Looking for a daily dose of weird and obscure roller coasters? Then National Coasters is who you want to be following. In this interview, creator Jesiah Olson takes us on his journey from growing up in California exploring theme parks to his experience visiting S&S Worldwide’s manufacturing facility and creating a mini-documentary on the prototype Axis coaster. He also talks about his decision to start a YouTube channel, the challenges he faced, and his success as a coaster content creator.
C101: For those who don’t know, introduce yourself, who are you and what do you do?
Hello everyone! My name’s Jesiah, I’m a roller coaster/theme park enthusiast, and I guess I’m just a kid with a dream to open a theme park. Around the age of 7, my family moved to Orange County, California, where I spent most of my childhood. Starting with season passes to Disney, we would go 2-3 times a month as a family which gave me an exposure to theme parks early on. Rides like Splash Mountain, Tower of Terror, the former California Screamin’, Indiana Jones Adventure, etc… were all a very big part of my childhood. As a 7-year-old, I had the entire park mapped out mentally down to the rock and tree, and spending time immersed in such a heavily themed place did wonders for my imagination. While I loved being at home, Disney felt like it just belonged.
Age eventually caught up to me though, and by the time I was 13 I was ready for something new and more thrilling. Seeing this change, my parents offered to start taking us to Knott’s Berry Farm, which we did for a season. I’d been as a kid but never rode anything more intense than GhostRider. While I too loved Knott’s after riding rides like Xcelerator, I still found myself preferring Disney… And that’s when I visited Six Flags. Six Flags for me was the pinnacle of all things, and having visited my first time with a broken arm, I was only able to experience a few rides – which was funny because I ended up crying on their Arrow Dynamics Mega-Looper Viper, as well as Drop of Doom. Still, I was mesmerized by the sheer size and scale of the roller coasters at that park, and immediately wanted to learn more.
I began to take pictures of the coasters and research them online, before creating an Instagram account called National Coasters in 2018, where I would upload the photos and write a description about the roller coasters. This developed into a bit of an obsession, and I made the goal to post one new coaster a day from around the world. A couple years later, I had 10,000 followers and was posting all sorts of rides. Most popular were my posts on weird and obscure coasters in other countries, which led to a ton of requests for a YouTube page. This then prompted me to hire an editor, and that page quickly surpassed 10,000 subscribers as well. Today, the channel has amassed well over 100,000 wonderful followers, subscribers, and viewers – all of which I’m extremely grateful for. The rest is still in the making.
C101: What made you decide to start a YouTube Channel?
For that, I need to give credit to one of my best friends in the roller coaster community, Marc. After the small successes I’d been seeing with my Instagram page, he heavily encouraged me to try creating a YouTube page. At first I was hesitant, but after he and my followers requested one, I was excited to try that too! And it really paid off, literally. After my first 1,000 subscribers I was able to get monetized, and then Instagram invited me to their Bonuses Program. I was able to switch my job from bagging groceries my sophomore year to social media full-time and it was awesome!
C101: One of my favorite videos on your channel is the S&S Axis Mini-Documentary. What was it like creating that and riding the prototype coaster as well?
Yes!! In September of 2020, friends of mine CoasterDash, Max Cohn, James Clark, Midway Mayhem, and Coaster Studios ventured out to Logan, Utah with me and visited roller coaster manufacturer S&S Worldwide’s manufacturing facility. The prototype coaster they had (Axis) was probably the most advanced innovation in roller coasters I’ve seen to this day, and it was awesome. In that video you’ll notice we spent a lot of time outside beyond just doing interviews, which was the first step in creating that documentary. Getting there at 9am, it was still too cold to operate the coaster, so Executive Director of Sales & Marketing Josh Hays spent time talking to us about the ride and how they actually built it. Due to heavy air-traffic in the area, this prototype was chosen to receive a Compressed Air Launch, as it consisted of a circular layout with 2 track inversions. That’s how they were able to achieve enough velocity at 60 feet in the air to get the coaster to do what they wanted it to. They noted if this coaster came to a park, it would be receiving a chain lift.
Beyond that, we spoke with Director of Engineering Paul Lattin, Executive Director of Administration Preston Perkes, and Engineer Chris Reynolds, who also took us behind the scenes with computers and showed us some early designs. My favorite was the ‘Water in a Bucket’ model from Chris Reynolds, which used the idea of a bucket of water to simulate what the coaster should do. The goal was to keep water in a bucket throughout the ride whilst it inverted. These and a few other designs were awesome to see! This led up to my favorite part of the day, of course riding it, and well – it was quite the experience. I was asked not to explain how the seats themselves work, but the general idea is that they spin at certain points in the ride due to weight distribution presented from riders. This made for some extremely unique forces, ones I’ve only found to exist on Eejanaika in Japan. Overall, the ride was a huge hit in my book, and I was able to go back in 2022 for additional interviews.
As of the release of this article, a documentary with another manufacturer, Intermountain Lift, will be released shortly on a new Hyper GTX Coaster going to Arizona!
C101: What advice would you give to someone who wants to start their own YouTube channel?
Just make it happen. For me, when I started I was feeling demotivated because I had no mic, wasn’t sure what to create, and had no clue how to edit. In fact, my first few videos were recorded on Apple headphone microphones and edited from my phone on iMovie. My first video ever was a review of Batman at Six Flags Magic Mountain using no-copyright footage. Trust me, you don’t want to watch it. But even then, this step was absolutely necessary and okay!! I’d made a video, and that was something. For Christmas that year I’d received a microphone from Dad, and got a friend to start editing with me. Slowly but surely I discovered what I was good at, how long my videos should be, how often I should upload, etc… and it all worked out. Once you get there, just keep uploading and putting passion into your videos. People will notice and stay. It seems intimidating, but there is a whole community waiting to support you!
C101: What are your future goals and plans for your social media channels and beyond? Do you want to work within the themed entertainment industry in another capacity (ie directly for a park or manufacturer)?
Future goals – what a cool thing to address. Yes, I would absolutely love and plan to work in the themed entertainment industry in the future. As I mentioned in the introduction, a long-term goal of mine has been to open and operate a theme park, maybe to the scale of Knott’s Berry Farm. This goal came around after I read a book titled ‘Theme Park Design & The Art of Themed Entertainment’ which discusses with theme park designers how they did it and what sparked their passions. While I love coasters, I found a much bigger desire here. In that book, there was a section about Walt Disney, where he traveled the world to visit theme parks and get ideas of his own before attempting to open Disneyland. Places like Efteling in the Netherlands absolutely captured his desire, and he got to work. I’ve been doing the same thing in my own way, visiting as many theme parks as I can, but more importantly building connections and getting advice. Doing as many interviews as I do with my social media channels, I’ve been extremely lucky to interact with all sorts of people from different levels in the themed world. Just last month I met with Bill Marriott, executive chairman of Marriott Hotels & International, who operated a few parks of his own. He gave some super helpful advice. I’ve also had the opportunity to speak to the park presidents of Six Flags parks, get lunch with roller coaster designers, and overall just meet with very successful people.
Currently, I’m at school in Utah working towards a degree in Experience Design & Management to meet my goals. I also work as the head of Social Media at the new Wild Rivers Waterpark, which I was able to watch get built from the first shovel in the dirt to our first season. That has given me more insights on what it’s like to open a new theme park and work with people on the executive board.
As for Instagram & YouTube, I still find both enjoyable and am meeting new people everyday! In the near future, I’m considering a new series similar to Coaster Wars, so stay on the lookout for that.
C101: We always have to ask, do you know your coaster count and what’s your favorite roller coaster?
My coaster count is 335 coasters, soon to be 400 this summer! My favorite roller coaster just depends on the day, but all around I’ll usually go with X2. If we’re talking quirkiness; Fujiyama. Intensity; Intimidator 305. I also really enjoyed Flying Dinosaur and Universal Studios Japan!
Jesiah’s passion for roller coasters and theme parks has led him to create a successful social media presence with over 100,000 followers. His willingness to share his knowledge and experiences with his followers has made him a valuable member of the roller coaster community. We can’t wait to see what awesome coaster content you produce next.
Thanks again to Jesiah for taking the time to answer our questions and be sure to follow National Coasters on Instagram and YouTube.
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