Thrill Seekers Are Head Over Heels in Love With the Fair

If they ranked rides at the Ventura County Fair by the amount of spare change sailing from pockets, the Spin Out would be an easy winner.

It whips its riders around in a circle. It slams them into the sides of its cars. And it does it all upside-down.

That results in pennies--and quarters, dimes and nickels--from heaven for the carnies.

“We can get $30 a day from spare change--$100 on the weekends,” said Al Burns, who runs the ride. “But, mainly it’s keys. We chase people down, but at the end of the day we usually have one or two sets of keys left.”

The riders--and their car keys--are out in force at this year’s fair. Ride revenues are up 5% from last year, according to fair publicist Teri Raley. Fair-goers had bought 5,359 single-ride tickets and 1,793 unlimited-ride wristbands through Tuesday night.

Rank the rides by pure scream power, and it’s a bit of a tossup as to which is the most thrilling. Is it the swooping Looping Star roller coaster? The gut-churning Inverter? The vicious Orbiter? Or is it the fan favorite, the classic Zipper--a rickety, rocky trip in a flapping metal cage?

“The Zipper’s the best,” said 17-year-old Kristen Tapie of Ranchos Palos Verdes. “You don’t know where you’re going and it squeaks.”

“And then you see a guy with tools walking by and that just makes it more scary,” chimed in cousin Chandra Tapie, 16, of Simi Valley.

True-blue fans say it’s not just the ride--it’s how you ride it that ups the thrill-per-second quotient.

So while most people can spin their Zipper cages five or six times as they slip around the vertical track, that is baby stuff for an expert like 14-year-old Jessica Miller. Jessica has whipped around 15 times in a row, probably some kind of record.

“My brother’s really tall,” she said. “He can just lean back and kick his legs up.”

For prime spinning, hot shots recommend leaning forward or backward at the top of the Zipper’s track. That way, more power is added to the spins, which keep the momentum longer.

“I lean forward,” said 11-year-old Addison Williams of Ventura. “I like to see the ground come up.”

The creaky, squeaky Zipper shines with stomach-churning menace. The Orbiter, on the other hand, is more deceptive.

“I thought I was going on the Scrambler,” a much more gentle ride, said Cheryl Gilbert of Ventura as she stepped off woozily with her 10-year-old daughter, Catherine. “I think it’s time to see some exhibits now.”

Designed to send riders slamming into their seats, each car of the Orbiter spins two different ways, creating enough force to leave passengers feeling three times as heavy as their normal weight.

No problem for the thrill-hardy.

“It’s all about having your hands up,” said Staci Reimer, a 17-year-old veteran fair-goer from Oxnard, who had just finished a piece-of-cake spin on the Orbiter.

“And don’t scream,” said friend Crystal White, 17. “Only weenies scream. You can yell--but you can’t scream.”

Contrary to popular opinion, expert fair-goers say, avoid the front seat of the Looping Star roller coaster. The view from the rushing car isn’t worth the loss of adrenaline. The middle or the back is where the action is, just the right place to feel the whip-snap of the car as it jerks around the rails.

“The front is not good,” said 17-year-old Carolyn Dinkins of Oxnard. “It takes out the excitement. You dig into the tracks.”

Kay Webster of Oak View was headed for the Kamikaze, which sends a giant car on a circular--and sometimes upside-down--loop.

“In the front is always better,” said the 13-year-old, who planned to take a spin on nearly every ride. “The windows are there. You can see everything.”

What could be the scariest ride for such a roller-coaster daredevil?

“It’s the Ferris wheel,” Kay said. “I’m afraid of heights.”