The birth of the first commercial looping coaster was the Flip Flap at Sea Lion Park. The Flip Flap seated two passengers and it was propelled by gravity down a hill before wheeling up-side-down through a vertical loop at the bottom of the drop. The Flip Flap ride provided it’s riders with extras; whiplash and other neck injuries. In the early years of ride development trial and error was a fact of life. Minimal technological advances and a basic understanding of what the human body was capable of tolerating exposed riders to serious injury and sometimes death. The Flip Flap was born in an era where exciting radical thinking was positioned ahead of the learning curve. Over time the trial and error method of introducing new rides and the process of using people as “human Guinea pigs” begin to lose its appeal.

The forward movement of the roller coaster subsequent to the flop of the Flip Flap sputtered for years. The face of the modern amusement park would be changed forever by the opening of Walt Disney Land in 1955. This concept ignited a fire that would be the catalyst for the amusement ride industry as we know it today. It would still take years for the evolution of the roller coaster to take on a life of its own and switch into high gear. There isn’t an identifiable day in history that delineates the moment that the roller coaster switched from an evolutionary sleeper to a revolutionary concept with almost limitless boundaries. During the early 1970’s a corkscrew concept roller coaster started appearing on the landscape of amusement parks all over the country. It appeared to be a wake up call for designers and back to the drawing tables they went. During this period attendance was growing in amusement parks and new, bigger, faster, taller, and different roller coasters were being marketed with each passing year as the calling card. Entire marketing campaigns were based on a new roller coaster introduction and this concept was working by driving attendance numbers up. This phenomenon gave rise to the roller coaster revolution and the race was on.

Today’s coasters can be described as hyper and mega. The similarities between roller coasters of yester year and today can be likened to comparing Orville and Wilbur Wrights’ first flight to the Space Shuttle. Today’s roller coasters are longer, faster, taller and include designs that nudge human endurance limits. Compact loops, inversions, cork screws, ninety degree descents, free falls, and other configurations offer seemingly endless possibilities. As a participant you can be in for one “wild ride”.