New Ohio Roller Coaster

Why Ohio?

Ohio is not necessarily a glamorous vacation destination – unless travelers like roller coasters, that is. The state is home to eight different theme parks, including some of the most popular parks in the United States. Together, these parks offer guests 43 roller coasters – a total that ranks Ohio as third in the nation behind California’s 73 roller coasters and the 44 in Ohio’s eastern neighbor, Pennsylvania. With so many parks, Ohio is frequently home to new rides, including new unique coaster designs that are hard to find in other, less roller coaster dense destinations.

Two for 2007: New Ohio Roller Coasters

In 2007, two new roller coasters in Ohio drew acclaim from visitors from the day they first roared along their tracks.

Cedar Point

The most highly anticipated new roller coaster of 2007 was Maverick, the seventeenth scream machine at Cedar Point amusement park in Sandusky. Cedar Point has long been renowned for its widely varied selection of roller coasters that includes the suspended Iron Dragon, the inverted Raptor, the stand-up Mantis, the bobsled Disaster Transport, the racing Gemini, and the shuttle Wicked Twister, as well as one of the highest, fastest roller coasters in the world, Top Thrill Dragster.

Maverick, however, represents a return to classic coaster design for the park. Instead of seeking to break a speed, length, or height record, this coaster delivers exceptional thrills in a traditional format. At 105 feet tall and reaching speeds of 70 miles per hour, the coaster is smooth, fast, and breathtaking for its powerful thrills. Two inversions and a 400 foot long tunnel add flair and surprise to the ride, making it well worth the lengthy line all new Cedar Point roller coasters draw.

Maverick is located in the park’s Frontier Town section on the former site of the family flume ride, White Water Landing, and the coaster’s mild theming and bucking bronco logo fit well with this area of the park. Construction difficulties – including the removal of a planned third inversion – delayed the coaster’s initial opening, but today Maverick is thrilling riders daily with its bold red track and wild west excitement.

King’s Island

X-Flight

The second largest theme park in Ohio, King’s Island, is also owned by the Cedar Fair Entertainment Company and has introduced a thrilling new ride for the 2007 season: Firehawk. The coaster actually isn’t new, having been previously built as X-Flight at Geauga Lake (yet another Cedar Fair park, though it was a former Six Flags park when the coaster was built), though it was relocated to King’s Island to offer its unique thrills to southern Ohio visitors.

Firehawk is a flying coaster, a unique design in coaster engineering that secures riders in a padded harness before they are flipped onto their stomachs for a unique flight experience. The two minute, ten second ride soars through five inversions at speeds up to 50 miles per hour, flipping guests onto their fronts and backs for different portions of the ride to create a unique combination of views, vertigo, and thrills. The green, black, and silver color scheme was abandoned for a new red and yellow paint job that dramatically emphasizes the coaster’s new name and location.

What's next in Ohio?

King’s Island is also home to a ride that isn’t a new Ohio roller coaster, but will be offering new thrills once it reopens to riders. Son of Beast is one of the longest, tallest, and fastest wooden roller coasters in the world, and when it first opened it included the only vertical loop on any wooden coaster in the world. The coaster’s excessively rough ride prompted many rider complaints, however, and after Cedar Fair purchased King’s Island, renovations began to smooth out the ride and tame the beast. Those renovations include removing the vertical loop, because while the loop itself was not the cause of the ride’s undue stress, removing it will allow different styles of trains to be used that can run more smoothly along the challenging track. Though no date has yet been set to reopen Son of Beast, when it does it will be a “new” ride for guests to enjoy.

What’s Next?

With so many parks in the state, several of them having reputations for superb roller coasters and continually new thrill seeking attractions, there is no telling what the next new Ohio roller coaster may be. It may break a speed, height, length, or duration record, it may be an entirely new design, or it may just be a fun, classic ride coaster fanatics can enjoy, but one thing is sure: Ohio will remain one of the most popular theme park destinations in the world as long as it continues to debut superior roller coasters that challenge gravity and the laws of physics with new and unique rides.