Pittsburgh area man organizes rally for Geauga Lake's Big Dipper

d_port_12E said:
Thanks for dissecting my psyche, Dr. Gonchar : ) How much will that be?

I'm a quack. I couldn't, in good conscience, charge you. :)

To ME coasters were designed to stimulate emotions..

"An Emotion is a mental and physiological state associated with a wide variety of feelings,thoughts and behavior.Emotions are subjective experiences,or experienced from an individual point of view.Emotion is offen associated with mood,temperament,personality,and disposition."

If they didnt,we would all sit there while we were riding acting robots,no screaming,laughter,giggling,holding hands in the air,fear,joy,ect,just a blank look on our face.What would be the point of riding them if they didnt make us feel something?

Most people get off the ride showing some kind of emotion,laughing crying,ect.

Not too many people can say that they have got off a coaster and didnt say that they loved it or hated it,either way youre expressing a emotion toward it.

NO one is really wrong about their feelings(emotion)or lack of,toward the Dipper,its all about YOUR OWN subjective experience or individual point of view you may have of it.

But I can see that if something that brought you great joy(Dipper)feeling sadness if it was gone...

Jeff said: That's completely hypothetical. We've watched the same crappy wooden roller coaster trains used for decades without so much as a minor refinement. Why? Because the business is too small to support more players. There was no incentive to innovate, and as steel coasters began to dominate, the incentive nearly vaporized. I think you're disrespecting the guys at TGG and GCI and not giving them the credit they're absolutely due. They've pushed boundaries way beyond anything that Miller ever did.

Now I know I said that the guys from GCII and GG were TOP NOTCH did I not? Without John Miller and the builders from that hey day, these guys WOULDN'T be around pushing technology like they do. I gave them the props they deserve. And they know they deserve them.

Never once did I say anything about coaster trains. That is a totally different story and has NOTHING to do with what I said. I said designers I didn't mean coaster trains. I meant the actual coaster itself. If you are going to quote me make sure you are really gonna prove me wrong.

Like I said and we all know it, John Miller built some damn good designs for back in the 20's without his innovative designs and hard work, guys like GCII and GG wouldn't be where they are today. That's not dissing, that's praising.

How can anyone even compare the work of John Miller to the work of GCI and TGG? Modern coaster companies have the luxury of state-of-the-art CAD software while designers in the 1920s didn't even have calculators. Don't get me wrong- companies like GCI and TGG are doing more to advance wood coaster design than any company since the days of Miller and Schmeck- but lets not forget how Miller pushed the boundaries when he was designing coasters and a bunch of other rides.

And it's not like wood coaster train design stood completely still. While the basic PTC box looked to be the same, Schmeck and Allen made a lot of changes that weren't all that obvious to the naked eye. Stronger, lighter materials, better restraints... they made changes at a logical pace, considering the market was very small.

Jeff said:
Being nostalgic about some ride isn't even the same ballpark as remembering a spouse, sibling or parent who died... That anyone would put that level of love and respect to the same level for some object that didn't give birth to someone or be someone's wife for 43 years is borderline insulting to the memory of any person we've lost.

Sorry, I'm not buying that, because I don't think anyone around here is saying that the loss of an amusement park or a particular ride is on the same level as the loss of a loved one. People are merely stating that it's okay to feel sadness after any kind of loss, and I think to take offense to that is being unusually thin-skinned.

I often wonder what would have happened had there been enthusiasts who cared about preserving John Miller coasters when Walled Lake and Edgewater Parks were dismantled.

I'd like to reitirate a point made at the meeting: Incorporating the Big Dipper into some sort of new development would be too Europaen. This is America, afterall. Who needs culture? Or history? Or landmarks for that matter? If you can't buy it at Walmart, do you really need it?

I could go for some Brawndo: The Thirst Mutilator. Anyone else?

Is that what was said at the meeting? Who made that point?

I add my own $.02. The main point being Europeans value historic structures.

And body odor.

I agree with you on that. Many European countries have buildings that are hundreds of years old and they are regarded as integral parts of their culture and communities. In this country, nothing is sacred. If something historic needs to make way for something of marginal importance, it will likely happen. There are times I'd love to see America become a little more European. Well, without the aversion to deodorant.

Nothing like insulting or generalizing about our European members! No wonder Americans are beloved the world over.

Yeah, because making light of a harmless stereotype is such a horrible thing to do. Forget becoming more European. I'd like America to rediscover its sense of humor.

You are talking about a country whose pride is over zealous to say the least. Reverse the roles. Being a douche is seldom funny if you're not the douche.

I apologize about the body odor joke. In my defense it was preceded by a compliment, then a criticism of American "culture."

Right. The comic remark was preceded by a very strong compliment about European culture. And enough of this crap about American pride being overjealous. Unless any of us have lived in another country and seen things as something other than American, we can't say much of anything about how we appear to the rest of the world. I'm sure people in England, France and Japan aren't exactly lacking pride, and I'm sure they often make jokes about us Americans. Time to get a grip.

I am glad people are still having interest about the preservation of Big Dipper, if only some plans could come out fully and be done. Myself, I think it'd be very cool to let BD remain there, abd be built around. But with noise and other nuisances, that'll never happen. I think one good fit would be in Columbus, at Jack's Landing (or whatever that name is). I'm not how much money or land space they have, but just early thinking tells me it may be a good fit since they have only one coaster, with is another small and old classic wooden coaster, and it's not that far at all from GL.

I've only been to GL once, and only rode BD once. And at that time, I didn't really know anything on BD--it's size, the speed, or it's history. I rode it once, in the front seat, and thought nothing major of the ride. But some of the posts in this thread has made me remember some of the ride's characteristics and I'd love to do it again someday soon.

That ride would work at a number of amusement parks. It's an out-and-back so it could probably be built alongside a parking lot if finding space was a problem. A few of us talked about the Columbus Zoo being a good destination because it would be a more intense alternative to the Sea Dragon.

I see no reason why some sort of mixed entertainment complex wouldn't work on the site. Coasters like the San Diego Giant Dipper and Dania Beach Hurricane more or less function as standalone rides and they seem to survive just fine.

^Can't speak for SD's Dipper since the park was a ghost-town when we went, early in the day...it was an OK ride, nothing to get overly excited about.

As for DBH though, if that ride was "held accountable" for paying itself off, I think it would have been SBNO for a few years already. It's a really good ride, but it's function primarily is to serve as the most amazing billboard ever. It works, too, that arcade on Fridays and Saturdays is Standing-Room-ONLY. If Geauga were bought by an FEC-ish type place (picturing batting cages, kiddie rides, foam-ball factory, etc.) then maybe Dipper could serve in the same role. But then-again, DBH operates year-round...and I can see that as being essential to the function.

DBH seems to survive just fine... isn't it separate from the Boomers complex that it technically calls home? The POP is a steal but over a few hours we spent there in 2003 or 2004, we saw a lot of people show up for one ride, or two or three if they purchased the POP. Then they went on their merry way. Since the ride is staffed by two or three people, I'm guessing it makes enough money to make ends meet, and then some?

d_port_12E said:I add my own $.02. The main point being Europeans value historic structures. And body odor.

Like that side friction woodie they tore down a couple years back :)

Ensign Smith said:
You know, I really hate where this thread has gone.

I don't. In fact, I love it. I was getting bored with the typical...

"Diamondback-- great ride."

"Yeah, I liked it too."

"Looks great. Can't wait to ride it."

Snooze.

All I have to say is that if people want to dish it out in a thread like this, they better be willing to take it too. If not, hit the back button and make sure the turnstile doesn't hit you in a sensitive area on your way down the exit ramp.