The Giant Dipper is a must-do for anyone who loves thrill rides. It’s not the highest, fastest or scariest, but there’s no denying its classic status. Along with it’s twin in San Diego and the Dragon Coaster in NY, it’s one of the three remaining coasters designed in the 1920s by Frederick Church. I try to make it over the hill for a ride at least once a year. A word to the wise though: when you’re cruising the boardwalk at night, keep an eye out for lost boys and shirtless saxophone players.
If you can’t make it to the beach this summer, here’s a shaky-cam POV video I made back in 2008:
I might take exception with “not the scariest.” I’ve been on some that got my heart racing more or made my stomach drop more. But the Giant Dipper is the only one where I really felt scared. Any others, I know in the back of my mind that I won’t actually be hurt. Between the questionable restraints, cross-beams that look like they could take off your arm if you waved it a little high, and the occasional support that seems to be nailed on randomly, I felt like if I didn’t heed all warnings, things could go poorly for me.
I’ve ridden it about five times. I had to make a special side trip one time, because my travelling companion had a childhood disappointment when his parents said they’d go, then changed their minds. We actually rode it twice before hitting the road . I love it.
Just watched the video. It seemed slower than in person at first, but I forgot how it really speeds up about halfway through.
Coincidentally, the first time I rode the Giant Dipper was in 2007, when the Boardwalk itself was celebrating its 100th birthday. As part of the celebration all the rides only cost one ticket.
I’ve never ridden it, but I’d agree that in general “scary” is not solely a factor of “fast” and “high”, but for me it also involves how close you get to other things, and the amount of time you have to apprehend your situation. I’ve ridden Incredible Hulk at Islands of Adventure, and while it’s not a bad coaster, albeit not worth the 90 minute wait to ride, it wasn’t as scary as one might think it would be considering how fast you’re going and how much of your time is spent upside down. It goes so fast and you’re pushed into your seat so well that it doesn’t even feel like you’re upside down. As opposed to a classic upright loop the loop where you feel the g’s plummeting as your body gradually tilts backward.
I agree with everything you wrote. It might be the only ride that convinced me that I could actually be injured…or worse. Awesome, but not in a good way.
When I was little, the Giant Dipper in San Diego had been abandoned for quite some time. It was just a fenced-off slowly decaying hulk that looked like something out of a Scooby-Doo episode. They restored it and reopened it when I was 10 and I got to ride it on opening day, and it was the first “grownup” roller coaster I ever got to go on.
I lived in San Diego in the late 90s when a radio station sponsored a contest with a prize of $64,000 for whoever could ride the Giant Dipper the longest*. It was a “water cooler” topic of discussion every day at work. My girlfriend and I went down and took a ride with the contestants about a month into it, they were looking pretty worn out at that point.
*They had to stay on the Giant Dipper from 7am until 12 pm every day with a one 30 minute and two 10 minute breaks each day…and they had to sleep in the cars. Five riders stuck it out for 77 days and ended up splitting the money.
I well remember the slow clicking climb at the beginning, the terrifying weightlessness as you dropped like a stone, and the screaming. Screaming was part of the whole experience. I think I last rode it when I was fifteen.
Yes, that was 1999/2000 or so. I remember following it on the local news, and I want to say one of the reporters rode for a day or two as a gaffe. (Possibly Larry Himmel from channel 8 - he was always doing stunts of that nature.)
Looks like close kin to the Big Dipper, at Geauga Lake, and the Bluestreak, at Cedar Point. And although the Big Dipper (and the entire park) is now closed, the Little Dipper (kid-sized but still a real roller coaster) remains the oldest steel roller coaster in the country.
We moved to Santa Cruz when I was ten, that was the first of many rides. I have since taken my kids to ride when I went for my 20 year high school reunion, but that was the last time since I skipped the 30 year. I worked at the Boardwalk one summer in the arcades and mini golf before I went away in the military.
I’ve done it! Visited The Boardwalk a few times when I still had a life. I actually just today found a picture of my kid piloting the helicopter ride. Put it up on the display shelf.
The Dragon Coaster (assuming it’s the one at Playland in Rye) is apparently far less scary than it used to be due to changes in the cars. Rather scary is Leap the Dips in Altoona (speed is low but there’s no safety features) and Flying Turns, also in PA, which used pure physics to keep you on the trac,
Space Mountain is less scary than it used to be, as well. There is a point where you are barreling straight ahead and then all of a sudden dip downward steeply. That point is still there, but they added brakes right before it so you don’t get half as good of a g-force in your gut.
I grew up in west San Jose, just over the hill from Santa Cruz, and while I was afraid to ride it as a kid, someone dared me as a teenager, and I was hooked. However, I’m not sure I would ride it today, given it’s age.
I assume some governmental authority checks it periodically to make sure it’s structurally sound. If it’s up to the Boardwalk to check it then I would be reluctant given its age. Let’s remember it’s mostly made out of wood… 100-year-old constantly wet from fog and rain and then dried out wood. Let’s hope it’s being maintained properly given its age and almost daily use…
I took my 13yo on it last summer. Against my better judgement, we ended up in the back. I cracked a rib and my kid did not come away as enamored with it as I was at that age.
