Farscry rides a rollercoaster, Fyedaddy almost dies...

Fars, are you an adrenalin junkie? If someone says "Bet you can't do this!" do you say "Lemme try!" Did you climb trees as a kid? Ride your bike down a hill to hit a plywood jump? Do you love that sudden sweaty palms feeling you get edging close to a floor to ceiling window 86 stories up? Do you deliberately look down?

If not, well, I'd skip it. But if you get a rush from overcoming fear, go for it. My thought is, if you have to think about it, maybe it's not for you.

BTW, some places will train you up for a static line jump. You don't pull the cord, but it deploys as you leave the plane and you come down on your own.

I'm not really an adrenaline junkie per se, but I do like to overcome fear. I also like going fast. My favorite part of flying is take-off; accelerating down the runway and then lifting off is a total blast.

NSMike wrote:

Cheeto also said that the instructor who would be strapped on your back can do some moves once the chute is open that feel roller-coaster-ish, but only if you want him to. I would recommend against it, obviously.

Yeah, I'd second your recommendation against fancy moves. Thanks for the advice so far everyone; you're making this actually sound potentially approachable for me. Fye's already said if I go that he insists I have someone film it so he can laugh his ass off at me.

Farscry wrote:

I'm also not sure what's worse: doing a tandem jump (being strapped to someone will make me feel less in control and freak me out more) or jump solo (fear of passing out and not pulling my 'chute. Though if I'm passed out at least I won't notice the impact at the end...).

I went once in university. It was a solo jump, but the instructor popped the chute as I left the plane. The 6 seconds or so of freefall may well have been the longest 6 seconds of my life. (Well, to be fair, the first 5 seconds were kind of cool; the 6th second was incredibly long. :)) After the chute went up, it was very relaxing.

This a funny necro. Years ago my daughter asked me to go skydiving and I ended up stating that if she waited until her 18th b-day I would go with her, thinking she would grow out of it. Now her 18th b-day is later this year and she is constantly reminding me about it:)

I won't have a problem jumping out of the plane I'm sure, I just wonder "Will it be that one time the chute won't open?"

I love coasters, but I did grow up in Ohio. A few years ago, my wife and I went to King's Dominion (the Virginia sibling to Ohio's King's Island) on a slow day. We rode every rollercoaster they had over and over again until we basically got too sick to ride anymore. Then we tried to drive home. That had to wait a little bit.

That said, I HATE this ride:

Edited to fix the embed.

karmajay wrote:

I won't have a problem jumping out of the plane I'm sure, I just wonder "Will it be that one time the chute won't open?" ;)

That's why you have a reserve chute that self-deploys at a certain altitude

Worry about dying on the drive to the drop-zone instead. Statistically, that's where you're going to buy the farm.

Reading the first post in this thread made me smile, as it seems like me. I haven't been on a roller coaster ever, but I remember being on one of the hilly rides as a kid in a place called Dutch Wonderland in Pennsylvania. I remember the trick I used was to look to the side so it would seem like a slower fall, but I was still terrified. Seeing as I can be afraid to make a high jump in video games since I'll feel the plummet in my stomach, I think I'd rather avoid those sorts of rides.

Bumper cars for me.

ARISE, THREAD!

Farscry, don't you have something you would like to share with the rest of the class? Something that I can publicly confirm and praise?

Ah yes, got sidetracked today and haven't posted yet.

So it's been a few years (5!) since the original trip with Fyedaddy to Six Flags that triggered this thread. This past weekend, he and his wife invited me along with them to visit the park again. I had watched some POV rollercoaster videos to prepare for the trip, and was pretty sure I could handle some light coaster action like the Whizzer and the Demon (this is Six Flags Great America).

I figured let's start with the Demon and get the fastest ride I was expecting to try out of the way, like ripping off a band-aid.

Unfortunately, as we walk up through the (fortunately almost nonexistent) line, I could feel serious panic settling in, heartrate increasing, sick feeling in my stomach, etc. I ended up skipping the ride, I just couldn't make myself get on it.

We wandered the park a bit, I enjoyed watching Fyedaddy & family riding the coasters, and we passed by a new entry in the park around midday: the "Little Dipper". It's ostensibly a coaster for kids, but it doubles as an introductory coaster. It was Fye's wife who first said "why don't you ride that one? It should help with your anxiety."

They had to coax me a bit, because I felt a bit foolish riding a "kiddie" coaster, but I saw the logic in what they were saying, so off I went.

We rode it, got a laugh out of the lady in front of us who thought we were initially joking about me being scared of coasters, and I actually quite enjoyed it. The main drop is a mere 3-story slope, but it still elicited a "holy sh*t!" from me anyway. Eh, I'm not ashamed, because it was followed by laughter.

After that, they rode the Batman coaster, then we met up with Fye's daughter, and we all headed to my re-attempt at a "real" coaster: the Whizzer.

I was surprisingly not very nervous in line (a little bit of anxiety, but not much). Got seated, and then a little nervousness ratcheted up, but still handled it well. The cars started up the climb, and yeah, some butterflies in the stomach, but actually once we reached the top I thought "wow, this isn't quite as high as I remember it"; then there was that plunge, but it's a nice smooth acceleration. The first turn hit, and THAT freaked me out a little because I forgot just how sharply that happens.

The rest of the ride? A blast. The second main plunge that takes you down near the pond below was a little nerve-wracking, but only for the briefest bit of time.

I ended up riding it again an hour-ish later, and I loved it.

I wasn't ready to move up to any of the other coasters yet, but damn... that was fun, and I'm looking forward to going again!

Spoiler:

Hell, I was ready to go back yesterday and ride again!

I'm nowhere near ready for the Kingda Ka, or Raging Bull, or that new Goliath they're building, or anything that bad. But I actually think next time I will hop on a couple tougher ones like the Demon or Batman! After a warm-up run or two on the Whizzer first.

Congrats!

Oh man you should ride The Batman at that park. Still the smoothest coaster I have ever been on in my life and that includes several dozen coasters at various parks.

Good job, Fars!

I was partially hoping the story would end in vomit.

Only partially.

You are still a braver man than me. I can barely handle certain video games that give you that tickling G-Force feeling as you drop from on high. I don't want to deal with a roller coaster doing that for real rather than a simulation fooling my brain.

Sometimes, doing this sort of recreational thing that *really* scares you at first delivers the absolute best adrenalin rush once you are committed to it. This is why I want to go skydiving someday.

edit: nevermind, I talked about this years ago.

Stele wrote:

Oh man you should ride The Batman at that park. Still the smoothest coaster I have ever been on in my life and that includes several dozen coasters at various parks.

There was a really, really good one in Busch Gardens Tampa, about ten years ago. I don't remember the name, and their site maps are too low resolution to read, but I _think_ it was the coaster that's orange on the map, just a little to the left of the entrance. It was super fast and super smooth, just a ton of fun, like the Demon on steroids. The lines were short the day we were there, so we must have gone a dozen times or more, and we were laughing, leaving the ride, every time.

There was also one that hurt the hell out of my back, but I don't remember its name either. The one that hurt me was wooden; the one that was awesome had tubular steel rails.

Wooden roller coasters, bleh, rode one in California 30 years ago. Very unpleasant, avoided them since. If the Batman ride there is the same as the one in St. Louis, then I agree that its a nice smooth ride. Fast, fun, but not physically painful.

Skydiving... done that once, static line drop walking out of the back of a perfectly good helicopter (CH-46). Worth doing. Or, try a skycoaster, like the Dragon's Wing, those are entertaining too. The sensation as you hang, facing down, feeling like you are sliding out of the harness (perfectly safe, but still a freaky sensation), before you yank the cord and get dropped loose. Fun stuff.

LtWarhound wrote:

Wooden roller coasters, bleh, rode one in California 30 years ago. Very unpleasant, avoided them since. If the Batman ride there is the same as the one in St. Louis, then I agree that its a nice smooth ride. Fast, fun, but not physically painful.

Skydiving... done that once, static line drop walking out of the back of a perfectly good helicopter (CH-46). Worth doing. Or, try a skycoaster, like the Dragon's Wing, those are entertaining too. The sensation as you hang, facing down, feeling like you are sliding out of the harness (perfectly safe, but still a freaky sensation), before you yank the cord and get dropped loose. Fun stuff.

Heh, I was just about to post my last experience with a wooden coaster but it's already the first reply in this thread.