I was standing on line for this ride last week when I overheard a conversation between what I assumed were siblings. A kid who looked about 11 was trying, in a rather businesslike fashion, to offer his nervous little sister, who was maybe 9, some encouragament. "Listen to me," he told her. "Just remember: bragging rights."
Im happy to know that 30 years after Corkscrew was built, going upside down on a roller coaster can still earn a third-grader some respect. Before I was old enough to understand the ominous changes these early loopers foretold, I believed the same thing. Riding a looper, no matter how mild the layout, put you in a different league. At the time this was built, you couldnt get badder than Corkscrew, which, with its three inversions, was considered the outer limits of human endurance (at least to elementary school kids).
Now it seems quaint. The massive tubular steel track looks almost ridiculously overbuilt, the drops are neither high nor steep, and the top speed is about what youd expect out of the final sprint in a flat stage of the Tour de France. But darn it, I still have a soft spot for these Arrow loopers, and I still feel a faint surge of accomplishment when I ride one. This has less to do with facing my fear that Im going to fall out at the apex of the loop -- something we as kids were convinced happened at least 40 or 50 times a year -- and more to do with facing my fears that the OTSRs are going to box my ears and that the transitions into and out of the loops are going to have me hobbling off to the chiropractor. Yet all these fears are misplaced on Corkscrew. Its rumbley and somewhat torquey in the back, but the train handles the inversions smoothly, and those restraints do a pretty good job of keeping you in your seat.
Big ups to Cedar Point for keeping Corkscrew in its place of honor on the midway and for its maintenance and operation of the ride, both of which were first-rate during my latest visit. For all the new coasters decorating its skyline, I still think Cedar Points greatest aesthetic coup is letting this thing rumble just a few feet above our heads. And yes, inversions are fun, especially inversions like these which are taken at just the right speed to let you really experience the hang-time in the front and the whip effect in the back. If you grew up in the 70s and 80s and loved roller coasters, youve probably learned how to brace yourself against an Arrow shoulder harness to avoid the dreaded headshake. That may seem like a coaster asking a lot of its riders, but it was a small price to pay for the privilege of wearing that t-shirt that let every kid on the school bus know that you stared down the loop of death and lived to tell the tale.
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