had, because the friends are really what this hobby has become for me. I love to ride, love it to pieces. But it's infinitely better when you experience it with someone you care about. Thanks again, Matthew.

L.A. Thompson got his patent on August 16, 1898 - and about a hundred years later I got "the bug". Nothing's more American than a wooden coaster. I just read that the Russian term for rollercoaster is "American mountains". http://www.diamondscoffeeshoppe.com/2011-08-16-roller-coaster-patented-1898

A couple years ago, I realized I had gotten surprisingly close to having ridden every "publicly-operating" US wooden coaster - if Jeremy Reid still has his running, I would absolutely love to get that one too. Life happens, and travel was somewhat curtailed for a bit (and we had an amazing trip to the UK). Then, last year I heard of an event at Rye where the marvelous Kiddie Coaster would be made available. It was the last of the "classics", one that had eluded me YEARS back on my first extended coaster trip, one planned and organized by Moosh, because of a flight cancellation. (This hobby always throws curveballs on the travel side...esp. if you're flying into or out of FL in the summertime).

After the Rye trip, I was left with four US woodies unridden (lots of woodies on my record have since left the census, among them three John Millers). Got a flight to Albuquerque for the "supersized Cornball" NM Rattler thanks to SW credits. Then took a drive out to Gulf Shores, AL, for Cannonball Run - one within a six-hour drive that I'd never managed to ride. That left only Zippin Pippin and Wooden Warrior in the US, and after last weekend it's now just Wooden Warrior. PPP as it turns out is the weekend after Quassy closes for the year. But with family in NJ and MD, and wanting to spend some time with my siblings and nieces, I'm going to head up the weekend prior, and close Quassy on Wooden Warrior. I'm hoping as many friends as CAN make it, do...because it truly has been "an American Adventure" for these past dozen years or so.

I love travel, I love regional food, I love sports, I love parks, I love wooden coasters, I love America. I love my friends, and I love this hobby!

I just read that the Russian term for rollercoaster is "American mountains".

Now THAT is one of the coolest things I've heard in a LONG time!!!

Edit: Cool as in that took me back to when I was 13 and just getting into the hobby and learning about the history of "Russian Mountains". I never thought to ask myself in the past 27 years what the Russians called them. Did you just suddenly get the notion to look that up?

^No, I was actually looking around because of "National Rollercoaster Day" a couple weeks ago, and wanted to make sure I had the LA Thompson patent facts correct - the "American mountains" thing was a lucky bonus. Just had to pass along that cool fact... :)

I will have to say enthusiast critical approach of rides and attractions had me worried about visiting some of the places I visited this year. One site had me thinking Disney world was falling apart, monorails were death traps, and there was no magic left for kids or adults there. Man were they off. When looking for hotels sites were saying 4 star hotels were rat infested bug havens with rude staff. Others suggest every wood coaster needs the texas giant make over. Yea I have som bad oppinions of parks and places. I think some rides get over hyped or under hyped. In general the ONLY time I have had miserable experiences at amusement parks has been when I was ill at a park or to worried about trying to get everything in. I know everything is not rainbows and buckets of gold but most forums now have been gloom and doom with everything wrong everywhere, heck I have seen people attacked in forums for posting positive reviews about something.

^Think of what you read here like (hopefully) you think of a movie review.

I'm sure you have some movies that are your favorites, and they have pretty crappy reviews.

And vice-versa.

Do it yourself, see how you like it. Most of the time, you may find something you don't like, but hopefully find lots of stuff you do like.

Yeah, I'm pretty sure I'm the only person who thinks SOB>MS>Beast in the roughness category. Of course, I also like Maverick as my favorite steel coaster, so that explains it all. ;)

Circling back to the original sentiment:

Yes. Enthusiasts bitch. And yes, it is unpleasant.

But, this is the nature of nearly any "specialized" discussion board I participate in: amusement parks, Disneyana, college athletics, even timeshare. The people who participate are passionate. Typically, that passion leads to criticism--rational or not. There are a lot of reasons for this, some of them rooted in psychology and sociology (short vernon: people who are critical are seen as "smart"), but it's there in every single one of these communities.

The boards I *continue* to participate in---rather than just skim from time to time---are the ones with a better-than-average ratio of "rational" to "nutcase". This is one of those places. Mostly. I confess I haven't been reading/posting here at CBuzz as much as I once did. But, still...this place works. It works better if you skip the nutcase threads. That might mean reading only a small fraction of them. That's cool. Saves time! ;)

I think I stopped posting and reading on CB and PB for this exact reason. I've been a member of both sites since 1999 or 2000. Hell, I was reading Guide to the Point back in 1998 I believe when there were no forums. I would get so excited about a roller coaster or ride being built only to have it torn apart by enthusiasts. Just got tired of arguing about it. Now I come back for news and updates, but rarely post and rarely comment. I like having that surprise again. I didn't know much about Maverick before I rode it and it was such a killer experience. Not knowing was the best part. Same thing about going to new parks. Went to King's Island recently and knew a few rides from memory (been wanting to ride Vortex since my kid days). But others I didn't know and I loved the surprise I got out of it.

I think discussion is healthy and so is being a critic. But I think we have to watch out about making others disillusioned with the world we love so much. We can be jaded and scare away people who simply like to ride. Sure, a ride may not be perfect, but it doesn't mean it's not fun. Complaining about it may deter someone who may wait just to have a good time..

People have always disagreed on this site. People have always been into things that I personally don't care about (the stats, the mechanics, etc.), people have always discussed things that not everyone is interested in for one reason or another. Enthusiasts have always battled to be first in line, whether it be for the rides or the food. And it seemed people were fine with that.

Recently however, the disagreeing has gotten quite nasty and personal. There's a general lack of respect for posters who have opinions different from one's own. If someone doesn't like a park that you do, or likes a coaster that you don't, it's taken as a personal affront. This only got multiplied exponentially when the topic turned to whether Pepsi should give money to Conneaut, are people who get into Hershey's viral campaigns losers who are wasting their time, how should coasters be ranked, and is (insert park chain CEO name here) the anti-Christ or the best thing since sliced bread? And then there's Muslims, bible-based parks, company dress codes, what should be done with Big Dipper, and a whole bunch of other threads that quickly disintegrated into pissing matches of a few people trying to show that someone else's opinion in wrong.

This place would be boring as hell if everyone agreed on everything. Every thread would read "great coaster" "I agree" "Yes" "awesome" "+1" blah, blah, blah. But it doesn't mean we have to be mean and nasty to disagree either. If someone's into something that you're not-- so what? If they like rides you don't or don't like the ones you do-- so what? No need to get defensive, people are different and like different things. We just need to be reminded to respect that. If you're here expecting to have your own opinions unanimously validated, or if you're here spoiling for a fight with people who disagree with you to prove you're right, you probably shouldn't be here.

^Can I give a +1 to that last paragraph? ;)

Seriously though, respect others and respect yourself. People disagreeing with you is a GOOD thing - it might open your eyes to something you hadn't known, or simply hadn't fully appreciated before. Very rarely is anything as "black and white" as right or wrong. Usually, it's just a matter of having a different perspective - from having lived in a different time or place, or under different circumstances - the opposite of ignorance is education.

If we all felt like rainbows and puppies, yeah, it would be a really boring kind of place. If you feel like there's "conflict" or something that makes you dislike the hobby, I might suggest that you're taking it too seriously. Even as the operator and bill payer, I still view it as "just" a forum. It's a fun diversion, and every once in awhile I meet people (like the podcast crew) that end up being great friends over the long run. It still doesn't make or break my experiences in the real world at amusement parks.

Recently however, the disagreeing has gotten quite nasty and personal.

Either I'm not reading these threads that carefully, or I'm just missing it....

...or I'm part of the problem. I'm sure someone will come along and tell me which it is shortly. ;)

Yeah, I haven't seen that either. Not saying it doesn't happen, but I wouldn't identify it as a trend.

If anything, it seems to me that the tone of the conversation has actually improved a bit.

So even the discussion about whether the board has gone toxic has turned toxic. :)

THAT'S IT, I"M LEAVING!!

(did ya miss me?)