Zipper Love Thread

Funny. I have always had trouble with zippers. Seems whenever I have come across one, it's broken or stuck.

I have a deep rooted fear of getting stuck in one. It seems it would be quite a horrific experience.

Shaggy ;-) *** Edited 8/2/2004 1:22:48 PM UTC by Shaggy***

Can a fair be a fair without a Zipper? You see, I went to the Great Frederick Fair in Maryland last year, and told my friend Alan to meet me at the Zipper--only there wasn't one. Reithoffer let me down big time that night, as we both wanted to ride, but they had a Huss Flipper (which they ran for about 6-7 minutes) and KMG Tango which made up for it.

The only real intense rides at the Maryland State fair in Timonium are the zipper, crazy train, and Fireball.

I had one ride with my father-in-law a few years back that was memorable. We were spinning and counting at the same time. After the 15th spin I stopped counting and freaked out for a half a second in my mind. I wanted it to stop spinning because I felt we had no control over the spinning anymore. We finally stopped spinning. I'll never rock the car like that again. I got more spins than I wanted.

BTW, my father-in-law's neck was hurting for a week after that ride.

Aww man, I was away for this one! That don't mean I don't love me some Zipper!

My first ride was when I was 9. While I was waiting in line, an adult came up to me and asked, "Are you REALLY gonna ride this thing?" When I answered affirmatively, he said, "here kid, take these..." and handed me the rest of his tickets.

Another fond memory was hanging out watching them build the rides for the annual homecoming fair at the highschool next to my apartments. The world's ugliest man (who could pull his bottom lip over his nose) gave us free tickets for cleaning up all the booze bottles from the night before. We got the first ride of the day on it.

Best ride I've ever had on a Zipper came on a really slow night at a moderately sized fair in southern california. It was a very slow night at the fair, and me and my unlimited ride wristband had the run of the place. This fair had some classics like a Divebomber, Loop O Plane, and Roll O Plane (sadly not working that night), and of course the Zipper. They were enforcing two riders per seat, so had to convince my friend to go on it with me. We had no idea what we were in for.

The operator loaded up one pair of riders, then rolled them up to the top and loaded us on the exact opposite side. Free of anyone else on the ride the operator started the ride as normal, but soon stopped the boom from rotating and kept both loaded cars on the ends of the ride by starting and stopping the conveyer. This had the net effect of keeping us constantly spinning, much the way that you would keep a weight doing loops at the end of a string with short movements of the hand. After awhile of flipping forward, we'd stop, then he'd flip us the other way. We were on there for quite a few minutes doing this. I've never flipped upside down so many times. I have a high tolerance for these rides, and it started to get me dizzy with the world blurring by at high speed.

It was hands down the best ride I've ever had on a Zipper, and all thanks to one bored operator who decided to have some fun with some unsuspecting riders! Thank you, Mr. Ride Operator for Operating the ride so well!

-Ride_Op

Trimpers Rides in Ocean City, Maryland has one. That was my first and only Zipper so far. It's a great ride, and my best experience probably has to be doing 5 flips in a row and then getting off and watching my brother fall into the fence. Mean, but hey, it was funny!

Zipper: Best shake ride ever. Paying showfolk bar tabs since 1969. *** Edited 8/3/2004 3:25:56 AM UTC by Gruelurks***

Great story, Matt D! Sounds a lot like my solo ride at Coney. INSANE!

mOOSH