The age old question.

I always black out on rides like shockwave and iron wolf, is that norm, and is it safe. It doesn't hurt, it just gives me a headache. i normally have a huge threshold for intense ride, but those are the only ones that get me.

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oculus, reparo. -Hermoine Granger

I blacked out the first time I went on Power Tower, and the first couple times on Millennium Force.

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I am not the real Chris Sawyer...Or am I?...No.

Yes it is normal. But, if you black out on those two rides, I advise you to stay clear of Titan and Goliath. Good lord you'd be sent to the hospital.

thats the thing, i've been on goliath, no problems. I think since i only like shockwave in the backrow, and i think iron wolf is just a pile. A dirty one, filled with pain.

Yeah it happens. Your blood doesn't circulate 100% right and it causes your brain to suffer from a temporary lack of blood. If you want it to stop my advice would be to lift weights or exercise to be in really great shape...I hear that helps.

I sometimes gray out on coaters. Face Off and Millenium Force both cause me to gray out sometimes. I guess the question, is it normal, depends on how much of a black/gray out it is. It also depends on your body. If you're really concerned about it, you could always see a doctor obviously. But who wants to do that, he may suggest you stay away from coasters. :(

Eric

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A one that is not cold, is hardly a one at all.

another point, but, i am 6'2" 185 pounds and i play football, so im excersizing and i normally eat right, i think, it's just that third loop on shockwave, everybody i talk to says it happends to them too. luckily that won't be happening anymore :)

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oculus, reparo. -Hermoine Granger

I've never blacked out on a ride before, but that would scare me more than the ride itself!

Yea, that happens to one of my friends on the third loop of Viper at sfmm. But then he has a liver problem so I don't know. I've greyed out on goliath and Viper, I still have a fun ride

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Is it a dream or a memory? It's both, it's X

i've never greyed out on a ride, i feel so left out :(

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Nemesis Inferno - The Pressure is Building!

Dehydration will greatly increase blackout frequency. Lower blood pressure and all.

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Be polite and ignore the idiots. - rollergator
You must be this dumb to ride Viper. -SFGAdv.

I grey out on the Laser at Dorney Park. Those loops are almost circular and pull really high G's, and that causes it. Guess I could never make it as a fighter pilot or astronaught :P

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"If you make it too smooth, it'll be like sitting in your living room."
-Bill Cobb - Designer, Texas Cyclone

dlilib said:

I've never blacked out on a ride before, but that would scare me more than the ride itself!

Actually, it's not nearly what you think it is. You don't lose consciousness or anything, at least in my experience. You're just riding along, when suddenly, at an intense part, your vision gets a little dark for a second or two. In fact, I will wager that you have experienced at least something like this if you have ever been through a B&M zero-g roll. Next time, really pay attention to your peripheral vision, and I will be surprised if you don't notice a little greying. Most people don't notice it because, despit the absurdidty of the sound of it, it seems natural at the time. Of course, it is natural, so there you are (natural for it to happen when your body goes through those kinds of G's, I mean).

If it bothers you, Norbert the Oppropium, try taking a deep breath and tensing all your muscles right before entering an intense elemnt. That helps to push blood throughout all of your body, including your brain.

I had a brief grey out on the loop on Nemasis, but other than that, that's all I can remember.

BTW, whats a red out like? I hear it's when all the blood rushes to your head, and it can be felt during extreme airtime. I've heard the word and meaning, but is this somthing that is common?

Thx :)

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--Dingo 65--
http://rct.ogresnet.com
Forgotten member of Thrillride forums.

BlkJettaBoost said:
Yeah it happens. Your blood doesn't circulate 100% right and it causes your brain to suffer from a temporary lack of blood. If you want it to stop my advice would be to lift weights or exercise to be in really great shape...I hear that helps.

Weight-lifting or exercising has absolutely no effect on this. You may look better or stronger by doing this, but you will still black-out in coasters.

ApolloAndy said:
Dehydration will greatly increase blackout frequency. Lower blood pressure and all.

You're actually right this time! ;) A black-out is basically caused because the blood doesn't get to your brain any more due to high g-forces. Under normal circumstances, you will need about 7G to black-out. When you have a low blood pressure however, you might black-out a bit sooner.

I've experienced black-outs on several coasters, such as Batman la Fuga, Superman Atraccion de Acero, Nemesis, and so on. There is absolutely no harm in this, for the black-out only lasts a fraction of a second. Well, that's what my doctor said anyway.. :)

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Dutch Coastin' :: European coasters, thrills and theming!

My blackouts on Goliath and on MF have lasted a lot longer than a fraction of a second.

And if you would like to point me to a place where you disagree with me, and why you disagree, I'd love to have an intelligent discussion. Until then, keep it in the holster.

Norbert: You may want to use a more descriptive title for your topic next time. Especially seeing as this isn't really an age old question, and if it were, nobody would want to read it. (see: is S:TE a coaster?, what's an inversion? etc.)

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*** This post was edited by ApolloAndy on 12/6/2002. ***

Greying out is not helped by exercise. In fact endurance athletes may be more subject to it due to low resting pulse and low blood pressure. When I raced bicycles, I could grey out just getting out of a chair quick.

To reduce the chances of greying out:
1) Eat
2) Drink
3) Tense your leg muscles to make it harder for the blood to run down there.
4) Tighten your gut and grunt.

These are the basic things that pilots do to prevent the same problem which can be lethal for them.

*** This post was edited by Jim Fisher on 12/6/2002. ***

The ONLY non-Schwarzkopf that gave me any loss of peripheral vision was Goliath (that's where it's moniker, The Big G, comes from). The best part about the forces on Goliath is that they are SUSTAINED...Antons have "high-g forces", but they're of pretty short duration...

bill, saying "the centrifuge" rocks, and MY steel poll will probably feature the ride more prominently than most...

I never greyed out till I moved to Illinois from Virginia and started going to Great America. Shockwave, Batman, and Iron Wolf all do it to me and as a result my wife doesn't let me ride them (Interesting note-I've also ridden the Batmans at SFOG and SFSTL, and neither affected me-only the original). 'Millennium Forceless' gets me a bit on the bottoms of the first two hills (which, to me at least, proves she's not at all forceless), but not enough to keep me off of her.

Guess I'd better show my wife this thread, with all it's expert testimony.

I'm not a fan of G-force limits, but I have to believe that temporarily robbing your brain of blood for any reason can't be a real good thing to do to it. I've pretty much started not re-riding anything that does it to me. This makes me feel old, but frankly I don't enjoy the sensation of losing my vision AT ALL, and would rather play it safe.
Besides, I like Woodies better anyway. I don't have to be near blackout to enjoy a ride.

Oh, one more thing.. the first time this ever happened to me was on Shockwave at SFGAM. I realized I hadn't been screaming, but instead holding my breath, which made it MUCH worse. I found by screaming I can make Iron Wolf rideable (though I still tend to stay clear of Batman and am perfectly happy to see Shockwave go. I'll take Anaconda any day, for it's much prettier location.)

*** This post was edited by ThemeDesigner on 12/6/2002. ***

The very brief shortage of blood to your brain is not injurious. If it was there would be a huge number of injuries just from people standing up to fast.

What can be injurious is if you black out enough to lose control of the positions of your head and body. Most restraint designs assume that the passenger will voluntarily hold a reasonably normal riding position. If your head flops down loosely or you other wise lose body position, there is a chance of injury.