Riding the Pine

It’s gift-giving time, and you’re wondering, “What do you get for a county that already has everything?”

More carpool lanes? Yeah, right. As if they’d make a difference.

A new airport? Not in MY backyard!

Another 30-screen movie warehouse? Geez! How many dozens of screenings of “A Bug’s Life” is enough?

Well, Knott’s Berry Farm has the answer. On Tuesday, the park debuts GhostRider, Orange County’s first and the Southland’s biggest wooden roller coaster. It’s the latest addition in the park’s $35-million renovation project.

Rising from the heart of Knott’s Ghost Town, GhostRider’s mountain of lumber rises to a summit of 118 feet and sprawls over more than three-quarters of a mile.

Riders are whisked away on a two-minute romp of swooping drops--including an 108-foot, 51-degree banked plunge--sudden dips, 42-degree banked curves and speeds of up to 56 mph. Along the way passengers will experience G-forces--the backward pressure you feel under rapid acceleration--of 3.14, or more than three times the force of Earth’s gravitational pull.

Yet as scary as it sounds, the coaster can accommodate younger riders too--anyone who can hit the 48-inch height requirement.

“When we designed the ride, we had the whole family in mind,” said Denise Dinn-Larrick of Ohio-based Custom Coasters Inc. “We wanted to make sure that the teenagers were loving it, because it’s a thrill-packed ride, but we also wanted to satisfy Mom and the smaller kids and Dad.”

The ride is near the former site of the pan-for-gold attraction, now in another part of the park. After walking through a rustic mine shaft, riders make their way through a wooded frontier wilderness to the three-story GhostRider mining company station, where gold-, silver- and copper-colored cars sweep riders away on a high-speed journey.

Hard-core coaster enthusiasts will be thrilled with the amount of air time--the weightless feeling you get when you hit zero Gs--built into the 4,533-foot-long ride.

In the middle of the ride is a section of twists and turns that Dinn-Larrick calls a double helix. In a classic “out-and-back” segment, the ride doubles back on itself before returning to the station.

Dinn-Larrick says she is most proud of its 108-foot plunge.

“It’s unique because it’s not just a straight drop. It swoops and turns in,” said Dinn-Larrick, who has helped build 24 other coasters around the world with Custom Coasters, which she founded with her husband and brothers in 1990.

“It’s going to fool people because they’ll think, ‘We’re not going down the drop yet,’ but they’ll be halfway through it and suddenly realize they are.”

A drive-tire unit starts the ride off with a bang. Where other wooden coasters lumber out of the station, the drive tire actually whisks out the car, giving the train some speed as it goes into the lift.

Dinn-Larrick said GhostRider is the first wooden coaster in California to incorporate the device.

More than 2 million board-feet of southern yellow pine from Alabama and North Carolina went into the gigantic structure.

The wood construction distinguishes it from the park’s four other major roller coasters. Passengers should be able to notice the differences between GhostRider and its steel counterparts. The wood flexes and settles, making for a noisier, yet softer, ride that’s less stiff than a steel coaster. Also fluctuations in temperature can change the experience.

“If you came and rode it in the morning, when it’s a little cooler, it’d be a little slower,” Dinn-Larrick explained. “Later in day, when it’s really hot, it’d go faster. The heat works on the track, warms the grease and the bearings, and makes it move faster.”

BE THERE

Knott’s Berry Farm, 8039 Beach Blvd., Buena Park, (714) 220-5200; Mondays-Fridays 10 a.m.-6 p.m., Saturdays 9 a.m.-10 p.m. and Sundays 9 a.m.-8 p.m. Adults, $36; seniors 60 and older and children 3-11, $26. $16.95 after 4 p.m. for all ages. Residents of ZIP Codes 90000-93599: adults, $28; children ages 3-11, $12.50.