'Coaster crazies' give Six Flags Over Georgia high marks
Hours before the first funnel cake was fried and the biggest stuffed panda was won, more than 200 people waited patiently outside the turnstiles at Six Flags Over Georgia.
Two hours before the park opened to the public, they were ready to ride, with sensible shoes, fanny packs and no loose objects in their pockets. As members of American Coaster Enthusiasts, a group 7,000 strong, they're dedicated to knowing, loving, preserving and testing every coaster out there.
"We also call them 'coaster crazies,'" Six Flags' spokeswoman Hela Sheth says with straight face.
For the group's annual Coaster Con this week, its members came to Six Flags and Wild Adventures in Valdosta for "exclusive ride time," or ERTs, that open the park early and keep it operating late, just for them. Some extended their ride time with trips to parks in Alabama and Tennessee. About 500 enthusiasts live in the Southeast, and some of them acted as guides to the riders visiting from California, Pennsylvania, Arizona, Washington, Canada – even Norway.
"When ACE started in 1978," says Robert Ulrich, 54, an enthusiast and ACE regional rep from Marietta, "nobody knew there was somebody like them."
"Like them" means thrill-seeking, ride-critical, community-oriented history buffs. The earliest members joined by writing in for more information; now people can sign up online, sometimes as a family, if their stomachs are strong enough.
There are 2,080 coasters operating in the world today; some members have gotten to more than 1,500 of them. They try to save the old ones, and obsessively track their histories. Ask them to name a favorite, and the universal and diplomatic answer is, "Whichever one I'm riding."
But they do have favorites.
They know the manufacturers and designers, and which parks have the best view from the top. ACE president Mark Cole, who lives in Florida, admits that he loves the Incredible Hulk coaster at Universal's Islands of Adventure in Orlando, his home park. His favorite wooden coaster is Phoenix, a ride at Knoebels Amusement Resort in Pennsylvania.
On Six Flag's Ninja just before 9 a.m., Cole doesn't scream or throw his hands in the air. The ride is a nice way to wake up, but he's more excited about Mind Bender, The Georgia Scorcher and the Georgia Cyclone.
"This is what I'd call a cookie cutter ride," he says after Ninja's brisk minute-and-half at 52 miles per hour, upside down. "It's fun, it's smooth, but it's just like others around the country."
After their fourth fly on Superman, a coaster that kicks its riders back so they can soar through the air at 60 mph, Jayson Young, 32, of Virginia, and his sister, Melissa Young, 34, of Connecticut, gush.
It's better than the one in New Jersey, they agree, but nothing compared to their favorite at Six Flags over Georgia, Goliath. (ACErs adore that 20-story, 70 mph ride — it makes coaster-haters into coaster-lovers.)
The Youngs brought Melissa's 12-year-old son James to Coaster Con from the time he was in a stroller. His favorite is Maverick, a new coaster at Cedar Point in Ohio.
They're not screamers, James says. They "pretend panic" to work up other riders.
"We're just playing around," James says. "We're laughing at them."
Some enthusiasts, like ACErs like Bill Beatty of Florida, and Lucy White of Savannah, love to yell. They are front-car, hands-up kind of riders. Others defer to them, the king and queen of coasters. Beatty is 78. White is 88.
He rode his first coaster as a child, maybe 5 or 6. She was a teen in Texas who defied her parents' fears to catch a ride. It's been all up and down since then.
They like a nice smooth ride on a steel coaster, but what they really love is the anticipation of the lift hill on a wooden coaster, the oil and lumber smell on a hot summer day, the clink-clink of the climb. White could hardly get to sleep the night before her first morning of "exclusive ride time."
"The Great American Scream Machine is my favorite," White proclaims, hailing the lifts and air time. "Up and down, up and down. By the third hill, it feels hum-drum."
Some members will ride 30 different coasters this summer; some will hit 30 different parks. It gets hot and expensive. Lines can be long, and the hot dogs and slushies get old.
So why? Why coasters?
"How many Tilt-A-Whirl's can you ride?" Ulrich says.
"How can you not love 'em?" Cole argues.
"To feel the wind in our hair," Melissa Young laughs.
"Because nobody would let me fly a plane at age 9," Beatty sighs.
Why coasters, Ms. White?
"Why not?" she says.
WHAT THEY RODE
During the American Coaster Enthusiasts time at Six Flags Over Georgia, members had exclusive ride time on the park's 10 coasters, plus Riverview Carousel, which celebrates its 100th birthday this year. Here's what they rode during the first morning of ride time at the amusement park.The Great American Scream Machine
• Type: Wooden
• Opened: 1973
• Height: 105 feet
• Length: 3,450 feet
• Drop: 89 feet
• Speed: 57 mph
• Duration: 2 minutes
• Facts: This popular wooden coaster was the tallest coaster in the world when it opened.
Ninja
• Type: Steel
• Opened: 1992
• Height: 122 feet
• Length: 2,742 feet
• Loops: Five
• Speed: 52 mph
• Duration: 1 minute, 20 seconds
• Facts: When the coaster was at the now-closed Dinosaur Beach park in New Jersey, it was called Kamikaze.
Superman
• Type: Steel
• Opened: 2002
• Height: 115 feet
• Length: 2,759 feet
• Drop: 100 feet
• Speed: 60 mph
• Duration: 2 minutes
• Facts: It's a flying coaster that kicks back its riders so they "fly" headfirst. It featured the first-ever pretzel-shaped inverted loop.
Riverview Carousel
• Type: Carousel
• Opened: 1908 in Chicago; 1972 at Six Flags Over Georgia
• Circumference: 163 feet
• Rows: Five
• Figures: 70 unique horses, four chariots
• Facts: It was the first five-abreast carousel when it opened, and it's the last still operating. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1995. It was the only non-coaster they rode during "exclusive ride time."
