Woodies: a fine line between out of control & pain

I've been thinking, (and riding ;) ) I've noticed something about woodies.

-Coaster freaks love em

-They can be painful

People may view me as a baby complaining about some woodies but I'm really not.

For example, I rode Silver Comet, an excellent CCI, at Fantasy Island 27 times in a day. Yea I was beat up, but I wasn't in pain at all and I had the time of my life.

Another example is on Predator at DL. I ride in the front of any car, I get extreme airtime, great lateral g's, and its fun and bumpy.

But some coasters can be to painful to have fun.

I rode in the second row of a car when I went on predator and my back literal split in too. It was if one person was pulling up and one person was pulling down. I was in pain the entire time. I think its because of the trailered trains :(

I love wooden coasters, I really do, the experience is one of a kind but do you think that some are to painful, with your back especially, to have fun?

Some are too painful. I've only been on four wooden coasters in my life but two of them are very painful. The Texas Cyclone at Astroworld gave me bruises and The Rattler at Fiesta Texas is just painful.

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Someone who gossips to you, will gossip about you.

Well with enough padding, a lot of that pain can be removed. Just look at what it did for the Texas Giant. ;) Now they just need to add some padding to the seat divider and lapbar.

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Am I really that shy?
*** This post was edited by The Shy One 6/29/2003 11:28:20 PM ***

I don't think it's a particularly fine line. There are a lot of woodies that are kind of bumpy but not to the point distracting from the airtime or lats. There are woodies that are pretty bumpy and annoyingly so, but you can still enjoy them and there are woodies that are just plain ouch. There's a pretty broad spectrum.

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Be polite and ignore the idiots. - rollergator
"It's not a Toomer" - Arnold Schwartzenkoph
"Those who know don't talk and those who talk don't know." -Jeff

I finally experienced a ride rougher than predator over the weekend... and that goes to Big Dipper @ SFWoA....

I LOVED the ride last year... I still think it was just a bad seat or some kind of fluke this time around... but I refused to try another seat it hurt way too much and I was literally in pain for 3 days =( ...

I like them rough, and out of control... even if it bangs the bajeezus out of you its OK... but pain for 3 days is a bit of a stretch.

It's not a fine line, it's intended forcefullness vs crappy roughness.

Legend and Twister are great examples of extremely intense woodies with amazingly powerful moments that are potentially bruise inducing. Yet these portions are totally intended to be there and they are what they need to be.

The other end of the spectrum is Rolling Thunder or Hercules which are just downright pieces of rough painful crap.

-Brent (Twister broke my ribs and I loved it.) Kneebush
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UnfrigginbelievablyIncredible

If you want a rough wooden coaster ride Cylone at SFNE. Talk about wiplash...

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Top 3
1-S:RoS @ SFNE
2-Boulder Dash
3-Yankee Cannonball

I couldn't agree more about the Predator/Big Dipper comparison. I'm always a little leery of wood coasters b/c I've had some that were so rough they ended my day due to headaches(I get migraines from them sometimes, no lie). So at SFWoA, I thought Big Dipper looked like a decent little out and back. WRONG... I think I'd have fared better after a couple rounds with Mike Tyson. That thing kicked the crap out of my fiance and I.... Its the only one I've found to hurt more than Predator(which can be a good ride in the front seat...).

Dipper hurts quite badly because that air is just too damn much at the bottom of the hills. A ride up front is smooth as glass, anywhere in the back of a car is awful.

The pile driver over and over is amazing but potentially quite painful if you are not in the right seat.

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UnfrigginbelievablyIncredible

MagnumForce said:

Twister broke my ribs and I loved it
Couldn't agree more....my sides hurt from both the inside AND the outside for quite awhile....PPP roXors!
Of course, I loved SFNE's Cyclone as well......LOVED it...:):):)
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It seems today, that all you see, are violins in movies, and sax on TV....

I think Raging Wolf Bobs took 2 years of my life back in 2001.

I think I might be wary of riding that again, if I found myself with the opportunity. I hear the second half is much better... but RWB was bad all over..

Same goes for Mean Streak. Nice ride, but once was enough.

bout the only thing I can't stand is washboarding. Where the train just bounces at the bottom of Drops, Most recent example of this was Big Dipper at SFWOA. Shame too because it can be a great coaster when running right.

Chuck

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Charles Nungester.
It's official Lesourdsville Lake is closed for 2003

Big Dipper was too painful for me to ever ride again. I too thought it looked like a harmless ride, but my single rider experience in the back car left me in agony! The bottoms of the dips compacted my spine down so hard I was greying out from the pain.

I also cracked three ribs on my 2nd ride of Beast last summer/ 1st ride in the back car. Never again will I hold my arms up entering the big helix, as soon as we hit the tunnel and the train whipped to the left I slammed my ribs up against the side of the car something fierce and ended up with taped ribs at Cedar Point and SFWoA. Yikes!

And after 7 rides in one day on SOB (my favorite woody so far) I was having pain in the backside of my head where my spine was being compacted upwards from the bumpiness. I read somewhere that they've changed the restraints? Is this true?? Since i'm so tall the restraints do not allow me to sit properly in the seats especially on the Outer Limits rides.. if only they would let you put your feet through the bar and over the floor mounts.

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What was I supposed to put here again?!?!

SFNE Dude said:
If you want a rough wooden coaster ride Cylone at SFNE. Talk about wiplash...

I've been on Cyclone and it has got to be one of the most out of control coasters I've ever been on but it wasn't painful, it was rough in a good way. Now thats a really good wooden coaster. Too bad sros was closed 2 years ago...I was pissed

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I go to the point each year to have their new coaster break down, thats my life. Dragster and WT may have been closed, but MF is always there to fulfill my thrill needs

On the Big Dipper, my friend and I always hold ourselves down at the bottom of the drops so we don't get thrown around. We then let ourselves free for the crazy airtime and prepare for the pull outs. That quick turn to the left on the way out can get ya if you're not ready, also.

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I play in a really awful garage band, but it's still fun.

The Big Dipper is also one of my favorite woodies and seems to really have developed some washboarding potholes in the first two valleys this year. I normally ride in the 'potato sack' seat (1-3), and noticed it right away on opening day. Overall, I'd give Six Flags a B+ on their wood coaster maintenance procedures at my home park (SFWoA). I just have problems with their park operations in general.

Jon Blakemore

Big Dipper crew 1980

Painful Fun-Georgia Cyclone

Painful crap-Mean Streak

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Two Points Amusement Park
http://games.coasterbuzz.com/filedetail.aspx?GameFileID=3433

I had a very weird experience on Mean Squeak a few weeks ago.......I usually ride in the front seat to reduce the pain, but my friend talked me into riding back seat so I just sucked it up and went. Well, backseat was amazingly smooth, I didn't feel bounced around at all. Then a few hours later we rode Blue Streak and it felt like a Jack Rabbit feel.....like a gliding along the track, extremely smooth. I don't know what CP did to their woodies that day but it was amazing!

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CCI Lives On!
-Patrick

coasterphil said:

Painful crap-Mean Streak

Give it up already, it gets reeeeally old.

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"You know its a good ride when you come into the final brake run wiping tears from your eyes."

I'll risk being repwetitive as I made a similar post last week, but...

As Kneebush hinted at, there's "rough" and "aggresive." Aggressive rides feature strong forces [neg and pos Gs, lats], such as X, HW's Legend, Coney Cyclone, or a Top Scan.

Rough is unneccesary jackhammering, shuffling, and headbanging due to poor design and/or maintenance. Examples would be the original FoF, Flashback, Psyclone.

mOOSH

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A random Mooshter's Dawntionary listing: Flatulence [n.] - the emergency vehicle that picks you up after you're run over by a steamroller.