SkyDiver
Website: Lakemont Park Homepage
Ride Type: Flat Ride
Ride Status: Running
Average Rating: 4.0000
TPC Overall Rank: Rides need more than 25 reviews to be ranked.
Reviews: 3
Last Review: 8/6/2012 6:09:00 PM
In User Top 10: 0 times.
User Tracker Count: 6 times.
 

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4 Rating
0 Rating Rate Down Rate Up coasterwom on 8/6/2012 6:09:00 PM
Sky Diver is a flat ride. It is fast, fun, rerideable, it has a large capacity, and a long duration.

4 Rating
+1 Rating Rate Down Rate Up Timberman on 8/18/2008 10:21:00 PM
&quot.SkyDiver&quot. at first seems an odd name for a ride that combines the most sinister aspects of the Ferris Wheel, the Roll-O-Plane, and the Tea Cups. Then you ride it, and the tag takes on the arch quality of a darkly humerous inside joke. In combat, what so often proceeds skydiving but the flaming cockpit of agonizing death, a phrase that more accurately describes the design concept of this devilishly clever, deliriously enjoyable ride. Like the best of the diabolical Chance stable, you don&#39.t ride the SkyDiver so much as survive it, but you&#39.ll never feel more alive than when you&#39.re in its throes.

Whereas the Zipper benefits from its fiendish complexity, the SkyDiver evokes terror with a relatively simple conceit: Take the basic structure of a Ferris Wheel, replace the seats with the pods from a Chance Toboggan but place them on the perimeter of the wheel, and then, what the hell, throw in the steering mechanism from the Tea Cups so true maniacs can spin the car at a right angle to the direction of the wheel&#39.s travel. Between all the diving, looping, and spinning going on, you really do feel like your Spitfire caught some ack-ack over the Channel, sending you spiraling toward the hedge rows. Adding to this impression are those fantastically inane Chance restraints, which, as on the Toboggan, are comprised entirely of a padded bar attached to the door, the very same hatch that is secured wih nothing more than an industrial strength bobby-pin that is jostled and stressed along every conceivable plain while the ride is in motion. Because amusement park rides usually provide only the illusion of danger, they typically require only the illusion of courage. The SkyDiver, however, really feels like a gamble, all the more so because all its moving parts and critical infrastructure are laid almost obscenely bare, leaving no illusions as to the assortment of creaking, groaning, Industrial Revolution-era hardware upon which your very life depends.

For all this, however, the SkyDiver delivered for me a very different experience than the Zipper. I&#39.ve felt raw, animal fear during extended Zipper free-spins, but the scariness of the SkyDiver has more of a giddy hilarity to it. My riding companion on my most recent SkyDiver cycle was none other than GrannyTimbers. As a 61-year-old who spends most of her time these days galloping around rugged horse trails in the Appalachian Mountains, her courage, risk tolerance, and nihilism far exceed mine. During the forward phase of the ride cycle, I was repeatedly flung against her. During the reverse phase, she was repeatedly flung into me. Mom also learned very convincingly that wearing a ball cap and taking a purse aboard the SkyDiver are both bad ideas. As the one manning the wheel, I did not have the relative luxury of bracing myself or grasping the mesh of our enclosure. This resulted in a frightening amount of movement within the cage. Sometimes the restraint had me just above the knees. Sometimes it caught me up around the chest. You might think that some sort of centrifugal force would have kept us pretty well situated. You would be wrong. I could imagine that some of the skinny kids just meeting the rather generous minimum height for this ride could well end up tumbling around the cage like so many PowerBalls. As for Mom and I, once the initial shock of the ride wore off, we were both laughing like a couple of lunatics on a one-way trip to the squirrel tank. I could hardly breath, much less talk or scream, for the hysterics I was experiencing. At the intersection of fear and absurdity you will find the SkyDiver.

One great thing about parks with a pay-as-you go option is that ride cycles tend to be more value-oriented. SkyDiver was no exception, running lengthy forward and backward cycles that will leave only the most masochistic wanting more. Yet something about the multiple plains of movement, if not the surging adrenaline, seemed to cancel out the expected motion sickness. Emerging from the car I felt wobbly and disoriented but not sick to my stomach, which is more than I can say about some of the other warp-speed, epic-length flats that Lakemont runs.

I hope, should I last as long as me ol&#39. mum, that I, too, will be laughing at death when I&#39.m 61. In the meantime, I can at least practice on the SkyDiver, a mobile sermon devoted to the notion of sinners in the hands of an angry God.

4 Rating
0 Rating Rate Down Rate Up T-Rex on 12/31/2007 8:48:00 AM
Excellent version of a very fun flat. This SkyDiver is in top-notch condition and its run at a good speed. Best of all was the cycle, as it lasted for a very long time. Also, this one had good spinning throughout my ride and I got some great sensations therefore.

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