Indiana Beach Cornball Express Media Day: May 18, 2001

The Water Swings live up to their name and are a relaxing and enjoyable ride out over Lake Schafer.

I hopped on the water swings next (Chance Yo Yo) and these were a blast. They stepped just ahead of Compounce’s set for my favorite swings. Where else do you get such good elevation change on a Yo Yo, a great view of the lake and a greater sense of height because the swings go out over the water? No where. I could honestly spend all day on these things. However, time was limited so I headed down the midway and hopped on the Hrubetz Paratrooper. The ride was also out on the water, got up to full speed before lifting and the joint that moved the chair seemed well-lubricated, if they would have only given the brakes a little of that oil it would have fared a bit better on the ears.

Any Anton Schwarzkopf ride is a thing of beauty.

Lunch time was near and in the few events I have been to I quickly learned that for enthusiasts eating is often a close second to riding, so I got back in the ballroom, scarfed down some chicken, soda and corn provided by the park. When in a park with an Anton coaster I just have to hop on that a.s.a.p., so I headed over to Tig’rr. This is a Schwarzkopf Jet Star that uses a chain instead of the circular powered lift. I had heard that the park was very strict about having no singles, so I was a little apprehensive walking up the ramp. The op waved me in, asked if I was ready and a kicker tire sent us out to the lift. Now, I have always marked out for Schwarzkopf and his coasters. Not just because they give fun (and often intense) rides, but because I think he was one of the few steel designers that saw designing a steel coaster was almost like abstract art.

Tig'rr is a very fun little ride.

To me, that sense of wonder coupled with the look of an object of “terror” is a very interesting concept. But, I am talking about the ride itself here. For those of you who do not know this ride uses one-car trains, with four seats each and NO restraints! The ride is sort of hemmed in by Cornball now, but that only adds to the experience. Anyway, what got us here in the first place with the art thing was that Schwarzkopf placed five tiers of track almost on top of each other so it is a very cool view ascending the lift and then looking down while the train navigates the first turn. The first drop and speed turn are a blast and everything after that was a blur. With only one person in the cars it had the speed changes of rides like the Coney Island Cyclone and the pre-butchered Six Flags New England Cyclone in that there are a lot of accelerations and decelerations throughout the course (and seemingly more anti-rollbacks than you can shake a stick at). This ride would be a blast with a full car on a hot day. Once the train hit the brakes I did the only thing I could…rode again!


The Hoosier Hurricane is a fun ride. Here the P.T.C. train heads down the first drop.	The train dives down the third drop...which goes under the park's famous suspension bridge.

I got in line for the Hoosier Hurricane next. It was built in 1994 by C.C.I., was their first ride to utilize steel supports and has an out & back profile with cars very similar to Cornball’s, except here there are two trains and only one seatbelt for every two riders. The coaster took a right hand turn out of the station and headed up the lift. After cresting the lift the track jogs to the right before heading down the drop. I was in the second-to-last seat and did not get the airtime I expected but it was neat to speed across the water. Then we headed up the double up where I stayed in my seat. At the top there was nice little jolt to the right and the dive down under the suspension bridge into the turnaround. The trip back was full of bunny hops but I just did not get the airtime I hoped. Out of the two wooden coasters, I loved Cornball and liked the Hurricane. It was fun, but its younger brother really delivers in an area I expected the Hurricane to be good at.

The Double Shot packs a punch for its size.

I went down to the end of the park at the Double Shot and decided to work my way up the midway, hopping on the rides that enticed me. I got several rides on the DS and this S&S ride still delivers almost painful airtime that is really amazing for such a short tower. My only complaint with the park occurred here. The ride ops on the DS let kids run under the bars after disembarking and get back in line, which is fine if there is no one there. But, a lot of times families got in line and they would have to wait a rig or two until they could get on because of all the kids that just ran in front of them. This was the only place the entire day where I had any problems with the ride ops or the gp.

The Galaxi is a standard S.D.C. production model but has an interesting location between several waterslides.

I got a ride on the park’s Chance Chaos next and, what can I say, I have never found this ride really intense or disorienting. The only program that ever surprised me was the one run at Six Flags New England. This version, like the one at CP, seemed to flip more often (and violently) if it was rider-induced. I looked around the Fascination room for a while (but forgot to take pictures…stupid…stupid). Then, the Galaxi, a standard Galaxi ride called me for the count. This was only my second, the first being at Funtown/Splashtown last summer. It offered very little except for the fact that the ride is enclosed by several water slides. I heard last year that this version ran two cars as a train, but today it was merely single-car operation. The most memorable part of the ride was the huge jolt as we engaged the chain lift and from then on it ran ok, but less braked than my other rides last year. I did one more ride on the water swings for posterity and took some pictures of the wooden coasters from the suspension bridge.


Looking south down the midway we see the (L to R): Skycoaster, Water Swing, Falling Star and a hint of the Hurricane.	Northbound there is the skyride, the Chaos Galaxi, waterslides, an Eli Bridge Scrambler and a Hrubetz Paratrooper.

I hopped on Tig’rr for a few more rides, rode in 1.2 of the ‘Cane and finished out the day all over the Cornball Express. The front gave great air on the second (first drop) third, fourth and fifth turns, as well as on the bunny hop into the brakes. But, I really do not think there is a bad seat on this coaster. Indiana Beach has every right to be proud that they have such a winner. I want to thank the park, their staff (which worked quite efficiently considering it appeared they were understaffed because it was a Friday before school was out and crowds were probably not usually this big) and C.C.I. for making my first media day, first visit to the park and newest C.C.I. experience all great ones. Now I know I.B. Crow was not lying when he said that, “There is more than corn in Indiana.”