The Breakdance, made by Huss Rides, is probably the most wild experience a person can have on a ride; it really all depends on the operator though. If it is someone that doesn’t care too much, they’ll just set it on the programmed setting that all Breakdance’s have. Many amusement parks will run it this way. Morey’s Piers’ old Breakdance used to run a very modest cycle making it almost a family ride. On the other hand, you could get a ride op who enjoys running the ride and likes to give people the best ride possible. These ride ops will run the ride manually and give rides that rival the intensity of even the most adrenaline filled coaster.

Basically, the Breakdance is a souped up Tea Cups ride. The ride consists of a large turntable on a few degree pitch, and 4 or 6 satellites (depending on the model) attached to the turntable which in turn hold 4 cars each. The cars themselves can spin and are attached to the satellites on an angle (note the photo above) which means that the cars will whip around pretty fast if in the right position. According the the Huss Rides website, among other attractive features such as “variable electric motors” and being large and flashy, they also add in that this ride has “a high flirt factor due to gondola design and opportunity for interaction.” Well damn, those people at Huss just thought of everything, didn’t they?

The Ride

The best Breakdance I have ever been on is at Astroland located in Coney Island, NY. The ride operator started the ride and let it run for maybe 30 seconds, stopped the turntable allowing the satellites to spin and said “if you want to get off, raise you’re hand and we’ll set you free.” I definitely did not want to get off, so I sat tight. With no one accepting his offer, he started the turntable again…only considerably faster…

Within seconds my car was being whipped around with me experiencing an assault of Gs in every direction. The lapbar on this ride doesn’t really keep you secure so much as keep you from falling out, so I found myself hanging onto it for dear life. The operator would also slow down and speed up the ride at staggered intervals to get the cars spinning uncontrollably. The ride lasted about 6 minutes or so, which is very long for a flat.

Unfortunately with the closing of Astroland, this ride will end up who knows where. Hopefully it will stay in the States considering the lack of Breakdance rides over here.

Other Info

Most Breakdance rides have four satellites but there’s some on the traveling fair circuits in Europe that have six satellites on a larger turntable. These versions, officially called Breakdance 2, seem to spin riders even faster than their four satellite counterparts. There’s also many other variations and knock-offs by other companies; a popular one is the Crazy Dance by Fabbri. However, it seems that the Fabbri version doesn’t go nearly as fast as the Huss counterpart.

Huss also produces a smaller model called Breakdance 3. The only Breakdance 3 that I’ve been on was a park model called Rodeo Stampede, which used to be at Six Flags Great Adventure. The Breakdance 3 is smaller, has no backdrop and has a modified turntable that is shaped sort of like a cone, as opposed to being flat. There is also a version called Breakdance 4 that gets rid of the platform and backdrop altogether. ‘Wipeout’ at Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk is an indoor Breakdance 4.

In attempt to jazz up the ride a bit, the Fabbri Crazy Dance has an upgrade that adds lifting arms to the satellites to tilt them a little. As cool as that is, the Huss Breakdance still looks like it gives a wilder ride. I don’t believe any Crazy Dance ride in the US has this upgrade.

Videos

Astroland’s Breakdance On-ride

Astroland’s Breakdance Off-ride

Crazy Dance Off-ride

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