In online theme park groups/forums, one of the most popular questions that can’t be solved by a little thing called Google is: “How do I get over my fear of rollercoasters?” Or variants thereof. Well, as the summer holidays are upon us and many will be dragged to theme parks (possibly kicking and screaming), I can tell you exactly how I did it.
I am a strange human in many ways, but one of the oddest quirks of my brain is having an autistic special interest in theme parks and rollercoasters while also having a deathly fear of heights. I have never seen the inside of my loft at home because climbing up the ladder causes me to experience vertigo and freeze, but I have stood at the bottom of a 240ft rollercoaster and thought “Heck yea! I did it!” The battle from “I want to do that, but I can’t” to “I can do that, and I loved it!” was long, but so worth it.
Advice on this topic usually splits into two categories. There is team “just do it, pick the biggest one and get it out of your system” and team “start small and build your way up”. The way I see it, and it’s just a hunch, chances are pretty good that the people who feel able to “just do it” probably aren’t the same people googling advice or taking to the horrors of Reddit to explain they’ve never made it on The Smiler.
Starting small feels like good advice, but when you’re the scared one it’s real hard to imagine how you can go from the Flying Fish to The Swarm (I love The Swarm but, DAMN, did they build an intimidating looking ride that still gets me). I realised that there was something missing from the advice and it’s a pretty obvious thing…
You have to find what you do like on the smaller ride, and chase down more and more of it.
If you’ve stomached a ride and want to ride bigger/fiercer, chances are there was something about that ride that you liked enough to want to keep trying. A little basic understanding of how rollercoasters work goes a long way here, but let’s say you don’t have that, what you need to do is break it down into two basic sensations:
- Being pinned into your seat
- A whooshing, floaty sensation
Let’s use The Runaway Mine Train at Alton Towers as an example as, in my mind, this is truly the best starter coaster as it gives you a small taste of everything. You have the little mini up and down hills half way through the ride, this gives you a small dose of the whooshy, floaty sensation. Meanwhile, when you speed round the corner into the tunnel, this gives you a pinned into your seat feeling.
Find the feeling you like the most and then find a rollercoaster that will give you more of that feeling. For number one, I would choose Wickerman next or Spinball Whizzer for gentler theming, for number two, I would choose Th13teen next. It’s so easy to look at a coaster and nope the heck out of it, but by bringing back it to how it feels to ride a rollercoaster, it takes you away from “OH MY GOD THAT THING IS HORRIFYING” and reminds you of the most important thing… it’s fun!
This applies to inversions too. On Nemesis, for example, the corkscrews give you a great dose of feeling 1 and the zero G roll and vertical loop give you more of feeling 2. Going upside down is very daunting, but if you already like the feeling of being pinned to your seat then you’re really going to love an intense inversion, in fact you’ve already felt most of what it feels like. And if you’ve discovered you love the float of airtime, just wait until you experience a good stall inversion.
And the best part is that once you begin to understand more of what it is you like, the easier it is to identify, either from watching YouTube or looking at a rollercoaster, how that ride is likely to feel. Sure, there will be bits you look at that feel terrifying, but if you know how good the rest of it feels, it’s going to be easier to take the plunge.
That all said, probably the best advice I can give anyone is: “If you’re having fun, why worry about it?” You’re not a failure if you rode the Gruffalo ride once then spent the entire time at Chessington Zoo. Tried all the snacks but not shot your way to the top of Stealth? So what? Look, ticket prices aren’t cheap. I mean, really, going to a theme park and not doing things that bring you joy? In this economy? Really?
It’s not a contest, you’re not a bad enthusiast if you haven’t zeroed out a park, it matters how much you enjoy it, not what you enjoy. But when you are ready? Follow the fun. And I’ll see you at the top of Stealth. It only took me 16 years to do it.
Stacey Michelle Warner
