So am I supposed to believe that one day some absolutely wild man came up with the idea to put a bunch of people in a cart and send them zooming around loops and dips at dangerous speeds on a rickety track? And people line up for this?
Surely these things cost a ton of money to build and maintain. Who the hell thought this was a good idea???
Humans aren’t alone in enjoying shit like that either, we’re just the only ones capable of building roller coasters. Lots of other mammals (and maybe birds?) have been seen doing things like repeatedly sliding down slippery rocks or things built by humans.
The mammalian urge to go zoom zoom
mammalian
this is skiing corvid erasure
https://inv.nadeko.net/watch?v=1WupH8oyrAo
I did say and maybe birds! I wasn’t sure but it seemed like something corvids would do
I mostly just wanted to say “Mammalian urge to go zoom zoom”
real i just forgot the first part of the comment after reading the second part
I took my sister in law's little doggie for a bike ride. Put her in my backpack so only her head was sticking out. I hauled ass down around the block. Whenever they came over the first thing the dog did was hop in my backpack. Super cute
they are testament to the indomitable human urge to zoom
these are just even funner trains. imagine if they transported you to work
I line up for them.
I’m not naturally a thrill seeker. I have an honest to god fear of high places. I will not stand near the edge of something, even.
But if you strap me into the seat of a rolly coaster, and it starts to go up the hill, clattering and bucking. Loud. Shaking. And then everyone puts their arms up (I love that part) and holy fuck here we go over the first drop. I love that shit. I will holler and laugh and scream the entire ride.
I don't think(?) the modern ones, like the last 30 years or so, are very dangerous assuming people are taking normal precautions and the parks are maintaining them properly. Those old shitty wooden ones are fun as a kid but goddamn I do not recommend any of these rides as a 30-something+. As a kid/teen I could ride these things back to back all day long.
My dad insisted on some Clark Griswold style shit of arriving precisely when the park opened. Pre-bought tickets in hand (usually free or discounted from work...), packed lunch/snacks in a cooler he left in the burning hot vehicle, we would hit every single goddamn ride at the places. We'd only take a break for the cheapest possible slightly-warm bologna and kraft cheese on the whitest white bread sandwiches. Mustard only, no mayo, due to the 120 degree trunk temperature. Ice can only do so much.
Thanks to this post, I think I might have just unlocked the reason for feeling a general dislike towards my dad... another reason anyway. Although I do think I enjoyed it as a kid. You know, when he wasn't yelling at "not me and my brother" after he missed the exit on the highway and had to backtrack miles. Just screaming and gesticulating at the windshield. Sometimes vaguely hinting at "being distracted" by us. Which usually meant we were talking to him. Answering his questions. Thanks, Dad
My dad also got us up at 4am to get to the park when it opened because he didn't want to wait in lines. I don't think we were obligated to eat trunk sandwiches but it was a running joke in my family that he didn't want to be seen with us because he was generally walking 100 feet ahead, impatient to get to the next ride.
Ah, but you haven't lived until you eat a warm, soggy (from melted ice water) dogshit sandwich then go back to spinning around until you have a headache. Somehow never puked once...
I guess I was "lucky" in a sense though that my dad could find the (infinite...) energy to do this shit. He was basically a giant kid himself. It's weird now to think that he was doing all this stuff when he much younger than I am now. I was almost an adult when he was my age now. So most of the insane stuff he did was mid-late 20s, early 30s for him. Really makes it seem like if you wait to 30 to have kids... ain't no way you're keeping up. Or the kids might have a less unstable childhood. Hmm, tradeoffs 🤔
These really are just much more advanced version of like slides or swings. People just want to have some fun with gravity
I think I read somewhere they originated in Russia pre 1900’s. Ice slides that escalated into these monster coasters over time
The legacy lives on in some languages. In Spanish, the word for roller-coaster is montaña rusa, literally a "Russian mountain"
Huh, I speak Italian and I'd never wondered what the word for roller-coaster was. Thanks for the info.
one of those domino effect oppenheimer slideshows but it ends with the eldritch abomination known as falcon's flight
Show
150 mph w/ 630 foot drop
The longest, tallest, fastest rollercoaster - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NFVNGgwZk3c
It's a demo vid. It's due to be finished this year.
This is the coaster you build in roller coaster tycoon when you get the cheat code and get unlimited money.
You'd think it would be hard to make that look boring but those animators damn sure tried.
I found a YouTube link in your comment. Here are links to the same video on alternative frontends that protect your privacy:
I saw that the first ones in the US were to discourage workers from going to brothels????
I have a love hate relationship with them.
I love that they go zoom, but I hate that my big ol' burger dumper never fits in the seat.
Without reading any of the other comments first, I imagine people started riding in mine carts and got a taste for it
I think some miners were goofing around with mine cars one day and had an idea
Who the hell thought this was a good idea???
You start with sliding down a grassy or sandy hill, then you build a slide and find yourself on a slippery slope to roller coasters
Swings, slides, ziplines, diving boards. Beyond the cost of operation, roller coasters aren't all that different.
