Fair Exchange : Carnival Ride Operators Call Falling Coins a Welcome Bonus

It’s the law of the carnival ride: What goes up must come down.

At the Ventura County Fair, a virtual tempest of pocket change showers the ground around the 38 carnival attractions that tilt, whirl and shake fair-goers.

It’s one of the few perks that come with working as a carnival ride operator. Part bouncer and part mechanic, operators are at the grounds from midmorning often until late at night and their pay is only slightly above minimum wage, they said.

The change--the carnies call it the shakes--that rains down from fair-goers’ pockets, is part of the job, said Shawn Johnson, who operates the Round-Up, a giant centrifuge that rises to an 85-degree angle off the ground.

“I’ve gotten pocketknives, watches. I’ve even gotten $100 bills,” Johnson said.

Not all of the operators keep the “tips.” Bobby Lee Jennings, 24, said he found $890 in a money clip on the Gunslinger ride he operates, but returned it to a man who came back to retrieve it.

The Sky Diver, one of the most popular rides at the fair, is a Ferris wheel with 16 cages that tosses riders as they dangle upside down at a height of nearly eight stories. But the Sky Diver should be called the Change Loser, operator Lance Holcomb said.

“If they’re wearing loose pants, and they’ve got $10 to $15 in their pockets, they lose it,” Holcomb said.

Operators often see wallets and stuffed animals fly out the windows of the wire cages that spin around the 90-foot-tall wheel, Holcomb said.

Other rides are tamer. The Gunslinger is one of the attractions termed a “dud ride” by some teen-agers after more heart-pounding experiences. On Friday, it was abandoned until Karen Rowell, 32, let her three small children take a spin around the relatively tame ride.

“I gave them a little lecture coming over here about fair rides and how unsafe they are,” Rowell said. “I figured this one’s a safer one.”

Still, Rowell’s son Nathan, 3, looked tense and grasped the bar for several minutes as his two siblings roared with laughter.

The rides have been inspected before being opened to the public, said Sharie Davis, who along with her husband runs Davis Enterprises, the firm running the carnival rides at this year’s fair.

On Friday, the popular Zipper ride was shut down for several hours while a mechanic checked the equipment.

County fair officials expect to see carnival rides bring in about $325,500 this year in ticket sales, Assistant Fair Manager Art Amelio said.

To encourage riders, ticket prices were lowered to 25 cents on Monday, Tuesday and Thursday between 11 a.m. and 1 p.m. On Monday and Thursday, a $6 wrist ticket will allow riders to jump on any ride during a six-hour period.

But today and next weekend, a ticket costs $2 to $5.

When ridership is slow, operators tend to stretch a two-minute ride longer, they said, although the practice is discouraged by their bosses.

“We ask people as a joke before they get on sometimes, ‘What did you have for lunch?’ ” Holcomb said. “I don’t keep people on longer, because they start throwing up.”

The length of a ride is not the only criterion for some demanding fair-goers. For 9-year-old Miguel Ortega of Oxnard the faster the attraction, the better.

“This one’s more fun than the rest of them,” Miguel said, pointing to the Sky Diver. “It goes faster and I don’t get sick. I could ride it again and again.”

WHAT’S HAPPENING: An hour-by-hour list of events at the fair today. B2