Im pretty new to the community and I’ll bring you up to date on my new found love for Theme Parks.
It all started out of the blue. Back last year I was in a bit of a personal rut and feeling like my life lacked adventure anymore with no real hobby and the whole work/take care of my family/sleep/eat/repeat thing happening every day along with my friends being an hour away in the town I grew up. (I moved from Wales to Gloucestershire 3 years ago and STILL haven’t made any new friends). Don’t get me wrong, I had nothing to complain about but I needed something to unwind. At 29 years of age I spent a huge chunk of my life in bands, playing gigs, going to gigs etc but it all gradually came to a halt. I’d always been scared of rollercoasters, big rides and thrills because it was never anything I thought I could do. Going back to last year, me and my family took a short break away to Butlins in Minehead and during our time at the Splash Waterworld pool I plucked up enough courage to ride the Space Bowl flume. It was my very first flume slide as I always felt intimidated by the sheer size of the thing. As soon as I exited the mini pool that riders drop into I felt a huge sense of personal achievement.
Over the week that followed I watched POV water slide videos on YouTube and still had that great buzz since facing a life long fear. Naturally water slide videos resulted in me checking out rollercoaster POV’s and vlogs which got me interested in Theme Park’s. I also found interest in the physics aspect of rollercoasters and learned a lot such as manufacturers, types of inversion, coaster types and kept up to date with coaster news. I’d already been to PortAventura as a child and Oakwood to see Mcfly in 2008 but only ever did a selection of rides like Tutuki Splash and the Grand Canyon Rapids. As time went on I started getting the theme park bug and wanted to face my coaster fear. Luckily I won a family day pass to Drayton Manor. My first coaster there was Accelerator (I did do a shitty Zamperla Dragon about 20 years ago but can’t remember much about it) and it really was thrilling for my first ‘proper’ rollercoaster, though a family ride. I took my daughter on and had a great time. We didn’t do Shockwave as I looked at it and said “fuck that” due to it being pretty high up but after rides on Buffalo and Troublesome Trucks it slowly boosted my confidence.
Since then I have been to Alton Towers and been on most of the coasters. I’ve still got to get a Smiler and Galactica credit but I’ll be back in July. My first ride on Wicker Man was the real test and I admit, I was slightly shitting myself. After the amazing queue and pre show the nerves really did kick in. I was still unsure if I was going to enjoy it and I was asked to sit in row 12 which is the back row. Obviously I was sceptical and it was made worse that I was a single rider (my wife was looking after the kids) and had to brave it alone. Well… it was fantastic. It was fast, frantic and the perfect amount of thrill. After that, I knew I could go further. A few coasters and flat rides later I arrived at Nemesis. Okay, this was the big one. Billed as “The world’s most intense ride experience” I knew that if I got through that, I could do anything. After about 20 minutes of persuasion from my wife, I got onboard. Climbing up the lift hill was scary and the rest was an incredible adrenaline filled blur. Yes, I came off a bit pale as I felt kind of violated due to forces I’ve never felt before (plus I’ve never inverted before) but it was all over. In one year I learned to face fear head on and embrace things I was always intimidated by and even started a coaster blog (this one). Now in 2019 and a year older I mainly follow vlogs on YouTube to pass the time and travel to parks every once in a while with my family. I’m still not a hardened adrenaline junkie but enjoy keeping up to date with attractions and goings on with the community. So yeah, I’ll introduce myself as I do keep my identity a bit under wraps on here. I’m Luke and I’m not as much of a pussy anymore.
Cheers for reading this nearly 800 word mess. Haha.
Stay happy.
Luke x
Unreliable Coaster Blog UK 