Derek Poitras, BMET ’14, is an amusement park authority. His various park visits total as many as 20 a year, he cofounded his own amusement park fan site, and he has already graduated from the Disney College Program—a professional preparatory program for students interested in amusement park careers. For co-op this summer, he’s heading back to Disney World, where he’ll help build the park’s new Fantasy Land expansion. We asked for his top three roller coasters for your must-ride list. —DAN MORRELL
#1 – Bizarro (Six Flags New England)
“It’s the number-one steel roller coaster in the country. It really packs a punch—lots of air time, lots of speed. And it doesn’t let up until the brakes hit at the end.”
#2 – Goliath (Six Flags Atlanta)
“It is 200 feet tall and goes 80 miles per hour. And it is a real air-time machine, which means that riders experience weightlessness for a few seconds because of the different forces at work.”
#3 – Boulder Dash (Lake Compounce, Conn.)
“It literally uses a mountain as its course and follows the natural curves and dips to make for a completely different experience than most wooden coasters. The best time to ride is at night, because when the sun sets, you can barely see the track in front of you.”
You are so great!!!
Roller coasters were my favorite park ride and my only attraction that would lure me to the amusement parks. Years ago, when SFNE was Riverside, I would go and wait in line for ‘what seemed like hours’ to ride the Thunderbolt. At Rocky Point park I would wait to ride the Wildcat..and only a few years ago i would do the same at SFNE for Superman. (sometime the ‘rocky bal-beau…ah-clee, ah-clee’!) So with this being said, I am ‘over the moon’ with excitement in my heart that you have taken this ‘love’ at 80mph and 200′ up! “Steel” for thought…introduce a high speed coaster for the elderly! Take us ‘over the moon’! Thank you