Sun reporter takes ride on wild side at Manitoba Summer Fair

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 07/06/2017 (3176 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

“I think a bolt is missing,” somebody yelled out as a midway ride at the Manitoba Summer Fair began its slow ascent.

While others laughed, I froze — for three, maybe four minutes. That man, whoever he is, had scared me.

For minutes, I sat motionless atop the Mach 3 as the

37-metre arm I latched onto stretched to the sky while we waited for more passengers. Bend my knees, I wouldn’t do, but I would curse my decision to sign up for this.

Somehow, a few years ago, I became a boring adult, who scoffed at anyone who figured amusement rides were for people who reached the age of majority. I was happily satisfied with my feet planted to the ground, enjoying anything of the deep-fried variety.

Yet, I knew my aversion to thrill-seeking was misplaced, especially for a guy young enough to only have a couple white hairs, so I hesitantly volunteered to be The Brandon Sun’s guinea pig at a VIP preview event Tuesday night.

But I was regretting that decision to try a couple of rides as I waited 133 feet in the air on the Mach 3.

The ride is essentially a fast-moving windmill, with seats mounted at the end of each arm. It takes just under five seconds for one revolution, producing a g-force acceleration of as much as 3.2.

You can bet I screamed once it finally got going. I begged us to stop. I remembered my editor telling me puking was a possibility. And I decided I would ask him for a raise because of this.

But I made it.

“This is purely a really great thrill ride,” said Scooter Korek, vice-president of North American Midway Entertainment, one of the companies putting the midway attractions together.

Having survived, I understandably got cocky for the next ride, the Himalaya, where passengers sit in a car spinning along a fixed track.

As the ride started its rotation slowly, I extended my arm to give a carnival worker a high-five. Yet just as our hands were about to connect, the ride shot forward.

I screamed, which is the common thread among four rides I took, including the Mega Drop, which hurdles 110 feet down in just 2.75 seconds. It’s just enough time to yell, “Oh my God,” I found out.

As the throng of other media/VIP folks walked onward to what I hoped was the merry-go-round, I discovered The Sling Shot was next. The ride is essentially a secured catapult, which launches its passenger vertically at more than 160 km/h.

Nothing to worry about, suggested Sun photographer Tim Smith, who happened to point out, just then, the ride has parts that can be assembled and dissembled. When he smirked, I didn’t.

While waiting for the ride to start, my seatmate and I contemplated the end of our lives.

We were thrown so high, so fast we reached a point of weightlessness 235 feet in the air.

There is no gravity during that transition.

“It’s just for a second and then you’re launched right back to the ground,” said Nathan Maier, vice-president of Thrillmasters, who clearly knows a thing or two about thrills. He said this while my legs, happily on the ground, shook.

Satisfied I didn’t hurl any past meals into a garbage can, I walked away from the midway pleased.

I may even venture back to one of the rides over the five days of the fair, as should you, convinced thrill-seeking isn’t only for teenagers.

 

» ifroese@brandonsun.com

» Twitter: @ianfroese