Comparing the Dive Coasters of North America

The Bolliger and Mabillard (B&M) Dive Coaster is maybe one of the most iconic roller coaster models in the world, with their giant wide cars and huge vertical drops. When SheiKra opened at Busch Gardens Tampa in 2005, the first Dive Coaster to open in North America with its impressive 200-foot, 90 degree drop, it was a huge attraction for the park. Two years later Griffon opened at Busch Gardens Williamsburg. But then for almost a decade, that was it on this side of the world.

Then, in 2016, Valravn opened at Cedar Point as the world’s tallest, longest, and fastest dive coaster. Following that, Yukon Striker opened at Canada’s Wonderland in 2019, when it became the world’s longest, tallest, and fastest Dive Coaster taking over from Valravn. And since then there’s been a mini boom in Dive Coasters here in North America, with four new ones opening since 2022, and a fifth, Tormenta Rampaging Run, opening this year.

With this recent boom in dive coasters, we thought it was time to do a breakdown comparing all nine of North America’s Dive Coasters. First, let’s take a look at the coaster lengths.

Small, Medium, and Large

This helps us see right away that they all sort of fall into 3 categories. The shorter guys, Iron Menace, Emperor, and Dr. Diabolical’s Cliffhanger, are the only ones that come in under 3,000 feet in length. Smaller and shorter dive coasters are pretty common overseas, like the fantastic Baron 1898 at Efteling at only 1,644 feet, but when Emperor and Dr. Diabolical opened in 2022 it was the first time we saw more compact models over here.

Then there’s the middle size, SheiKra, Griffon, and, the most recently opened, Wrath of Rakshasa. SheiKra and Griffon are a little different since they were among the earliest Dive Coasters, but all three I’d say are less about chasing records and more about fitting in cool, unique elements.

Lastly, the record chasers. Valravn, Yukon Striker, and soon Tormenta all opened (or are opening) as the “longest and tallest” dive coasters. They harken back to the early 2000s coaster wars of making a big splash with big numbers. Speaking of heights, let’s see how those all compare.

It’s not here yet, but clearly Tormenta is trying to be in a league of its own with its 4,000+ foot length and 300+ foot height. These basically track with what we saw on length though, groups of small, medium, and large coasters. The most fun thing on here though is Yukon Striker with its drop that is longer than its height. Going down into a tunnel is always great, it’s part of why we universally loved Yukon Striker when a bunch of us visited a few years ago.

Speed & Inversions

The height and length also translates to coaster speed, with the Big 3 (Valravn, Yukon Striker, and Tormenta) all peaking at over 75 mph, the middle guys between 65 and 75 mph, and the smaller coasters under 65 mph. Curiously though, inversions don’t follow the same pattern. Being the longest and fastest doesn’t mean the most upside down. It seems more correlated to how new (or maybe how themed) the coasters are, with Wrath of Rakshasa topping the inversion count, and even Emperor, the smallest North American dive coaster, matching Valravn’s number of inversions.

The “Intangibles” (that aren’t really intangible)

SheiKra, Griffon and Dr. Diabolical’s have the fewest upside down bits, but they go pretty strong in the area that I’m calling “Other Elements.” The OG dive coasters, SheiKra and Griffon, are the only two that feature Splash downs, a pretty iconic element on those rides. Meanwhile, Dr. Diabolical was the first dive coaster with a drop that goes steeper than 90 degrees, at a 95 degree angle (the newer dive coasters have all copied that).

Those three also all include a second vertical drop on the layout, something that the other Small and Medium ones don’t have. So, Emperor, Iron Menace, and Wrath of Rakshasa seem to have sacrificed that second drop for some extra inversions.

Not captured in the chart is also the aspect of theming. In my experience Dr. Diabolical’s and SheiKra win in that category. Dr. Diabolical’s audio and sound effects, plus a well themed queue and “story” was a real surprise the first time I rode it. I love the environment SheiKra goes through, especially the drop through a ruined building! Griffon gets some bonus points for going under the pedestrian bridge, as does Yukon Striker for the underwater tunnel after the first drop.

A Range of Trains

Another curious thing about B&M Dive Coasters, especially compared to almost every other coaster model I can think of, is the variety in train sizes.  All of the trains involve three rows (or cars), but they’re not all the same width.

As you can see in the chart above, Griffon tops out among all of North America’s Dive Coaster with 10 seats across for 30 total riders per train. Meanwhile at the other end of the spectrum is Emperor with only 6 seats in each row for 18 riders per train. I’m assuming a desire for more capacity is the reason Griffon has wider trains than SheiKra did, but the narrow trains also presumably allow for more compact coasters with less clearance on either side, probably also cheaper due to smaller track gauge (Griffon’s track is massive!). But I’m surprised that none of the largest Dive Coasters went with 10 across trains.

Rank the Dive Coasters!

After all that comparison, we’d love to give you a definitive ranking of all of North America’s dive coasters, but the problem is we haven’t all ridden all of them, so it wouldn’t be fair. Instead, we’re asking you to rank them! We built a tool to let you come up with your personal ranking of all of them (even if you haven’t ridden some), and we’ll use your ranking data to come up with a true definitive list. So, go find the ranking tool here, then place your votes, come up with your list, and help us decide the best North American dive coaster. Here is the overall community ranking so far:

And yep, when Tormenta opens we’ll add that to the rankings, and once you’ve ridden it come back and rank it too! Meanwhile, since we’re only covering North American dive coasters here, let us know in the comments if there’s one in Europe or Asia that you think is way better than all of these!