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Entries Tagged as 'the lists!'

6 Incredibly Odd Carnival Rides

April 18th, 2009 · 4 Comments · observations, randomocity, the lists!

Sorry I haven’t been updating the site as regularly as I’ve been, I’ve been pretty busy this past week with some things as well as preparing this fat, three MS Word page post; and yes, MS Word pages are the measuring stick for article length. 1500 word essays are out, it’s all about 3 page MS Word essays now! But I digress…

Last month we took a look at five insane flatrides that each brought some type of baneful attribute to the table. This time around we’ll take a little tour down ‘freak alley’ to check out a sextet of carnival rides that defy any decent description due to either appearence or motion. In other words, these are rides that might make you say “what the hell?!”
6. Flic Flac
odd_flicflacFlic Flac is a strange ride (with an equally strange name) made by Huss Rides of Germany, a company that has made such theme park staples such as Top Spin and Breakdance. Flic Flac is kind of like a combination of an Octopus and a Chance Chaos; weird right? The ride features six arms radiating from a center hub with pairs of three passenger gondolas at the end of each arm. The 12 gondolas can freely rock forwards and backwards and each sport a counterweight.

Once started the gondolas will begin to revolve around the center; they don’t travel too terribly fast though. Next, a mechanism in the hub kicks in rising some of the arms in the air. Finally the hub mechanism starts to spin in the opposite direction of the gondolas, making the arms perform a wave type of motion; this is what I mean when I say that it’s like an Octopus ride, it has that same type of waving arm movement. The free swinging gondolas, now being assaulted by a hectic wave motion, rock wildly and even perform lengthy sets of a flips.

You can find these rides at German and French funfairs under names like ‘Devil Rock’, ‘Mega Dancer’ and other music related monikers. Flic Flac is a pretty cool ride, I really have to hand it to Huss with this one. The one downside is that the ride looks pretty large and seems like it would be very tough to haul around and set up.

Here’s a nice video from one of my favorite thrill ride video YouTubers, Xtremerides.

The 5 Most Insane Carnival Rides

February 26th, 2009 · 26 Comments · observations, randomocity, the lists!

Have you ever been to an amusement park or carnival and see a ride that simply pushes every limit you thought couldn’t be pushed? Rides that look so intense, nauseating, or just downright torturous that you can’t believe anyone would actually ride them…and enjoy them? I know I have! Here are the five carnival rides that I think fit the bill of being the most ‘insane’ out there.
5. Storm (Wisdom)
StormIt’s not too often that I’ll come across a ride that I won’t ride again. Storm, however, is one of the few that I may not ever ride again! Storm is basically a modern version of the Hustler/Tempest ride. The movements of all three rides are nearly identical, with the Storm’s components being upgraded a bit; for instance, Storm allows riders to board all at once and has a better safety mechanism.

While the Hustler or Tempest have cars that can spin freely, Storm’s cars spin mechanically. They don’t spin too terribly fast, nor does the main platform, as a matter of fact, the arms that hold the cars only spin at a moderate rate as well! The thing is that all three spin in the same direction, making the G forces horribly intense! Riders basically partake in a whirling dance of doom on three axes.

The lone Storm ride I had was at the New Jersey State Fair in 2008. When the ride was up to full speed, all I could see were the people sitting across from myself with everything around the car as a giant blur. If the ride lasted for 30 seconds, slowed down for a bit and then sped up for another 30 seconds, the ride would have been fine. Instead we got a full two minutes of crushing G forces and spin cycle-like rotation; as an added bonus, the ride was in full sunlight on a 90+ degree day with high humidity! My cousin and I felt like total crap after a ride on Storm!

Another ride that can probably be lumped together with Storm is the Huss made Take Off, which spins in a similar fashion to Storm minus one axis. Take Off also has the ability to rise up to a pretty steep angle and spin in opposite directions and such. The large ride vehicles on Take Off can also spin at an incredible rate, much faster than Storm’s vehicles, providing some very high G forces.

To sum it up: Storm, and subsequently Take Off as well,  make it on the list for having prolonged periods of high G forces.

Below is a video of Storm taken by myself!