Hang Ten when owned by Cookes Amusements

Hang Ten is a wild spinning ride manufactured by SDC…or maybe TOGO, I’m not sure. Most say that it’s made by SDC but I’ve also seen it listed in a TOGO ride catelog so I just don’t know anymore.

That aside, Hang Ten is very similar to the more well known ride ‘Explorer,’ manufactured by Reverchon. Hang Ten is basically a wheel with 20 suspended cars; each car is fitted with a small flip down lapbar to secure riders. The wheel is attatched to a center hub that functions as the drive to spin the wheel as well as a lift mechanism. The hub can also rotate in the opposite direction of the wheel, making the cars travel in an up and down wave type motion.

The particular Hang Ten in this review has made its rounds in New Jersey and the surrounding areas for years. It was always at my town’s fair every year and used to be at another fair in the neighboring town. Once the two respective fairs started booking different ride companies, I never saw the Hang Ten until 2006 when it started appearing at the Meadowlands Fair. It was once owned by Cooke Amusements, evident by the panels that read ‘Cookes’ around the ride. The current owners are the Megerle family who have certainly given this ride some well deserved TLC.

The Ride

First the ride op will tell you to go to a certain car. This is so the wheel will be balanced if the ride doesn’t have a full load. Next you need to cram yourself into a car because they are pretty darned small. I’m only 5’8 and I think it’s cramped; a 6 foot person would be in like a ball position. The lap bar is in a horrible position as well; it’s hinged on both sides but in a diagonal position until closed. The person on the inside, where the bar is hinged a bit lower, has to somehow squeeze their legs under the bar to get it closed.

The ride starts with a lengthy spin up. Sometimes the ride operator will do the whole ” if you wanna go faster lemmie here ya’ scream” thing. It does indeed get pretty fast; enough to push you down into the seat during the ride. It feels about as fast as a Huss Enterprise (in fact the wheel very closely resembles an Enterprise wheel.) Once up to speed, the center drive starts to spin in the opposite direction and then rises the wheel to a slight angle so that it’s making wave type motions. If the wheel is rotating fast enough, the cars will be thrown completely sideways at the apex of the swings. Upon recent rides I’ve noticed that the ride op will sort of bounce the center drive up and down to make the cars swing even higher.

Other Info

As with the Cobra, one of my good friends and I have an inside joke about the Hang Ten; particularly one of its former ride operators.

We dubbed this one carnival worker “Shifty Shellshock” (the blonde tattooed guy from that awful rap/rock band Crazy Town .) He got this name because we would always hear Crazy Town coming from the speakers while he was manning the controls. So, on the last day of the town fair, my friend and I went on the Hang Ten. Shifty was taking down some of the small backdrops that surrounded the ride in preparation for the tear down after the fair closed.

As we spun around, we decided to yell ‘Shifty’ every time we came around and saw him. After a bit of this, one of us commented that a pissed off ‘Shifty’ would probably be waiting for us at the exit ready to beat us with a wrench. And what do you know, as the ride was slowing down we saw ‘Shifty’ walking towards the exit gate with a large monkey wrench in his back pocket! It was a pretty funny coincidence!

Video

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