RIDE REVIEW : Knott’s New Boomerang Backs Into Hidden Terror

The folks who make insecticides, slasher movies and roller coasters have a similar challenge: staying one step ahead of the rising tolerance levels of their targets, be they bugs or thrill junkies.

When Knott’s Berry Farm introduced the Corkscrew more than 10 years ago, it gave a new twist to the standard-issue roller coaster by taking passengers through two complete barrel rolls. Going upside-down isn’t the novelty it once was, though, and thrill-ride one-upmanship left park officials to contemplate the ride’s increasing yawn factor.

So the Corkscrew was dispatched to that big theme park in the sky--well, technically Idaho--the new and improved Boomerang went up in its place and the publicity machine kicked into high gear. Among the park’s not-so-subtle stunts: sending out press kits that included a box of cookies and a barf bag. For those who didn’t make the connection came the written warning that riders just might “toss their cookies.” Oh boy.

Open to the public as of Friday, the ride is an elegant, sinuous mass of steel with a brand-new gift shop at the exit, selling everything from Boomerang sweat shirts to Boomerang posters. No Boomerang barf bags in sight, however.

And how about the ride? Well, truth be told, at less than a minute it’s a bit too short to make most people in a reasonable state of health toss their cookies, but it is long enough to produce a noticeable wobbling in the knees.

Riders sit in four-passenger cars that are first dragged backwards up an 11-story tower at one end of the horseshoe-shaped ride. After barely hesitating at the top, the chain of cars is suddenly let loose for a 50-m.p.h. free-fall that leads first into one barrel roll, then another in the opposite direction. Then comes a vertical loop and a climb up the second tower.

So far, so good. It’s quick and exhilarating like the Corkscrew, though nothing remarkable for roller-coaster veterans. But it ain’t over yet.

Now, it’s time to run the whole thing again--backwards. Going forward, passengers are pushed back into their seats, but on the reverse run, momentum pushes riders forward against the restraints. Falling out of the car seems a distinct possibility at several points in the ride.

Add to that the disquieting impossibility of seeing where the car is going and it adds up to several brief but definite moments of abject terror, which didn’t diminish noticeably on a second run-through. And abject terror is what thrill rides are all about, right?

Sure, the Boomerang is short, but that adds to the impact. Overall, the ride (designed and built by the Dutch company Verkoma International) has done well in packing a maximum number of thrills in a limited space. Knott’s simply doesn’t have the room for big, classic roller coasters, so it has to make do.