Matt N
CF Legend
Hi guys. For many years, the standup coaster has, rightly or wrongly, been the poor relation of roller coaster seating positions. After being introduced by Togo in the 1980s, the standup coaster was also manufactured by Intamin and B&M during the 1980s and 1990s. However, unlike other innovations from the 1980s and 1990s, it was largely left in the 1990s, with the newest standup coaster before 2023 being manufactured in 1999. The ride type was largely on the decline for many years; throughout the 2010s, many standup coasters were either removed or converted into sit-down coasters. This process has continued into the 2020s; 2023 saw the demise of yet another standup coaster, with Drayton Manor's Shockwave being converted into a sit-down coaster for 2024. Only 9 remain in operation worldwide, and they are now vanishingly rare outside of the USA and Japan, with only 1 remaining outside of these countries.
In general, the standup coaster is widely perceived to have aged poorly as a concept, with rider discomfort and poor throughputs resulting from a complicated loading procedure being chief among the standup coaster's commonly perceived flaws.
However, B&M surprised everyone by spearheading a grand revival of the standup coaster in the form of the Surf Coaster. The first installation of this model opened in 2023 in the form of Pipeline: The Surf Coaster at SeaWorld Orlando, and the theme park community was highly interested in this attraction. Many people were keen to know; would Pipeline finally solve the afflictions of the much-maligned standup coaster? Would Pipeline prove the potential of standing up on a roller coaster and make the standup coaster loved in a way that the rides of the 1980s and 1990s never did?
So now that we're nearing the end of 2023 and Pipeline has been open for a good few months now, I'd be interested to know; do you feel that Pipeline has solved the standup coaster's problems? Do you feel that Pipeline has finally broken the curse that has blighted standup coasters for decades? Do you feel that Pipeline has finally made people love the standup coaster and made it an attractive option for parks?
Personally, having ridden Pipeline in June... I'm not convinced. While I concede that the jumping seats are a cool idea, and that a layout with a stronger focus on airtime is a cool new take on the standup coaster in theory, Pipeline was not a coaster I massively rated and I am profoundly unconvinced that it's necessarily solved any of the standup coaster's inherent flaws. In my view, it is still rather uncomfortable, and I'm not sure that the freedom of movement in the seats necessarily helped in this regard. I found that when the seats "jumped", it shoved the bike seat type thing (for lack of a better term) right into my crotch, and the sudden landing back onto the floor afterwards was quite uncomfortable on my feet and legs. I also did not feel that the throughput issue was solved either; when I was at SeaWorld, dispatch intervals were averaging a solid 3-4 minutes, and the boarding procedure didn't seem an awful lot less complicated. I guess this could theoretically be solved by employing a dual station, similar to what B&M employs on many of its flying coasters, but the premiere outing of the model does not have this and the throughput does seem to suffer as a result.
So in my view, Pipeline has not necessarily solved the standup coaster's problems. While it does offer an interesting new take on the concept, I still believe that it is largely brought down by discomfort in the same vein as its predecessors are/were. In my view, many of the flaws of older standup coasters are pretty inherent in the ride style and are difficult to overcome, and for me at least, Pipeline doesn't really overcome many of the key flaws.
But I'd be keen to know; do you feel that Pipeline has finally solved the problems of the standup coaster? Do you feel that it has made the standup coaster a better option for modern-day parks?
In general, the standup coaster is widely perceived to have aged poorly as a concept, with rider discomfort and poor throughputs resulting from a complicated loading procedure being chief among the standup coaster's commonly perceived flaws.
However, B&M surprised everyone by spearheading a grand revival of the standup coaster in the form of the Surf Coaster. The first installation of this model opened in 2023 in the form of Pipeline: The Surf Coaster at SeaWorld Orlando, and the theme park community was highly interested in this attraction. Many people were keen to know; would Pipeline finally solve the afflictions of the much-maligned standup coaster? Would Pipeline prove the potential of standing up on a roller coaster and make the standup coaster loved in a way that the rides of the 1980s and 1990s never did?
So now that we're nearing the end of 2023 and Pipeline has been open for a good few months now, I'd be interested to know; do you feel that Pipeline has solved the standup coaster's problems? Do you feel that Pipeline has finally broken the curse that has blighted standup coasters for decades? Do you feel that Pipeline has finally made people love the standup coaster and made it an attractive option for parks?
Personally, having ridden Pipeline in June... I'm not convinced. While I concede that the jumping seats are a cool idea, and that a layout with a stronger focus on airtime is a cool new take on the standup coaster in theory, Pipeline was not a coaster I massively rated and I am profoundly unconvinced that it's necessarily solved any of the standup coaster's inherent flaws. In my view, it is still rather uncomfortable, and I'm not sure that the freedom of movement in the seats necessarily helped in this regard. I found that when the seats "jumped", it shoved the bike seat type thing (for lack of a better term) right into my crotch, and the sudden landing back onto the floor afterwards was quite uncomfortable on my feet and legs. I also did not feel that the throughput issue was solved either; when I was at SeaWorld, dispatch intervals were averaging a solid 3-4 minutes, and the boarding procedure didn't seem an awful lot less complicated. I guess this could theoretically be solved by employing a dual station, similar to what B&M employs on many of its flying coasters, but the premiere outing of the model does not have this and the throughput does seem to suffer as a result.
So in my view, Pipeline has not necessarily solved the standup coaster's problems. While it does offer an interesting new take on the concept, I still believe that it is largely brought down by discomfort in the same vein as its predecessors are/were. In my view, many of the flaws of older standup coasters are pretty inherent in the ride style and are difficult to overcome, and for me at least, Pipeline doesn't really overcome many of the key flaws.
But I'd be keen to know; do you feel that Pipeline has finally solved the problems of the standup coaster? Do you feel that it has made the standup coaster a better option for modern-day parks?
