Volume 3, No. 10. May 23, 2003
Top draw
While its attempts to erect “the world’s tallest thrill ride”
remain on hold pending the outcome of a lawsuit, the Stratosphere Tower Hotel
and Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada, is moving forward with another addition to
its tower-top collection of rides. In doing so, they may have trumped their
own “world’s tallest thrill ride.”
The green-lit ride is a Sky Skater Extreme from Interactive Rides. Knott’s
Berry Farm in Buena Park, California, recently installed a Sky Skater in its
Camp Snoopy area as the GR8 SK8 (see New Arrival), a giant seesawing skateboard.
What makes the Extreme version extreme is length (65 feet/20 meters of track
as opposed to 40 feet/12 meters), speed (30 mph/48 km/h as opposed to 15 mph/24
km/h) and slope (30 degrees as opposed to 15 degrees).
What will make the Stratosphere Tower version truly extreme is its location—on
the edge of the tower so that the eight Sky Skater passengers will roll off
the rooftop to a dangling stop 1,149 feet (350 meters) above Las Vegas Boulevard.
The tower already is home to what is arguably the world’s most thrilling
thrill ride, an S&S Power Big Shot. One of the key sensations of
the Big Shot is losing sight of the tower upon takeoff, leaving you feeling
suspended high above Las Vegas. The Sky Skater will have the same effect—except
that instead of shooting up, you are rolling down and out, and with a total
travel distance of 85 feet (26 meters), front seat passengers will roll out
beyond the length of track before the magnetic brakes take hold in the middle
of the car. “We want somebody, as they’re going over the edge, praying
there’s some sort of stop or at least a parachute,” said Interactive
Rides President Clay Slade.
Stopping is not an option for Stratosphere when it comes to guest experiences.
Though the Big Shot has entertained seven million guests since it opened
in 1996, and both it and the High Roller coaster winding around the tower’s
top continue to be Las Vegas icons, Stratosphere needed something new.
Their biggest push was an Arrow-designed coaster-type ride on the face of the
tower. Twelve-seat cars would be lifted to a height of 740 feet (225 meters)
from which they would drop down at 122 mph (195 km/h), cross Las Vegas Boulevard
and rise up another tower 416 feet (126 meters). Plans for that ride ran up
against neighborhood opposition and was shot down by the city government (THE
LOOP December 14, 2001). In February 2002 the Stratosphere submitted a toned-down
design: the same “giant fishhook” concept but just 510 feet high (155
meters) at the start and 325 feet (99 meters) at the stop with a top speed of
93 mph (150 km/h). The city still rejected the plan, and Stratosphere officials
have vowed to take the case all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court.
Meanwhile, the Sky Skater concept was already in the works. “We’ve
been talking about it for two or three years,” said Bobby Ray Harris, Stratosphere’s
senior vice president of operations. Even if the giant fishhook comes to fruition—and
it would inevitably be measured in experience value to Top Thrill Dragster
which opened this month at Cedar Point in Sandusky, Ohio (THE
LOOP, May 9, 2003)—it might give the tower another attraction, but
not the attention-grabbing, over-the-edge, singularly extreme experience the
roof top Sky Skater promises. Television broadcasts are likely to gravitate
toward the Skater from the time it is airlifted into place to well after the
first ultra-hardy riders venture aboard.
The as-yet unnamed stratoskater moved smoothly through the planning and zoning
approval process, in large part because it fit in aesthetically with the tower.
“The only issue they really brought up was the noise,” Harris said.
“Not the noise of the ride but the screaming. You get so much of that from
the Big Shot.” Anybody who sees Interactive Ride’s computer
video presentation of the ride knows theirs will generate a lot of screaming.
“The video is like, wow!” Harris said, but, still, “I kept pushing
these guys to figure out how to go further and further off the tower.”
THE LOOP is written and produced by Eric Minton, Minton Enterprises, LLC. To see more examples of Eric Minton's work and Minton Enterprises services, visit www.ericminton.com.
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