Skyrush Update

This should be good news for all the people who inexplicably hate the current restraints on Skyrush. Just got an email from Hersheypark that included this:

Hopefully the extremely clever and witty "Thighcrush" moniker will finally die. Doubtful, but let me dream.

I can explick it: the restrains pain me. Bad.

Hopefully this does the Maverick treatment for me where I hated it with the original restraints but love it after. It has so much potential, I look forward to trying it again.

I'd love to know how those restraints ever got out of the design phase at Intamin. There's not a single body type in which the restraint actually lays flush against the legs.

I can partly explain why to me it was thighcrush.

I would leave the station in a variety of seating locations and everything felt great. I was secure and it had no pressure on my thighs. As the ride progressed it seemed the restraint progressively got tighter and tighter until it became very painful.

Opening season the ride was so painful, I couldn’t enjoy it all. Last season it was definitely better. Good, even. But this is certainly welcome news and I look forward to trying it out next time I’m in Hershey.

So weird. Other than a little more pressure on the thighs than most other coasters, I never experienced pain or further tightening of the restraints during the ride. It's been a top 5 coaster for me since it opened.

I guess I probably owe it to the Togo/Drachen Fire gene.

First ride I went on I left the station feeling secured (bar was comfortably on my thighs) and excited to ride a hyper, first airtime hill I felt my thighs lift up and out of the restraint. My hands went from being up to a death grip on the restraint and at the bottom of the next hill I stapled myself. The rest of the ride hurt a lot. Went on it years later, stapled myself a little less snug, it still hurt but I didn’t fear for my life.

This is good news. Not only do they hurt but it feels like I am going to be thrown out of the sides the entire ride. It's the same sensation I get from flying coasters. I don't like it.

I don't want to say Skyrush is the best hyper period, because Magnum, but let me just call them a tie then for their own special reasons.

Hopefully the new restraints don't inhibit the near complete upper body motion that currently exists on that ride. It is so good.

Passengers will now board Skyrush from a reimagined station platform featuring an all-new paint scheme, lighting effects and custom soundscape.

Also going Millennium Force on the station.

Pic of restraints in article.

https://stories.hersheypa.com/hersheypark-announces-all-new-seats-and-restraints-for-skyrush/

Those look like the Veliciocoaster/Panteon restraints. Which are great.

I took one lap on Skyrush last year (2023), and my thighs were aching for the next 2 or 3 days. It wasn't severe pain, but it was certainly enough that I would probably pass on riding it again. With the new trains, I will certainly give it another try when I am in the area next.

I don't recall the restraints being bad for me when we rode it a few times, I just overall didn't care for it much in general. Give me it's neighbor Great Bear, any day! But the new restraints should certainly help for those who do like the ride a lot but can't deal with the current trains. I'm sure people will still have issue in some form, but it can't be worse I'd hope.

I'm that way with Maverick... The trains kill it for me (the OTSR's themselves are fine, I actually liked the original ones MORE as my head cleared it anyway and the softer ones dig into my shoulders), but it's the chode/taint/whatever-smashing nub in the front of the seat that does me in... Probably due to my height though more than anything, so others might not share the same situation.

So happy Intamin got away from those gen trains, at least...

Couldn't they just put a huge trim on the first drop and make it better for everyone? I'm ducking... just never understood the fun of the forced snap-twist design the likes of I-305, or Maverick when new. But I guess that's probably what some love about it. Just like I love flying around in an old coaster car - not many chances for that anymore.

One thing I'll give Skyrush, it's a great name and great looking ride with great color choices. I'll be on sooperdooperLooper I suppose.

I've never wanted a ride on a coaster to end more than on Skyrush. It was 100% because of the restraints. I wanted to love the airtime and everything about the ride, but every hill hurt my thighs worse than the last. It's a shame too since I could have gotten a near walk-on right after that lap.

The restraints sit heavy on the femur bones. The airtime pulls my (fatter than normal) upper body upwards, leaving all the pressure holding me in at that spot on my legs. It hurts. Then the train whips from one side to the other, and my torso doesn't whip with the lower half of my body until a few seconds later, leaving half my body hanging out the side of the seat. It's like an untrained chiropractor cracking away at my back. I've ridden it three times in my life. I always can't wait to NOT ride it.

Then there is the stupidest station on a modern coaster. Everyone enters and exits the train on the same side. Train comes in, and oncoming riders have to wait a minute or two for exiting riders to leave. Meanwhile, riders have arrived in the break run, and they, like everyone else, can not wait to get released from the torturous restraints.

It did get a little better when they started releasing the tension of the restraints on the break run though. Still, The ride doesn't do anything or go anywhere after the awesome first drop. It's uneventful, except for the twists that really do not enjoy.

And I'll add more to why this is one of my least favorite rides ever. It towers over Comet, overshadowing that iconic, classic ride. Like a lot of design choices at Hersheypark, it ruins the aesthetics. I love the park, but as the park grows, it looks more and more like Roller Coaster Tycoon.

I've said all this before. Such a great park, except for this ride.

To be fair, the way they intertwined Great Bear into Sooperdooperlooper and Coal Cracker brought us the coolest real life RCT style "something's in the way so let's just move the supports over here" design.

LostKause:

And I'll add more to why this is one of my least favorite rides ever. It towers over Comet, overshadowing that iconic, classic ride. Like a lot of design choices at Hersheypark, it ruins the aesthetics. I love the park, but as the park grows, it looks more and more like Roller Coaster Tycoon.

I've been visiting Hershey since 1980 when it was half the size it is now (maybe less?) and only had 3 coasters: Comet, Trailblazer and Sooperdooperlooper. I loved how quaint the park was then. That said, I've always liked how several of the rides are built on top of each other. I started noticing it when Great Bear opened, looming over practically the entire layout of the Coal Cracker flume ride and parts of SDL. That kind of thing makes it unique; there are few parks like it (especially in the States), yet it somehow still manages to capture the nostalgia and feel of an older, smaller amusement park.

I liked Skyrush and had the chance to ride it many times the day I went. I didn’t have much reaction to the restraints. I could feel it, sure, but the ride was so forceful I guess I just took it in stride. Oh but then the next day when I could barely walk…
I guess I’m missing a lot of details but flow through loading will be the biggest benefit. As Travis mentioned that one-sided business with the odd rotating bins that nobody could figure out was one of the biggest eye-rolling, “what were they thinking” moments ever.

I took a few rides on it last summer and my 2 sons and I didn't find the restraints to be an issue!