Scream of the Crop

For Sharyl Bean of Anaheim, the one-hour wait in line was well worth the one-minute thrill she got on Supreme Scream, a new heart-stopping, free-fall ride at Knott’s Berry Farm.

Bean, 31, who was laughing and dancing in her seat just before it dropped 252 feet, said she had watched the structure being built as she drove by on her way to work.

A little shaky after the ride, she said it was everything she’d hoped for. “It was so much fun,” she said. “I think my favorite part was the big drop.”

But she said she also liked the two long bounces the ride takes after the first drop.

The $10-million Supreme Scream opened to the public Friday, on schedule for the Fourth of July weekend. Park officials are touting the 312-foot structure housing the ride as the tallest in Orange County. Disneyland’s Matterhorn ride is 147 feet high, and the Big A sign at Edison International Field is 234 feet.

With plenty of locals, as well as vacationing families from as far away as Japan, attendance at the park Friday exceeded expectations.

“We are just way, way over what we had expected to get today [Friday], and many of the people are here to go on Supreme Scream,” Knott’s spokesman Bob Ochsner said.

Executives are counting on the new ride to attract tourist dollars. Knott’s had more than 3.6 million visitors last year but is hoping to exceed 4 million this year.

Construction of Supreme Scream began soon after Cedar Fair LLP in Sandusky, Ohio, acquired Knott’s last December. Cedar Fair also started building the previously planned Ghost Rider, billed as the West Coast’s largest wooden roller coaster. It is scheduled to open this December.

Jack Falfas, general manager of Knott’s, has been on Supreme Scream more than a dozen times.

He went up one more time Friday and, on the way up, said he was thrilled with the new ride and excited by the response.

“Being here to watch everyone enjoy themselves, and then, actually going up on the ride is a bit like taking ownership,” Falfas said.

“It’s like putting our thumbprints on the ride. We can sit in our offices and do market research all day, but it’s important to actually see who we’re talking about.”

He said the new attraction doesn’t mean the new owners are forsaking the Old West theme that Knott’s was built on.

“I made a commitment to Knott’s when I arrived here that we would maintain the traditions it has had all along,” Falfas said.

“We’re carving out our own niche here, but I think we can do that and co-exist very well with the old traditions too.”

Tourists seem pleased with the combination of old and new at the park.

Tomoko Fukushima, 22, vacationing with family from Japan, said Supreme Scream was “too much fun.”

“It was just very exciting,” she said.

The draw is that first drop--252 feet at more than 50 mph.

“That’s what was so awesome,” Chase Carter, 15, of La Habra said Friday. “We’ve already been up four times today, and I’m about to go up again. It’s such a rush.”

Even with a one-hour wait in line?

“That’s nothing,” Carter said. “We’d wait two hours if we had to.”

It’s that kind of sentiment that makes Stan Checkett’s day.

He’s the designer of Supreme Scream and he was at the park at about 5 a.m. Friday to put his signature mark on the ride: He rappelled from the top.

“It’s an extreme high to be able to dream the dream and, then, to see it happen,” Checkett said.

Checkett said that he and his team from S&S; Sports Power Inc. in Ogden, Utah, often worked all night in the last few weeks to meet the July 4 deadline.

The work included 2,000 test runs.

“There was just no way we weren’t going to open on time,” he boasted.

“I’ve never missed a deadline yet.”