I remember standing in a three-hour line in the early 1980s to ride what was then known simply as Freefall. At the time, the concept of the ride struck me as preposterous, masochistic, and inspired. The idea of being in an elevator whose cable suddenly snaps is a common nightmare of our industrialized society, and a horror that most of us would be spared . . . until the advent of this ride.
I have a theory that most coaster enthusiasts have a breakthrough ride that takes them so far out of their comfort zone that surviving the experience gives them an essentially unshakeable fortitude for any amusement park attraction that follows. For me, that ride was Freefall. To see it operating at full capacity that day was like watching one of those nightmarish sequences from "The Wall." One after the other, kids were queued up and processed through this brutally efficient sequence designed to impart nothing so much as a sense of mortal terror. Few even screamed; their breath seemed to be sucked right from their lungs before their vocal cords could react.
My own sense of dread was almost swoony that day, and when I finally boarded the absolutely no frills drop vehicle, I was nearly on the verge of panic. What I found particularly notable about the experience was the businesslike, totally unsparing quality of the rides operation. The process was just clamp, grab, dip, lift, push, dip, ring, good-bye. Everything about it seemed calculated to ratchet up the sense of fear beyond rational thought and into the realm of the instinctual and neuro-chemical. As scared as I was, the drop was still surprising in its intensity. While the modern drop towers have more height and exposure going for them, they also have a bouncy, pillowy quality to the braking that takes the edge off the experience and leaves you feeling giddy and boyant. Freefall, on the other hand, rudely shoves you out to the brink and then simply pulls the floor out from under you to let gravity do its work. When you finally stop, youre on your back in a submissive posture, and rather than being gently returned to terra firma, youre unceremoniously dumped back through the hatch, flipped upright, and then hustled to your feet and out of the car to accommodate the next load. The feeling is almost one of having been roughtly used and then kicked to the curb.
Freefall is among the most psychologically sophisticated and daringly-designed amusement park rides, and although its technology now seems quaint, that only adds to its effect. I have ridden several different Intamin drop towers in several different parks, and while Im more at ease with them now, I still dont feel as if Ive mastered the experience. That, for me, is the mark of a truly great thrill ride. Unfortunately, what goes up must come down, and Freefall and its ilk are now going the way of the Dodo. Its elegy, however, is expressed in over two decades of silent screams and countless hard-edged thrills.
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