Spinning Out of Control at Magic Mountain
Six Flags Magic Mountain: Roller coasters aren't the only rides that can leave your insides feeling shaken or scrambled. Alex Carter shares his recent gut-wrenching experience at Six Flags Magic Mountain.
It's ironic that I would take the time to write up a cheesy carny ride, but this expereance warrents special attension. Recently I made my first ever vist to Six Flags Magic Mountain. Having grown up a Disney brat (attended and worked at the DLR) who spent a bit of time at Knott's, SFMM was a totally different encounter for me.
At the start of my day my friends suggested that I ride Spin Out. Spin Out is a extermely fast free-standing spin expereance, in which you stand in a round room, and are then spun at high speed. I'd guess at least 3 Gs. The acutal ride was fun. I stuck to the wall and felt as if my blood was rushing up my throat. One of my friends appeared to float. It's when the ride stopped that the intense overpowering vertigo hit me. It caused me to hurl in front of onlookers. Turns out I was not supposed to be on ride to begin with, as I was 6'3 and the ride only allows 6 foot and shorter, supposedly, according to TPI member content. I did not notice that on the info sign for the attractsion. The ride ops certainly did not measure me.
Spin Out ruined the rest of my day. I had to stick to Riddlers Revenge, Ninja, the log ride and the Arrowhead Splashdown, as well as the giant woodie known as Colossus. I loved Colossus. I never understood the tendancy of others to knock woodies as being too rough. The steel inversion coasters are much more wicked in my book. But then again, I did not ride Pysclone, which my friend claims gave him major whiplash for 2 weeks.
I am curious if anyone else has had a bad experance with Spin Out or a G-force spin ride like it.
I don't know your age Alex--but that sounds like a "getting older" thing. I used to like ALL rides--any kind. Now that I'm a little older I just can't take the "dizzy maker" rides. Even some coasters have more inversions than I care for---but I still love coasters and drop rides. Speed and height = GOOD.....just dizzy = BAD!
Magic Mountain, in the good old days had a ride called "Reactor". The first time I was there, I saw a guy and his girlfriend sitting on a bench. She looked green. I asked her which ride did this to her-she pointed at Reactor.
I went right over there and rode it with no ill effect. A few years later I tried it again. This time it made me queasy.
I quit riding severe "spin and puke" rides then. Nothing ruins a good day at the park like hurling.
To answer the question, I am 20. I do recall puke rides being less puke inspiring when I was 14. But not by much. Spin Out has got to be the fastest I have ever spun. This was no kiddie ride. It looks small, and it is, but small means more revs per second.
This sounds like the "Gravitron" that comes to our local county fair each year.
Well what do you think of the Gravitron?
From Anonymous
Posted June 28, 2003 at 10:40 PM
Ok, i dont know what the gravitation is. However, i was wondering if anyone knows how the ride Spin-out at six flags magicmountain california, works. Like, what components are used to make it. If any one can help me out(with no catch), that would be great. email me at haleviper@adelphia.net, or haleverp@yahoo.com thanks
Well, I was there today.... and it sucked. Way to hot. The park needs to produce more shade in waiting lines and more fans. They definately have the most nasstiest brestrooms of the year award.
restrooms. Good God what did I say
Well, something's gotta explain why so many people go there. And here I thought "Extreme Park" was supposed to refer to roller coasters!
LOL. Personally, going to Magic Mountain, at least to myself, is like visiting a third-world/developing country. Not everything is clean or well-kept, and not everyone watches out for you. But, it's still a great park with some of the best collection of roller coasters in the U.S.. One just need to get over the negative aspects, and see the positive aspects as well. (By the way, I almost never ride "spin and puke" rides. They are just too nauseating. Roller coasters on the other hand are not! They're great!)
Magic Mountain offers "cheap" thrills. Six Flags is the only park chain that has such a cheap season pass that is still good at every one of their parks. Many SF guests do not realize that they are buying into the scheme of getting them into the park to just spend more money. Most other parks charge a premium to have a season pass, whereas Six Flags WANTS you to buy a season pass and keep coming back to make your season pass worth the expense. If you buy a SF pass you're going to go at least twice to make up the cost of the pass, and that's why people go, because they feel obligated to go to pay for the pass, and go back multiple times, because it's "free."
u are totally right.
From Jen Magee
Posted July 3, 2003 at 4:16 AM
Someone who lives closer to SFMM than I do will have to investigate, but I'm pretty sure that they have the height restrictions posted outside the ride. On a ride like this, those restrictions are more for the ergonomics of the ride than anything else - you're not in danger of having an ill-fitting restraint or being thrown from the ride, and the only way you can really get hurt is if you're one of the folks who starts climbing up the wall once the lateral g's start to kick in. That said, it's possible that your head was in a bad position, and that's what made you ill afterwards.
I used to consider the Gravitron/Spin-Out rides to be spin-and-puke rides, right up until I rode one. For me, the sensations are completely different from a Scrambler or a Tilt-a-Whirl, and in my mind, Gravitrons are actually *less* dizzying. However, everyone is different and everyone responds differently to rides. In some cases, you won't know that a ride has ill effects on you until you ride it - I'd wager that's happened to most of the people on this site at one time or another. Now that you know that Spin-Out is not a ride for you, you can stay off it and avoid ruining your day... although, if you were still able to ride some of the coasters afterwards, your day wasn't quite as ruined as you think it was.
My vote for the ride that will induce the most dizziness? Spinmeister at SFGAdv. Starts off spinning horizontally, and then the whole thing goes vertical, so it's just repeated inversions for a 2, 3 minutes. Haven't ridden it for a while, but when I got off of it the last time, I couldn't walk in a straight line. Kinda awesome.
Spinmeister (aka Enterprise for those of us just can't get past the fact they changed the name) is definitely the dizziest ride I've ever been on.
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