Ok, so maybe I went slightly dramatic with the title to entice you in, but I've been having a look at my top ten on this sunny afternoon and trying to decipher realistically what it is I look for in a coaster for me to consider it fucking_awesome. Taking a look at my list and thinking about all my fav moments of the coasters on that list, I've come to the probably slightly controversial conclusion that I don't particularly care for inversions. Let me explain.
For me, the main factors I look for in a coaster are: speed, airtime and a total feeling of being out of control. As weird as it is to say, because you're literally upside down, inversions tend to feel a little too deliberate and therefore controlled to me. For me, inversions feel very specifically thought out into the layout and I guess something in my head equates that consideration to be predictable and therefore not equivalent with the things I enjoy in a coaster.
Don't get me wrong - there are definitely some inversions I enjoy. Kumba's zero-g roll. Swarm's zero-g roll. The zero-g roll on Oz'Iris...OK, there's a pattern here. I love me a zero-g roll. But that brings me back to that things-I-like-in-a-coaster like - I think the....flatness of a zero-g roll feels very manic and out of control, like a fab little bunny hill with a pop of airtime. And then there's the weightlessness. I bloody love some good airtime so it makes sense that I'd enjoy those too.
I also don't do too well with what I intellectually call 'spinny rides'. You'll likely never catch me on a waltzer or even a tea cups for that matter. Then tend to make me feel a little icky, and I find too many inversions on a coaster can have the same effect on me. Something else I love in a coaster is the ability to get off of the thing and immediately run around for my next ride, and coasters with really forceful inversions one after the other don't offer that rerideability for me.
And then there's the hangtimey element. Lord knows I can't stand hangtime, or anything where the blood rushes to my head. Pretzel loops on flying coasters are particularly guilty of this, but I often get a similar feeling from Immelmans and corkscrews. I start to feel the pressure in my forehead and can't wait to go past this bit to get back to the good non-inverting parts. Again, there are exceptions to this. Wildfire's zero-g stall is absolutely obscene and I think about it in my dreams, but I think the drama of being surrounded by the immense wooden structure and the whole slow-mo wtf-is-happening moment it causes distracts slightly from the head rush.
Headbashing is also a factor here. I am quite a short-arse, and as such, OTSRs tend to sit quite high up on me, putting my dainty little head in primary pummelling position. Obviously there are some coasters more prone to this kind of brutality than others, but I do only find you take a beating through the inversions and are otherwise generally fine? Dragon Khan is one that springs to mind here. The old girl has not ages well and I find it incredibly uncomfortable to ride nowadays (so much so that on my most recent visit to Port Aventura we did not ride).
Finally, I have been stuck upside down on a coaster once. It didn't exactly scar me for life, but I'd be lying if I said it was my favourite thirteen seconds of my life. Maybe there is some deep-rooted trauma cause by that that rears its head every time my body inverts!
Weird how this has only recently come to my realisation, but the more I think about it the more it definitely is a thing. Coasters like Taron, Skyrush and Formula Rossa are my absolute dream - loads of speed, loads of airtime, loads of crazy out-of-control moments. I don't miss inversions when they're not present and I definitely could do without them when they are, save for a few token gems.
So yh, a point of interest and intrigue I guess. What do you think? Are you an inversion junkie or would you happily lock them away in Room 101? Let me know in the comments!
For me, the main factors I look for in a coaster are: speed, airtime and a total feeling of being out of control. As weird as it is to say, because you're literally upside down, inversions tend to feel a little too deliberate and therefore controlled to me. For me, inversions feel very specifically thought out into the layout and I guess something in my head equates that consideration to be predictable and therefore not equivalent with the things I enjoy in a coaster.
Don't get me wrong - there are definitely some inversions I enjoy. Kumba's zero-g roll. Swarm's zero-g roll. The zero-g roll on Oz'Iris...OK, there's a pattern here. I love me a zero-g roll. But that brings me back to that things-I-like-in-a-coaster like - I think the....flatness of a zero-g roll feels very manic and out of control, like a fab little bunny hill with a pop of airtime. And then there's the weightlessness. I bloody love some good airtime so it makes sense that I'd enjoy those too.
I also don't do too well with what I intellectually call 'spinny rides'. You'll likely never catch me on a waltzer or even a tea cups for that matter. Then tend to make me feel a little icky, and I find too many inversions on a coaster can have the same effect on me. Something else I love in a coaster is the ability to get off of the thing and immediately run around for my next ride, and coasters with really forceful inversions one after the other don't offer that rerideability for me.
And then there's the hangtimey element. Lord knows I can't stand hangtime, or anything where the blood rushes to my head. Pretzel loops on flying coasters are particularly guilty of this, but I often get a similar feeling from Immelmans and corkscrews. I start to feel the pressure in my forehead and can't wait to go past this bit to get back to the good non-inverting parts. Again, there are exceptions to this. Wildfire's zero-g stall is absolutely obscene and I think about it in my dreams, but I think the drama of being surrounded by the immense wooden structure and the whole slow-mo wtf-is-happening moment it causes distracts slightly from the head rush.
Headbashing is also a factor here. I am quite a short-arse, and as such, OTSRs tend to sit quite high up on me, putting my dainty little head in primary pummelling position. Obviously there are some coasters more prone to this kind of brutality than others, but I do only find you take a beating through the inversions and are otherwise generally fine? Dragon Khan is one that springs to mind here. The old girl has not ages well and I find it incredibly uncomfortable to ride nowadays (so much so that on my most recent visit to Port Aventura we did not ride).
Finally, I have been stuck upside down on a coaster once. It didn't exactly scar me for life, but I'd be lying if I said it was my favourite thirteen seconds of my life. Maybe there is some deep-rooted trauma cause by that that rears its head every time my body inverts!
Weird how this has only recently come to my realisation, but the more I think about it the more it definitely is a thing. Coasters like Taron, Skyrush and Formula Rossa are my absolute dream - loads of speed, loads of airtime, loads of crazy out-of-control moments. I don't miss inversions when they're not present and I definitely could do without them when they are, save for a few token gems.
So yh, a point of interest and intrigue I guess. What do you think? Are you an inversion junkie or would you happily lock them away in Room 101? Let me know in the comments!
Talk later xoxo
1 comments
Im a slut for intamin launchers lol. Guilty pleasure. Could literally ride stealth all day. I love a good inverter bit I totally agree with you on the patternof my faves, Shambhala, taron, TTD, millennium force all my top coasters and not an inversion in sight
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