Coasters

These sloping structures are often used as a euphemism for life as they’re full of ups and downs, twists and turns and surprises around every bend. And these humongous modern marvels have come a long way since the day of ice tracks. Taller, faster, longer, more air time, meticulous theming and non-stop thrills are the name of the game. Pull down your lap bar, hold on tight and get ready to enjoy a radical ride. All clear! We’ll ramble on about rollercoasters on this week’s episode of FYI.

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Transcript

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these sloping structures are often used as a euphemism for life as they're full of ups and downs twists and turns and surprises around every Bend and these humongous Modern Marvels have come a long way since the day of ice tracks taller faster longer more airtight time meticulous theming and nonstop Thrills are the name of the game pull down your lap bar hold on tight and get ready to enjoy a radical ride all clear we'll ramble on about roller coaster ERS on this week's episode of FYI welcome to for your info English you got it you got[Applause][Music][Applause][Applause][Music] it hello hello hello and welcome to this another exciting edition of FYI and this is exciting for many many reasons a if you're paying attention this is the last episode of season 6 so that means 30 episodes a season that's 180 episodes plus those of you who are in my Curious Community double that because you get a bonus episode every week translation that's a whole lot of English content so thank you FYI thank you from the bottom of my heart for another exciting season and the second reason this is an important episode for me is this is one of my favorite topics Under the Sun as many of you know I don't just love roller coasters I love rides period but the more thrilling the better and what's more thrilling than a roller coaster the signature attraction at any park the one that draws the crowds in the king of amusement parks or theme parks the roller coaster or you can simply call it the coaster but just be careful coaster has another meaning in English it's something you put your glass on when you're at a bar for example I think you say posavasos a coaster which is interesting because you put it there so that the drink doesn't coast and let's look at the etymology of the word roller coaster because really it makes a lot of sense the thing rolls on a track and once it goes over the first Hill it coasts through the rest of the circuit and that word Coast is the one I want to look at I know you guys know it like La Costa Costa Sol but to Coast is to move without much effort it's like when you're riding your bike and you start pedaling really hard and then you don't have to pedal anymore you're coasting and that's exactly what a roller coaster does it builds up that energy that momentum you call it inera and it coasts through the track and how does it do that it rolls on Wheels I love when we can pick words apart and look at their etymology and Coast also has a figurative meaning as well and it means to apply little effort think about it it's going on pure momentum let me give you it in context Johnny just coasted through high school that means he did the minimum effort to get by so see now we haven't just learned about roller coasters but we've learned about the root of the word in Spanish you call them Russian Mountains do you know what the Russians call them American mountains but we'll get into the history in just a moment also we've got a special guest so that's a third reason that this is a special episode we've got a special guest photo parks and I think this is one of the coolest accounts for people like me people who get turned on noon we get turned on when we see rides there's something about a loop or a track or a train car that can be Sleek that can be sexy and I know you're thinking I'm crazy right now but just talk to any thusi and a thusi is somebody who is an Enthusiast you've got normies normies are everybody who goes to the theme park and then you've got thusis like me who know every make of every coaster so we'll hear from photo Parks make sure you follow him on Instagram but we'll hear from him a little bit later on about where Spain is in the Coaster World and you'll be surprised we have a top spot and even some of us have agreed that it's not even being exploited enough and obviously people who live here don't realize the uniqueness of the coasters in Spain but we'll get to all that stuff let's kick off with our intro I started off by saying these sloping structures and a slope is a hillend I think you say are often used as a euphemism for life and we've heard it in music in movies the song Roller Coaster comes to mind roller coaster and it's true life is full of ups and downs you say alos twists and turns and surprises around every Bend and every Bend is every corner every curve so in that aspect life is like a roller coaster although wasn't it Forest Gump who said my mama always said life was like a box of chocolates you never know what you're going to get if you haven't heard our episode on English and movies give it a listen there's even a movie line quiz in it but let's get back to coasters one of my favorite topics in the world right now I am beaming this means I have a smile from ear to ear talking about one of my favorite topics and then I said these humongous Modern Marvels have come a long way since the days of ice tracks and as the name imp wi they started in the mountains in the snow in the ice in Russia and obviously it spread to other places then I used some comparatives taller faster longer more airtime meticulous theming and non-stop Thrills are the name of the game and that means that's what it's all about the SOA that's the name of the game and we'll talk about that in in the coaster Wars yeah I know you've heard of the Cold War and the late night Wars but have you heard of the coaster Wars oh yeah pretty exciting stuff then I use some vocabulary you'll hear around the theme park or the amusement park and there's a difference right there an amusement park usually isn't all about the theming although you know it's important to have nice Gardens I guess I would say it's like par Madrid versus the Warner Park in Madrid even though I must say for an amusement park par Madrid has a lot of theming there's even a Nickelodean land in fact you want me to let you in on a secret I'm taking my daughter there today after I record this episode I'm going to pick her up at school and we're going to one of our favorite places M and it's not only got some very interesting rides for all ages and the whole family but it's also said in the center of a gorgeous Park as I said before I think Spanish people I think we don't know how good we have it when it comes to theme parks and unique rides but we'll get to that so that's theme parks versus amusement parks but now I think even amusement parks are trying to theme things it makes you escape your everyday life and it takes you to another place and that's the whole idea behind amusement parks in the first place so I said pull down your lap bar hold on tight and get ready to enjoy a radical ride and the word radical here doesn't mean radical like you know a skin head or something like this radical was a word that was used a lot when I was a kid for awesome then I said what the ride operators say all clear and then the ride pulls out of the station and you never know what's going to happen next but you know you're going to scream and your adrenaline level is going to shoot up and you're going to have the time of your life unless you're my wife and we'll talk about her with rides as well some people loathe rides some people see rides in general as evil machines like Decepticons and then I said we'll ramble on about roller coasters and I'm already rambling on to speak at length you say theard in Spanish so let's go back to the early days where did it all start here we are in 18th century Russia and I am standing here in front of a beautiful slide made of ice I have a sled and I even have a wheeled cart and I send it down the hill and everybody screams and has a good time all right that was a really bad Russian accent but what I'm saying is in the 18th century in Russia they had ice slides and that's a great word slide is toan and slide is so you slide down the slide I love it when English makes sense like that it makes my job easy as a teacher so really roller coasters came from slay riding because this is something we did where I grew up as a kid we would go slay riding every time there was a snowfall and I remember we would make jumps so we were even adding elements you could say there's a direct connection from sleigh riding Theo I think you say and modern-day roller coasters at least the idea behind it and then the technology evolved in the 19th century and they started using railroad tracks which were obviously not being used for pleasure at that time they were being used to transport goods and then in the 20th century newer Innovations emerged and this allowed for greater speeds sharper turns and the ability to go upside down upside down boy you turn me inside out round and round and by the mid to late 20th century these elements were all intensified with the introduction of Steel roller coaster designs but this is roll roller coasters in a nutshell we'll look at more specific Innovations and Milestones in just a moment and did you know Catherine the Great of Russia has a roller coaster connection she was a huge fan of coasters and she constructed a summer version of the ride at her estate in 1784 and this unlike the other ones at the time that were made of ice and snow this one actually used wheel carts instead of SL heads and they would coast along grooved tracks so Catherine the Great one of the first recorded thusis as I said they call them American mountain or sliding Mountain but back then they were only for the elite imagine that now telling somebody oh you can't go on this roller coaster you're too low class but back then it was a luxury there weren't Mega theme parks with 20 coasters like there are today so Russians love the idea of Sligh riding of putting a card on a track whether it be with ice or eventually wheels and then this spread to France and there was a huge boom in France and this was due to the Russian soldiers that occupied Paris from 1815 to 1816 this was after the defeat of Napoleon at waterl so this Russian Amusement of sledding down a steep Hill really started to catch on in France and in 1817 a French Banker named Nicolas bjon opened up the park Bon an amusement park on the champ saliz right smack in the middle of Paris along the river and its most famous feature was the promenad Aran or the aerial strolls and this featured wheeled cars that were securely locked to a track and there were guide rails that would keep them on course when they reached higher speeds these carts were towed to the top of a tower and then they were released where they descended two curving tracks on either side so the French were fascinated with this idea and they decided to take it a step further even King Louie the 18th King Louis VI 18th of France came to see the park but again what's going on this is only for nobility it's only for Royals that's not cool shouldn't everybody be able to enjoy these Thrills these cool new Contraptions and then so many of these similar rides started popping up all over Paris what about us every man the plebs well in 1845 a new amusement park opened in Copenhagen called tiv Garden and this was finally a park that was accessible to the middle class as well but seriously now many more people could experience this new phenomenon and if you've heard of tiv before there's a reason for it this is where Walt Disney got the inspiration for Disneyland and Disneyland was definitely a turning point as far as theme parks are concerned some would say it was the first again there were Parks before Disney that had theming but Disney took it and ran with it he went the extra mile but he was inspired by his visit to Copenhagen his visit to tiv Gardens a park for almost everybody and these new parks featured roller coasters as well they were part of its permanent attractions the first permanent Loop track was also built in Paris from an English Design This was an 1846 in 1887 a French entrepreneur Joseph olier the owner of the mulong Rouge Music Hall built Les mon El bille the Russian Mountains of Belleville and this was a permanent roller coaster with a length of about 200 M which was like a double eight track and it was so popular that it was later enlarged to have four AG shap shaped Loops so everybody was jumping on the coaster bandwagon and then in the United States of course we were taking note and in the 1850s a mining company in Summit Hill Pennsylvania made the machunk gravity railroad this was a 14 km downhill track which was used to deliver coal to ma chunk it was the name of the town in Pennsylvania by 18 72 the gravity Road as it became known was selling Rides To Thrill Seekers people were flocking there from all over the United States not to see the mines but to ride that downhill drop word was spreading that it was one of the coolest rides in town there's just one thing it wasn't supposed to be a ride it was a way to move coal but Railway companies were paying attention and they saw that maybe if they had similar tracks well they could attract people and make money in their downtime when they weren't shipping cargo or days when ridership was low so as you see in the beginning it was linked more to sleds and tobogan like things then it became linked to the railroads which is more like the modern tracks they use these days but it was a lot of different ideas that came together and no man perhaps contribut Ed more to the world of coasters than Lamarcus adna Thompson he is best known for his early work developing roller coasters he invented the Scenic Railway genre he's also known as the father of the American roller coaster over his lifetime he accumulated nearly 30 patents related to roller coaster Technologies but the one that got him started was his work on the gravity switch back Railway that opened at Coney Island in Brooklyn in 1884 passengers would climb to the top of a platform and they would ride a bench-like car down 180 M track to the top of another Tower then the vehicle was switched and would return on the track it was called the Switchback Railway and it was just one of the many breakthroughs and Coney Island in general has been a testing ground for rides perhaps one of the most famous rides ever is there the famous Cyclone it's a rickety wooden coaster and it's probably one of the scariest coasters I've ever ridden in my life but it is worth every second I can't wait to ride it again and one of my wife's favorite places in New York is Coney Island you've got some really cool historic rides such as the Wonder Wheel as well and it's a stone throw from New York City a subway ride away and on a hot summer day you can even go swimming in the beach just be careful with the syringes I'm just kidding or not well either way if you go to Coney Island you will feel like you went back in time and it's true it's like going to a museum the Cyclone has been declared a national landmark it cannot be torn down but also so when that was coming out there were a lot of experiments going on there wasn't a big focus on ride safety like nowadays nowadays you have to go through inspections there are different maintenance procedures that have to be done regularly but back then it was who wants to try my new ride any guinea pigs I mean Riders so you saw a lot of rides that failed but there were many that survived such as the Cyclone which you can still ride today and it opened all the way back in 1927 I highly recommend it and while you're there ride the Wonder Wheel as well there's a tongue twister for you let's take a look at some other Innovations and Milestones in the world of coasters the first use of a lap bar was in Coney Island in 1907 as I said before that safety what what's that in 1912 the Scenic Railway opened at Luna Park in Melbourne Australia at the time of this recording it is the world's oldest continually operating roller coaster in 1919 the first under friction roller coaster had been developed by John Miller and under friction or uplift or up stop as it's called is a device that keeps the train from jumping off the track and of course what happened after 1927 when the Cyclone came out and it seemed like the sky was the limit the Great Depression then World War II and this completely put a hold on coasters on amusement parks in general we had bigger fish to fry and people didn't have money to spend on Leisure so coasters and theme parks basically disappeared at least as a priority and it marked the end of the Golden Age amusement parks went into Decline and if there are fewer visitors there's less demand for coasters and this lasted up until around 1972 when the racer opened at Kings Island Kings Island is one of the most famous parks in the United States and this was an instant success it was two roller coasters racing against each other on a track and they claimed it was record-breaking the tallest the fastest it wasn't but people believed it people flocked there from everywhere because this coaster had to be seen it had to be ridden and this in 1972 is credited for reigniting this Renaissance of coasters so it was a boom and bust and back to a boom that's the way life Works folks like a loop hey wait are we comparing life to a roller coaster again of course we are and also this helped kick off the coaster Wars now people realized the importance of having a good coaster or maybe not a good coaster but one that people were talking about cuz it was the tallest it was the fastest it was unique it had the most inversions whatever the gimmick may be they realized coasters are the key and then a company named Arrow would come and steal the sh did you catch my joke well steel is Rob but steel AO that's right steel was a game changer and the company that worked with steel tracks was arrow and they were working with Disney so I guess they had a pretty unlimited budget I don't know but the success of Disney was riding on Arrow and vice versa and in 1959 Disneyland introduced a new break through in roller coasters with the matter horn Bob sleds this was the first large scale roller coaster to use tubular steel track the one we see on almost all coasters today and that's thanks to arrow and obviously Disney and now with steel you could Bend and do all kinds of different Maneuvers Loops cork screws you could get really creative and there are people who debate that uh the first steel coaster was one at the fair in Paris called r2000 but I guess Disney has a better PR department what a surprise there and nowadays Disney is not really known for their coasters but they were Innovative back in the day at least the way they were built and then if you add the theming well then you get something special but in the bonus part we'll talk about how Arrow one of the Great companies went under to go under is to go bankrupt they put all their eggs in one basket the X basket that was the name of the coaster I'll tell you that story in the bonus episode we'll also take a look at the geeky world of fuses the different clubs and accounts you can follow we'll talk about the future we'll talk a little bit about some of the manufacturers we'll talk about coasters in pop culture the dark side fun facts the the best rated parks and coasters and of course the worst rated coasters ever as well all that in the bonus episode if you guys want to join us in the bonus episode all you have to do is join me on patreon and you can get access to a bonus episode every week you can get PDF documents with all the vocabulary classes with me and most importantly be a part of a curious Community more information at patreon.com Alberto Alonso and I want to say a shout out to all my patrons especially my super duper students Mara Javier and Paco and also my Interstellar students Carman Lena Issa Paco David Jose Maria and Edgard keep rocking and rolling guys you get it rolling roller coaster okay I won't quit my day job if you guys want more information you can go to patreon.com Alberto alono and join us all right folks now before I said we were going to hear from photo Parks you got to follow him what an awesome account not only does he share awesome pictures and videos but also some interesting discussions as well it's photo written in the American way pH and I've got to say his English is awesome kudos to you Jesus and Jesus is going to talk to us about Spain about what makes Spain such an amazing place for theme parks and coasters he's going to remind us how lucky we are cuz I think as I said most people don't realize it we know about the beaches we know about the national parks but Spain kicks ass so make sure you guys follow Jesus it's photo Parks I'll share the links in the show notes let's hear from Jesus hello I'm Jesus I'm the creator of the Instagram account photo box also Twitter but mainly know for Instagram and today Alberto took me here to talk to all the people in the podcast a little bit more about the thar culture in this country especially about the most remarkable CS we have here so first of all I want to start talking a little bit about the rights in the Madrid them packs here in Madrid we have two them packs the first one this park attraction is the Madrid which is the most classical theme park you know it's not even a theme park it's an amusement pack and here we have some of the most we had actually really really unique coasters which could be for example tarantula the first one of the first spinning coasters from the manufacturer M son a really good coaster H easily the best of of its kind I would say I ride a few of mod spinning coasters I can really strongly say it's one of the best of its type and talking about the other coaster we have for example tornado which is a an intermediate inverted coaster this manufacturer in doesn't have too much in the coaster has a few with lunch but with TR the traditional type of inverted coasters that that you must probably ride in other countries like the Six Flag Sparks some something from outside Spain it's it goes more in that style so but inamin doesn't have too much of that model so it's kind of it's a really neque model really neque model lots of supports not something remarkable but it's a unique coaster let's say only that it's good and what I think is the JW is the diamond of the parket attraction the Madrid which is a vismo it's a what it's a model SK Sky Loop exactly the model XT 450 I think it was that number I think it was XT 450 okay I'm not quite sure about the number but it's a unique model this company it's motor it's also the manufacturer of tarantula this company made a first model called the only skyloop and it was it was good it was good but they knew they have to add something so like you know to give it a little bit of interesting to other the them packs and parket attractions around 2005 to GH I on this model and decided to install the first of its type really great coaster really great Coter really bad restraint I would also say it's really uncomfortable but really good coaster so that's all the park attraction is talking about other Parks we have Park War in Madrid which have uh some decent B coasters I mean coaster but what it really remarks these packs and why everyone is putting it sign on it it's because the last year new coaster which is Batman gotam City Escape an inam multi loune coaster that features re launches some inversions crazy native G moments it's one of the best coasters I've ever ridden I will easily put it in my top three without any problem and well it's actually if you're going to come to Spain to ride some coaster this is definitely the one you should look and put an eye on on it's really really good it's amazing talking about other part we also have for Aventura World in this Canady Madrid it's in Sana in Catalonia we have AV worldall with the biggest yeah the biggest the biggest tallest and fastest roller coaster in Europe which is red Force I didn't have the chance to try it but it actually looks nice from from what I've heard is not that it's not that good even with all those records it's just a mainly element which is the top hat which is like a climb and it goes down and instantly to breaks nothing else it's really really short this type of Coast Step so I W I will go explain to it because it doesn't have anything more but actually in P Aventura you have what I think is the second best coaster in Spain just behind Batman gam citycape and which for many years almost a decade it was the best coaster in our country which is Shambala Shambala it's an amazing coaster is a hyper coaster what it's called the model it's manufactured by bigard and mailar this is the type of coaster that that you imagine when someone talks you to you about roller coasters you think just a drop clim GES all it's all you think about the typical generic roller coaster Shambala is exactly that but not in a bad way it's a really really good coaster really good forces if you're going to come to Spain for them box hle this should be your second option because it's really really good and that's all sorry for explaining myself a little bit for taking so long I was hoping to be a little bit shter but I think that's good I'm really grateful to be in this podcast and see you all bye-bye awesome job Jesus you sounded like a native and it's true he pointed out we really do have some unique coasters that you won't find anywhere in the world Penta Park also is on the level of Disney or Universal and I'm not just talking about The Coasters if we talk about coasters they beat Disney I'm talking about the theming the overall experience and if you're looking for something old school don't forget about tiabo as well the bottom line we are really lucky here in Spain I hope you guys will be inspired to go out and ride some of Spain's best coasters and discover some of its best theme parks and our coasters losing popularity not at all they're just getting bigger and bigger according to the roller coaster database there are currently 5,700 coasters worldwide there there were 235 built in 2021 alone and that was a weird year if you remember coasters are on the rise there's no doubt about it they are the Undisputed king of any park so thanks for joining me thank you to my friend Jesus from photo parks and I hope you'll join us in the bonus episode of this week's FYI w[Applause][Music]