Rollercoaster Rider without a Train

I was surfing through the Gerstlauer website when I came across pictures of this guy who strapped himself to a wheel assembly and rode a Gerstlauer bobsled coaster over and over. It looks like it was an appearance on an episode of Wetten Dass (Germany). Wow! How do you practice for this? I wonder if they turn the brakes mostly off b/c the brakes have to be set for a heavy train, not a light person.

http://www.gerstlauer-rides.de/english/Gerstlauer_E.html?/Produkte/P1_Achterbahn_E.html

Link doesn't exactly work. Click the link, on the left go to press reports, then scroll down to Wetten Dass, then pics.

RCDB says that this guy (Dirk Auer) was carrying a beer the whole time and this was for the opening of the first Gerstlauer coaster. This link has a couple of other pictures from that day, plus a few others.

http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.adventure-press.de/topgallery/categories/Dirk_AUER/media/Dirk02F01N11.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.esports.lv/forums/viewthread.php%3Ftid%3D1447&h=235&w=350&sz=29&tbnid=TaZeIPPQI6bB8M:&tbnh=77&tbnw=116&hl=en&start=4&prev=/images%3Fq%3DDirk%2BAuer%2B%26svnum%3D100%26hl%3Den%26lr%3D%26safe%3Doff%26sa%3DN

*** Edited 4/7/2006 4:46:24 PM UTC by coasterfreaky***

There's no brake fin on that wheel assembly, so no concern there.

wow, looks like a downhill skier with a really wide stance.

Awesome theming!

Now THAT'S the way to take a beer on a coaster. *** Edited 4/7/2006 10:46:54 PM UTC by BaSSiStiSt***

Save some for the loop Augustus!

Who let MILLER in here? ;)

This link should work.

Ckick here. *** Edited 4/8/2006 1:16:17 PM UTC by Jason Hammond***

Great park by the way, and G'sengte Sau is the smoothest coaster ever !
There are rubber blocks between the supports and the track.

Anyway, this man is awesome. I have seen him on television and the speed he carries through the turns is unbelievable.
He also went through the entire ride...first drop, zig zag turns, helixes, bunny humps, etc.

Amazing !

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rollergator said:
Save some for the loop Augustus!

Who let MILLER in here?

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Got to love a Willy Wonka reference !

Wow, thats really cool. Thanks for the pics.

I wonder how many times he got to practice that before he actually attempted. It looks like a blast. Thats some extreme skating for sure.

Wasn't this on Ripley's a few years ago?

^Yes I believe it was on Ripleys. It looked very familiar.

I looked through the other pics from the site posted and notice a skater holding onto a motorcyclist. It immediately made me think of the sci-fi thriller, Rollerball both the 1975 original version and the newer one.