Too many people complain about "The Texas Giant"......

I don't get it. Some of these true called "coaster fans" have become spoiled. They have become spoiled in a sense that every ride has to be smooth as class to obtain maximum enjoyment, even for wooden roller coasters. I'll grant you that some rides are just unbearable, such as Son of Beast and many Arrow mega-loopers today. But what I don't understand is how anybody can give a thumbs down to The Texas Giant, which is the only coaster I have ever been on that truly showed me who the boss is.

This ride has been easily compared to Cedar Point's Mean Streak, which I think is a very unfair assessment. Mean Streak may have the height and the looks, but the ride offers very few unique features that seperate it from other coasters. The Texas Giant has great curves after the first drop, and the last 1000 or so feet of the ride is just brilliantly designed.

Then comes the roughness arguement. I grew up riding coasters that strive on beating the crap out of me. I felt that was what made wooden coasters unique. If a woodie can obtain maximum intensity (which The Giant does damn near perfectly), I think any of them can be rough as long as they aren't injury inducing. That is the problem I have with newer wooden coasters, such as Cheetah and Twisted Twins. I feel as though I am not on a woodie anymore, and that feeling just puts me out of it. The SFoT masterpiece is rough as hell, but I love the fact that the park takes no action into babying the ride so the average joe can experience a smoother and more relaxing ride. The Texas Giant shows the rider who the true boss is. It whips you around, jumps you around in the seats, and best of all, it does so in a manner that always warrants a second ride.

Some coaster fans today have become too spoiled by the newer "smooth as glass" woodies that they have forgotten what made woodies so special: they offered more intense rides, while at the same time managing to rough it up a bit. The Texas Giant follows these guidelines this perfectly.

People like what they like and don't like what they don't like.

Why do you care what some people like and some people don't like?

I agree Mean Streak isn't that bad. It's a little bumpy, and yes a little boring, but it's a nice long ride that isn't painful like it used to be.

You have to remember, these giant wood coasters will rip the track apart if their aren't maintained. That's what the problem has been with Mean Streak is that aside from being painful it was just such a maintenance issue to run it at it's full speed.

Now, fixing up Blue Streak and running it trimless isn't too hard because it's not as large of the a ride and doesn't require much maintenance.

Coastergoose, any relation to Beast Tamer?

As Moosh said, we like the coasters we like, everyone has an opinion on what a good coaster is. Just because everyone disagrees with you doesn't mean you are wrong in how you feel about the ride. We all have preferences of what our ideal coaster is, and one man's SOB and Mean Streaks is someone elses Raven and Ghostrider.

I've never been on Texas Giant, so I don't know what to say there.

But I have to wonder what you mean about the non-intensity and smoothness of modern woodies.

Try riding Ghostrider. Its powerful stuff. A bit rough, but mostly just really intense. Judging by your preferences listed above, its probably your kind of ride. Wild air and some crazy laterals (and both at the same time!).

Or perhaps Holiday World's Legend. I prefer Raven, but thats pretty subjective as they are both awesome rides. Once again, with Legend we have another truly wild ride.

Perhaps you are referring to the work of GCI, when you speak of smooth and less intense wooden coasters, but as far as the CCI era- many of those rides hold their own with the best woodies of any time.

If it makes you feel any better---I really enjoyed The Giant when I rode it 8 -10 years ago. I remember it fondly...

And I still rank TX Giant highly, too! Who's hating it?

Amen coastergoose...Amen.

I don't want woodie's to be as smooth or near as smooth as steel because then there would be no difference other than the aesthetics. I remember when Lightning Racer (Hershey) was being built, I was hoping for it to be crazier than the Wildcat. When LR opened and I got off it, I thought, "That was really fun" but it didn't give me the thrill or excitement that Wildcat did and Wildcat is still my favorite woodie there. I will re-ride both over and over but LR is fun, Wildcat is crazy. Wooden coasters for the past century were more crazy and out of control, there does seem to be a movement for tameness in major thrillrides among some enthusiasts and some park chains. May Holiday World live a long and healthy existence!

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CoasterFanMatt said:

Perhaps you are referring to the work of GCI, when you speak of smooth and less intense wooden coasters, but as far as the CCI era- many of those rides hold their own with the best woodies of any time.

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Bingo.

Too many people complain about other people not liking certain rides as much as they do.

Let's start a list:

1) Who's complaining about Texas Giant? It's #38 on Mitch Hawker's poll, and #9 in the Golden Ticket Awards. Not shabby.

2) Nobody who's ridden Mean Streak and Texas Giant would compare the two. The only way a person would even mention them in the same sentence would be to say, "I could not think of two more different rides than Mean Streak and Texas Giant."

3) Where do people get off thinking they know how wooden coasters were meant to be designed? Is there a Guide to Designing Wooden Coasters that specifically states that "a wooden ride must run at maximum intensity, just under the threshold of causing injury"? John Allen, for one, didn't subscribe to that line of thinking.

Hey, I like my wooden rides intense, but I don't like them to be so rough as to cause me any sort of discomfort. I imagine most people feel the same. Just don't assume you know how wooden rides are supposed to be based on the coasters you grew up riding.

And Mantis2, tamer rides lead to bigger crowds which lead to more money. Same thing with movies. R-rated movies don't break the bank; PG and PG-13 movies do. The amusement park business is still a business at the end of the day. That doesn't mean we (or Holiday World, Mt. Olympus, or Knoebels) have to like it, though.

I agree with you completely about tamer/smoother wooden coasters attacting a bigger crowd. I just prefer to be bounced in a coaster train. It's like with movies. Studios put out a ton of multi-million dollar blockbusters every year, such as Bad Boys II and I,Robot. Even though those are safer choices for studios to make on a business aspect of things, I would much rather see independant gems such as Sideways and Crash.

Giant rules! I havn't been on it since '98 so don't know if it's become unbearable or something but it used to be one of my favourites. It's a harsh ride but that's the beauty of it, it has a very out of control feeling to it which is what I've always appreciated about wood coasters. Also a cool thing about Giant as where a lot of wood start out strong then sort of peter out, I always thought the second half of it was more intense as it winds into itself. Remember it reminded me of the early days of the Riverside Cyclone for intensity and fun.

My first ride om Giant I was actually in the final stages of recovering from a few broken ribs from a car accident I'd been in. In hindsite wasn't the smartest idea ride but I still loved it.

I didn't care too much for Giant on my two visits to the park a few years ago. Way overrated in my opinion. Too much like Mean Streak. It had some good points, but overall it was way over-braked and the trains were making some very ugly sounds during the finale which every always raves about. But I'm also not a fan of Curt Summers' designs, even though Bill Cobb initiated the project with the Texas Giant before he passed away.

Wood Coaster Fan Club - "Sharing a Passion for the Classics"

You are correct Olsor. LR is sooo popular, it's more of a family ride in a way or appears so. Everyone from grandma to the little buddies rides it. It's a really nice designed wooden coaster and I enjoy it, in fact, I've probably ridden it more than any coaster there simply because of its great capacity. The next discussion comes back to trains, again, compare Wildcat and LR because they are the same designer and you can ride them 5 minutes apart. The PTC's appear much more "loose" on the track. LR and Wildcat both look nuts but LR isn't, it's smooth as silk, zero bumpiness. The Legend I thought went up a notch with the PTC's. Hydra may be another wonderful example of a smoother, less intense crowd pleasing coaster. We'll see, I hope so but people didn't seem too thrilled last weekend, myself included. They were still much more fired up after Steel Force, myself included. Oh well, there's always Hades for hopefully an out of control, not trying to please the masses coaster, we hope?

In all seriousness though, I understand the business. We should not be throwing around opinions on what a park should get based on our own interests. When we give true opinions on what these parks get, you have to look at things as if you were in charge and trying to get the biggest bang for your buck, not as an enthusiast.

I think it's hard to get a consensus opinion on a lot of wooden coasters - they're just too temperamental.

Two of the wildest rides I ever had were on the Riverside Cyclone and Thunderbolt at SFNE last October. Neither of those get an abundance of praise normally, but perhaps I rode them at a good time (at night in autumn).

On the other hand, I've ridden The Rattler in 2000, 2002, and 2004. Each ride made me want to take a match to the thing.

For the record, the one ride I had on Texas Giant two summers ago was pretty good. I likened it to The Beast if it were coiled up over itself.

I love Texas Giant as well; thought it was an outstanding coaster. Like coastergoose, I, too, don't quite understand why some folks think it's too rough, but then again I have a feeling a lot of people wouldn't understand how I can rate Dorney's Thunderhawk as my #1 coaster, especially when I have ridden more 'common' favorites like Phoenix, Raven, Legend, Beast, etc.

YMMV.

To me, it's quite comparable to Ghostrider, fast, INTENSE as all get-out, pure power from beginning to end. Ghostie may be a bit smoother (it IS newer and WAY over-built), but IMO they both display what a big woodie can, and should, do. *Someone* should give a shout-out to the maintenance crews, cause wooden coasters are 30% construction, 90% maintenance....meh, never was a math major...;)

One of my very top woodies, only Tremors stands above that *elite* group....

In retrospect, being at THAT park probably didn't hurt my opinion of Giant either...if you haven't been to SFoT, get there...and soon! :)

I love how everyone is quick to say everyone is entitled to there own opinion but when Beat Tamer and now this new guy come on and say they like there woodies rough you are all ready to try and shoot down there opinions just because non of yours match there I think the onyl way a woodie should be made is roguh smoth is for steal come one everyone ride my ass for that one because I know you all will.

I like Texas Giant a good deal, I think it is a really strong ride. Out of 10 I'd give it a 8.5. I think it offers 3 great moments of air, and the rest of the ride is just plain fun. Mean Streak, on the other hand, I'd give a 4.5 out of 5 and say that it is probably the most bored i've been on a wooden coaster.

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coastergoose said:
I'll grant you that some rides are just unbearable, such as Son of Beast

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Can we please stop this already?