I am so torn on this coaster. First things first. Before I rode this I considered a looping wood coaster a gimick.... and I still do. There is no reason to put a loop on a wood coaster... wood coasters dont need loops to be thrilling if built right. It is only for the novelty of it or the record books ("worlds only looping wooden roller coaster!" So, lets take the loop out of it. This coaster suffers from Quantity over Quality. Its layout is good (even with out the loop) and it would be a great coaster if it were not so darned big! When will they learn... with wood coasters, the bigger you go, the rougher they get. Leave the 200ft mark for steel. Bulding wooden coasters that tall only serves to create rough, almost unrideable monstrosities. A coaster with the same general layout as SOB, but only 100 ft tall and minus the loop, could be a GREAT coaster. As it is however, SOB is only one of two roller coasters that I have said "Never Again" (the defunct neck breaker Steel Phantom being the other). I still say that all designers of wood coasters should have Scott Rutherfords quote from his book The American Roller Coaster framed and hanging on their wall... "Medium is a rare and wonderful thing." As it is, the Initials SOB may acutally stand for Son of Beast... but after riding it, they could stand for their other more common meaning... as in "Im never going to ride that s.o.b again."
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