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Which Coaster "Kickstarted" Your Interest?

Re: Which Coaster "Kickstarted" Your Interest?

I honestly cant say any particular coaster really "flipped the switch" for my inner goon to come forth to the surface, but I distinctly remember following Son of Beasts construction like a hawk as a kid. Even had a newspaper article about the ride taped to my door. That was my first true "goon" memory. Yeah, I had watched all of those Travel Channel and Discovery channel specials on rides and amusement parks (even had the recorded on my VCR for later viewing pleasure), but I'd still consider the following of SoB construction my first goon moment.

As to what set off my initial interest in rides? I honestly have no clue as my mom has told me a story from when I was 7 or 8 and I walked away from my family (who were waiting in line for drinks) to go ride Big Dipper and thought nothing of the consequences. As well how when I was a year old, my Aunt put me on a small boat ride up at Geauga Lake thinking I was 2 at the time. Mom claims that set off my thrill factor and inherent interest in thrills.
 
My first was the roller coaster at Great yarmouth pleasure beach - I can remember My dad, Nan, Grandad etc. all saying that on their first go they started crying on the lift hill, and saying they wanted to get off. I was determined not to do the same - Although the lift hill was very scary first time!

Always liked coasters since then - and it really took off when I joined the ECC about 8 years ago!
 
As several others have said, for me it was X at SFMM.

I'd always loved coasters as a kid and used to go to Thorpe/CWoA at least once a year as I was growing up. As we nearly always used to holiday in the UK, that would often involve trips to other UK parks such as Oakwood. As a teenager, this stopped just because I started to do other things instead, and didn't particularly want to spend my summer holidays in queues with my Mum.

After a trip to Alton with Sue in 2006 (my first since '94) and a couple of Thorpe trips my interest in parks was starting to increase. Whilst Sara and I were planning our trip to the USA in August 2007, it was decided that we had to go to at least one park. After a bit of research, I stumbled across SFMM, and the decision to go was made very quickly. As soon as I read about X, I knew we had to go! I was completely fascinated by the whole concept, the mechanics behind it, everything. In doing so, I stumbled across RCDB and then started to research what other rides are at the park. I started learning a bit about manufacturers etc and started making comparisons between similar rides. I developed a real thirst for more knowledge and regularly found myself staying up until 2am just reading about different types of creds. Such a goon.

By the end of that season, I felt like I'd learnt as much as I could by myself, and craved other people to have goony discussions with. I did a google search for rollercoaster forums, and the first active, UK based one that I found was CF. The rest, as they say, is hirstory!
 
I grew up going to fairs every spring and parks every summer. My mom and dad would take me to Canobie Lake, Whalom Park, Storyland, and Santa's Village yearly with Riverside (now SFNE) maybe every other year, it was "far" away at the time to day trip with little kids I guess.
So I guess I never "got into" parks and such, it was just something that was always a part of my life but up until maybe 2004 I'd only do the local New England parks and maybe one or two out of state parks in a year. My parents would let me and my sister (but mostly just...me) pick where we wanted to go and I'd always try and go somewhere with a park in the area... So we'd go to Atlanta for the week and do things in the city like Underground, the Zoo, World of Coke... stuff like that but also visit Six Flags. In 2004 I started doing trips on my own without my family and started to really rack up the parks. 05 and 06 were pretty insane year for me and I've since cooled off (the real world hit me :p)
 
Air and Nemesis:Inferno, that whole 2002/2003 period made me look into coasters online and find sites like this one <3.
 
Thorpe Park was my nearest park and we spent a considerable amount of time there during the school holidays and because of that we watched rides like Colossus and Nemesis Inferno being built, before these rides I had never seen or experienced anything like it and that's where the need to find more like it started. Then Alton Towers securely cemented my interest and started looking further afield.
 
From a really young age, I found fairgrounds and rollercoasters fascinating. When I was too small to ride them, I remember being quite content to just watch them for ages while my older sister queued to ride. A visit to Alton during Halloween in 98 was where my obsession really took hold. I was finally tall enough to ride Nemesis and Oblivion, and found the cold, overcast park so magical and atmospheric. There's a great photo of me wearing a Nemesis hat AND tshirt I got that day, looking goony at 10 years old! When I got home I would spend ages drawing coasters and park maps, and if I found any leaflets for other parks I would beg my parents to take me for my birthday. (11th birthday was Brean, 12th birthday was Blackpool)
When I got the internet, I would spend ages on rcdb and following construction of coasters. I tried planning holidays with family and friends that catered to visiting the odd theme park, but would always want to be visiting more. So I joined RCCGB, and didn't enjoy it. At all. That kind of disheartened me about meeting other enthusiasts, so I operated as a lone goon for a few years, just lurking on CF. Then I made the wise decision to sign up :)
It's been a gradual process for me, I didn't go from 0 - 100creds in 2.5 secs, and there wasn't one particular coaster that suddenly converted me into it. But that first ride on Nemesis certainly planted the seed of goon!
 
I visited Alton Towers in the late 80's, "Corkie" was my 1st full size coaster & after that visit I was hooked,

The highest & fastest coaster i've been on is MF at Cedar Point 2 months after it opened.
 
Nemesis for me! I was always obsessed with theme parks and coasters as a kid, but it was a trip in 2010 which turned me into a serious enthusiast. I'd forgotten how absolutely amazing Nemesis was, and was instantly hooked.
 
The ride that kicked started my enthusiast days was the one only Big Thunder Mounatin at DisneyLand Paris saying that I`ve only been to adventure island legoland and disneyland.
 
Used to go to PBB a few times a year when i was much younger, always loved them since i was a kid.

But i think it was seeing the construction pics and the discussions on here when Top Thrill Dragster was being built that got me hooked. I couldn't believe something like that could exist and i think from that day I just wanted to ride as much as possible.

Still haven't made it out of Europe yet!
 
Re: Which Coaster "Kickstarted" Your Interest?

I sort of became an enthusiast quite late on by accident after meeting CFers through Nic, but looking back, I'd always enjoyed theme parks a bit too much, certainly more than everyone else I was with. My first real 'enthusiastic' memory is from a trip to Blackpool when I was about 10. I remember going on about Avalanche, Big Dipper 'that was all rickety and went round the sign' and 'the really fast racing one'.

I suppose I'd have to blame Colossus and Nemesis Inferno jointly for 'getting me into' it all though. I started uni next to Staines in 2002 and lots of my friends worked at Thorpe. I spend much of 2003/4/5 at Thorpe just re-riding those two rides with my mate Steve until closing when they shut the queue and had to throw us out.
 
The first coaster I ever rode was Space Mountain in Disney Land, California in 1987. I then probably hold the record for the longest gap between roller coaster rides, as the next one was in 2003 at Gullivers in Milton Keynes. This was when we first took ATTACKHAMMER and Sarah to Gullivers, and we rode The Log kiddie coaster. Can anyone beat a 16 year gap?
 
If only my mum had a CF account. She rode the Great Yarmouth woodie in the early 70s on a family holiday. She then didn't ride a coaster until 2002, Sea Dragon at Hunstanton, which was also my first cred :D
 
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