A new Gerstlauer Euro Fighter will open at Six Flags Over Georgia in 2011. Dare Devil Dive’s mission begins as you’re pulled straight up to the sky on a special vertical chain lift, then slowly roll to the top of the tower nearly 100-feet in the air. After an agonizing pause at the crest of the summit, you plummet downward at an angle that is beyond straight down — it actually angles inward at a blistering 52 mph. Dare Devil Dive will be the 11th coaster in Six Flags Over Georgia’s already stellar coaster line-up.

“Calling all daredevils. In 2011, Six Flags Over Georgia will introduce Dare Devil Dive, a “euro fighter” coaster with an amazing drop that’s BEYOND vertical.
Dare Devil Dive’s mission begins as you’re pulled straight up to the sky on a special vertical chain lift, then slowly roll to the top of the tower nearly 100-feet in the air. After an agonizing pause at the crest of the summit, you plummet downward at an angle that is beyond straight down — it actually angles inward at a blistering 52 mph.

Then you careen through a thrilling combination of diving loops while executing three inversions before you catch air on a zero gravity hill and swoop across the dreaded Immelman vertical U turn stretched high above the ground. The crescendo builds as the car dives toward the ground and up into a Heartline roll before being slowed by the magnetic brakes. Whew!

Dare Devil Dive will be the 11th coaster in Six Flags Over Georgia’s already stellar coaster line-up.”

Read more from Six Flags Over Georgia.

Work recently began on rebuilding the historic Zippin Pippin coaster at the Bay Beach Amusement Park in Green Bay, Wisconsin. This website has been set up in order to allow you to follow the construction of this ride. We’ll keep you updated on the progress as well!

Park: Six Flags Great America

We’re guessing this is Six Flags’ newest endeavor in ridiculous in-park advertising. Or bad parenting. You decide.

Who needs in-park televisions when you’ve got the mobile Cartoon Network?

So we started off the day with 45 minutes of ERT on Dominator – a fantastic floorless coaster with what I believe is the tallest vertical loop in the world (hence the yellow)!

Dominator has one of the most unique layouts for a B&M, thanks to the footprint it was built in at Geauga Lake. It’s living proof that B&M can do something different!

After 45 minutes of ERT on Grizzly (which is impossible to photograph), the park walked our group of 150 back to Intimidator to be the first riders of the day!

Once the rain (see the clouds in those pictures up there?) cleared up, we were able to grab a front-seat ride with only a 15 minute wait.

GENTLEMEN: START. YOUR. ENGINES!! …Intimidator is, without a doubt, a top-five coaster worldwide. Get those trims off, and it’s even better.

Right next door to Intimidator is Flight of Fear, the original LIM launch! Kings Dominion has actually always been a pioneer in launch technology – something which management told us has always plagued them with plenty of technical problems.

Fun-Fact from the walkback tour: Anaconda’s lift hill sits on a concrete slab that’s actually left over from King Kobra, the Scwarzkopf shuttle that used to sit on Lake Charles!

Management filled us in on a little secret, too – making roller coasters fit is just a big jigsaw puzzle. They actually use coins, each of which represent an acreage, on a map to find a suitable place for a new ride! Hence the Congo containing Volcano, Avalanche, Backlot Stunt Coaster, Anaconda, Flight of Fear, and Intimidator 305.

These Intamin Gyro-Drops are absolutely fantastic. Let’s put one in at every theme park ever, okay?

There is a good reason that this Shockwave train is empty. All of its riders are dead. Mmhm.

Robb Alvey (TPR) and John Pagel (KD Marketing) explain the rules for the walkback: 1) Stay on the gravel. 2) Don’t get hit by trucks. I’m sure there were more…oh well.

Here’s where we start our backstage tour – I’ll get my miscellaneous photos out of the way before I barrage you with I305 pictures!

You can’t get this shot of Rebel Yell from anywhere else – it’s taken from a spot near the first massive support for I305′s lift hill!

Volcano’s over there doing it’s thing – in the feels-like-the-Congo part of the Congo. And now, for something different: something WordPress calls the NextGEN Gallery. Let’s try it out!

12►

I call that economical-picturing!

New for 2011: 2012 – The Ride. Experience the end of the world a year early!

But really. The skies got…dark. But then they cleared up and all was okay!

View from the waterpark. Kings Dominion has one of the best complexes I’ve ever seen – a pitch-black freefall slide, a crazy, twisting, dark body slide, and two enclosed double-tube slides with jets and waterfalls throughout. Fantastic!

Also, Kings Dominion’s wave pool is one of the nicest ones I’ve seen. And now there’s a great view!

The last ride on our list was Italian Jo–err, Backlot Stunt Coaster. BLSC is easily the best family ride around – three launches, a high-G helix, a long dark tunnel, and plenty of scenery.

I just wish that all of the effects lasted past the first season. The onboard audio is completely gone, the helicopter only moves once in a while, and the fire and water elements are mostly turned off.

And just like the broken effects, we broke the ride as well. Better to be sitting here than standing in line during a breakdown though!

To kick off the evening – an hour of ERT on Volcano and Flight of Fear (lights on)! Volcano was running fantastically – being the only two people on the train, in the front row, is quite an experience!

With only two people in the train, up front, Volcano was shooting out of the top of the mountain remarkably faster than with a full train. And instead of the leisurely rolls during the day, the heartlines felt like they were trying to force you out – upside-down!

And then came Flight of Fear with the lights on! It’s very interesting – Kings Dominion has an entire crane system built into the top of the ride building! And dotting the floor are boxes of restraints and wheels and the like! Also, parts are painted yellow – thoughts?

And, overlapping our hour of ERT on Volcano and FoF was nearly two hours of ERT on I305! So, in two hours, we got three rides on Volcano, one on FoF, and four on I305 – including a front-seat ride on all of them! An absolutely fantastic way to end the day!

Thanks again to Robb, Elissa, John, Ed, Stephanie, Rose, and all of the ride crews who made Sunday the most fantastic day I’ve spent at an amusement park ever (MAYBE tied with CoasterMania!2009)!

]]> http://www.coaster101.com/2010/08/25/east-coast-bash/feed/ 0 http://www.coaster101.com/2010/08/24/cedar-point-and-kings-island-announce-windseeker/ http://www.coaster101.com/2010/08/24/cedar-point-and-kings-island-announce-windseeker/#comments Wed, 25 Aug 2010 00:23:44 +0000 John http://www.coaster101.com/?p=3171 Cedar Point and Kings Island also announced plans today to install WindSeeker for the 2011 season. Like the previously announced WindSeekers at Knott’s Berry Farm and Canada’s Wonderland, Cedar Point’s and Kings Island’s WindSeekers will also stand 301 feet tall. Read below for more information on these rides.

Cedar Point:

Cedar Point has announced that it will introduce WindSeeker, a 30-story-tall swing ride to the Sandusky, Ohio, amusement park/resort for next summer. WindSeeker will tower above everything around its location on the beach, rising almost as high as the Millennium Force roller coaster’s giant first hill.

In the early 1900s, the Cedar Point Beach was a hub of activity as families played in the sand or frolicked in the lake. One of its most popular attractions was the Sea Swings that would dip riders into the cool waters of Lake Erie as it spun in a circular motion.

Now 100 years later, Cedar Point will add a 21st century version of that thrilling ride to the park for next summer.

The new WindSeeker will be a 301-foot-tall tower that will spin riders nearly 30 stories above the Lake Erie shoreline. Seated in two-person swings that will allow their feet to dangle, riders will slowly begin rotating in a circular motion as the swings ascend the tower. At the top, the swings will be reaching speeds between 25-30 mph, flaring out almost 45 degrees from the tower. WindSeeker will be able to accommodate 64 riders (32 swings) at one time.

“Spinning almost 300 feet above Lake Erie and the Cedar Point Beach will be a very exciting ride experience for our guests,” said John Hildebrandt, the vice president and general manager of Cedar Point. “Day or night, WindSeeker will provide riders with dramatic views of the park and the Cedar Point Peninsula. It will be an extremely popular addition to Cedar Point.”

WindSeeker will be positioned near the present location of the Ocean Motion swinging boat ride and will extend the park’s midway onto the Cedar Point Beach. At the end of the season, Ocean Motion, built in 1981, will be dismantled. It is currently available for sale.

In comparison to other Cedar Point rides, WindSeeker will climb nearly two stories higher than the cabin on the park’s Space Spiral observation ride and is only a few feet shorter than the first hill on Millennium Force. Another swing ride, the Wave Swinger that opened in Frontiertown in 1979, is 31 feet tall and has a top speed of approximately 9 mph.

The ride is manufactured by Mondial, a 23-year-old Dutch-based company. WindSeeker will cost approximately $5 million to build. Riders must be at least 48 inches tall and will be secured with individual over-the-head lap bars with interlocking seat belt.

Overall, Cedar Point will add more than $6 million in capital improvements to the park for 2011.

Kings Island:

If you think riding Drop Tower at Kings Island is a thrill (and it is – riders enjoy a breathtaking view of the region as they ascend toward the sky, then take a 26-story freefall at 64 mph), wait until next year!

Kings Island will continue to change the landscape for thrill seekers in 2011 with WindSeeker, a 301-foot-tall tower that will spin riders 30 stories above the park. Seated in two-person swings that will allow their feet to dangle, riders will slowly begin rotating in a circular motion as the swings ascend the tower. At the top, the swings will reach speeds up to 30 mph, flaring out 45 degrees from the tower. WindSeeker will accommodate 64 riders (32 swings) per ride cycle.

“The addition of WindSeeker reflects our commitment to providing our guests with world-class thrills, fun and fantastic family entertainment,” Kings Island vice-president and general manager Greg Scheid said. “Soaring 300 feet above Kings Island will provide an exciting ride experience for our guests.”

WindSeeker will be located in the Coney Mall section of the park near the Vortex ride exit.

The $5 million ride is manufactured by Mondial (pronounced mohn-DEE-ahl), a 23-year-old Dutch-based company. Riders must be at least 48 inches tall to ride and will be secured with individual over-the-head lap bars with interlocking seat belts.

WindSeeker will make its debut when Kings Island opens for the 2011 season in the spring.

Canada’s Wonderland:

Canada’s Wonderland takes excitement to new heights in 2011, with the addition of WindSeeker – a 30-storey swing ride. 

Towering high above the Park, WindSeeker will ascend 301 feet (91.7M) and spread its metal arms, swinging riders at a 45-degree angle at speeds up to 50 kilometers per hour. WindSeeker will feature 32 two-person swings that will provide riders with a sensational feeling of weightlessness as their feet dangle at heights never experienced before at Wonderland.

“We are continuing to change the landscape at Canada’s Wonderland and with the addition of our new thrill machine WindSeeker, we will be 70 feet (21.3M) higher that our previous tallest rides Drop Tower and Behemoth”, said Raffi Kaprelyan, Vice President and General Manager of Canada’s Wonderland. “For riders that are looking for extreme height and intense thrills, this ride will be a must-do for 2011”.

Knott’s Berry Farm:

WindSeeker will be designed and manufactured by Mondial, a company based in the Netherlands that has been creating thrill rides for the amusement park industry since 1987. Mondial is known for their innovative and unique rides and maintains the highest standards in regards to quality and safety.

WindSeeker will feature 32, 2-person gondolas that will ascend to a height of 301 feet. Once it has reached the top of the tower, WindSeeker will spread it’s metal arms swinging riders for a 60 second flight at a 45 degree angle at a speed of 8 rotations per minute.

“Due to the long airtime, riders will experience a spectacular sense of weightlessness. This, combined with the fact that riders legs will be unrestrained, will create a sense of exhilaration which will enhance the feeling of free flight,” said Knott’s General Manager, Marty Keithley.

WindSeeker will be located at the current site of Knott’s Sky Cabin. Groundbreaking for WindSeeker is scheduled for fall of 2010 with completion expected by summer 2011.