From The Vault: SkyRider at Canada's Wonderland - August 11th, 2014

Since I have not been able to visit an amusement park this year so far due to the Coronavirus (COVID-19), I decided to keep my blog active by looking back at photos on an older memory card that I had taken at Canada's Wonderland and a few fairs prior to the creation of my blog Amusement Views in the Spring of 2016. Today, I am going to share some photos of the former SkyRider stand-up roller coaster that were taken a few weeks before it ceased operation at Canada's Wonderland on September 1st, 2014.

For those who are unaware or have possibly forgotten, SkyRider was a stand-up roller coaster manufactured by Togo of Japan that operated at Canada's Wonderland from 1985 through 2014. When SkyRider debuted in 1985, it was advertised as Canada's first and only stand-up roller coaster and held that title until 1995 when La Ronde in Montreal, Quebec opened Cobra. La Ronde's stand-up coaster continued to operate until the end of the 2016 season.

Going back to SkyRider, it thrilled nearly 23 million passengers during its 29 years of operation at Canada's Wonderland! SkyRider featured an 84 foot drop, allowing the two 24-passenger trains to reach a maximum speed of 82 km/h (51 mph) before entering the coaster's only inversion a vertical loop, followed by a series of helixes, a trick track element, and airtime-filled hills all contained within 2,210 feet of track and all done while standing up! SkyRider's trains secured passengers using a unique and adjustable "butterfly" restraint system consisting of D-shaped shoulder bars with a seat belt, a lap bar, and a bicycle seat which passengers straddled to remain in a standing position throughout the duration of the ride. If a passenger where to not adjust the height of their restraint/seat properly, it could result in a rather uncomfortable ride for some as the seat was not meant to be sat on.

Despite being an uncomfortable ride for some, SkyRider created a love for stand-up roller coasters for others due to its immersive amount of airtime and only inversion, a vertical loop! I for one greatly enjoyed my rides on SkyRider as they were smooth and filled with airtime, something many amusement park and roller coaster enthusiasts crave! Prior to the 2014 season, I had not rode SkyRider due to being intimidated by its riding position. Luckily for me I had gotten over that fear in the early part of the 2014 season as I had greatly enjoyed my nine rides (eight of those done with my hands up) on SkyRider, for what we would later discover to be its final season at Canada's Wonderland.

After the park had made the announcement of its removal, I decided to capture some photos and a very short video clip of SkyRider on August 11th of that year. Be sure to enjoy the photos below!

The entrance to SkyRider was located just over the bridge in Action Zone on your way to Splash Works, Canada's Wonderland's water park.

The test 'seat' located just before the entrance sign of SkyRider stated "To Ride SkyRider you must be able to straddle the seat with your feet flat on the ground". In the above photo you can see that the seats on SkyRider resembled that of a bicycle seat.

Who in their right mind would go to an amusement park wearing high heeled shoes?!? I have heard that some visitors had over the years!

For the 2013 season, SkyRider received a blue coat of paint on its running rails. Prior to the 2013 season SkyRider featured a green and orange colour scheme.

SkyRider was quite compact when compared to other stand-up roller coasters. It was modeled after the former King Cobra at Kings Island, a stand-up coaster also manufactured by Togo. King Cobra operated from 1984 through 2001.

Here is a look at SkyRider's iconic vertical loop from the path in front of Splash Works.

SkyRider's station featured an elevated operators booth that was situated above the track, allowing the ride operator to have a clear view of the trains and passengers within the station.

As the train went up the lift hill, a ride attendant would start their safety spiel by saying "Welcome to SkyyyRiderrr!" The exaggerated pronunciation became quite iconic and memorable for many park-goers. Unfortunately during the time I had captured these photos, SkyRider had temporarily gone down resulting in many tests runs before reopening, hence the empty trains.

Once the train descended the 88 foot tall hill, it would quickly zip through the vertical loop!

Near the end of SkyRider's layout, the trains would enter a series of bunny hills before hitting the final brake run!

Here is the orange train ascending the lift hill.

Whether you rode on the yellow or orange train, you were still able to experience the thrill of standing up while going upside down through the vertical loop!

The final bunny hills were filled with pops of airtime!

Above is a very short clip of the yellow train going through the only inversion on SkyRider!

After the removal of SkyRider in the Fall of 2014, it would thankfully be sold and relocated to Cavallino Matto in Italy where it has been operating as "Freestyle" with a vibrant highlight yellow colour scheme since July 2015! Luckily this great stand-up coaster received a new lease on life!

For the next few seasons, the land where SkyRider had previously operated would sit vacant until the construction for Yukon Striker, the World's fastest, longest, and tallest Dive Coaster, began in January of 2018. In the Spring of 2019, Yukon Striker opened to thrill seekers.

While SkyRider has been making new memories in Italy as Freestyle for the past five years now, the memories of it at Canada's Wonderland still live on and will continue to do so for many years to come! I hope you enjoyed looking at these photos of SkyRider that I had captured on August 11th, 2014! Stay tuned for more From The Vault features in the following weeks and months! :-)

Kings Island- July 8th-10th, 2014

It has been quite a while since I’ve posted anything here. So, you’re in for a real treat today! If you have been following along, you would have recalled that my brother Scott, our friend Travis, and I had ventured down to Kings Island during June 2016. During that post, I had mentioned that it was Scott and I’s second time to Kings Island. So, here are some highlights of our first trip to Kings Island during July 2014. During that trip, our dad had come along with Scott and I for the trip. So, below are some photos of our first trip to Kings Island from July 8th- 10th, 2014.

Here we are along the I-75 entering the state of Ohio for the very first shortly after 2:30pm.

We had finally arrived in Mason around 6:30pm after travelling for about 8 and a half hours. Here is our first glimpse of Kings Island in person.

Here’s a closer view, showing the water park, Soak City.

Here is a view of the all-new for 2014 Banshee, along with Invertigo and Drop Tower as seen from Kings Island Drive.

The Eiffel Tower was standing tall on that beautiful summer’s day.

I was quite excited to enter Kings Island by this point but, we had checked in to the Comfort Suites prior to entering the park.

After almost after 9 hours of travelling (and two years of wanting to visit Kings Island), we had finally ventured through the front gates after purchasing our two-day admission tickets. It was a dream come true for my brother and I! We had waited for this day for some time! It also made for the perfect high school graduation gift! Above is a photo that our Dad had captured of Scott (on the right) and myself in front of the Royal Fountains at Kings Island.

After we had our photo taken in front of the Royal Fountains on International Street, we immediately made a bee-line to the Monster. Why The Monster you ask? Well, Scott and I had never been on an Eyerly Monster before, so we had to get at least one ride on it during our trip. Although, we managed to get many rides on it during our visit.

After riding The Monster, we ventured off to Vortex! Vortex is a multi-looping roller coaster with six inversions manufactured by Arrow Dynamics. Vortex has been operating since 1987.

Vortex is a fun and thrilling coaster! Here is Scott and I taking our second ride on Vortex during our first evening at the park.

Scott and I had then made our way over to the Adventure Express, an Arrow Dynamics Mine Train coaster that had opened in 1991. It’s a very enjoyable Mine Train coaster that gives a mild but, out-of-control experience!

I had captured a ride on Delirium, a Huss Giant Frisbee that opened in 2003. It sure offers a lot of spinning at is swings passengers high into the sky!

The Coney Mall sign began to light up at dusk.

After riding a few more rides, we decided to wander around the park for a while. This (somewhat blurry) photo shows my dad and I having a great time! Let's just say that my dad isn't into rides but, he does enjoy the park. This was our first true vacation since our family trip to Yukon and Alaska during July 2009.

Just as it began to get dark, the Eiffel Tower had lit up quite nicely.

Also, International Street had begun to shine as it got dark at the park.

Nearing the park’s closure for the night, our Dad and Scott decided to take an elevator ride to the top of the Eiffel Tower. I didn’t make the trip up until the next day as I was afraid of heights at the time. But, that fear has gone away as you may have discovered in previous posts.

The Royal Fountains sure look beautiful at night.

After spending a few hours of fun during our first evening at Kings Island, we had headed out just as the park had closed for the night.

Here is Scott and our dad after our amazing evening at Kings Island.

Just as we were leaving, the nightly fireworks display had begun to erupt. It was sure a great way to end an evening of fun and thrills.

The next morning we woke up at 7am, got ready had breakfast, and were ready for another day of excitement and thrills at Kings Island. 

Since the park didn’t open until 10am, we decided to venture the city of Mason and area for about an hour or so.

During our exploration around the ice city of Mason, we came across this almost abandoned factory. It was almost abandoned except for some people using the rental spots at the front of the building and a cat that had ran by our car. Here’s a bit of history of the abandoned factory from what I could find by doing a search online. This factory was constructed in the 1860’s and was once the Peters Cartridge Company. The company had originally began making bullets and cannonballs for the Civil War. The Peters Cartridge Company ceased operations in the early 1940’s. After, Columbia records had moved in for a short while making and storing records there. Then, the building became abandoned by the late 1950’s. Since then, the building has gone under multiple uses as it continues to be restored and renovated. For more information about the Peters Cartridge Company building, check out http://www.forgottenoh.com/Peters/peters.html. It sure was a very neat find that we didn’t know about. I always enjoying seeing or learning about some local history of any community.

We had arrived to Kings Island shortly before 9:20am, in order to get a decent parking spot. We had then entered the park around 9:30am with our two-day admission ticket. It sure was a beautiful start to the hot and sunny July day.

After the rides had opened at 10am, my brother Scott and I had quickly made our way over to Invertigo. The was our first time riding an Inverted Boomerang Coaster, as we had only been on a Boomerang Coaster known as The Bat at our home park, Canada’s Wonderland prior to our trip to Kings Island. The Invertigo opened at Kings Island in 1999 as ‘Face/Off’ and is manufactured by Vekoma of the Netherlands. As you can tell, Scott and I had greatly enjoyed Invertigo and were eager to ride it again a few times throughout the day. Since our first visit to Kings Island, we were lucky to ride another Invertigo coaster a year later at Dorney Park, where it is known as Stinger. The Dorney Park trip report will be coming soon, so stay tuned!

After catching rides on The Bat (formerly Top Gun and Flight Deck), The Racer, another ride on Vortex, and many other rides, we decided it was time to visit Kings Island’s water park, Soak City. 

But, we weren’t going to walk all that way, we were going to ride in style. The style of a replica steam train to be exact. We hopped on board the KI and Miami Valley Railroad at the station located in Rivertown.

Here is my dad and I on the KI and Miami Valley Railroad on our way over to Soak City. The KI and Miami Valley Railroad has been chugging along the forest of Rivertown since the park’s opening day back in April 29^th, 1972. As you travel along to Soak City, you will come across a Western Village. We’ll take a look at the Western Village on our way back from Soak City.

After our excursion along the KI and Miami Valley Railroad, we had arrived at Soak City. For a couple of hours, we had splashed along and through many of the water park’s wonderful attractions and slides.

On our way back to the ride side of Kings Island, we came across some more of the Western Village styled buildings. Here you can see the Mary Rose Inn. We also came across Fort Coney, Kings Island’s fort that existed well before Kings Island was constructed. Below is a video of Fort Coney as we travel by on the KI and Miami Valley Railroad.

After coming back from Soak City, Scott and our Dad somehow managed to coach me up the Eiffel Tower just to take in the view, even though I was quite afraid of heights at that time. But, after this trip to Kings Island, I had lost my fear of heights and enjoy the tallest of attractions ever since.

Here is a view of Action Zone and the “new for 2014” Banshee. The Banshee along with The Bat really stood out with their shiny new coats of paint. The Banshee was new that year and The Bat had transformed from being Flight Deck.

After a while of riding more rides and getting a bite to eat, our dad decided to try his luck at the Hi-Striker game in the Coney Mall section of the park. He struck the mallet hard and won a large prize.

That large prize was a Komodo dragon! We quickly ran to the parking lot and stuffed it in the trunk of my car to enjoy the rest of our day at Kings Island.

After re-entering the park, Scott and I continued to ride many attractions at Kings Island. Here is Scott and I standing in front of The Monster, a ride which we absolutely enjoy after visiting Kings Island!

As the sun started to lower and set for the evening, Scott and I decided to capture a ride on the park’s family wooden coaster, Woodstock Express. The Woodstock Express opened with the park in 1972 and was manufactured by Philadelphia Toboggan Company. Throughout the years, this family coaster was known as Scooby-Doo, The Beastie, and even the Fairly-Odd Coaster. In 2010, it received its current name to reflect the sections transformation into Planet Snoopy. It was a fun wooden coaster, as it is very similar to Ghoster Coaster at Canada’s Wonderland. After riding Woodstock Express, we decided to take some last photos before we left Kings Island. Above is a photo of the Grand Carousel.

As you can tell, we had visited Kings Island on July 9^th, 2014 according to the Floral Date that has been a prominent feature at Kings Island since opening year.

Here is Kings Island’s famous Living Liberty Bell.

The Floral Clock had just struck 7pm just as I had took this photo.

Just before leaving Kings Island, I had one last thing to do. That one last thing was to try a Skyline Chili Cheese Coney. It was absolutely amazing and possibly the best chili cheese dog I ever had.

After that my brother and I took one last final stand to get our photo captured by our dad prior to leaving Kings Island.

So, after spending a night at the great Microtel Inn of Mason, we decided it was time to venture home back to Ontario as there was an 8 and a half hour drive ahead of us.

Here is one of our final glimpses of Kings Island for a while until two years later when Scott and I, along with our friend Travis decided to venture back down for another great trip. This first trip to Kings Island was a truly amazing trip! It was quite special for me as it was the first time my brother Scott, our dad, and I had gone on a vacation alone, without the company of our older brother and our mom. We greatly enjoyed ourselves and had a wonderful time. It will be a trip that I will never forget and one that I will forever cherish because it was the first vacation of its kind that I had taken.

I thank you for taking a look at my first trip to Kings Island that occurred from July 8^th-10^th, 2014. Be sure to come back soon to take a look at my trip to Dorney Park that we took during June 2015. Until then, enjoy the ride!