Steep Thrills

In February, David Escalante rode the world’s largest roller coaster, the mighty 255-foot-high Goliath at Six Flags Magic Mountain. In May, he rode the world’s newest largest roller coaster, the 310-foot Millennium Force at Cedar Point in Sandusky, Ohio.

In August, the 37-year-old Bay Area engineering consultant hopes once again to ride the world’s newest largest roller coaster, when he attends the opening of the 318-foot Steel Dragon 2000 in Mie, Japan.

“I don’t speak Japanese,” said Escalante, who belongs to American Coaster Enthusiasts, a national group of about 6,000 die-hard roller-coaster and thrill-ride aficionados. “But I think screaming is an international language.”

And these days, there are more and more places to scream with your arms skyward as you plummet at 80 mph or more, down, down, down that precipitous first drop. Since the introduction in the 1970s of steel superstructures, over-the-shoulder harnesses and other more recent technological advances, coasters deliver more than the stomach-in-your-throat plunges and the few twists and turns of the old days.

Today, you can choose from an ever-expanding smorgasbord of scream machines built to disorient, discombobulate and delight. If you are tired of being right-side up, you can go upside down six times on the Raptor in Cedar Point. The steel coaster spirals riders into a 180-degree roll, then repeats the process in reverse. Fun!

If you enjoy a mix of loops, turns and inversions, you can hop aboard the ski lift-like chairs of the Nemesis in Staffordshire, England, where you are treated to a 50-mph barrel roll, a zero-gravity turn and a 4-g vertical loop. More fun!

Then there’s the Stealth in Santa Clara, a ride with no apparent floors, walls or ceilings, that harnesses you flat on your back or stomach--all to give the sensation of flight. Still more fun!

Not since the so-called Golden Age of Roller Coasters in the 1920s have these machines been so numerous or popular. Today, a huge chunk (525) of the world’s 1250 roller coasters are located in the United States. (And California, with 60, has more than any other single state.)

Last year alone, 55 new coasters were built in the U.S., three times the number built in 1997. Americans bought an estimated 1 billion tickets last year for roller coasters. That’s right, a billion.

The question arises: What the hell are these people thinking?

A couple of things are influencing Americans’ eagerness to wait in hourlong lines for a three-minute thrill, according to Frank Farley, a Temple University psychologist who has studied America’s thrill-seeking habits.

First, the physical experience of being dropped, shaken, stirred, turned sideways or upside down triggers powerful bodily responses, and--unless you’re throwing up--almost all of them are pleasurable. The heart rate increases dramatically, adrenaline surges and production of the morphine-like brain chemicals called endorphins soars.

“It’s an arousal jag,” Farley said. “Where else can you get such a rapid and full-blown set of changes? I mean, even with sex, there’s foreplay and the buildup, but this . . . you just jump on and you’re off.”

Psychologically, the roller-coaster experience stands out in the otherwise uneventful workaday worlds of most people. Also, for many, there’s an immediate feeling of empowerment derived from confronting fear on Goliath and conquering it.

But, Farley argues, there’s even more to it than that. Roller coasters, he contends, appeal to the American character. The same spirit that settled a continent animates the search for an ever-more-thrilling ride.

“America is a nation of risk takers. We push the edge,” Farley said. “More and more people are inline skating, downhill mountain biking, mountain climbing. The thrill ride is part of this larger picture of Americans being more and more adventurous.”

But perhaps, the most compelling reason that millions climb aboard the rides may be found in a well-known “formula” among theme park insiders: Fear minus death equals fun.

Unfortunately, deaths do occur, but they are rare. According to Farley’s research, an average of two people a year die as a result of thrill ride accidents in the nation’s major theme parks.

In 1998, the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission estimated that there were about 4,500 injuries on amusement park rides, 36 of which required hospitalization. Reasons for the injuries ranged from equipment failure to riders failing to observe safety rules.

“Basically, it’s much more dangerous to drive to the theme park than it is to actually ride the roller coasters,” Farley said. “Their safety records are astounding.”

With a booming economy and the vast majority of Americans living within a two-hour drive of a theme park, it’s likely that the adrenaline arms race among ride manufacturers will end any time soon.

Indeed, said Escalante, rumors are even now circulating among roller-coaster fans that an American theme park is planning to build a taller ride than Japan’s Steel Dragon.

So, where will the roller-coaster wars end?

“It’s like the Olympics,” said Escalante, who once rode his favorite roller coaster, the Giant Dipper in Santa Cruz, 108 times in one day. “You think they’ll never break the four-minute mile and then they do. Every time they get better and better. There’s no limit on how high roller coasters will be.”