SKYRUSH - Hershey Park 2012

Friday; you lose Danny, I win.

That's okay cuz I was meeting up with my friend there. On that note...Skyrush wins.

SkyRush was insane. Rode 5 times. Makes El Toro seem so week now haha. i305 is still better though...but damn SkyRush is close.

Well if it even comes remotely close to the omfg factor of i305 then this sounds like my kinda ride. I mite have to make the 4 hr drive soon and check it out.

Well I went to Hershey Park yesterday and got 4 rides on Skyrush. That ride is very intense. It has the strongest airtime I have ever experienced on any ride. The first drop is an amazing experience, especially in the back seat. It has a second pull halfway down the drop which causes extreme airtime. Then you go into the first airtime hill which is insane. The second airtime hill has even more airtime than the first. Then comes the stengel dive. This was the element that took me off guard. The laterals are insane and I even got some really strong airtime. After than there is a nice transition into a turn leading to the s hill. The transition actually provided nice laterals and airtime. The s hill, which is the most unique feeling I have experienced on a roller coaster. The combination of extreme laterals and extreme negative forces makes for an amazing experience. The airtime gets progressively stronger over every hill which seems impossible but it does. The final airtime hill was THE strongest airtime I have ever experienced. It is just so intense. Then there is the turn over comet which is nice but doesn't really do anything and the brake run.

This ride is in my top three roller coasters. The only thing that is holding it back is the restraint system. The placement of the lapbar on the rider's thighs is not a good idea and makes the ride uncomfortable at some points. All of the forces are put on one specific spot on the rider's thighs and not spread out. Also with the forces being so strong the restraints become so tight that it is unbearable. If Hershey/Intamin can figure out a way to fix the restraints, without changing the rides or going to actual ostrs the ride will be that much better. The ride is top notch and one of the best in the world. Hershey and Intamin did a great job on this one and have a winner.

That was my little review on Skyrush!

I read on the June 11th update on Screamscape that there may be a possibility that the lapbars may be adjusted to keep them from clamping on your legs. (Adding resistance to the closing mechanism methinks)

Haven't been to Hershey Park in years, anyone know if there's any new rides therelately?

[yoshifreak]

^This guy...

So I rode Skyrush last Sunday for the first time, and got an equal number of rides in on El Toro yesterday. As anticipated, Skyrush is an incredible ride. My first ride was front row, far right, and it was definitely something special. The forces are all very strong (positive, negative, and lateral), but unlike Intimidator 305's first turn, the positives were sustained for just the right amount of time so there was never a hint of grayout. I'd describe the first half of the ride as very aggressive (in a good way), and after a slight pause before entering the overbank, I'd describe the second half up to the turn over Comet to be a mix of wild and aggressive.

The first drop is excellent, although as with Intimidator it doesn't feel as long as it is given the lift speed, high forces, and steep slope. It's a tradeoff, and I'm glad there are rides with less intense, but longer lasting drops (Apollo's Chariot) close to rides with more physically powerful drops (Intimidator, Skyrush), so you have a great selection in this area. El Toro is probably the most similar drop experience in this area, given that Intimidator's restraints change the sensations so much, and I have to say I personally prefer El Toro's drop in the back. The tightening at the end of the Skyrush's drop, while exciting, makes the forces seem less sustained. El Toro also has an advantage with that turnaround creating lots of anticipation.

Also, especially if you're a tall guy like myself, when seated in the back of Skyrush make sure to either hold on or keep your back against the seat on the drop. The combination of tightening rotation, sudden high negatives, and a tiny transition to high positives can pin your torso to the restraint if your hands are up. Not painful, but definitely not a comfortable position under such strong forces, and if you're stuck there you're sure not going to be able to sit up until the forces let off entering the first air hill. I have a bruise on my chest (and I raaarely bruise) that's shaped either like the Skyrush lapbar or the boogie board from the Flowrider...can't tell. Definitely something to keep in mind for your first back row ride lol.

The airtime seemed to be about as strong as the three most powerful hills on El Toro. I didn't notice as much of a jerk into the airtime as you get on Toro's second camelback and hill over Rolling Thunder, but you're definitely pinned hard to the restraint. Given the track heights, it doesn't last as long as Toro's first two hills, but at the same time the faster pacing and transitions into turns makes it just as awesome.

I think my favorite section of the ride is between the first drop and the overbank...the rest is just as powerful and probably has more lateral forces, but the pacing at the beginning and the forces while transitioning into turns makes it the most exciting to me. I didn't really hold on much on my rides, and especially in back my upper body was smoothly but forcefully flung in so many directions, and often when I didn't really expect it. I'm thinking I might have enjoyed it a bit more in the back row if I held on and more actively "fought" the forces? Even with all the craziness (or maybe because of it) I preferred my back row rides. Also note that say 4 hours passed between my front and back row rides, so the coaster may have gained some speed in that time. My first ride was around 3pm, and my last ride was the last full train of the night at maybe 10:20pm.

I think they did a great job on the ending, if you don't count the ascent to the final brakes. As I mentioned before, there's a slight lull before the overbank, then the ride gets increasingly wild until it turns over Comet. The shot of airtime on the last straight hill is a perfect exclamation point to end the ride.

As far as rider comfort goes, my first ride the restraints didn't bother me in the slightest, and my 2nd/3rd rides I definitely felt stapled hard, but it wasn't really painful. I'd certainly take that feeling on my tights over the same feeling on my shoulders like Intimidator 305. No comparison. I only really felt a bit of discomfort during the airtime (particularly when coupled with laterals), and while waiting on the brakes. Still not *that* bad overall. The ride as a whole was very smooth in front and back. I only remember a bit of shaking between the first two camelbacks, but to be honest that added more to intensity than it took away from comfort.

So yeah, overall a great ride. I enjoyed it more than my rides on El Toro yesterday. Skyrush's whole layout to me seems like Toro's first few hills mixed with the last low turns, without that breather in the middle. I think on my top list I'd put it #2...right below SROS SFNE (which to be fair I haven't ridden in 10 years). SROS/Bizarro doesn't quite have the intensity, but to me it has enough that the drastically longer length, higher number of elements, and stronger ending make it the best. Not that it matters much to me, but SROS' layout is more unique to me, given that there are so many Intamin layouts similar to that of Skyrush, but no manufacturer has done anything like SROS. I also like Skyrush a lot better than Intimidator 305...I won't write why right now (this is a long enough post already lol) but if anyone has any questions I can later.

I'll be riding Skyrush this weekend, and after hearing nothing but great things about it, I'm certainly looking forward to it! However, dcs, I would indeed be interested in the reasons you prefer it over I305; when I rode I305 I put it at #1 for me!

I think I305 is an amazing ride, but yeah I definitely prefer Skyrush. The comfort level and type of intensity is different, and that's a lot of the reason Skyrush is more "fun" while being just as wild and crazy. First, to be fair, I am a tall guy at ~6'3.5". I rode I305 with a friend who's about 6'1", and he had the same issues: the restraints are terrible for taller people. They go from tolerable but restricting on the first few rides to detracting from the experience on any subsequent ride. I305 has strong negatives along with dynamic lateral forces on the twists, and after a few rides the restraints for me make it hard to enjoy what should be the most unique and exciting elements.

Even with the restraints, the first 2/3 of the ride is almost surreal because of the combination of power, pacing, and rotations. I love speed, and in that section of track I305 really excels. However, the brakes hit hard and take a lot away for me. I really didn't expect it, and basically they consistently took me from a state of awe to feeling like I'm on a normal roller coaster by comparison. The the base of the last few hills, with the final dip being the exception, were too high to let the train pick up enough speed to come close to matching the previous section. As a result, a lot of the ending feels like it's just "going through the motions" as opposed to really trying to make things exciting. Just as that changes at the top of the last S hill, you only have one more turn and you hit the brakes. Skyrush didn't really have any stark break in pacing like that. It dies at the very end, but between the top of the lift and the end of the turn over Comet it's aggressive and very exciting. As I said, the only pause I noticed was the transition into the overbank, and that's not a big deal as it sets up the subsequent rotation.

The airtime on Skyrush is also more intense, especially given the use of lapbars. I felt a lot safer and more confined during I305's straight hills, and Skyrush's hills were not like that. The negative forces were definitely stronger too. In the first 2/3, I305 seems to space out its hills more, whereas on Skyrush you're almost always moving up or down without losing a lot of speed, meaning the vertical forces are more dynamic. Skyrush may not sustain the same kind of speed, but what it does with the speed is just as exciting.

The first drops are comparable, but again the lapbars help Skyrush make up for its lower height and slope. The lifts are both an experience in themselves, though I do prefer Intimidator's lift, if only for the extra 100' worth of time to anticipate the rest of the ride.

Lateral forces seem much stronger on Skyrush too (at least in my experience of 3 rides in wing seats). That could be because there's nothing holding your upper body, but I suspect the transitions are so quick on I305 that there wouldn't be as much duration of laterals anyways.

The last thing I'll say is the first turn on I305, while amazing, is a bit much. I felt like I had to fight it rather than just being able to enjoy it. I also grayed out almost every single time, and I don't find that to be a particularly interesting or comfortable sensation...though it doesn't bother me *that* much. I prefer turns that show their power, but are sustained just the right length of time so you don't start to lose consciousness. Skyrush has some very, very intense positives on almost all pullouts and turns, yet I never felt like I had to fight graying out. Everything was just the right force and duration.

So I guess basically, both rides are pretty equally insane in slightly different ways, but one is more generally more comfortable, doesn't pull you out of the experience mid ride, has more dynamic laterals and stronger negatives, and a more open train. Skyrush doesn't have the speed, height, and insanely fast twists, but all those other features still make it the best of the two for me.