<None>
RobertW581
let alone on a ride.
What you have just effectively done is discriminate against nearly 50% of
the population of this country who must wear glasses just to get around.
In my case, if I left my glasses in the car or at home, I would be legally
blind and not be able to tell where I was or where I was going.
I've worn my glasses on nearly 700 roller coaster rides of all sorts, and
never had them come loose or be in danger of falling off. My secret is
one of those elastic bands that is adjustable and fastens to the
earpieces. Keeps my glasses firmly on and in no danger.
Norman H. Samuelson
> Good day,
> I am going to write in reply to a number of things that I have read here over
> the past couple of days. First off, I want to talk about the glasses thing.
> I appreciate that some of the riders out there manage to keep their glasses on
> most rides and would not raise a ruckus if they did lose their glasses on a
> ride. There are those, however, who manage to lose their glasses on the same
> ride more than once in a single day. Sorry to be blunt, but It's a pain in the
> rear to go looking for them. There are even times when glasses cannot be
> found. Most, and I say this from experience, MOST people who lose glasses on a
> ride get very nasty about it and ask to do nasty things like walk under the
> roller coaster and find them. I must say that the sand I am usually looking for
> glasses in at Cedar Point is probably a poor choice for underneath a ride for
> this very reason, but It is not very easy to find glasses in that sand. I
> appreciate the problem of glasses and the policies which require removal. I
> would not recommend that anyone even wear their glasses to a park, let alone on
> a ride. I just ask that if you take the responsibility on yourself, don't try
> to place the blame that they cannot be founds on anyone but yourself. Thanks,
> any comments are appreciated, as I am not sure I have addressed you're issue.
> Take Care
> --Sean
> sbr...@PITT.EDU
Of course if I wear my glasses on a coaster I am willing to take
responsibility for them. I always wear sunglasses over my contacts
to keep them from drying out, getting dusty, etc. It is very
unpleasant for me to ride a coaster without my glasses. If I dont
wear my contacts I could ride without glasses, but then I could not
see anything.
In all the rides I have taken on roller coasters with glasses on,
I have lost a pair of glasses a total of ONE time. Those glasses
were in a glass case in my shirt pocket. SCBB was VERY NICE about
getting them for me after I left, and keeping them till the next
time I was in Santa Cruz. That of course gave me an excuse to go
back and ride the Giant Dipper (my favorite woody) a few more times.
- Norm -
Dave Althoff
*once*; that was on the Vampire (Vekoma Boomerang) at Kentucky Kingdom.
There, while headed up the very steep lift hill, they literally fell off
of my face, and I spent the rest of the ride holding on to them. The only
coaster which has ever even come close to removing them from my face was
the Cedar Point Gemini.
I have a neck-cord for my glasses, and it is short enough that it won't go
over my head if it is attached to both eyeglass-temples. The little
silicone loop at the end of the cord (where it attaches to the temple of
the glasses) has a metal ring on it, so I pull the loop over the end of
the earpiece 'till it rests on the (thinner) wire temple piece, then move
the ring up to cinch it tight. My glasses have never left my posession
while I was riding a coaster. And after my front-seat ride on the Steel
Phantom (where my glasses played a part in the untimely death of an
unidentified flying organic object), I think eyewear is probably more
important to rider safety on that coaster than the
horsecollar...especially at dusk!
...And on any coaster which has those freeze-frame photo things after dark...
--Dave Althoff, Jr. (four-eyed coaster nut!)
--
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/XXXXX\ XXX <#XXXX X&\ /---<(hard hat area... )
_/XXXXXXX\__/XXXXX oXXXXXXXX XXXo #######o(.sig under construction)
Tony Parkes
: I, too, have to wear glasses in order to see. I 'lost' them on a ride
: *once*; that was on the Vampire (Vekoma Boomerang) at Kentucky Kingdom.
: There, while headed up the very steep lift hill, they literally fell off
: of my face, and I spent the rest of the ride holding on to them. The only
: coaster which has ever even come close to removing them from my face was
: the Cedar Point Gemini.
One of the most spectacular sports plays I ever saw took place on Gemini.
A young couple was sitting in front of me, the woman (on the right) wearing
giant novelty sunglasses. As we rounded a left turn, the shades flew off
her nose. The man with her reached beyond her and grabbed them, just before
they vanished into outer space. No one was more surprised than he was.
On a related topic, my all-time pet peeve is parks who think they know
better than you and don't allow glasses on some of their coasters, even
with straps. My experience on the Texas Cyclone was so unpleasant that
it soured me on the whole park. (I would have submitted to their policy
with only a slight grumble if they had taken good care of my glasses; but
they dropped my $150 prescription glasses in a bin with novelty shades
and other items, then practically sneered that they weren't responsible
for them.) I understand that Knott's has (had?) a similar policy on
their Intamin shuttle loop, Montezooma's Revenge. Are there other
parks that feel glasses and coasters don't mix?
Tony Parkes
Dave Kaufman
Tony Parkes <elt...@world.std.com> wrote:
>
>One of the most spectacular sports plays I ever saw took place on Gemini.
>A young couple was sitting in front of me, the woman (on the right) wearing
>giant novelty sunglasses. As we rounded a left turn, the shades flew off
>her nose. The man with her reached beyond her and grabbed them, just before
>they vanished into outer space. No one was more surprised than he was.
>
>
Once on Elitch's Mister Twister, the girl ahead of me lost her hairband
on a drop. Amazingly, I managed to catch it by reflex - only to lose it
30 seconds later on a rough part of the ride!
BTW, my solution to the glasses problem is a pair of geeky wire-temple
perscription glasses. They're more comfortable than the elastic band
retainers (Croakies etc.) and I don't have to worry about forgettng to
bring them. Unfortunately, they're not as secure as retainers so I can't
use them on whitewater type rides.
--
==============================================================================
Dave Kaufman ka...@pmafire.inel.gov
The opinions espoused herein are mine. Heck, I doubt my employer HAS an
opinion on this subject!
Ken-bear
My experience wasn't with my glasses (although I wear them), but with my hat.
It was the Mighty Canadian Minebuster at PCW: before Vortex, the best
that park had to offer. It's the traditional out-and-back, and I used to
amuse myself by trying not to touch the lapbar once.
On good days, airtime is abundant.
It was during one of those seconds of exhilarating
even-my-feet-have-come-off-the-floor airtime that I felt my hat whisk
off. While completely out of my seat, I reached back and somehow grabbed
it with the tip of my finger, placing it on my head just as I got slammed
into the seat. I thought I was going to fall out, but no...
--
Ken Breadner (Kenbear)| Wilfrid Laurier University Waterloo Ontario CANADA
brea...@mach1.wlu.ca | Discreamer: AAAAAAARRRRRRRGGGGGGHHHHH!!!
--------------------- | Seriously, WLU does not share my thoughts, nor do I
share theirs. In fact, neither of us believes the other thinks at all...
Gallagher
> Once on Elitch's Mister Twister, the girl ahead of me lost her hairband
> on a drop. Amazingly, I managed to catch it by reflex - only to lose it
> 30 seconds later on a rough part of the ride!
>
> ==============================================================================
> Dave Kaufman ka...@pmafire.inel.gov
> The opinions espoused herein are mine. Heck, I doubt my employer HAS an
> opinion on this subject!
After witnessing my brother lose his second Blackhawks hat in as many
weeks into the water below PKD's Anaconda, I resolved to remind him to
sit on his hat before every ride instead of wearing it. On the next
ride, a rider in front of me lost *his* hat on the first drop, where my
brother had lost his. To my own bewilderment (and perhaps a heightened
sensitivity to flying baseball caps), I managed to catch the hat as it
flew back the rider's head and over the back of his headrest. The hat
was wet and slippery (due to the persistent rains that day, I hope) and I
couldn't keep a first grasp on it; so I took my own advice and sat on the
hat for the duration of the ride!
The hat's owner was quite grateful for the return of his property,
but I never did tell him that I had been sitting on it for a while...
********************
* * James A. Hanson
* | * M.E. major, U. of
* | o * Maryland, College Park
* \_/ <| /\/\ | </ *
* * mr...@wam.umd.edu
********************