|
completely smokin. brevity goes along way with yours truly, and when brevity runs alongside sneaky genius i start to get the vague aroma of that ever rare thing that can never truly be defined, but merely experienced...perfection. raven is like a haiku of wood coaster magic. the essence of the haiku form is that a scant few tools and materials can be assembled into an object of beauty which transcends its own size and/or volume. when one is given a small string of very rich but differing ideas, each idea may reach full blossom in ones mind because it has room to sprout on an uncluttered screen. if done right, the result is a bouquet in which the few elements synergize into a new, singular expression. so therefore when considered in this way the raven is a sublime experience and is helped rather than hurt by its modest length/time. the raven offers me a rippling little moment with just about every element i love about wooden coasters - raw ejector air, convulsing speed, rough-house lateral Gs, and uncoiling, disorienting layers of spatial distortion - but each dealt in tight little parcels and strung together into a fascinating, blurry sequence. it seems like raven is an impossible coaster when you try to reconcile the fact you just went wailing into the final brakes with speed to spare with the fact that the aforementioned brake run is an easy 50 feet ABOVE the lowest portion of the ride. how the heck does raven make it back up that hill to the station with so much energy left over? at 12 years old, raven has plenty "character" and could be argued as the first really profound statement of the wood coaster renaissance. it easily stands with the parks other two newer and larger coasters on the merits of its compact brilliance and its several moments of strong negative G ejections. holiday may have three great, singular and intense wood coasters, but only raven delivers for me the vertical catapult sensation (two definite moments, at least two more decent ones) that i set my spiritual watch to. holiday world went over to even more ambitious, fantastical designs after the success of the raven, but for my taste raven is at the heart of the "holiday world genre", the model and the petri dish for the twisty, speed woody. simply a great ride, and reeking of inspiration. this ride could become a 10 for me with another trip or two out to HW and some more time for the overall raven experience to marinade in my beatnik brain.
|