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Episode 52 - Sean Flaharty spills the TEA (Part 1)
15 Plays4 years ago
This week on the premier comedy roller coaster podcast; Your Favorite Coaster Sucks! Ben and Zach are joined by noted coaster enthusiast and YouTuber Sean Flaharty to discuss Steel Dragon 2000 at Nagashima Spa Land, Haunted Hoochie haunt in Ohio (home of the Blue Flash roller coaster), Montana Rusa Ala Delta A.K.A. the most jank looking coaster ever, How exciting being a roller coaster enthusiast in Ohio was in the year 2000 and much more!
Actually, we're the worst roller coaster podcast on the internet!
Find Sean Flaharty on YouTube here: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCC74P4rJUa80ZSdWW9GiaTw
To learn about Sean's work with Veterans visit: www.eyesoffreedom.org
To help out a great friend of ours and a genuinely awesome person, Tommy Faircloth, during his current time of need please visit: https://gf.me/u/y45gw9
Montana Rusa Ala Delta - https://rcdb.com/9054.htm
Looping powered coaster - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IE6env_nYUc&feature=youtu.be
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Transcript
Podcasting Challenges and Tools
00:00:00
Speaker
Hey Ben, making a podcast is pretty tough, right? Yeah, you gotta like record stuff and then you gotta upload it and it sucks. I know, it's a fucking bummer and it's a lot of effort, but I just found out about Anchor.fm, which lets you record and edit directly through their website or app, as well as upload and publish to platforms such as Spotify and Apple Podcasts.
00:00:21
Speaker
So anchor.fm is not a porn site, right? Not yet, because it's still free too. So you know, they'll start charging once they got only fan style content. That's good. That's good to hear. So if you want to jump on the train before it's all titties and pussies, download the anchor app or go to anchor.fm to get started. Hey everybody,
Merchandise Promotion
00:00:41
Speaker
we got shirts. Your favorite coaster sucks on the Amazon store. Check it out.
00:00:46
Speaker
Absolutely right. We do. We got a bunch of colors available and the shirts are in two different designs. We got the classic golden ticket logo and our rolly ride logo. I also got 10 different colors, man. Yeah. Like you're wearing a shirt right now, so you could always use more shirts. Add to the collection. Get in a lot of crazy. We're in line for your least favorite ride. Tell every Theusey their favorite coaster sucks.
00:01:11
Speaker
Make a fanboy the Fury 325 cry. Very easy to do all by sporting a Your Favorite Coaster Sucks shirt. We also got sweatshirts available through Amazon. We are now shipping to Germany and UK. So if you are out there listening to us, you can get our shit there too. Buy a shirt.
Comedic News Segment and Guest Introduction
00:01:30
Speaker
I'm Mitchell Culligan and this is Action News.
00:01:34
Speaker
We are here live at King's Island with a special report on long lines. I'm joined by roller coaster savant, Sean Flanagan. That's Flaherty. Oh, sorry. Flaherty Flanagan. No, Sean Flaherty. Right. Sean Flaherty. No, Sean Flaherty. All right. Well, what's going on here today at King's Island, Mr. Flaherty? It's Flaherty and we're here to talk about. Fantastic. Why do I agree to these?
00:02:01
Speaker
What coasters usually have the longest lines at King's Island, Mr. Flashbang? Flarity. And I'd say it really depends on the weather and- Wonderful. Now we understand you are the supreme leader of some sort of roller coaster cult, Mr. Flapjack. Flarity. And that's not true. I'm a member of a roller coaster club, but it doesn't matter if- Delightful. Now how do you plan to vote on Proposition 67, Mr. Flashlight? Flarity. And I thought we were here to talk about King's Island and what type- Excellent.
00:02:30
Speaker
Now is it true that Son of Beast was removed as part of a voodoo ritual, Mr. Flabbergast? Flarity! No! Stupendous, now do you know the Muffin Man? The Muffin Man? The Muffin Man, who lives on Drury Lane? Is this a joke? He's been connected to four homicides in the greater Cincinnati area, Mr. Facebook. Flarity! No, I don't know the Muffin Man! Oh my god! I recognize you from YouTube!
00:02:53
Speaker
Oh, wondrous. Mr. Friendly has a fanboy. Flarity. And hey, it's always a pleasure to meet a fan. Do you remember this time you wrote Bandit in Japan? Yep. What's it like? Hey, maybe we can talk later. I'm technically being interviewed on the news right now. Well, actually, I'm cuckoo for Coasters. And I'm the Coaster Cuck. And this is our collaboration video, Action News with Sean Flonkerton. So we're going to get a lot of views.
00:03:23
Speaker
What the hell is wrong with you guys? It's pronounced flarity. Welcome to the worst roller coaster podcast on the internet. Now, let's join Ben and Zack as they tell you why your favorite coaster sucks. I'm Zack and I am sipping on mint tea. I'm Ben in farewell Seattle.
00:03:54
Speaker
I'm Shawn living it up in fabulous Columbus, Ohio. Whoo! Holy shit, we got Shawn Flaherty in the house. Whoo! How's it going, Shawn?
Guest Spotlight: Sean's Work and Hobbies
00:04:05
Speaker
It's going great, man. This is exciting.
00:04:09
Speaker
We are both super excited to have you on here. We have seen you in, like, some Discovery Channel shows and Rob Alvey videos and Tommy Faircloth videos dating back to when we first got into the hobby, so it's really mad exciting to talk to you. Well, thank you very much, man. Thanks for inviting me. This is gonna be great.
00:04:31
Speaker
So first things first, do you got anything you'd like to plug up top? I know you got a fantastic YouTube channel. Well, thank you. Yeah, that's literally the only thing I really have to plug. I don't have any other social media if YouTube is considered social media even. And I just keep it simple. I have an email, YouTube. And if you guys are interested in what I do for a living, go to isafreedom.org and check out what we do for veterans.
00:04:57
Speaker
For sure he does a noble work as well as being an awesome coaster dude. Who's got mad stories as we were finding out in our little pre-interview. Oh yeah. Too many.
00:05:11
Speaker
So we customarily got to start off with, what are you drinking tonight? I am drinking yinling. It's my favorite beer. I actually toured the brewery in July this year. And I'm not a big drinker, admittedly. I already got one in me, and I'm finishing up second one now, and I'm probably going to start a third. And that probably will be it for me, because I've been actually called two-shot Sean before. It's two shots, OK, in the trunk.
Relocation and Housing Market Insights
00:05:39
Speaker
So you got the buzz going? No, no, not yet. I mean, I ate a big dinner like an hour ago, so I might be all right. OK, all right. So we're not going to get some crazy 1992 Scandinavia trip story that you swore you'd never tell. Oh, I don't need to be drunk for that. Right on. Well, Ben, what do you have tonight?
00:06:03
Speaker
Uh, just water because I'm in the middle of still moving my life and, uh, I just haven't had time to really drink. But that's, that's fair. How's the, uh, how's the move preparations going? So I have like everything in boxes at least. So it's just a matter of like cleaning up out of here. I just, it's just hard to do between work. So, but I leave Friday night after work. Where are you moving to?
00:06:30
Speaker
So I'm moving back to Denver. For some reason, I moved out to Seattle just over a year ago because my job was remote. And at the time I thought my job, I thought I was only going to be remote for six months. I didn't know we would have like a pandemic that keeps that going. Oh, you didn't know? Yeah, I didn't know.
00:06:50
Speaker
So, yeah, I just figured it's a good time to go back to Denver. Oh, shit, the music is still down. Why did you do that? This is live. Yeah, so I'm trading wild waves for Lakeside, so that'll be fun. Oh, wow. I was just in Denver last month, so I love Denver. I go there a couple times a year, mainly for work, so. Okay.
00:07:14
Speaker
Yeah, it's a it's a fun place. I miss it. I think I don't know. I think Seattle is like maybe a better city overall. But I think for living, I think Denver is a little better. Yeah. Just be sure to drink lots of water. Yeah. Yeah. So do you have like your first mountain excursion plan for when you move there? I'm going to try to go backcountry skiing that weekend or the weekend after I get there. But
00:07:43
Speaker
Yeah, I just excited to go back and hang out with my friends again. Well, avoid the fires. Oh, yeah, I know. I know. It's been really bad this year. I have a friend that I just talked to a couple hours ago that lives out there and she told me that she's going to send me a picture tonight, but she can see the flames from her house.
00:08:02
Speaker
Oh, wow. That's scary shit right there. Yeah. Um, yeah. And I know they got a bunch of snow, but it's only like 10% or contained right now. So that's the thing about Denver. Like when I went out there, they got eight inches of snow and literally within like a couple of hours, it was all gone. Like completely melted because they had a day of a hundred degrees today prior. Mm-hmm.
00:08:25
Speaker
Yeah, that's what that's what's fun about living out there because you don't really. There's really no seasons. You can have 100 degrees or snow pretty much 10
The Impact of Dollar Stores
00:08:35
Speaker
months out of the year. That's amazing. Yeah, so it's kind of fun. Well, that's exciting. How long is your new lease for? Like 14 days. It's actually four months. I'm taking over another lease. Oh, OK. I was going to say, what the hell kind of lease is four months?
00:08:54
Speaker
Well, so all these apartment buildings will actually do short-term leases, but they set it up. So they have all this software which maximizes the potential rent of each unit. So what they do is like, if they can estimate that they can charge $400 more in June for a year lease and it's January, they'll make like a four or five month lease and then make it like, you know, 1600 versus 1800.
00:09:23
Speaker
just so they can get people in and out of there at the right time. It's kind of fucked up. That's why housing is so expensive. Shit. That's terrible. Yeah. And it sucks too if like you're in one of these new buildings and they're like, Oh yeah, sign a 11 month lease. But then what they don't tell you is when they, when you renew, um, your rent will either go up like $700 for month to month.
00:09:50
Speaker
or you got to pay like double for two additional months. And it's just, yeah, those new apartment buildings are awful. So fucking millennial cities are like that now. No, boy. I mean, they're renovating like the L stop right next to my apartment. So I know that, you know, within the next five years, the rent's going to be like one and a half times what it is now. Yeah. Yeah.
00:10:16
Speaker
Well, it's exactly opposite of mine because I live in the suburbs of Columbus and my property value has gone down because they just added a family dollar, like 500 feet from me. Oh, wow. Yeah. Fuck, that downgrades the value? Yeah.
00:10:34
Speaker
I mean, not like a ton, but I mean, I definitely have no, I mean, it's been there for a year. Um, but it's, it's, I mean, I went in there once and there was a fist fight going on. I just walked right back out. I was like, okay. Yeah. So have you ever watched the show? Like, um,
00:10:52
Speaker
live PD or cops or any of that stuff. You know, usually when there's, uh, they're arresting people, a lot of times it's in front of a family toddler. So is it that specific brand or is it just the, uh, I think it's all of them. Like there's the general dollar, you know, um, family daughter, what you guys have where you're at, but yeah, I mean, it's, it's, it's crazy. You know, I do know that there's, um, I think there's more dollar generals than Walmart's right now or something. Oh, wow.
00:11:23
Speaker
That wouldn't surprise me. Yeah. I mean, they built there was I went to high school in this little town in the middle of Wisconsin and it was maybe like twenty five thousand people and they had three dollar generals. Oh, wow. And like it doesn't make. Yeah, I don't. Doesn't make sense. No.
00:11:42
Speaker
Well, you can never have a shortage of like knockoff pizza rolls and Faygo. Yeah. Everything in there is a knockoff. Like even the children's toys. It's it's so bad. Like it's it's funny, but it's kind of sad.
00:11:59
Speaker
I remember going into, I had a root canal a couple last year and I was, they told me, you know, just eat ice cream today. Don't eat anything heavy and all that. So I went in there to go get ice cream. And by the time I got to the counter, it had literally leaked half of its contents through a hole in the bottom. And she's like, you have to get another one. I'm like, I ain't getting any of this stuff. Goodbye. So yeah, this is worse than a McDonald's milkshake. Yeah.
00:12:28
Speaker
And what's jacked up is I used to like melt ice cream in the microwave and just drink it like soup when I was kid. Yeah, he's a coaster enthusiast. Of course. And yeah, but I haven't had ice cream for a long, long, long while. So that's. We have a fun segment that we like to start off the show with. Ben, do you have the sound effect queued up? I do. All
Killer Coaster of the Week: Steel Dragon 2000
00:12:52
Speaker
right. So this is our killer coaster of the week.
00:13:01
Speaker
And this week's Killer Coaster is Steel Dragon 2000 at Nagashima Spa Land. Now, Ben and I, neither of us have been on this ride, but I know you have. I have. I wrote it last year, finally. I went to that park in 2005 and it was closed because of the accident. I should note, though, I don't think it actually killed anybody. It really fucked some people up, but I don't think it actually killed somebody. But regardless,
00:13:27
Speaker
It didn't kill someone when it hooked a wheel. Now it hit him in the water park and I think they just got really severely injured. I mean, unless that person died like years later, I don't think they died when it happened.
00:13:38
Speaker
Well, then I might be lying about this being a killer coaster. Well, it still screwed somebody up. So But yeah, it was I mean, I guess we'll allow Crippler coasters. Yeah, it named, you know I finally got on it last year and with the B&M trains and it was
00:14:00
Speaker
It was it was a lot better than I thought it was, but I wasn't a fan of those trains on that ride because, you know, we're conditioned to know that being trains like that, you know, that those specific seats are usually on a smoother coaster. And it was weird to ride them on a coaster wasn't designed for.
00:14:18
Speaker
Uh, they were tighter restraints than the typical B and M things. And they had like a shin guard and all that stuff. But yeah, the ride was, was a lot better. And I thought it had a lot more airtime, a lot of laterals. It's not the smoothest thing in the world, but it's, it's a lot of fun. I only got to write it twice though. So they just get airtime on themselves.
00:14:33
Speaker
Um, it's, it's decent. I mean, it's, it's, it's better than I would say, uh, like the, the Morgans that are in our country, like the, I mean, excluding Phantom's Revenge, but more at times than like Mamba or Valley Fair or Valley Fairs, you know, wild things, stuff like that. It's, it just, that's what surprised me. And then, you know, with it being the longest coaster in the world, it was, it lasted a long time, man.
00:14:56
Speaker
Yeah, like on the POVs, it just seems like it goes forever. Yeah, it's like riding Magnum like twice. I mean, that's what it feels like. It's really strange. And the ops at that park sucks so bad. And that coaster by far has the most cue of any coaster I've ever seen in my life. I mean, I would never want to go to a park if that thing was filled and go to that park. You know, I mean, it was just
00:15:25
Speaker
So what, like, operation wise, do they run at least more than one train? The first day I was at Fuji Q, they were running one train on everything, including Hakugei. And then the second day, I think it was a Saturday, I was there halfway through the day. They shut down Steel Phantom and look at the axles and check the track and all that stuff for a couple hours, and then they reopen it. And they had two trains on it when they reopened it.
00:15:49
Speaker
but they don't let you choose your seat and you go where you're told and then it just from the from the break run like the first set of breaks to the time it hits the station it just seems like it takes forever. Did anybody in your party complain about the assigned seating?
00:16:05
Speaker
A lot of them did that we were trying to do stuff like let people go in front of us. And when they got hold of that, they were really angry. So both times I read Steel Dragon. I read it by myself. I wasn't with the rest of the guys. So I honestly don't know. I don't think they would be complaining to the ops or anything like that.
00:16:26
Speaker
because the Japanese are very reserved. You know, they don't like to cause any problems or anything. They just go
Theme Park Culture and Etiquette
00:16:32
Speaker
to where they're at. And I remember we were riding Thunder Dolphin and a couple of the guys were letting people go in front so they get a front seat ride. And those guys almost got kicked out of it off the ride for doing that. Holy shit. Yeah, it was, it was.
00:16:44
Speaker
Pretty crazy. Well, it just like wouldn't surprise me at all, like with the typical coaster enthusiast attitude to be like, man, row eight on Steel Dragon. This is bullshit. We know. I mean, there were seven of us and we were all they were. Everybody was very well behaved, I would say. You know, I mean, we may not agree with some of their policies and stuff, but what can you do? You know, we were we weren't going to be those guys that said, hey, we're American.
00:17:12
Speaker
You know, we deserve this. There wasn't anything like that. I have a YouTube. Yeah, or something like that, you know. It wasn't anything like that. And I even told the guys, because I had been there for a month prior, you know, like in 2005, I told them on our first train ride to our Airbnb where we were staying the first night, I was like, listen, if you have a problem with some of the way that the Japanese operate parks and stuff, don't make a scene about it.
00:17:40
Speaker
just don't do that. If you need time to cool off, go walk, go walk away. Don't do that. So hopefully that helped a little bit because, uh, that would, that was my nightmare. Um, having somebody on the trip. Apped up because of, you know, well, I'm an American. I deserve this. And that didn't happen. Well, that's good that you had a, like a good, you know, mindful group there.
00:18:03
Speaker
Well, and that was another thing. I only knew three of the guys on that trip before that trip. I met the other guys on that trip and I don't like to do trips with people I don't know very well because I have had nightmares happen. Okay. Oh, yeah. And so a couple of the guys were like, are you cool with this? I'm like, yeah, you know, I'm going to do my own thing.
00:18:22
Speaker
And I ended up bonding, uh, with the guys really, really well. I mean, we, we, every night we just hang out at the Airbnb, um, grab a couple drinks, you know, dump all our footage for the day. And then, uh, Dan and I, Dan from maybe my mayhem and I would just go out. Like usually our places had balconies and stuff like looking outside and we just sit up there and just chat about old, old times. Like it used to be like you guys remember for sure. Yeah, it was a lot of fun.
00:18:47
Speaker
I heard about the whole I just did the seed assignment thing and why they can and like how they consider it disrespectful like I wonder what the you know what I mean I wonder what the mindset is.
00:18:58
Speaker
Well, they're, they're all very contained. And what I mean by that is they're all very structured. Like everything is structured. Like the trains leave on the second. Um, if you, if you're two minutes late, you're going to miss your train. Okay. Um, everything has its own container. Like when you get, like the last place we stayed at, we stayed in a capsule. Um, uh, what do you call this place? It's not a hotel. Um,
00:19:22
Speaker
No, like it's where everybody stays like in the same room hostile. It was a capsule hostile. So we stayed in these little more or less coffins. And I don't know. It was just, it was just an interesting time. And, um, everybody was worried about what, Hey, but anyway, once a week checked in there, you had to put your shoes in these compartments. And then they gave you shoes to wear up into the room. Like that was odd. You know, you couldn't take your own shoes up there, but.
00:19:48
Speaker
You know, that's just how they operate. Everybody is so nice there. It's my, by far my favorite country to visit. Nice. I mean, I've heard great things about Japan. I'd love to go. I could easily live there easily. It's so easy to get around. I mean, yeah. If anybody that's listening to this has never been to Japan before you get too old, please visit. And what, and what sucks is like my favorite coaster is there. And I won't be able to ride it ever again because the age age limit.
00:20:18
Speaker
Wait, but the what they have a 50, I turned 50 next year and they have a, they have a, uh, requirement that you can't be 50 to write. If you're 50, you're, you're, you can't ride shit. How do they enforce it? Because that park, when you buy your ticket, they take your picture and every ride you get on.
00:20:36
Speaker
has you they face scan you and it has like your info like I don't know if they put your name in that info or your age in that info or whatever but you get this little thing and then you literally sit in front of a camera right before you get into the station and they say okay you're good to go so I would try it I would go online and just like like try to like say oh I'm 45 you know and see what happens but they're pretty strict with the rule so you know
00:21:03
Speaker
Maybe because when it when it when it had the tower the age required the age limit was actually higher It was like 70 and they made it more intense. I believe and now it's 50 And I and I don't know if they'll enforce that or whatever, but that's what we were told so
00:21:20
Speaker
I don't think, I can't think of another ride that probably has that, but it makes, I guess it seems like that would happen in Japan, but. Yeah. I mean, it's the most intense ride on the planet. In my, in my opinion, I mean, you know that it's intense when parts of your body, you can feel moving on the launch inside. So, uh, yeah, it really does. Oh, like you, you can feel your intestines move around. You can feel everything just shift backwards.
00:21:46
Speaker
You know, you know, like the gut wrench used, like you feel in drops and drop towers and stuff. Like I don't get that at all. I haven't got that. I haven't felt that in decades. Okay. That's the only ride that really gets me do that on that level. Oh, wow. Yeah. Every time I've written, uh, that ride four different times and I literally, I shake for a half an hour after I ride it.
00:22:09
Speaker
Damn. Yeah. It looks good. I would love to ride it. Although the top hat look, did you write it both top hat and loop? Yeah. Top hat had the most air time I've ever experienced.
00:22:19
Speaker
Oh, fuck. I bet that was sick. I got on hypersonic. Yes. How much was it like that? Or like it was more hypersonic was like scary ejector. Yeah, it was even more than that, but it had a different shape. So it had like a more round top. So like the ejector lasted longer.
Coaster Experiences in Japan
00:22:37
Speaker
That was the only time I've actually been afraid of flying out of a coaster on hypersonic. And there's the other one, you know, now it's dodo or no dodo. And I would have loved to get on that.
00:22:50
Speaker
Yeah, that park's amazing. What, uh, let's see Fuji Ama. Yeah, that ride looks, I'm not a big fan of that. Um, yeah. I mean, if you look at the layout, it's kind of loosely based on the Coney Island cyclone, but steel, but they are way higher. I mean, it's kind of that type except the last part, but, um, we wrote bandit just a couple of days prior to that. And we all love bandit because it's so smooth.
00:23:17
Speaker
And then you get on this thing and it's got different trains and just the transitions are bad. I mean, if you have a bad back, don't ride it. Uh, but you know, it's cool. Cause when you're on the top of lift hill, if it's a clear day, Fuji Mount Fuji is like right in front of you when you go over to the top of lift. Um, but yeah, it was that. And dude, we, we wrote this dark ride, like the last thing we wrote. And I don't remember the name of it. We, we, we waited like 40 minutes for it. We're like, this better be good. And we get to the.
00:23:47
Speaker
the, where the, the station is in this car comes in and they sit you down and they strap your arms down. So you can't move. And then they, then you have headphones on and it plays 360 degree audio, but it's completely in the dark for, you know, five minutes or whatever it is. But there's people in there that are grabbing you on the chest and the shoulders and the back while you're on the cart going through it and you can't see them. It's, it's terrifying. Yeah. That sounds pretty awesome.
00:24:17
Speaker
Yeah, it was it was crazy like the reviews on the vlog I had from that particular park visit I mean, they're all authentic like everybody's freaking out like wow, like this is crazy.
Homemade Coasters and Safety Concerns
00:24:26
Speaker
So that would never happen here in the States Yeah, no, it's not right now Well, although I did I did it hot here in Columbus that's pretty well known in the hot world called haunted hoochie and It's the most intense hot. It's a place that got the blue. Yes. Yes. Yes it is
00:24:46
Speaker
Yep, I it wasn't running when I was there. I seriously seriously doubt they'll get that certified by the state of Ohio to run but the haunt itself lasts about 40 minutes and it's just sensory overload and they they usually um They're usually allowed to grab you and throw you into like tombs and stuff I mean, they they just take it to the next level but now they can't touch you So now they touch you but they touch you with like chainsaws and stuff, you know
00:25:10
Speaker
Um, it's, it's so intense. I mean, it is not for the faint of heart, man. It is crazy intense. What, uh, what is the thing you guys mentioned that they have, but blue flash, uh, John Ivers coasters, he, um, they bought both of them. Okay. Blue two and that. So I went over the two of them and, you know, check them out up close and stuff. But, um,
00:25:32
Speaker
Um, it was night and there was nobody there to run them because I don't have that credit because the weight requirement, I was just over it for when it operated in Indiana and now he rebuilt the lift. So I heard it doesn't have a weight limit anymore. So, so you trust that fucking thing? No, but I'm going to ride it.
00:25:52
Speaker
Hell no, I don't trust that. That'll be the most terrifying coaster I ever ride if I get that credit. I'm not even joking. I mean, if you look at the tray or the, if you look at the car and then you see the gauge of the track and you can see where there's obvious wear and tear, it just doesn't, I'm surprised it can still run.
00:26:08
Speaker
Well, and that's the thing with, cause you can walk right up to it and I put my, I, I touched the loop and I touched the track just to see how, and it was actually sturdier than I thought. Like I was like tapping the rail and it, it, it wasn't, it wasn't like bending or anything, you know, like, I mean, it has give, but it's, you know, I don't know, man, it looks cool there. Cause it's in this whole kind of creepy thing called an amusement park. Oh.
00:26:35
Speaker
They have a Ferris wheel from Buckeye Lake there and they have a couple other rides that are just, they're running, but there's nobody there. It's pretty crazy. That definitely sounds terrifying. Yeah. And it's weird because it's 20 minutes from where I live. Interesting. Is it like in the middle of nowhere?
00:26:54
Speaker
No, it's, it's, it's, it's in a, um, town called Potaska, which is just a suburb of Columbus. So it's on Eastern, like the national road is, uh, route 40 and it's on 40. So if you're taking either direction into Columbus, you'll eventually pass it. You can see it from the road. So, okay. For sure. I mean, maybe I'll try to get out there if blue flash opens, but Hey, yeah, I'm not gonna lie. I'll be, I'll be terrified to write it.
00:27:20
Speaker
Yeah, like maybe if it didn't have the inversion, it wouldn't be quite as scary, but... Well, that's what I'm thinking, because the other coaster that's like on the other side of the haunt, the blue two, the other one he bought, you know, that doesn't have... That would be like the one I would do first, just to see if like, is this going to be as horrible as I think it will be? I mean, I've noticed a lot of people that have ridden it, you know, both of them, so... I love how...
00:27:43
Speaker
the it seems like if you're really tall, your head is outside of the like, you know, like the radius in the loop and it seems like it kind of throws your like throws you side to side out of the car a little bit.
00:27:56
Speaker
I've heard that and I've heard it's it's a mixture of jack hammering and laterals like you wouldn't believe at the same time. Nice. So basically son of beast. But it's it's definitely I know two people that have written it in the loop gave them an instant migraine because the the forces in the loop someone said it was six G's I don't think it's that high but it's it's I'm sure it's high.
00:28:20
Speaker
Well, I mean, if he didn't calculate the radius of that shit properly, I could easily see it being six cheese. Well, it kind of looks like did you guys ever see that that fucked up ride cool and fresh. It sounds like it's this fair ride that has a single four cross.
00:28:39
Speaker
Vehicle and it goes up and it looks like a Eurofighter. But like if someone designed it like with Microsoft paint. Oh Yeah, yeah Because it's it's one of those coasters that it does like a full rotation almost back and then vertical Well, it has a really tight. Yeah, like a tiny loop on it. I think that's the one I'm talking about Yeah
00:29:03
Speaker
Yeah, I think they even have one in roller coaster taken three, I think. Oh, my God. Are you kidding me? I think so. I mean, at least it's at least it's cool and fresh, I think. Yeah. It's like a traveling coaster. I mean, it's all it's like magnetically broke down most of the drop and then it lets you go into the loop and then there's like a turn and then the rides over. Oh, that's why it's not coming up on our CDB.
00:29:28
Speaker
Yeah, it's like a traveling one. I mean, I'll see if I can find one more chat and then. No problem. I mean, yeah, I don't know, man. Blue flash looks. Yeah. Oh, have you seen we were talking about this one with our buddy El Toro Ryan a couple of weeks ago here on the show. It's called Montaña Russa Del Alta.
00:29:50
Speaker
Oh, that that Mobius thing. It's like this invert. Oh, OK, I'm thinking a different one. Oh, oh, yeah. Yeah, we were talking about this when Ryan was here. It looks like the worst roller coaster ever, literally. It pretty much looks like the blue flash. If you turned it into an invert and added a bunch of height to it. No, I don't know that one. See, this one I can find on our CDB. That looked like it was jank as shit. Do you remember what do you think? Do you remember what it was called?
00:30:19
Speaker
Montana, Roosa, Del Alta or Para Del Alta. Oh, yeah, I want to for sure. Yeah, I'll add Delta. There it is. Montana, Roosa, I'll add Delta here. I'll put it in the Zencaster chat. OK. Oh, here we go. OK, let's see. Oh, no. What the hell? Yeah. Is that real? I mean, it's on our CDB, so.
00:30:46
Speaker
I love this. Lisa took the picture, so I know it's real. So do you see the trains on this thing? No, I'm trying to. How do I? OK, here we go. Let's see. It looks like a. Oh, no. What the hell? I think this is like become the official coaster of your favorite coaster sucks. Oh, man, even the wheel assemblies are all rusted and. Yeah, there's a there's a POV of it on YouTube as well.
00:31:13
Speaker
Look at the seat belt clips. They're literally from a car. And they're tied off. What the fuck? What the hell is that? I'm looking at a close up of the train and there's like a it looks like a helmet in the one of the seats.
00:31:27
Speaker
Yeah, I think it has a helmet. You have to wear a helmet. Here, I'm going to post the YouTube POV. OK. Well, oh, man, my nightmares have come true. Like there's a shot. You can clearly see how the lift and drop are completely triangular. Oh, this video looks like shit, but OK. Oh, my God. Oh, I'm afraid to even watch this POV. Oh, this is. Oh, no. Here it goes.
00:31:57
Speaker
So Sean, would you ride? Oh boy. Oh no. You gotta love how it's struggling to get over the hill. Oh, what a nightmare. Oh God, the banking. I know. Like, like who thought that was a good idea? Like nothing good can come from that. Good Lord. Oh, I've seen it all now.
00:32:22
Speaker
Have you ever seen that powered? It's like a powered looping coaster in France. It's like it's literally an oval like a wacky worm, but it just has a loop in it and it power it like pushes it forward and backward. No, it's not that Schwarzkopf catapult, is it? No, this is like literally a wacky worm with a loop in it. That's great.
Unique and Obscure Coaster Designs
00:32:45
Speaker
And it's got like metal restraints and like metal over the shoulder restraints, too.
00:32:50
Speaker
I mean, that's like somebody going to Cedar Point and seeing like Raptor and being like, Oh, I can build one of those. You know, let's go to Radio Shack and let's go to, you know, Walmart, get some duct tape and some PVC pipe. And there we go. Better than Raptor. It looks like some that this park hired John Ivers to build them Raptor.
00:33:13
Speaker
They saw Raptor and they're like, we need one of those. Jeez, man. Can you imagine? We cannot afford B&M. We cannot afford Vekoma. But we heard about this guy in Indiana who has a shed. I pasted. OK, I pasted a POV of it. It does actually doesn't look as bad as it might be, but it looks pretty bad. OK, this is the way. Let me OK.
00:33:40
Speaker
Oh, so far it looks kind of like a Zyklon or something. It's just weird that it's literally God. Oh, my God. Oh, I see the loop. OK, here we go. It's picking up some serious speed, too. Here we go. Oh, no. Yeah, that one doesn't look as bad as the other one. It looks pretty professional.
00:33:59
Speaker
All right. I have to share a link then because I wrote this the first time I was in Japan and I don't understand how this is good, but I swear to you it is. Um, it's called, I think it's just called high roller. No, not now. That's the one in Vegas. Hold on. Oh, like the flat ride coaster thingy.
00:34:16
Speaker
No, it's a coaster, kind of like a Zyklon, but it has this banking that you're like, this shouldn't be a thing. This isn't going to work, and it works beautifully. Oh, yeah. It's almost like the bottom, or like the entry into the Magnum pretzel.
00:34:36
Speaker
where it's like, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes. I'm just trying to find where it's at the sea. I'll find it, which I wish RMC would do that on a coaster. So I might think like with just like with RMC and old arrows and stuff, I feel like RMC could make those shitty elements that were shitty just due to lack of technology into like a modern. So you get like the forces out of it, but it's not, you know, bad design. Sure, sure.
00:35:06
Speaker
I remember there was this rumor many years ago when B&M put Raptor in that B&M was going to be hired to smooth out Magnum and corkscrew. Oh, really? Yeah. Insert drag and fire joke here. Yeah, exactly. OK, I'm in my POVs. I just got to find the coaster. Now, Zach, did you ride? Did you go to I called it Satan's Village, but Santa's Village in right typhoon? Unfortunately, yes, I did.
00:35:34
Speaker
Yeah, same here. I got a POV of that on my channel as well. Oh, here it is. I'm trying to find this. There we go. All right. Watch this. Oh, boy. Yeah, that thing was a real piece of shit.
00:35:50
Speaker
Oh, dude, it was horrible. I remember when we wrote it like on the lift till it had one of those like really jank looking catwalks with like the like square assembling handrails, you know, the kind that like clip into place with each other. Yes. Yes. Reach out and actually grab the handrail from the car. Yep.
00:36:15
Speaker
Yeah, this one, this one, this park is closed, I believe. It was one of the best parks we went to because I mean, there was nobody there. But the transitions on the thing I just sent in the in the chat, they they were it was very, very smooth. So, OK, yeah, this. Oh, shit. I see that first turn from like when it dispatches and it's like, oh, boy. But you're saying this is smooth because this looks like a death machine.
00:36:42
Speaker
It was very, very smooth. If you hear the commentary, we're like, how is this right? This shouldn't be right. And it was very smooth.
00:36:51
Speaker
I'd like to point out that on this video, there's an ad for a place called the tickle pink in. I'm not even kidding. Well, there's a localized ads usually, so that's probably by you. Uh, I have no idea. Feel, feel worlds away yet home again at our enchanting coastal hideaway. Coastal? Well, no, I'm in Chicago. I don't know.
00:37:18
Speaker
They're like, you want to go to the tickle pink and you've been watching a lot of roller coaster videos. I say that this place near Darien Lake or somewhere in that area called the Cinderella Inn, I think it was called. And their tagline was home of the heart shaped jacuzzi. You know, you're in for a quality experience then. Yeah. Holy shit. This these turns make like aero transitions look flawless. Yeah. Yeah. Oh, yeah. Yeah.
00:37:47
Speaker
Oh, the bottom of that helix where it like. But yeah, kind of like Ben was saying, like, I don't know, 20, 30 years later, RMC would make that a very marketable element. Absolutely. And for those that are listening, if you look up jet roller at Mount Icoma Amusement Park, you'll see what we're talking about. So yeah. And if anyone actually pays attention to the show notes, I'll put the link in there. But yeah, totally. Holy shit. Well, thank you for sharing that is. Yeah, yeah.
00:38:15
Speaker
Yeah, I love doing these obscure coasters that look like absolute trash. That's the thing. Go to Japan and there's plenty of them. And those are always the most fun to see because you're just like, what the hell were they thinking?
00:38:33
Speaker
at that same, oh, no, it wasn't another park. It was, it was a different park, but it was on top of a mountain like that one. Um, we walk up and the one coaster they had at the park, there was a guy welding the cross ties and we're like, well, we're not going to get the credit. So we'll just ride some other stuff. And there was like a spa there and everything. And there's a big bridge. It goes over a Valley. And then we walked by the ride and the guy waves to us. He's still welding and he waves to us. So we walked down to the station and he's like, do you want to ride? And we're like, well, you were just welding. He's like, hop in. So we wrote it.
00:39:03
Speaker
And it was fantastic. I think I have a POV of that up, too. But then, like, literally, after we did that trip in 05, there was that accident on the standup at Expo Land.
00:39:15
Speaker
And that was the last park of the trip we did. So that was kind of like, Oh man, we just rode that thing, you know? And then, so the Japanese government went through all the parks and reexamined their tracks, their axles, the trains, everything. And that coaster that was being welded was the one on the list that it wasn't safe to run. Oh, wow. Yeah.
00:39:40
Speaker
I have no idea if they shut it down immediately or fixed it or whatever. So you rode both Fujin Region 2 and this coaster that was deemed by the government is unsafe and walked away unscathed.
00:39:53
Speaker
And be honest, the raging Cajun too, we rode in the front, my friend, Jim and I, and our friend Matt rode behind us and we figured out like it's a horrible designed ride. It's like an out and back with just real shitty transitions and stuff. And we were like, we got to figure out a way to ride this or we're going to get thrashed. And we did, but Matt couldn't figure it out. So he just got a beating. And literally as we were walking down the steps of the station, he said, this ride will kill somebody soon. He said that.
00:40:25
Speaker
You know, it's bad when a coaster enthusiasts can tell when a ride's actually going to kill somebody. Yeah. Maybe there, maybe there's like a task force that they should hire enthusiasts. Seriously. Or whatever and say, yeah, you don't want to operate this ride. Cause we've all been on shitty rides like that. You know, mainly they're all fairs, but in Japan, a lot of those fair quote unquote rides are like at their big parks, you know, or, or, you know, parks that you would never expect to see this in.
00:40:48
Speaker
Wow. I mean, look what happened.
00:40:53
Speaker
Actually, if any government officials are listening, the three of us are a verified task force independent of any government. So we are available for hire. Hell, yeah. Just just throwing that out there. Please hire us. Well, we will inspect and verify rides are running well. We'll work for air time.
00:41:18
Speaker
Exactly. And the sweet, sweet views. No. So we got another fun segment here. All right. Yeah. So we like to find a bad park review on Google because those are, let's be honest, those are great. And so Sean, if you don't mind reading this, we got some cheesy piano music. I've looked at this and for the listeners, I'm reading this as is. This is not me screwing up the words. This is how it is written.
00:41:48
Speaker
All right, so Ben's going to hit the music and take it away. I am a military veteran that is no stranger to being treated fairly or not so nicely by my host, but I hear.
00:42:01
Speaker
But I am here to tell you this one tops them all. I have never been treated more poorly by stuff unwilling to listen or make any sort of compromise in the 53 years I've been on this earth. My crime, you ask? Well, I took a picture of my grandson while on a Snoopy ride that apparently you are not allowed to do at Kings Island.
00:42:22
Speaker
This was my first trip to the park in over two decades, and I wasn't aware of this rule when I was confronted by the security staff. I apologized for my mistake and explained to the young man that I wasn't aware and that I was sorry. I expected that perhaps a firm warning would have survived, instead me, my wife, and three-year-old grandson were treated like a common criminals.
00:42:44
Speaker
physically escorted to a security holding facility and locked inside a room for upwards of an hour. I fully cooperated with the young man who detained us. I made a sincere heartfelt apology for my indiscretion and told him that it mostly certainly wouldn't happen again. To my complete and utter surprise, I was told by this young man that was being ejected from the park
00:43:08
Speaker
Mind you, I was on a week-long vacation with my wife and grandson, so being ejected from the park completely destroyed our vacation. I am, or should I say was, a first-time Gold Season Pass holder because I will not be renewing my pass, nor will I ever return to this park. Perhaps the Cedar Fire Company needs to hire a few adults to manage the park and fuel the desires of the overzealous security staff.
00:43:34
Speaker
In my case, the punishment was nowhere close to fitting the crime. Buyer beware and folks be careful because taking pictures of your children or grandchildren in certain places within this park is considered a crime. And just like me, you just might just find yourself on the outside looking in one star. What the hell?
00:44:05
Speaker
He had to like shot a POV and got shitty with a staff or something. I mean.
00:44:10
Speaker
There's definitely more to that story. It hurts that he was a military veteran. So sir, if you ever hear this, thank you for your service. But, you know, I have no idea what happened. Yeah, that's the one thing I didn't like about that review because that does suck. But at the same time, regardless, you know, there's more to that story. Oh, there always is. Yeah. Because you don't just get kicked out for saying, hey, I'm sorry. You know, I won't do that again.
00:44:39
Speaker
Yeah, you're right. I mean, even if you film a POV and get caught, you probably still won't get kicked out if you're just nice about it. Well, maybe. I've seen a couple of people get kicked out of Kings Island for shooting POV because they argued with the staff. That's always what it is. Like if you break a rule, if you play stupid and are respectful, then you're not because like they're not really there to kick you out. They're there to make sure that people are having a good time.
00:45:09
Speaker
Yeah, and the people are safe and because I've been hit with all kinds of loose articles on coasters. I was riding diamond back the year and open. I was in the very back row and a kid riding in the front row cell phone came out of his pocket and I see this like silver thing coming like right for my forehead. So I put my head up to block it and I caught his cell phone.
00:45:28
Speaker
And then when I, at the end of the ride, I gave it back to him and he was like, Oh, he gave me a hug. He was like, my mom would be so angry if I lost another phone on the ride. I'm like, wait, this has happened to you before. Like get, get a lesson. And then usually like the incident, the last time I saw somebody get like, get kicked out for shooting video or, you know, scary coming, they usually use the thing, well, there's no signs telling you you can't. Well, there's plenty of signs. Yeah. That's the dumbest argument ever. Yeah.
00:45:54
Speaker
So see the thing is they are not cops. So the playing stupid thing will actually work. Yeah, you're right. If you just go, oh, I'm sorry, I didn't realize I won't do it again.
00:46:09
Speaker
And then the other important thing, you actually don't do it again. There, there was, um, I'm not going to name names, but there's, uh, a well-known enthusiast that was, um, writing Raven and shooting POV and he got busted and, uh, got kicked out of the park band for that because apparently the attitude. So that actually, I feel like they may be the one part that might kick you out regardless.
00:46:36
Speaker
Well, I mean, they're just everything that's happened to them at the past and everything they have to take. They have to take safety and security more serious than a lot of the parks we visit. And, um, you know, definitely unquestionably. So I definitely feel like they, they rightfully would be one of the ones where it's like now you had a camera, sorry. I like come back another day, you know? Right, right. Exactly. So, but yeah, that's an interesting review.
00:47:05
Speaker
Yeah, well, I'm sure he didn't get like a perma band, so hopefully he was able to go back and didn't get kicked out. Yeah, I mean, if he went like this, like throwing punches or something like that, you're not coming back. You know, you will not be allowed to come back. I also kind of love the super dramatic tone.
00:47:24
Speaker
Yeah, yeah. He painted a decent picture, even though some of the grammar is weird, but, you know. Yeah. Yeah. You might just find yourself on the outside looking in. I can see the bars of the park, like the fence, just waving, going, hi, grandson, I can't come in. I can take your picture from out here.
00:47:46
Speaker
Oh,
Coaster Enthusiasm Origins
00:47:47
Speaker
Lord. All right. So before we get to like our question questions, if you'd like, you may ask us a question. Yeah, actually. So what was the defining moment or even ride that made you realize you were an enthusiast or you were really going to go for this and just start riding as much as you can? Like, what was that instant or ride for you guys? Hmm. Oh, that's a good question.
00:48:15
Speaker
I think when I convinced my parents to go to Cedar Point for Millennium Force opening year, and that being my first Cedar Point coaster, and it just being Millennium Force riding it when I was 10, so that's probably what it was. Maybe that or Blue Streak. Oh, wow. Shit. That's a good one. Because I remember I rode Blue Streak like 10 times in a row, and that's the first time I've ever got to do that.
00:48:41
Speaker
Uh, wow. And like, I actually like, I was like trying to get airtime. That was like the first time I'm like, whoa, airtime is fun. So that's probably when it happened. That's awesome. Damn. That's a good answer, Ben. Um, I feel like when I was like.
00:48:56
Speaker
Little kid I used to love watching like My parents got me America's Greatest Roller Coaster Thrills in 3d. Oh, yeah. Yeah, so I used to watch that all the time and My folks would take me to Great America. But the thing was when I was a kid I was fucking terrified of actually riding coasters. Yeah, so I was fascinated by them and
00:49:18
Speaker
Yep. Same here. I would draw pictures. I'd actually make layouts of coaster designs using garden hoses and shit. And, uh, I was fascinated by it, but I wouldn't get on one. Yeah. So I'm like, I guess running Viper at great America. What year did you work there or years?
00:49:35
Speaker
Um, I worked there in rides and oh six and then I was there for fright fest 2010 through 2012 as a character I need to get back to that park. I haven't been there since they've added the 40 so The the spin. Yeah. Yeah, I mean max force is interesting Yeah, that's I love s and s launches so I think I'd like it a lot
00:50:00
Speaker
Yeah. I mean, it's pretty much like that and accelerator are like, Oh, that's a fantastic ride. Two of the best for launches. Yeah. The dragster. I love to. Oh yeah. Dragster is really good. You know what? Here's a weird thing. I don't, I don't care for King to car.
00:50:16
Speaker
Well, that one's different, though, because it's like it noticeably has like four different like you can feel it where it's like boom. Yeah, you can feel it pulsating. Yeah, like it like it pulsates when you're going down the launch. And then like, I don't know if it's still there, but the rides I've taken on it, there's like a nasty like jolt or pothole at the bottom of like the tower when you're getting ready to get to that big last airtime hill thing.
00:50:42
Speaker
It's always given me a headache every time I've ridden it. Yeah. I've noticed a vibration, but I'd ever have it in the front, which people say there isn't one in the front, but it's there, but it's not as pronounced. Yeah. And just like the, the scenery isn't as interesting. Um, and the trim break and the over the shoulder restraints, it's kind of like everything I like about dragster King, the car doesn't have.
00:51:04
Speaker
I was asked to leave that parking lot because my buddy Jim and I went and you know, like you can get close to it in a parking lot like looking up at it. We were getting footage of it and security came over and they were like, you can't be here. And we're like, we're just getting shots, man. He's like, you can't be here. Leave now. So we left. Well, that's really early. Yeah. Yeah, it is. Yeah. It's not one of my favorite parks.
00:51:28
Speaker
All right. So, um, we like, we started a new thing where we go onto our social media and we tell everyone that we're recording with a mystery guest and we get questions from our listeners. So they don't know who we were recording with. They didn't know until we put the, the live stream up. So here are the ones we got. Um, Ben, do you want to do like the Twitter and Facebook ones? I'll do the Instagram ones.
00:51:54
Speaker
Yeah. Um, so ribs and bacon asks, uh, have you written wild eagle? Well, I know who ribs and bacon is. That's Josh. And he's awesome. I just hung out with him at Kings Island a couple of weeks ago. Um, have I written why the ego at Dollywood? Yes. Several, several, several times. Yeah. That's a fun ride at night.
00:52:11
Speaker
is a, I've only ridden it in the winter time. And I remember it felt kind of slow. And I was wondering if that one actually runs faster at all. The beginning wing coasters usually just have that kind of soaring
00:52:27
Speaker
thing that they don't ever get really fast, but, um, I wrote it also, I, I marathoned on that thing. Um, the year it opened at during the winter, like whatever their Christmas thing is. And I love that. I love that ride because it was all my rides were in the dark. And then I went back.
00:52:42
Speaker
And the summer and it was running just as fast, but I have heard that there's times where it's just like really lagging. Like, Oh man, are we going to make this version type of thing? You know? Yeah. And gatekeeper too. I don't know. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yohan Lennox asks, uh, if the eighties were a decade or if the eighties was the decade of the arrow looper and the nineties was a decade of the B and M inverts and standups. What was the two thousands? The floorless coaster or the Giga.
00:53:10
Speaker
Yeah, for sure. Yeah, I was thinking this was put in 99. Yes. That's probably the most consistent layout of that decade. It seems like, yeah.
00:53:20
Speaker
The thing immediately came to my mind was like Intamin hypers or like Gigazuki were saying, but then it was more generally like, I guess Intamin, but that doesn't really count. Well, I mean, they had a lot. I mean, that was just such a glorious time to be alive in the industry at the age I was at that time. Oh yeah. There just hasn't been a year, like between, I would say 99 and maybe like 2002, it was just insanity for people like us. I mean, there was so much to ride.
00:53:50
Speaker
I also think that it was fun back then when rides are super gimmicky and you didn't have fully leaked 3d animations of how the ride worked. And like, you know, I remember going on the six flags website and they would have those, uh, like thumbnail, quick time promos. Yeah. That was kind of it until the ride opened. Um, and that was like, like going to great America the year they had vertical velocity and deja vu. And there's all those like prototypes
Animator Keith and Coaster Animations
00:54:16
Speaker
and gimmick rides, those premier coasters.
00:54:18
Speaker
And I love gimmicky rides, man. I'll be the first to admit it. I really do. I love things that are different. And, uh, you, you know, you mentioned the animation stuff. My buddy Keith does all the animations for six flags and, uh, like Cedar fair and stuff like that. And, uh, I used to help him with sound effects. So he would be like, Hey man, I need, I need a sound effect of like power tower at Cedar point. And then I knew he was working on an animation for like an SNS tower.
00:54:44
Speaker
And then, um, in regards to King to car, he asked me to record that, that whining sound on dragster's lodge that sounded us. Um, and I sent him the audio file and that he was doing animation for King to car and he put that in the animation. And I believe, uh, the park was just like, what the hell is that sound? That's terrifying. And they asked him to remove it from the animation or something like that. Yeah.
00:55:10
Speaker
I remember Keith, bad nitrous. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Is he still doing that? Oh, yeah, yeah. Well, not only that, he's got the best two jobs in the world. He's one of the, I think top creative directors at Universal Studios down in Florida. So like the layout for Gringotts, he did the layout for that. He designed the layout for that.
00:55:28
Speaker
Oh, shit. He's also doing all the animations for all the parks. So I had dinner with him the last time I was at IOA. I think it was like November. It was a week of IAPA in 2016. That's the last time I hung out with him. But yeah, he told me all that stuff. And I haven't asked him if he did anything with
00:55:48
Speaker
The the new one what the whatever it's called the motorbike thing I'll have to ask him that but yeah, he did the the green gods layout Trying to think what else he did for them. I Can't remember. Yeah, he's a good dude. He's one of us any possible chance. He'd be willing to talk to us I'll ask him for sure be the light actually the last this is kind of funny when Orion was announced he did the animation for Orion and he
00:56:17
Speaker
Like if you look at the animation, like all these enthusiasts were making such a big deal because the racer, one racer train was backwards in the animation and they don't run it that way anymore. So everybody was like, Oh, they're bringing it back. They're bringing it back. So they had this huge banner, um, with like the graphic of what he created.
00:56:35
Speaker
And it had the racer trains backwards on it and they're like this proof it's coming back So I literally texted him right then and there and said and sent him a picture I said Did you do this by chance or did the park do it? And he's like, what are you talking about? And I said racer one trains backwards and he said you mean they don't run it that way anymore and I said
00:56:54
Speaker
I said, no, I said they haven't done that in quite a few years. And what happened is like he can render like, like he did the animation for like Banshee and he renders like the whole park. So you can see like rides moving in the background and he had racer just kind of banked from when it used to be running backwards. So he just threw it in there and he got, he got kind of paranoid. He's like, Oh my God, my career's over. I screwed up. And I'm like, dude, it's not a big deal. If Kings Island wanted you to change it, they would have said something, you know,
00:57:21
Speaker
That makes a lot of sense that like, why would he spend time recreating a whole environment? He already has. Yeah. I mean, he, every, every year he tries to incorporate some new detail. Like when he did steal vengeance, he put like track where on the track, you know, little things like that. So he, he, it's weird because, um, I've known him since he was in like high school. Like you remember when everybody had AOL instant message? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. He used to always just.
00:57:48
Speaker
It uh, send me an im saying hey man i'm working on animation in high school i'd like for you to check it out He did this one called the y2k coaster and it was like hulk and then it just crashed into the ground and it hit midnight That was like the first animation I ever saw of them But this is interesting too real real quick. I promise I won't extend the story too long, but
00:58:07
Speaker
I met him at a video shoot like met a person at a video shoot for son of beast we were like extras and then a bunch of us went to a fud ruckers to eat and then as we're done he hands me this envelope and he's like I want you to have this night open it up and it's this beautiful picture of accelerator that he took.
00:58:25
Speaker
And I'm like, well, thank you, man. You know, maybe I'll frame this up and put it on my wall. And he just kind of looked at me differently, like weird. He's like, I don't understand. I said, what do you mean? He goes, Sean, I didn't take that picture. I rendered it. And I was like, Oh my God. Like you can see bolts and stuff in the, in the supports. And, um, and so he was like, I would love for knots Berry Farm to see this. So I put him in touch with Brian Edwards at Cedar Point and Brian had the same reaction.
00:58:49
Speaker
And then I think Brian forwarded it to Knotts in the first park animation he actually got to do after it was open was for Accelerator. So when you're standing in line, I don't know if they still do it, they show the animation of Accelerator and that was his first one he did for any park.
00:59:03
Speaker
Oh, wow. Yeah, I mean, because he's I mean, he's hate for me to say this, you know, but he's he's he's pretty bashful. So, you know, shy and stuff, really kind of quiet guy. But he definitely he is so unbelievably talented. I mean, look what he's done for this industry.
00:59:19
Speaker
Seriously.
Evolution of Coaster Content Sharing
00:59:21
Speaker
I mean, we like kind of know him because he was involved a bit with Tommy's form, The Gap. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And Ben and I were both on there a lot. Yeah, him and Joe both. Yeah. Yeah. So but we, you know, it's the Internet and everything splinters and obviously he's got a real job. So I don't think he's quite as into posting on the fan stuff.
00:59:45
Speaker
No, I mean, I mean, given that I don't read any social media or anything, I don't I mean, the only time I talk to him is either just text or in person. You know, I mean, that's it for sure. Well, yeah, I mean, that's like you and him. This is exactly the type of people that we like talking to. It's like just interesting, cool folks that have been around and know their shit about the hobby and know not to take it too goddamn serious.
01:00:08
Speaker
Yeah, that's, that's the number one rule that that's what I'd say to a lot of the younger enthusiasts that, you know, want me on their podcast or want me to collab with them on videos. I'm like, just have fun doing it. Don't take it too seriously. And don't, don't, whatever you do, don't do it for fucking views.
01:00:25
Speaker
or to be noticed because you're not going to get anywhere with that. Okay. You don't do it for that. You do it because this is fun and don't put the FU in fun. You know what I mean? Yeah. No, I mean, here's the deal. You got to cultivate a personality before you can be a personality driven channel.
01:00:47
Speaker
Yeah, yeah, and you know, and that's the thing like I know I'm like, like, for instance, that Kentucky Kingdom YouTube panel thing that I was on, right? When they asked me to do that thing, I was like, I'm not like anybody else up there. I don't have merch. I don't have a brand. I don't have any of that. What? Why? And they're like, because you have a history.
01:01:10
Speaker
And I was like, okay, that I can be fine with. You know what I mean? So, Hey, your favorite coaster sucks listeners. We want to take a quick sec to talk to you about Patreon. Do you have a dollar sitting around your house right now? Well, if so, you should join our Patreon at patreon.com slash your favorite coaster sucks. What else are you going to do with that dollar?
01:01:29
Speaker
There's not a whole hell of a lot you can do with it. But I'll tell you, with that dollar, you can join our monthly Zoom calls. Those are so much fucking fun. Aren't they, Ben? Hell yeah. Pay for friendship. It's what we're all doing nowadays. Hey, man, it's community. We got a nice little community here built up. And yeah, it's behind the paywall, but a buck a month. We think almost anyone can handle that, right, Ben? Hell yeah. You can't even get like a McChicken unless you like live in a state with no sales tax. So.
01:01:59
Speaker
So why not throw it our way? Throw us literally a bone. At patreon.com slash your favorite coaster sucks. And that's yeah, that's an interesting kind of generational divide that
01:02:11
Speaker
I kind of feel like I just never, I don't really get it. And then going back to having a personality and like, I feel like if you want to make good YouTube content, you literally just have to go to the park as if you weren't recording and just have a good time and then film it as you're having a good time, which is why I think like there's all these older channels that are successful because that's all they did. I mean, like when we were making videos 10 years ago, we didn't even think about views or money. It just wasn't that.
01:02:39
Speaker
Yeah and it was just fun and passion like it was like oh yeah like let's go to the park and just have fun and we'll just get this like funny content. Yeah we did it just because it was like I was just so proud to like look I went to this park and like share it with the two dozen people on a forum you know.
01:02:57
Speaker
Yeah, all the trip reports and stuff we used to always do and I mean back in the forms and stuff, but that's the thing. It just, I don't understand the need to be noticed, I guess, because I've certainly have never posted a video for any of that stuff, you know?
01:03:13
Speaker
It's just an extension of my life. That's what I tell everybody. My channel is an extension of my life. I get a lot of requests like do a top 10, um, favorite coasters do top, but that's, that's not me. That's, I don't want to do that. You know, that there's too much of that out there in this community, as far as like on videos and YouTube and stuff, you know, just be original, try to do something original and you'll, you'll get people to notice. Yeah, it's, it's weird. I mean, I think Rob Alvey kind of set up the model though.
01:03:43
Speaker
Well, I mean, Rob, so, I mean, you, you're, you're, you've been in this long enough to know that, I mean, Rob used to make videos, um, VHS tapes. I still have them all. I have all my VHS stuff digitized and then he went to DVDs and then, then I kind of faded out of that whole thing, um, with him. And, but the way that like, it just bothers my mind. Like we used to just trade tapes. That's how everybody found out about this stuff.
01:04:09
Speaker
And then as soon as the internet became more popular and stuff like that, and you could post videos online, then everything changed. Everything. Totally. And even in the early mid 2000s, there was still kind of a... This is actually probably right before YouTube.
01:04:25
Speaker
when even sharing pictures with a digital camera on a forum was still pretty fun. Because a lot of times there's parks that you just never got to see pictures of. And now I feel like every part of a park has been taken. There's a picture of every inch of a park now. And it's constant too. And those Disney videos where it's like, oh, this is a new bench. They painted this building.
01:04:51
Speaker
Yeah. There's no, there's no mystery in it anymore. No, there is not that there, there isn't anything. I mean, I read this article or saw the interview or something with this magician and he said, Google has, has completely taken the surprise out of magic tricks.
01:05:06
Speaker
because everybody now has instant, they can find out how a trick is done instantly. You know what I mean? So now it's all about presentation and things like that because it's so easy to figure that stuff out now. And same with the coasters. I mean, there's also this big push to get everybody, like everybody has to be the first to announce something or, you know, the first riders or any of that stuff. And I've just kind of, I'm just kind of like an observer watching all this happen saying, people are going to get burned out real fast.
01:05:36
Speaker
No. Yeah. And I mean, like we were talking about before, like parks announced, parks announced now in like August. I remember parks used to announce not until like after the park was closed for the season. Yeah, they started. And the reason they do it the way they do now is because they know they can sell more season passes before the parks closed for the next year. That's a huge, huge reason for that.
01:05:58
Speaker
Well, that actually makes a lot of sense from a business perspective. Yeah, from a business perspective. But you're right. Like the mystery. I mean, well, look at Top Thrill Dragster. That ride was almost completely built basically until before they announced it. And look at Velocicoaster. They built that whole thing without an announcement.
01:06:15
Speaker
So it's still every once in a while we'll see kind of a little bit of the mystery, but I miss the good old days. I'm not trying to sound like some old fart here, but it was just way different. It was like Christmas morning, a lot more of that kind of feel. Uh, you know, when you're getting your gifts and stuff and now it's just like, you know, everybody is just so instant.
01:06:34
Speaker
I feel like there was more fun in it because it was more rewarding because you actually had to seek this particular thing out. Yep, exactly. It wasn't just like, oh, on Instagram, I can follow a hashtag and then I get everything about it. Like I'm suddenly an enthusiast because I follow hashtag roller coasters of Instagram or whatever.
01:06:58
Speaker
You had
Nostalgic Coaster Announcements
01:06:59
Speaker
to find this website. I had this big folder of downloaded videos from pre-YouTube, from 2000 to 2006 or so. Even 2007, people would just host them on their websites or post them on forms and you could download them. I remember getting so excited because it'd be like parks you rarely saw footage of, and it would just be so exciting. Oh man, I've never seen Adventureland in Iowa before. This is so cool.
01:07:26
Speaker
It was, it was amazing. I mean, you know, quite honestly, I, I, I had an experience like that with son of beast because Kings Island didn't have like a website that could like host pictures or something. And they didn't have, um, a webcam or any of that stuff. So they would invite me down every two weeks to take pictures with a film camera. Um, and then I go to get them developed, upload them on my real shitties geo city page.
01:07:49
Speaker
And that's how people got to see that stuff. So what blew my mind very, very recently, just a couple of months ago, I was going through all my archives with another enthusiast and he found a centerpiece press kit in it.
01:08:01
Speaker
It says for construction photos and it had my geocities page in the press kit because they didn't have one. And I'm like, I had no idea until I read that press kit that they had even done that. Yeah. I was going to say, cause, uh, I mean, what was millennium, like being in Ohio, like what was millennium force and son of beast? Did they announce anything the year before or was that all year of?
01:08:22
Speaker
No, it was the year before they announced Millennium Force, I think in like August or September of 99. And then they announced Son of Beast on May 11th, 99. Oh, okay. Yeah. And then, you know, because, and then Six Flags Ohio announced their stuff, I think prior to that. So we had six new coasters opening in Ohio in just the 2000.
01:08:46
Speaker
Holy shit. Yeah, I wish I could have gone to like Six Flags, Ohio when it was the whole giant park I'm actually getting ready to Edit a video from the media day from that and it was probably the best one of the best media days I've ever been to the only three of the four were running the the mine thing the the Zera coaster wasn't ready yet, but I
01:09:10
Speaker
It was it was absolutely insane. It was it wasn't crazy But then that then that park went down the crapper like super quick like really quick and I stopped going to it Every time I got to go there was an oh six
01:09:23
Speaker
Oh, okay. See, I was, I was lucky to be able to ride villain within the first year or two. Um, and that was, and I never wrote it after that, but like that was horrible after that. Uh, yeah, but I, but I think I was too young to like, and you know, really remember it, but yeah, like I miss also just like all the CCIs that were built around that time.
01:09:43
Speaker
Oh God, there were so many of them. And then writing them the first year and they were absolutely insane. And then even like, uh, what was the last? I wrote like silver comet in 2010 and it was still good, but it was like, wow, this thing is going down.
01:10:00
Speaker
A lot of the, a lot of the older CCIs, I mean, they either been, you know, like RMC or whatever, you know? Um, I mean, back when CCI was at their heyday, they had some financial stuff happening, um, in regards to like paying for coaster trains and stuff. That's why I like all of a sudden there was all these Gerslauer coasters on them. And they, there was just, it was just like red flags going up. Like, uh-oh, uh-oh, like what's going on with CCI? And then it just closed, you know? Oh.
01:10:30
Speaker
Okay. Oh, yeah, they were building a coaster and have in that park had to hire another company to build it cliffs. Oh, really? Okay. Yeah. Wow. Yeah. They had to hire somebody else because CCI went under when they were building that ride. Have you have you written that ride? Oh, yeah. Yeah. That was another one. I think I would feel it's pretty decent. I mean, yeah, I remember. Yeah, I wrote it in twenty twenty twelve and then I wrote it again like
01:10:57
Speaker
was that two years ago? And it was still, I was surprised by how good it was still running. It didn't, uh, especially with like all those, like all those like really awkward laterals on the bunny hills that seem like up the track. It still seemed like it was okay. And it had a weird, weird ending. Like you hit the brakes so hard, but like they didn't really fully hit until you were like on the curve into the station. So if you're in the front, you got crazy laterals. Yeah.
01:11:22
Speaker
Yeah, it's a weird ride. I'd like to ride that one. I mean, I think most of the CCIs I've ridden were pretty damn good. Oh, they were amazing.
01:11:31
Speaker
And they were like, I don't know, the boss fucking blows. Well, that's the thing. The boss was kind of like the bastard child because like they announced it, but there were so many other rides opening. The boss kind of went under the radar. Like nobody gave like the boss the appreciation it deserved that open. Like when it was announced, like nobody cared about it. It was really strange. See, I've had I've had some really great rides on it. 2009, 2010 to where I mean, it was probably like my number five wooden coaster for a while.
01:12:01
Speaker
Um, but I, I, everyone I talked to has had that experiences on it. I had, we had an ERT and an ACE event. I did this crazy stupid. This just just shows you how it was back in the day. Um, we had an, it was like an ACE event at, um, the silver dollar city. And then it went to St. Louis for like a day. And we rode the ERT in the morning at silver dollar city, copped in two cars and drove the fucking worlds of fun, rode all the coasters there and then made it back to St. Louis.
01:12:32
Speaker
before ERT started that night. So we did all three of those parks and all the coasters in one day. And there's four hours in between both. And for anyone who hasn't been to Missouri, that is how to do everything in Missouri in one day. Yeah, exactly. I mean, I doubt I'd do that anymore, you know, but it was, it was a lot of fun back in those days, you know, trying to beat the clock and all that. And we have to get this credit. We have to get this credit. We have to get this credit. You know, I mean, I don't know if I'd go to worlds of fun anymore. I have been there something.
01:12:59
Speaker
The last time I was there, Prowler was new, and the marketing guy took my friend Justin and I back in the woods to get these off-right shots of it, and we had a lot of fun that day. Nice. It's a cool park, though. It's nice. Ride-wise, it's not very... No, they need a stand-out ride, I think. Yeah.
01:13:27
Speaker
Yeah, it's too bad. Mamba, I always liked. I think that might be one of my favorite. Well, besides like fans or OK, out of the classic Morgans, I might be one of my favorite. I think it is, too. And the best part of that ride for me is that the helix with the the the supports getting closer and closer and closer and closer. Yeah. It doesn't that one that in the helix section, there's like a random bunny hill to you at the bottom. Oh, that I don't remember.
01:13:52
Speaker
I want to say there's like a hop, it's like a random hop halfway through, unless it's Steel Force. I know one of them has got it. I think Steel Force, I forgot about Steel Force.
01:14:04
Speaker
Yeah. Uh, I remember all of those being kind of lackluster, but like worlds of funds, like whole like ride lineup. It's like everything is just a notch below how good it should be. Yeah. Yeah. Cause it's like timber wolf. Like it should be a fucking killer coaster, but it's like, it's, it's all right. You know? Yep. Yep.
01:14:28
Speaker
Prowler is probably the best one, but like a GCI can't really like carry a coaster lineup. Right. Unless it was like a smaller park or something. Yeah. Yeah. But when you've got like a hyper coaster and an invert. Yeah. Yeah. It's hard to be like, yeah, this GCI is our best one. Yeah. Yeah.
01:14:49
Speaker
But, um, holy moly, we have more of these mystery guest questions. All right. Bring them on. So from Instagram at Marcelli 6400 says ultimate or beast. And I guess he wants us to answer too. So.
01:15:05
Speaker
Okay. Um, for me, okay. And I, and I, I believe you guys aren't fans of the beast, but for me, I wouldn't be in this podcast if it wasn't
The Beast and Coaster Passion
01:15:13
Speaker
for that coaster. So I have to go beast. I've written both ultimate. Uh, I only got the ride one time and I loved it.
01:15:21
Speaker
But beast is what got me in the coasters. Um, that is the ride and yeah, the ride experience isn't the best, but it goes through what we were talking about earlier about being unique. Like I love unique rides and that's why I to this day will ride. I mean, the last ride I took a few weeks ago, I got my ass kicked on that ride, but I'm still glad I wrote it. It's fun. I, uh, I ride night rides are fun. Yeah. Yeah.
01:15:47
Speaker
Like I'll be honest, it's really not a bad ride. I don't hate that ride. I do think it's like
01:15:53
Speaker
Insanely overrated for what it is. Yeah, I mean back back when that thing opened up They're just there simply just wasn't any ride that would ever even compare to that I mean, it was just it got its legendary status before like the end of the first year, you know, I mean like kind of like Millennium Force did for Cedar Point and People it's really cool to see like
01:16:19
Speaker
like moms and dads taking their kids on it for the first time saying, this is why I like coasters and stuff like that. Uh, so it has, it's, it has its place in the industry or this hobby, but you're right. As far as like the, the right experience, isn't the best, but I just appreciate it for its history. So that's why I like it. That's why I'm choosing beast. Well, um, like when was the earliest you've written it? I mean, what's the right experience?
01:16:45
Speaker
Uh, 30 years ago, um, I wrote it with buzz bars. Um, I wrote it in June of 1990 and I was terrified, but as soon as I reached the second lift Hill, I knew, uh, that was my moment. Like I had asked you guys prior, I was like, I'm going to be doing this for the rest of my life. I mean, I literally said that to my buddy Tracy and he's like, Oh, everybody says that on their first ride. You know,
01:17:06
Speaker
Um, but I wrote it, it had the skid breaks and after it had a minor accident and that's why they went from skid breaks to magnetic breaking. But there was like, like a week when it didn't have any, like it didn't have like the first drop breaks or the second drop breaks or the breaks going into the first Valley. So that was the closest we got to ride.
01:17:26
Speaker
brakeless and it was insane. There was actually air time on that hill going like after the first tunnel. And I'm like, Oh my gosh, like please keep it this way. And then they went to magnetic brakes. So yeah. Cause I wonder if that has to do with a lot of the, a lot of the history of that ride is people, I'm sure it ran way different in the seventies and eighties and it does ever come close to now, but I feel like it's people who got the ride it the first few years. And then that kind of sticks in your mind. And
01:17:55
Speaker
Sure. Yeah. Oh yeah. I say that with other rides and stuff too, but yeah, you're right. Plus, especially Sean, you know, uh, the people who are, you know, controlling the golden tickets are the same small group of people that is slowly grown out.
01:18:13
Speaker
Well, I mean, to be honest, I used to be a voter for that. For many years, they would send me the ballot. But see, here's the thing. I don't rate coasters. I don't have a top 10. I don't have any of that stuff. I mean, I did back in the 90s, but I got rid of it. So filling out one of those ballots was pretty random for me. I would just say, yeah, this was a good ride this year. And I put it down in no particular order. And then for some reason, they took me off the ballot or the voting thing. So I don't know what I did, but oh well.
01:18:41
Speaker
You know, I also took 10 years off from writing too. So that probably had something to do with it. Oh, well, yeah. I mean, Ben and I both did that. I think, you know, if you, if you're like a hardcore fan of this hobby, it's good to take like a nice long break.
01:18:56
Speaker
Yeah. I mean, I always said that there had, there would have to be something major to take me off the like coaster soapbox, so to say. And there was, um, I, I mean, not to be too sad, but I lost a really, really good friend in Iraq. He was a Marine. Um, and that shook me up so much. I mean, that's why I do what I do for a living with the eyes of freedom. And, um, I was like, I, I, I'll write, like I used to average about a hundred, maybe 120 new coasters a year for many, many years.
01:19:22
Speaker
And then it went down to like three or two for 10 years every year. And that was mainly local parks. Like I didn't do a whole lot of traveling because I thought I was done. And I think it was what, 2017, I was out in California for a month and a half for work and rang up one of my buddies, Jeff Johnson said, Hey, I haven't been to SeaWorld ever. You want to go? And we hadn't done a trip in 10 years. And then that's what got me back into it.
01:19:51
Speaker
Nice. Yeah, I feel like, you know, if you go with this hobby with like a certain intensity, you need a good long break because otherwise you get mega burnt out and you turn into Rob Alvey now.
01:20:07
Speaker
Like just bitching about like Starbucks and you know what I mean? Well, I mean, I I'll be honest, I've never been to his forum ever and I've never watched the video on his YouTube channel. It's not that I don't hate the guy. I mean, we were really, really good friends. You know, we did trips together and stuff back in the day. And like you said, I was in his videos and stuff. But after the ACE ECO trip to Europe in 2002, we just kind of got distant and it got kind of weird there for a while. But I saw him and talked to him.
01:20:36
Speaker
at the Iron Rattler Media Day in Texas and we talked very briefly a couple sentences but
01:20:45
Speaker
Then I started hearing all, you know, everybody's like, Oh man, like, why would you want to talk to him and stuff like that?
Community Perspectives and Fame
01:20:51
Speaker
And they were, I only hear stuff about his site in him to other people. And I've, and people that make comments on my video, they're just like, Oh, we don't want to go there anymore. And I'm just like, man, it must be bad. Yeah. I mean, you know, he's like, he,
01:21:11
Speaker
I don't know if you knew certain things about like his personality. They've always been around, but now it's just like magnified because you know, when you're on Twitter all the time and you always have an audience, it's going to turn up certain things. Like Ben and I have both met him a couple of times. He's nice in person, but just something about him online.
01:21:39
Speaker
It's like a totally different person or something.
01:21:42
Speaker
Yeah. I mean, I never see, I never got to see that side of it. You know, um, I had checked out of the forums and stuff before probably, I don't even know when he started his form, but, um, every once in a while, I mean, back when, I don't know how bad it is now, but it was bad a few years ago. So bad that people were coming up to me saying, Oh, you wouldn't believe what he, he said here. And they would try to like show me like on their phones, like what he said. And I'd say, put it down, man. And the reason for that, it's, it's like I said, it's not that I hate him.
01:22:09
Speaker
but I'd like to remember Rob the way he was prior to any of this, you know? Um, and you know, I don't know if he's that same person or not because I, I'm not doing the online stuff really. So I think also part of it is like people that have like online brands like that, that are like based off of their personality,
01:22:36
Speaker
at a certain point, unless they are very careful, it's kind of like they slip into this weird reality. Yeah. Yeah. I understand. You're building your personal life up to like something eventually it's got a match or yeah. Like you haven't, yeah. Like you're trying to maintain an image.
01:23:00
Speaker
Yeah. And see, that's the thing. I don't really have, I don't have to deal with that. It's, it's me. You take it or leave it. You know, if you don't like what I do, screw it, go somewhere else. I don't care. I don't care. You know, that's, that's us too. That's like this podcast. We like to just have conversations. Obviously we put some structure to it, but sure. We're not out here like putting it on this. This is like,
01:23:23
Speaker
No, so far, quite honestly, this reminds me of old school conversations like it used to be like when you're taking a break from riding at a coaster event, you know what I mean? Like there was a lot of conversations like this. Yeah, I think we like to think of ourselves as like the post park Taco Bell trip or whatever, you know? Okay, yeah, that makes a lot of sense. I totally know what you mean.
01:23:45
Speaker
So, um, at SoCal Coaster 521 says, if Lightning Rod gets RMC'd with iBox, does it become a new credit? Oh, shit. Um.
01:24:01
Speaker
I'm going to say no. And the reason for that, they would have, for me to count it another credit, they would have to probably like replace all the structure as well. Um, like when Hawk was rebuilt that I counted as a second time because a hundred percent of that thing was rebuilt. And if you, if you, if you say it's a new coaster with new RMC with I box, well, you know, like look at blue streak at Cedar Point. I don't know if there's any original wood on that ride at all from when it opened in 64.
01:24:29
Speaker
And if there isn't, is that a new coaster? See what I'm saying? There's a really kind of sticky area. Yeah, it's kind of like when they relocate like an old decommissioned wooden coaster and you know that like 90 percent or more of the structure is new. Right. Yeah. It's like, is it really another credit? It's. Well, it's like a little dipper at Great America when they.
01:24:52
Speaker
when like, yeah, probably 90% of it was new, and they had like random railings that were the original coaster would, and yeah. Wow, okay. I mean, there's so many different, I'm very conservative in how I count rides. Let's real quick, just for all the people listening that are maybe a touch younger than us, clarify here. Relocations, that's one credit.
01:25:23
Speaker
Yes. I, that's how I count them as well. What about Florence? What about trains? Yeah. I don't count them as a new coaster.
01:25:31
Speaker
That is the correct stance, according to us. OK. It is all just one credit. Well, I guess it's interesting because like a lot I watched some of the new younger like YouTubers like the commentary videos. And it seems like that the trend for the younger generation of kosher peoples that they'll count conversions because it's a new experience. Right. Right. No, I understand that. I mean, I get their point of view, but I don't do it. Yeah.
01:26:01
Speaker
You know, I mean I don't count racing coasters as two but I count dueling coasters as two see i'm all jacked up So, um, I don't I don't uh count powered coasters and uh, like on the on the japan trip last year The majority of the guys counted the powered coasters as coasters and I wouldn't even ride them And they were like, why aren't you riding them? And they're like, aren't you going to get this as a credit and I said no I that's just not how I count. I mean I count for me. I don't count to like publish it
01:26:26
Speaker
on a gazillion social media sites. Look what I have for a track record. I don't do that. Okay. So when a lot of the younger folks come up and ask me like, Hey, what's your track record or something like that? And I tell them, and they're just like, Oh man, you probably count like Kings Island's racer eight times because it has different trainings. And I was like, Nope, it's one.
01:26:44
Speaker
So, um, that's stricter than me. Cause I'll take something like American Eula racer and to me, I'll count it as two. Cause either one could stand alone, but I also respect your opinion about like it's one because it's pretty much the same damn thing.
01:27:00
Speaker
It's it's it shares the same structure and that's that's it for me if a ride Like lightning racer it spins over half of its ride away from each other, you know It's its own independent things to me That's like a two but like racer Kings Island. The only time you're you're away from the other side is when you do the turnaround and come back and I shouldn't like I don't stress out over anything, but I'm just like it's just the way I count, you know, I mean like
01:27:27
Speaker
I don't lose sleep over it, I really don't care. So I'm curious though, what about Alpine coasters? Alpine coasters I do count but Alpine slides I don't. Yeah, that makes a lot of sense and I agree with that. Yeah, because to me an Alpine coaster is the same type of vibe as a coaster with a brakeman.
01:27:53
Speaker
like a scenic railway. And I count scenic railways. Totally. Totally. And like mechanically, it's pretty indistinguishable from a coast, from any other roller coaster. Yeah. Yeah. You know, yeah, I, it's just like when, yeah, these kids are like, Oh no, Ruger is a new credit from Mantis. It's like, no, you're just trying to
01:28:15
Speaker
inflate your count. It's it's it goes back to that whole thing. A lot of it, not all of them, but a lot of it comes back to trying to get noticed again. You know,
01:28:25
Speaker
I, I, again, I don't understand like this need. And I know people say like, Oh, it's easy for you to say, cause you get recognized or, you know, but I, I've been doing this for a long time and I'm telling you right now, the YouTube stuff. Yeah. And maybe somebody will come up to me a park and say, Hey, watch your videos and stuff like that. But I used to get like recognized and stuff like from the discovery channel stuff. You know what I mean? Like it wasn't, even back then it wasn't even a, like I didn't care. Like I was like, Oh, thank you. Thanks for watching. I mean,
01:28:52
Speaker
But also, none of that is based on the actual number of coasters you've been on. It's about, you know, like you're involved with the community. Right. And made yourself known that way. It wasn't like, oh, shit, that guy's been on 600 coasters. We better get him talking like. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
01:29:10
Speaker
You know, that's the thing is I don't think I always say especially to people we talk to that younger It's not a who's dick is bigger contest a hundred percent. Thank you for saying that. Thank you a hundred percent, you know People get really really been out of shape If you don't Adhere to their way of thinking and then they'll just bitch up a storm and that is their that's their right to do it They can do that at all, but it doesn't mean everybody has to agree with it
01:29:38
Speaker
And, you know, I just let, let it go. I mean, it's silly to get angry over a ride. That's supposed to be about fun. Yeah. If you get triggered by us saying that relocations or new trains, aren't new credits, then you really need to take the ship less seriously. Yeah. A lengthy, uh, like topic in theme park review.
01:30:05
Speaker
Like what is like a 10 parent post about it? Oh, yeah, I'm sure we'll get some feedback. It's credit. You guys just don't understand. It's easy for all of you guys. Yeah, I mean, whatever, you know, you guys host a podcast. Yeah. Oh, shit. Yeah. Well, you know, with with fame comes responsibility.
01:30:31
Speaker
That's a good way to put that. Well, that's the other thing that drives me crazy is people who think that there's actual celebrity to the roller coaster world. You know what I mean? No joke. When I got asked to do the Kentucky Kingdom, Key to the Kingdom thing, they asked us all to make our own videos.
01:30:53
Speaker
advertising, you know, basically promoting the event. So, um, I did my video and stuff and then they sent me like the flyer and then it kept on saying like your favorite YouTube stars all on one stage. And I'm like, no, no, no. So I talked to the rest of the folks. I mean, like Taylor and all them. And I was like, Hey, I was like, I'm not comfortable with that. Okay. Cause I'm telling you right now, I don't know how everybody else feels about that up there, but none of us were stars. Okay. I look at people like,
01:31:19
Speaker
Mark Wahlberger, you know, these movie stars as stars where we might be well known in a community. But that, again, does not equate to me as being a quote unquote star. So I think they changed the wording after that. But yeah, I get you.
01:31:42
Speaker
Yeah, I watched that video and you looked like kind of uncomfortable the whole time and I was like, I understand that. You know what? It was actually pretty fun. I wasn't very uncomfortable. Here's the thing. A lot of people don't understand is like they had never really been done before. So they were kind of doing it on the fly.
01:31:57
Speaker
So there was a lot of stuff that I mean they I think they could not necessarily could have done better but added to it to make it a little bit more fun. But the big thing for me was it was so hot and there was no shade and I didn't have my sunglasses on. I always wear my sunglasses when it's out because I I'm like the vampire. I just hate the sun a lot of time and I was squinting the whole time because it was you know
01:32:20
Speaker
It honestly wasn't that bad. And I had a huge coaster hangover from somebody rides a holiday world the night before. So I wasn't feeling the best. I was sore. I was bruised. But I was honored to be asked to be part of it. But all of us were just like,
01:32:39
Speaker
We were backstage before they called us all out to run down the steps and all that. And we were like, wow, how is this going to be? What do we do? There was definitely some nerves. I mean, people were excited.
01:32:54
Speaker
I don't know. It was definitely different. It was interesting to watch those videos. Yeah, I bet. I bet. That was my first time meeting Marcus from the Drunk Writers podcast and I'd never met Chris from Airtime Thrills until Holiday World. I've known Logan and Taylor and John Mike and Jerry for years.
01:33:17
Speaker
It was different and they were happy with how it happened, you know, the event. But at the same time, I'm like, I don't know. And that was the other thing. This goes exactly what we were talking about earlier. The amount of younger enthusiasts I had that emailed me and like just sent messages and stuff that said,
01:33:38
Speaker
We want to be on that panel. How do we get on that panel? I'm like, you don't, you know, there was somebody that was supposed to be in a panel that didn't even come. And that was, uh, Peter from theme park crazy. He couldn't because of the COVID he couldn't get out because where he lives. So, um, a lot of people are like, well, how come we can't get on the, on the panel? You know, it should be about the younger enthusiasts and the channels that have 10 subscribers so we can get noticed.
01:34:00
Speaker
Okay. But that's the thing that a lot of people need to realize the park made that this was the parks decision. Okay. They're the ones that asked us to do this because they watch our stuff. I'm surprised these kids have that big of a fucking head. Oh, let's be. Yeah. There's, there's, there's quite a few people that genuinely made me question their sanity because of, um,
01:34:27
Speaker
stuff like that. And I understand it, but I don't understand how getting up there will make you famous. Yeah. No, I mean, that's the thing is like,
01:34:39
Speaker
Nobody gives a shit about like us. They like the shit that we do, you know? So it's like, oh, you should should support our channel. Nobody gives a damn. Make some shit that people like want to see. Yeah. And I'm sure they'll show up for you. Yeah. Yeah, exactly. Exactly. I can't I could say better myself. Because like it goes back to like, this is a small community and there's no celebrities here.
01:35:09
Speaker
Yeah. A hundred percent. Yep. That's why it always, it, uh, I was listening to, um, do you know, coaster bot? Yeah.
01:35:19
Speaker
So Harry, I've never met him in person, but he's, we've collaborated. Like I've let him use a lot of my footage and stuff like that for some of his videos and his videos are done really well. And I listened to his podcast and he was mentioning in one of his last podcasts that he was watching my footage of a hypersonic, um, from opening day. And he was telling his girlfriend, well, it's hypersonic as it's from Sean, you know, he's famous. And I just, I just went, Oh shit. I was working out. I was on my lip when I heard that and I stopped my lip before when I had to put it back.
01:35:46
Speaker
And I'm like, Oh, come on guys. Like, but you didn't know you were famous. Yeah. I mean, I, I, I don't look at myself like cat hat anyway. I'm a human, flawed person, you know, a human being that's flawed just like everybody else. Okay.
01:36:04
Speaker
And why people kind of put people like that up on pencil. I'm I'm appreciative. I really, really appreciate when people come up to me and say, hey, watch your videos, because I don't know who's watching my videos unless they make a comment or they come up to me. I mean, that's it. And so it's interesting to meet people in person. But sometimes I'm just like, you know, how did I get here? Like, oh, maybe I should just bow out for a while. So you have people like come up to you randomly at parks and say stuff.
01:36:33
Speaker
Yeah. I mean, it doesn't happen like outside the parks, but like if I go to Kings Island, um, usually a couple of times per visit, somebody will come up or, you know, a ride up will say, Hey, I really enjoyed this video or Hey man, I really like, you know, your history with the industry and stuff like that. And that's all well, but every once in a while I'll get somebody that comes up and says like,
01:36:53
Speaker
You need to create another channel that's all POVs that you have. But I like everything in one place. And then people get angry when you don't do what they want sometimes. But like I said, my channel, it's me. That's it.
01:37:14
Speaker
I did. I did think about this and this kind of, yeah, I'm sure you guys would appreciate the shit out of this. Uh, literally, um, somebody was like, you gotta make shirts. You know, if you want to survive in, in YouTube and you gotta have merch, I'm like, no, I don't, you know, I don't do it for money. I don't do it for any of that stuff. And I thought about making a, my, my merch shirt would just be a QR code and then people can scan it like in the front and it would take, take them to my YouTube channel. Then I thought,
01:37:40
Speaker
man, I could be a real prick here and really screw some people up. So I thought about putting a QR code on the back and then being in like lines for rides and just listening for a reaction like they would scan the QR code and it would take them to like two girls and one cup or something like that. Nice. You know what I mean? And it just like being sitting alive for dragster and hearing like behind you. Oh my God. You know, stuff like that. I thought about things like that. So. And you could put like, you know, theme park review logo up on top.
01:38:10
Speaker
Oh, geez. No, yeah, I mean, you're just in line. Oh, man, I was. Oh, fuck. I was going to keep this up really quick. I was just going to. God, are you bringing it up? I was going to play the music. Yeah. No, no joke. That music is so iconic that if I had another band again, I would want that music to be my intro music before we've been on stage. No joke. Totally, because I know there's a bunch of people in the audience that know what that is.
01:38:41
Speaker
There it is. For the younger enthusiasts, do not watch that video. You know what may be also a funny prank with that music. You should just like in public places play the music or have it as a ringtone and just anybody in the room like you and starts laughing.
01:39:08
Speaker
Dude, I got a new phone today and after our podcast, that's exactly what I'm going to do. I'm not even bullshitting you. That's exactly what I'm going to do. Nice. It's a good idea. Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. Go like stand in line to vote and then like your AirPods disconnect and it's the music playing.
01:39:28
Speaker
Or like go to Walmart and pick up the intercom and play it over the PA. Yeah. And the funny thing too is like, you know, if someone's like, that sounds familiar. Like if they don't remember the video, but they're like, that sounds familiar, you know, they watched the video.
01:39:44
Speaker
Like I play guitar and I've been creating music recently. I just found out how to like program drums and some software and stuff. And maybe I should do a super heavy like cover of that song with the piano, but just add like chunky guitars and just have me just screaming over all of it. That would be fun too, so. Oh, hey, I do music. You ever want to collab on something? Let me know. What type of music you play? I've done a lot of hip hop and like EDM.
01:40:10
Speaker
Oh really? I like EDM. I'm not so big of a hip hop fan. I used to be when I was younger, but I'm definitely more of a rock and metal guy. But at the same time, I'm really big into ambient stuff as well.
01:40:20
Speaker
I love metal. I just suck at guitars, so I don't even bother trying to make it. I'm not the best. I mean, I play upside down. I'm a lefty. So I have to just take the right hand guitar and flip it over and play. So a lot of stuff that, you know, like leads and stuff are difficult for me. But the next vlog I'm uploading probably next week, I made two pieces for this.
01:40:40
Speaker
This is a preview. I was staying with a friend in Denver, and her mom used to live there, but her mom passed away a couple years ago, but she had one of those, like, single rail things that you take down steps, like with a chair. Oh, yeah, yeah. So I shot a POV of it with a GoPro, and then put, like, death metal over it, and I screamed the words single rail POV.
01:41:06
Speaker
Excuse me, uh, over it. And then I did it again for a ride. And, uh, I had such a brass recording that stuff and I'm like, man, I gotta get back to doing that. Cause I had a band back in the nineties and we went in the studio a couple of times and recorded and it was a lot of fun. So. Yeah. Well, I'm, I'm like a very,
01:41:27
Speaker
not solid, but decent power chord kind of rhythm. Got it. Same kind of here. I love speed picking and doing tricky. Like there's this band from Sweden that I'm just obsessed with. They use eight string guitars are called Meshuga. And you have to be a musician to understand them because all their all their riffs and their complicated rhythm
01:41:49
Speaker
Everything about it is kind of like it's like a math problem almost. You have to understand music theory to understand their music, or it just sounds like complete nonsense. And I love music that does that. You have to think to understand it. Yeah, Meshuga's like non-dushi tool.
01:42:08
Speaker
Yeah, that's perfect. And they're one of the few bands I've seen live that sound better live than they do on the record. And like non-condescending Dream Theater.
01:42:19
Speaker
Yeah, oh yeah, absolutely. I'm actually a big Dream Theater fan too, so. But yeah, that type of stuff. That shit's just basically jazz with distortion. 100%. You're like, okay, I don't, I'm not entirely sure what's going on, but this is definitely something. There's bands that have incorporated a new genre title. I don't know how long it's been, but it's called Black Jazz, and it's very Prague type of stuff. Interesting. Yeah, yeah, so. You like Dillinger?
01:42:46
Speaker
Yeah, I mean I don't have any other stuff I the last couple years I've been strictly a vinyl guy So I've been going in order stuff online and going to record stores and buying stuff like today I've listened I got in a mail today and I listened to this the new album from this band called doves which is one of my favorite bands and it's just so perfectly chill great music just to vibe out to and Then after that I put on the new napalm death record my basement was shaking so
01:43:13
Speaker
When did they put out a new record? Just this week. Oh, shit. I'll have to check that show. I'll be honest, it's not their best work, but I need to give it another listen. But it's the Snape on death. In the car, if I'm rocking out to the ghost inside, I'm screaming right along with them, full volume, just to keep my chords up to. Because I can't blow up my voice doing it anymore, because I found a technique that works for me. Now, back in the day, when my band played a show, I'd have no voice after it, because I was screaming the whole time.
01:43:42
Speaker
But you just got to just be careful with that. Well, don't don't go and Skrillex yourself. Oh, geez, no, because that's why he talks all funky now. Well, you know, because he was in a metal band before that.
01:43:54
Speaker
Yeah, he blew out his vocal cords doing screaming. If you ever take interviews for bands that scream a lot, they have like sometimes a real raspy, almost like a drill instructor or something, or they sound perfectly fine. And that's because they have a technique that works for them. So, and quite honestly, and this is a coaster tie, I learned how to scream while on coasters because think about it, coasters are the one place and parks are the one place where you can scream as loud as you want and nobody cares. So, you know, that works.
01:44:22
Speaker
And to bring it full circle, I lost my voice at Hollywood Nights 2006. I did last year. This year. That was the year Voyage opened and. Voyage was running so badass this year that the next morning, like if you listen to that that Kentucky can continue the Kentucky Kingdom panel thing, my voice is raspy because I was screaming the night before in a wrong way. But Voyage was just so over the top that I had no. I just took it out of me, so.
01:44:53
Speaker
Well, yeah, I mean, Voyage is just one of those, like, it'll, just knocks you, knocks you away. It was better this year than it was opening year. Oh, by far. I don't know how they did it, but I mean, we were just floored. I mean, because of the social distancing and the way that they were, there were so many people at that event this year that I only got two rides on it, but they were both at night and it was just insanity. It was insane.
01:45:22
Speaker
Wanted to mention real quick since you brought up rock and metal and this may interest you after shock dropped their lineup for next year after it got postponed from this, okay and You know, I am gonna be there. Hopefully Ben will be there, but we're gonna do some meetups Northern California parks and nice festival Yeah, it's two nights of Metallica and My chemical romance in between Metallica is kind of like one of my gateway drugs into metal so
01:45:51
Speaker
They're like one of my favorites. I mean, I hung out with them in 88 on their Injustice for All tour. I just, I swear to God, this is a sign of time. I just found my jean jacket that's autographed by them. It was in a bag in one of my closet. Damn. Well, if you're interested in hanging out in NorCal next October. Yeah, maybe I'll take you up on that. That'd be great, man.
01:46:16
Speaker
And actually I'll be at Cedar Point next weekend. It'll be after this is released on the, on the closing day. Yeah, I'll be at Kings Island. Unfortunately, or I'd be, I'd totally be up there to do that. I got some video stuff to shoot on closing day and this will be the last time I get to do it for months. So I got a, the phone I got, um, has crazy slow mo. So I want to try that out at a park. I'll be there Saturday too, in case you're, you're around. So just be careful, man. Cause Ohio is sucking right now with the coat with the virus.
01:46:47
Speaker
Well, basically, we got a good deal on breakers. Oh, OK. So we're like, we just wanted to get the fuck out of Chicago for sure. I don't. Yeah, I don't. So it's like we'll go stay at breakers and then basically treat the park like a like a bonus. Yeah. You know, like if it gets crazy and it's too busy or whatever, we'll just go chill at the hotel. Did you get a reservation?
01:47:11
Speaker
Yeah, because I know they were implemented that Kings Island doesn't though. Thankfully also our friend friend of the show and one of our buddies Brandon works at breakers. So he helped. That's all take care of everything. Yeah. So that'll be fun. But yeah, if you're if you're up around Cedar Point this weekend, I'll be there. Oh, you know what? I actually can't that's that's October 31st, correct?
01:47:38
Speaker
Yeah. Oh, damn it. I already pre-purchased another rock and metal tie. I'm watching Devin Townsend live on stage it. I already bought the ticket. Oh, yeah. He's one of my faves. So for sure. Well, that'll be good. Damn it.
01:47:54
Speaker
Oh, sorry. It's kind of last minute. We just kind of planned it because the rates were good. And so it's like, you know, it's our last chance to kind of do something if we want to. I'm sure I'll hang out with you guys sometime next year for sure. Oh, yeah. Yeah, I have to have that happen, man, because this is this is a lot of fun. We haven't even got to look after this stuff. I don't think I know. Although if you know, we tend to, like I said, make it very conversational. So we'll just go for as long as anyone's. I have nothing to do. So keep it going. Yeah, I'm up for that for sure.
01:48:25
Speaker
Sure, sure. All right. Um, so I was just saying, like, what was that? It was one thing that, uh, I mean, man, walnuts stuck on my throat. Sorry. One second. Well, I'll say real quick, but Ben's like giving himself the high. I want to point out we've never talked to Sean.
01:48:45
Speaker
But this is definitely like talking to an old friend from like. Oh, I'm feeling that vibe as well with you guys for sure, man. There's something that we all experienced back in the day that you can't get now. And I think that's what we're playing on right now. Totally, totally. And yeah, I mean, kind of like I was alluding to before we started recording that, like, I've met, you know, my best friends through this hobby and also like the worst people I've ever met through this hobby. So like.
01:49:14
Speaker
Yeah, it's not one, it's one or the other and they're both extreme on both sides. It's really strange and it's always been that way, man. It's always been that way. Oh, well actually on that same topic kind of,
01:49:30
Speaker
briefly mentioned that actually we met 10 years ago on skyscraper when I was working that. So it is funny because like there are a few people that actually have like remembered me or you know, I've remembered them giving them rides because I mean any enthusiast that goes to the park then when skyscrapers open probably read it a few times.
01:49:51
Speaker
I'm going to have to look at my old footage because I know I have, I had friends like record the ride that I was on when I was on skyscraper and I'll have to see, I mean, I don't know what you look like right now. I have this weird memory where I don't forget a lot of stuff visually, but like if you told me your name two minutes later, I'll forget it. But visually, I could probably tell you what you were wearing that day while you were wearing to see your point uniform. But, um, I mean, I'm, I'm, I was probably the tallest guy in the crew. Okay.
01:50:16
Speaker
I'll look at my footage and see if I have any. If so, that'll be a trip, you know? Yeah.
01:50:23
Speaker
And that certainly just goes to show how small this damn committee is. It really is, man. I mean, it really is. Here's this is the I remember doing this interview for some news channel at one of the media days. And I said the nature of the hobby is strange because like I could see you guys like Cedar Point on Saturday, right? And then I could go to like Islands of Adventure the very like the two days later and see you guys there and not know that you guys were going to be there.
01:50:50
Speaker
And then, like, we wouldn't freak out. It's just the nature of the hobby. You run into people, you know, all over the world, you know. Yeah. And you just hope they're the cool ones when you run into them. No joke, man. My buddy Justin lives in the UK. He runs a European coaster club and he does like he works for Guinness World's Record, like all the coaster records. He does those. OK, I ran physically bumped into him at SeaWorld Orlando, physically bumped into him
01:51:17
Speaker
in Tokyo, and he was on the same train I was in London. Oh, wow. And like, what are the chances of that actually happening? You know, but it's just, again, the nature of the hobby.
01:51:31
Speaker
Well, that's one thing that's like super cool about this hobby is that like on a microcosm level, like Ben and I have never physically lived very close to each other. So we've always definitely had more like a talking or aim chatting type of friendship, which naturally progressed into a podcast, obviously. But it's that whole idea of like you have this one thing in common, but then thanks to like whatever the Internet, different ways to stay in touch, you know,
01:51:58
Speaker
Yeah, you're that's a great point because I mean, I I I feel bad for the coaster enthusiasts that doesn't like to travel because you have to travel. Is that a thing? Oh, yeah. There's there's a few people I know that have never left their home park. Oh, oh, yeah. There's there's actually a lot of Cedar Point diehard fans that just don't see there's a point in going anyplace else. Yeah, I've met a few of those. Yeah, I am as well. That like the importance of that goes well beyond roller coasters.
01:52:28
Speaker
Yeah. Like seeing other parts of the world or even just the country, it's a really great experience to have beyond just like, oh, I've got this new credit. Like you can like try to experience stuff that's a little bit more.
01:52:45
Speaker
Yeah. It's nice because like the hobby definitely, I would say it kind of changed my life in a positive way because I grew up in like a very small town that had no opportunity whatsoever. Like it was 800 people. Oh, wow.
01:53:01
Speaker
it's very easy to get sucked in and like, you know, have a kid drug use, that sort of thing. And like coasters was the one thing that actually got me, it was like a motivation. Like I was so obsessed with coasters that I knew I had to like, get out to go to parks. Yeah. So like, it's the motion of that kind of got me used to traveling. And then with that, I was like, you know, I'm gonna go to college somewhere else. And then I'm gonna take a job somewhere else. And then I got into consulting where you have to travel every week and
01:53:26
Speaker
It's like, I'm usually on the road 30 weeks of the year normally for work. And this year I've been at home most of those times, almost the whole time. So it's been scary as hell. But what you just described, I call the spiral, meaning you start like your home park and then you're like, Hey, I like this part. Maybe I can go to a park in another city and you do that. Then you're like, Oh, wait a minute. Let me get, let me, let me just go to a different state. And once you do a different state, you start doing the coasts, you know, both coasts.
Travel and Life Decisions Influenced by Coasters
01:53:52
Speaker
Then it takes you to Europe and then it takes you to Japan. You know, it just keeps going and going and going.
01:53:57
Speaker
Yeah, plus like I always enjoy it adds a lot of excitement to just traveling in general, because I mean, even like when I check into a hotel when it's work related, it still has a little bit of excitement because it reminds me of when I was younger and like going to parks and
01:54:14
Speaker
Wow. I feel that too. Yeah. Like hopping planes and like, Oh, it's 4 AM. All right, quick. Now I got to drive here. And you know, it's kind of fun. Yeah. I love travel, man. I think I was built for it. I mean, I just, I just love it. You know, that's one of the reasons I, uh, last month, um, I just been wanting to do it like a safe road trip, no parks, just go. And my mom lives out in Phoenix. She's been out there for like,
01:54:38
Speaker
almost three years now and um or maybe two years and i hadn't seen her since she left ohio and uh she had a bout with breast cancer this year and she beat it you know and i i wanted to be out there with her but with all the travel restrictions back um you know a few months ago i couldn't get out there so i literally had a friend that needed a car taking the car colorado
01:55:01
Speaker
So she gave me her car. I drove it to Colorado, then to Phoenix in the back. And it just helped me clear my mind so much, man. It was awesome. Yeah, definitely. Yeah, I'm glad to hear your mom's doing it. Yeah, it was scary, man. She's just a special, special person, so I got to spend some time out there with her.
01:55:22
Speaker
That's good to hear. Yeah. I think like traveling during all of this is important to do, but like you said, safely. Yeah. I mean, that's what scares me because, um, I remember getting gas and in Missouri on the way out West and they had a sign on door, like the, like the receipt for the, the, the pump wasn't, it didn't have paper in it. So I went in to get a receipt and he had a big sign on the door. It said masks are not required in here, but I wore my mask and I walked in.
01:55:52
Speaker
And I asked the guy, I was like, Hey, there's no paper in the thing. Um, can I get a receipt? And he was like, take that mask off. And I said, sir, I'm just doing, I said, sir, I'm just doing my part. You know, I'm not, this isn't a political statement. I just want my receipt and I'll get out of here. And he's like, well, it's out of paper. So I didn't get a receipt. I walked out and it was all because I was wearing a mask. Like I don't understand if that provides just
01:56:17
Speaker
a little bit of safety, even why you would not want to do that. Yeah. Yeah. There's actually, I would encounter people who actually get kind of get off on, uh, making people uncomfortable with the mask thing. So like last weekend I went up on the upper peninsula in Washington, which is super rural and kind of isolated and we're headed diner and every employee there like kept pulling the mask, like below their chin.
01:56:45
Speaker
You know, and like, and they knew that we were Seattle people and we were wearing our masks when we walked in and they were like, it was like, they were like intentionally like fucking with us. And like, yeah, of course. So there's probably some people out there that are like, I'm going to cough on every surface. Yeah. Since we're talking about masks, I just want to bring up real quick. Um, we had a guest on, I don't know, Dino Scott Shaffer. Oh yeah. I know very well. I've done it for, since he was 15 years old, probably.
01:57:15
Speaker
Yeah, good dude, right? Solid dude. We had him on the show a couple months ago, right at the beginning of the pandemic. And you know, Scott, he made a joke about not wearing a mask and coughing on people. Oh, boy. So we've been posting our episodes to YouTube. Well, Reddit, some fucking asshole on Reddit is like, stop media doesn't wear a mask and is trying to spread COVID. Oh, boy.
01:57:44
Speaker
So I just want to take this opportunity real quick to say fuck you guy on Reddit. And this is a comedy show.
01:57:54
Speaker
So if we, if we mean anything serious, we'll say it's serious. So real serious, like wear a fucking mask and wash your hands and stay six feet away from me and everybody else. That's why that's the serious bit. I mean, and that's why like, um, I only went to Kings or Cedar Point once this year and it was like right after they opened and it was just for a season pass holders.
01:58:16
Speaker
And it was quite honestly scary, because everybody's learning how to deal with this, right? So the difference between how King's Island was dealing with a mask and Cedar Point was staggering, OK? And like King's Island, I mean, they have people in line monitoring, put your mask up, and all that. And there wasn't any of that at Cedar Point because of the staffing issue. Because a huge part of their staff there is foreign exchange students. And they couldn't get them over here this year. So there was a lot of stuff closed when I went up there. But I don't understand, like,
01:58:47
Speaker
Like for instance, there was a lady, there was a lady in here in Ohio that went to like a high school football game and she didn't wear a mask and she was touting it. And then so they asked her to leave and she wouldn't, she got nasty and they, a cop tried to take her away and she, I don't know if she hit the copper or whatever, but he ended up tasing her. And now there's, Oh my God. Yeah. Let's see the video of it. It's crazy. Um, and I'm just like, none of this would have happened if you just put the cloth on your face.
01:59:13
Speaker
You know, it's a piece of cloth. Come on. Yeah. Again, this is the serious part of the show. Yeah. Wear your damn masks. And that's and that's what's kind of interesting to see, like, is I mean, back in the day, I was a big conspiracy guy, not like a flat earth, but you know what I mean? Like, yeah, I would get a little too high and fall into YouTube rabbit holes and like.
01:59:34
Speaker
It's let's let's also clarify conspiracy theories used to actually have some like evidence and fact to back them up and tie things together. Yeah, not just like somebody thought something. Right. And then was like, that seems true, doesn't it? Like you and so go ahead, Ben, I just wanted to clarify. Yeah, just how like masks are what it's a way of control or no, it's to see who complies.
02:00:01
Speaker
That's what the mask is for. That's the only reason. Yeah. I mean, I did the sky coaster at Kings Island the last visit I was there with ribs and bacon, actually. And I was like, I don't know. I mean, you're you're tied to somebody, you know, there's three of us together in this like human burrito configuration when you're going up on those things. And like all of a sudden I was like, man, should we be doing this? But they make you do your hand sanitize and all that stuff. You know, so it wasn't like and we had our masks on.
02:00:31
Speaker
But it wasn't like we were purposely doing that to piss people off. They had the ride open and we did it. So I don't know. People are just like looking, especially in today's world, just like that looked at the bitch about something. Well, yeah. I mean, people are bored behind their screen. Yep.
02:00:53
Speaker
So, um, Danny and Rafferty, he's a friend of the show. I shouldn't be mispronouncing his fucking name. He says, what's the one coaster you never got to get on that you wanted to before it closed? Oh, that's a good question. Oh, man. You know what?
02:01:13
Speaker
I'll tell you, I don't know why it was so bummed not get on this ride, but there was this park in Kansas, I think called joy land. And they had this, they had that wooden coaster there. And I was, I was literally on a trip where I could have. Sit that park in, but decided not, I went into another park instead. And then the park closed. And, um, I think actually Tommy Faircloth was looking to buy that or something at one point that park.
02:01:39
Speaker
Oh, that sounds kind of familiar. Or that ghost town in the sky. I know he was definitely involved with like one of the guys that bought that place. Yeah. Tommy, if you're hearing this chime in, hope you're feeling better, buddy.
02:01:56
Speaker
Yeah, we'll have to maybe have him on again if he's feeling up to it. Definitely sending good vibes to Tommy. Love you, pal. Absolutely. And I believe somebody has a GoFundMe for him and his medical costs. So if you look up Tommy Faircloth, GoFundMe, I'm sure it pops up.
02:02:14
Speaker
I'll make sure we include a link to that in the episode description. Yeah, I'm going to share it on my channel next week and then make a donation as well. He deserves any support he can get right now. Definitely. He's a great dude. He used to send out DVDs for free every year. I got every one of them.
02:02:39
Speaker
And those are fucking funny still. Oh, absolutely. You couldn't release those today. I mean, people would flip out. You know what I mean? Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. No, there'd be a he'd be canceled on his first update. Well, I met him at a coaster marathon at Six Flags Over Georgia. There was 30 of us, I think, that started the marathon. It was 30 hours on Great American Scream Machine. And he was him and I were one of the two of the eight that lasted the whole thing.
02:03:07
Speaker
that sounds pretty intense. Yeah. He made a really good video about it. I don't know if it's up online, but I know it's, it might even be on one of his DVDs off the look. He had some interesting shit like that whole thing about a heritage USA. Oh yeah. Yeah. Yep. Yeah. Tommy's a good dude. So we're sending love to Tommy and we'll definitely be sharing the go fund me.
02:03:29
Speaker
Awesome man. Thank you for that. Cause yeah, we love Tommy. Uh, the gap was a big part of like Ben and I, you know, as coaster kids, that was a, that was a big part of our experience. You know, uh, Josh Harrington was over there really well.
02:03:52
Speaker
I don't know if you were ever on that forum, but a lot of the people you probably know were on there. I didn't. I think I had checked out of forums by that time, but I know of it because he was always telling me about it as well. And then Ray Osborne was on there and Ray's a really good friend. Oh, yeah. Ray's great. Yeah. Trying to have him on.
02:04:09
Speaker
Yeah, I mean he lives in Florida now I can we text you know He has this thing where anytime I go to Kings on he tried and he's there. He sure he surprises me He doesn't tell me he's coming up. He just surprises me and he's Super super cool dude, man. Yeah, Ray's great You know, we we both known Ray I think since what like oh nine. Yeah, I mean I've known him since the year
02:04:34
Speaker
So, uh, gosh, I know the 25 years I've known him since 95 because he used to always hang out at Cedar Point. And, um, he, uh, you know, when he was, he lived here in Columbus, he lived like two minutes from me for awhile and he was at Southwest. He still works for Southwest airlines and, um, I had helped him with some pretty, pretty, pretty heavy.
02:04:57
Speaker
horrible, horrible shit. And he wanted to say thanks. So he said, uh, bring a bag, show up at the airport. We'll fly wherever we can tonight. I was like, really? And he's like, yeah. So I went to the airport and he's like, where do you want to go? And I'm like, well, I still haven't done cars land and Disney and just open. He's like, let's, let's, let's book a flight to LA right now. So he booked it and, um, we flew to Chicago midway and,
02:05:25
Speaker
we, they wouldn't let us board the plane from Chicago to LA. So we got stranded in the airport. So we, we booked a room and a rail car and went to ride Hades 360 the next morning instead. So nice. And then we went to like the home alone house and all that stuff. So, uh, yeah, he's, he's just, he's one of my best friends, man. I'd love Ray.
02:05:49
Speaker
Raise great. Yeah last time I saw him was shit. I met up with him at Cedar Point in 2012 You'll have to ask him like if you if you talk to him again, or maybe I can get him on here. You'll have to say Just say the words flight of fear and he'll just laugh because you know how like flight of fear you go into that saucer before the station Yeah, let the biggest fart in there and it cleared out the saucer. Nobody would go in there because it's not so bad. I
02:06:17
Speaker
And he's the only human being I know we were riding racer at Kings Island once and he was in the front row and I was in the back he again let one go and That fucking cloud was so potent that I smelled it in the back of the train as we were on the course
02:06:34
Speaker
Ask him about it. He'll tell you. We I remember. Oh, Ben's got it. Yeah. Were you like like jumped up and clicked his heels and farted like in a ride? That sounds like him, man. Yeah, he came up to like Great America opening day. I think that was oh, nine. Yeah. And he's like running in front of us on the exit ramp and
02:06:59
Speaker
Oh, man. Yeah, good memories, man. He actually sent me a picture the day before Hollywood Night started this year on the plane and he was with Scott Shafer and Sarah. He took a picture and sent it to me saying, look, I'm sending people your way right now. Is his number still the same? It's the same number I've had since I've known him.
02:07:22
Speaker
Okay, then I'm going to assume so. I'm just going to text him and say we're talking about him. Let's just say we're talking about you. Oh, by the way, what about flight of fear saucer and he'll laugh. You watch. It was bad, dude, like people. I mean, we were already on the ride and ridden it and people still wouldn't walk in that thing. It just kind of it hovered. I mean, nice.
02:07:50
Speaker
Alright guys, that's gonna do it for part one with Sean Felarity. Make sure to go check him out on his YouTube channel. It's under the name Sean Felarity. We're gonna be back next week with part two with Sean, and he has got some absolutely incredible stories in part two that you are not gonna wanna miss.
02:08:14
Speaker
so make sure you keep it tuned here on your favorite coaster sucks in fact why don't you go ahead and hit the subscribe button now so you won't miss part two when we drop it next week come on we're at it go ahead please leave us a five star review on whatever app you're using to listen to this show
02:08:32
Speaker
or perhaps you're listening on YouTube and in that case leave us a like and a comment and whatever the case please just five stars or interact with us however the content however you can on whatever app you're using to listen
02:08:48
Speaker
We really appreciate it. Now, if you are on Apple Podcasts, leave us a five-star review. Tell us what is your favorite Sean Flaherty video. We will read the best answer next week on the show. Maybe not next week, but we'll read them eventually. Give us a follow on the socials. We are on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook and Tumblr for whatever fucking reason. If anybody else is over at Tumblr.
02:09:15
Speaker
you can email us at your favorite coaster sucks at gmail dot com or leave us a voicemail at 312-572-9552 you can also send a text to that number but please do not send us dick pics please send those to you ride this one podcast at gmail dot com
02:09:37
Speaker
Speaking of ride this one go check out their newest episodes. They have been doing some fantastic sketches and I was in the last two episodes So, you know, that's that's pretty cool. But yeah, go check those guys out. They have some good shit going on
02:09:54
Speaker
Um, boom, but we have a discord server now. So you can look for the link to that in the episode description. You can join us there. We pop in, we chat a little bit. We got a great community there. So join us. Of course, the easiest way to get a hold of us or find any of our stuff is on our website. Your favorite coaster sucks.com or this one's pretty easy to remember. Rollercoasterpodcast.com.
02:10:21
Speaker
go check it out.
02:10:40
Speaker
We got the fantastic Zoom calls that we do every month, every month. And that's for everybody on our Patreon. We hang out. They go for hours. I think the last one went for maybe six or seven hours. They go forever. It's a party. It is a party. It's a party. So come join the next one.
02:11:01
Speaker
We, uh, post all the details over on the Patreon, and again, that starts at just a buck a month. And, um, like I said, we include the shoutouts on the show, and so here is a thanks to all of our fantastic patrons. Nathan Slater, Brian Lewis, Joshua Knight, Luan Lewis, Scott Levine, Mikey Mayo, Michael Muldoon, Tristan Cox, Dominic B., Steven... Steven... Stefan Feinberg?
02:11:29
Speaker
Daniel Puckett, Nathan Hart, Jonathan Hawkins, Jared Mullen, Brandon Carter, Ryan Shoemaker, and an extra special thanks to our executive producer, Logan Ann. Go check out his podcast, Prairie Coasting. Good shit, thanks a bunch.
02:11:47
Speaker
listening and I'm recording this outro without everybody else since this is a surprise two-parter so I'll just say it now for all of us this time and you'll get a real outro from all of us next time until next time your favorite coaster sucks