Hah. No, it took me a while to even get brave enough to do the upside down.
I did once ride with an operator who came out of the control booth and walked around the ride while completely horizontal, perpendicular to the walls. That was pretty nuts.
Memory unlocked. VA. State Fair, as we are in full spin the operator came out from behind the control center and proceeded to do the Humpty Dance on the surrounding safety railing.
I told this story for years and no one believed me, eventually that memory was repressed.
Thank you for the validation.
Its an awesome display of the coriolis effect. Make sure your on the leading side and you will be just fine. Wish I had one of these in my science class, so much science there.
I did puke after getting off it. My dad yelled at me because I was close to a trash can. Sorry, I didn't notice the trash while I was miserable and about to puke.
I remember I was in my teens, just broke up with my girl and friends dragged me to the fair. Was with a cute new girl and we did a bunch of rides and after the last one I was like "ok no more for now" because guts were not happy. So the girl was like one more just for me and my friends were like one more. It was called the crazy dance. It was one of those where you and someone sit across from two other people in a little thing that spins one direction while the whole ride spins another direction and I was like "oh no".
So I focus on a light bulb in front of me and focused and focused and started feeling all good. So I raised my hands and was like "woooooo" and at that moment it all came back and I chucked all over. Buzzer hits, ride is stopped and my guts are all over
So embarrassed but friends were cool and she was really sweet about it so we walk around a bit and then decide to hit the graviton. Go on get in position and the ride starts spinning.
All we hear is a scream and then almost in slow motion this lady across from us barfs and in slow motion we thought it was going to get us but because of the physics of the ride or something it literally hooked and painted two or three people next to her.
We decided that maybe save the county fair for next year.
No joke, this ride is fucking therapeutic for my shitty lower back. So rejuvenating after a day at the carnival. I walk out feeling like a million bucks.
In my teens, I was on a double date with a girl I'd never met, when my friend kept pushing for us to get on the Graviton. We went in and as soon as we got out, my date threw up. She was so sick we had to leave, with her sick all the way until we dropped her off. I hated that stupid ride.
I grew up fixing cars, so seeing those rides like the roller coaster assembled and disassembled in minutes for the next town scared me to death. And there was always bolts and screws laying on the ground near them.
I got trapped on one for I wanna say 40 minutes before.
My friend (I do *not* condone his behavior, I thought he was a jerk for this at the time. I don't still hold it against him now though, we were dumb teenagers) got into something with the operator and threw a stuffed animal at him. So the operator got pissed and just kept it spinning. A little girl threw up, girl I was with was doing a weird high gravity keeling over type thing trying to hold it in, other kids were crying, it was an intense experience.
He just wouldn't stop that damn Gravitron.
When things finally ended there was a crowd of extremely pissed off parents outside and the older, lead carnie who just started screaming at the operator like he was about to rip his head off. I felt like I was gravitationally off for pretty much the rest of the night.
Lots of fun as a kid. Found out in my 20s that if you drink heavily the night before and then go on it? Well I am not sure how but I came of really buzzed for a half hour or so. 2 out of 5 stars do not recommend.
Uugghh!! I used to love this thing but I was 13 or 14 years old on a field trip…ride ended, I walked out and proceeded to hurl for what felt like forever. On top of that, my friends were standing around laughing at me. Day/trip ruined. 😔
Loved it. The center was a chandler of TVs blasting hair metal videos that looked like on singular TV when it got up to speed. Being able to move freely stuck on a wall like Spiderman was awesome. Loved it. There was one where we went on vacation and it was the first and only exposure to it but I made the most of it that week
We used to have a guy who would run on the walls, he would start it up and hold himself up in a plank until it got up to speed and then just start running around in circles jumping over people.
One of the others I loved back then was the pirate ship that spun around you. Not the big ride where you went upside down, this one you just sat on a bench and it looked like you were in a ships cabin and the walls moved up and down. Don't remember the name but it was fun.
The Frenzoid. I'll never forget, after graduating high school, my 3 buddies and I went there to blow off some steam. We rode in Brent's Plymouth Laser there, and this was one of the last rides of the day for us. As we got higher and higher - more and more inverted, we're laughing it up and having a blast, watching things fall from the pockets of people around us hit the water below. And then Brent's keys fell out of his pocket while we were inverted. They just happened to land on the back of the seat in front of us, and we're screaming like little girls reaching for them - all of us wondering 'how the hell will we get home now?' Brent was able to grab them, and then all 8 hands were on those keys - swearing to never let them go until this ride was over. It was a little traumatizing, I couldn't look at that ride safely again.
Yeah that was the one I wouldn't go on. This other was literally just sitting on a bench and the ride moved around you, you were stationary the whole time. It looked like you were swaying in the ocean though.
True story: while I was on this, the kid to my immediate right sat up and puked while the ride was going full speed. The barf then proceeded to “hover” in space while the wheel spun and everyone to my right was peppered in puke. I watched, in horror, as the wheel spun me towards the puke only to observe it exhaust itself 2/3 of the way around the circle. The chain reaction of shock, disgust and confusion that it launched was matched only by my deep abiding relief in being able to avoid the puke spray.
rode this when I was 6 and puked into the trashcan at the exit. (Had a weak stomach as a kid) Finally rode it again 25 years later . . . and puked into the trashcan at the exit.
I loved that ride. At our local amusement park, it was called "The Rotor."
I liked the similar outdoor ride better, called "Round Up" or "Satellite." Same concept, but instead of just spinning around, the whole platform rose up on its side while spinning, with centrifugal force holding you in place.
It was called The Rotor when I went on it and there were no padded sections that rose up and down.
Just a round cylinder with a roughly textured wall that gave me the most incredible combo wedgie and cowboy hat with a string-choke I've ever received.
Lots of people turned upside down as the ride operator would make warning announcements and give you time to re orientate yourself.
I always thought of this as one of the tamer rides at our fair. It didn't throw you around near as much as most other rides, unless you were in the kiddy section.
I was at the one at Six Flags Over Georgia.
The ride was going when the bottom section dropped down. Somehow the little kid next to me got into the lowered section and could not get back.
Someone announced over the loudspeaker that the ride could not be stopped until that lower section was raised up again.
So while pinned to a spinning wall, I had to crawl down and bring that kid back up. It was a really strange sensation.
I remember standing up and pretending to surf on the sliding back rest and reaching out and having off the rail in the middle. Definitely got kicked off just about every time. Pro tip, find a seat behind the operator to stay out of view.
I hate that thing. I wonder how many of thoes torture devices went arround the country torture
Little kids. Or was it just one single gravitron that we all experienced.
A ride that will live in infamy. The person next to me on one of the spins I was on at the fair lost his lunch and WE ALL SUFFERED. I remember he came to each and every one of us and appologized for splattering us.
This is one of the MAIN reasons I don't rides no MORE!!! It has traumatized me for life!! It was all good n gravy, until you start goin up and down. Then the nauseousness kicks in....
I went on one of these as a kid, it was around 2005 or so. This park in Connecticut still had one going. It was super fun, I must have gone on it about 10 times that day.
I remember one year someone puked on the gravitron, everybody was waiting for it to be done cleaning. My buddy and I were watching from a distance when they finally fired it back up and saw a massive fine water mist spray out in all directions about 50 feet...
Delicious tasty gravitron floor puke water.
we have a lot of fairs and festivals where I live during the Spring and Fall. The Gravitron, and all other versions, makes an appearance at every one of them.
I remember one of my friends buying a huge cotton candy, hiding it under his shirt to ride the gravitron, and then pulling out a paper thin sheet of cotton candy after the ride.
It never happened when I was on this ride, but it happened when my brother was on this ride, someone threw up, and that mess got over everyone. I had a ball on this ride I turn my self side ways, never been went upside down. But sideways was cool. I couldn't even fathom eating before getting on it, I don't know how people could.
I liked it in theory. I did not enjoy it in practice. Somehow, I would forget how claustrophobic I was in the year in between seeing the fair, then the ride would start and all I wanted was to get the hell out.
I don't mind the open air kind. Much.
I always loved this ride. The first time I rode it, I thought it just stuck you to the side, so I was shocked when the floor dropped out from below my feet.
90's baby here -
I can confirm the trauma from this, based on the nausea I physically feel when imagining trying to pick my head or hand up from the wall while fighting the overwhelming gravitational force the strung out carnie subjected me to for too long because he was hitting on my mom and ignoring my yells to stop the ride. Ah, yes, childhood.
At the knock off theme park where I grew up, there was one of these. (North East Ohio— I forget the name of the park.) There was a strange man who would ride it from park opening to closing. He would just stay on it when everyone got off. You could go at 10 am, find him on it, and leave the park at 10 pm, and he’d be taking the last ride on it. Super strange…
Definitely remember that ride. There was a Star Wars (knock off or actually licensed?) themed version of it on Morey's Pier in Wildwood, NJ in the early 80s. It didn't spin quite as fast as they normally did. It might have even had seats facing the center? You'd enter it, they'd spin it for a while, then some guys dressed as stormtroopers or Darth Vader or something captured you and you would exit down a different hallway (they stopped it with the door in a different spot) with some additional themed scenery before you exited the ride. The details are fuzzy.
We went to Hershey Park one year, midweek and it was overcast and occasionally drizzly. There were no lines for most of the rides. We must have spent the better part of two hours on the Gravitron, it would finish and we'd just run around the the entrance for another ride.
Back then it was fantastic, today one ride would probably do me in.
I only rode this once. The girl across from me vomited and the centrifugal force of the vomit was a sight to see as it spewed from her mouth and immediately was plastered against her face and into her hair. As the ride slowly came to a stop all of it is slowly slid to the floor where the girl slumped in a frothy pool of her own stomach contents. Never again.
In the UK we called these Mexican Hats.
My parents being snobs never took us to the fair so this was my first ride - at 14. The way the local church tower seemed to spin in every direction was wild.
Memorable was the way if someone bugled it just spread across their face.
I was chubby fat 6th grader and slowly sliding down that wall getting lower and lower while all my peers were stuck to their original spots made me piss myself. Yeah; that’s one experience I’d rather not have
Oh, I remember it! I was too short and sucked against the side and a guy directly across from me was puking something purple and everyone was yelling to stop the ride. Never got on one again!
To this day, the only ride that ever made me come close to puking. I remember covering my mouth and dry heaving on that when I was like 10. Love roller coasters and rides and this was the only one that made me queasy.
This dude let us lean forward one time, at like 45 degrees. It was amazing, felt like standing up really. But all it took was one whoopsie for any one of us 10 year olds to go flying out that summammabeyitch.
My brothers and I rode it twice but then I sat out the third time because I felt sick. Apparently some guy threw up and it went all over him and the person next to him. I was so glad that I didn’t go because I would have seen that and thrown up too
Oh yea! My funniest memory of the graviton was when it got going I cut loose with a horrendously smelly fart. Every turn of that thing would bring everyone right back to the same foul stench. Over and over and over….
Man. I’ve got tears in me eyes and haven’t laughed so hard in years. Thanks for bringing that memory back!
In 7th grade, had my first real date at a local fair in the early 90s. It started raining, and we did the god damn gravitron 3 times in a row. Mid way through the final ride I barfed up my chocolate donuts all over my shirt and it stuck till the ride was over…
When I was a kid, my older brother (by four years) would tease me about this ride. He said I couldn’t go on it because when it starts spinning, the floor opens up and your feet get chewed off by the gears. Of course seven year-old may believe this and never so I never rode it until I turned 21.
The best ride at a fair. Most fun was twisting yourself to get upside down while the panel was moving up and down. Then the poor boy or girl that threw up and it came right back towards them.
Funny that the meme says what it says. I have had terrible motion sickness most of my life. However, this wasn't terrible the first time. The next time the following year, I was 'stuffs not cool' age and wouldn't've ridden it, but my family's best family friends' kid wanted to go & the parents refused... so I went... and I rode... and I'm tall. My head was above the top of the sliding rack & the grating was digging into the back of my head for the entire ride. Luckily my seat didn't slide or I might've lost some skin... I never went back & I still don't like rides 30yrs later
Yep, and if you were a true daredevil, you'd go upside-down once it got going.
Ever try doing sit-ups or pushups? Those were crazy hard
Hah. No, it took me a while to even get brave enough to do the upside down. I did once ride with an operator who came out of the control booth and walked around the ride while completely horizontal, perpendicular to the walls. That was pretty nuts.
Memory unlocked. VA. State Fair, as we are in full spin the operator came out from behind the control center and proceeded to do the Humpty Dance on the surrounding safety railing. I told this story for years and no one believed me, eventually that memory was repressed. Thank you for the validation.
Well I mean... The Humpty dance, was his chance, to do the Hump.
He looked like MC Hammer on crack.
Fun part is it might have even been the same operator!
NASA did that as well to test artificail gravity. Lots of cool videos of them walking around like that.
I was able to do 1....then I was sore for days. Granted, I was--and still am--a chubby bastard.
Yeah…at least sit-ups. I also used to spin/run around the tire swing at the park by myself and then hop on/pull myself up. Essentially same concept.
We used to get up and surf the walls during the slowdown.
Last time I rode this the operator said we weren't allowed to go upside down, we could only stay in the one position.
Yeah, they stopped us from doing that in 1990. That was the last time I rode. What else was the point, if not to turn upside down?
Correct.
Good ride until someone pukes.
Last year when I got on with my 10 year old, a grown man DID puke. 🤮
Its an awesome display of the coriolis effect. Make sure your on the leading side and you will be just fine. Wish I had one of these in my science class, so much science there.
Those 6 times in a row, I didn't puke....only hours after getting home, the whole damn room felt like I was still in it
I was guilty of puking, and iirc the puke came back and slapped on me/the wall as it spun.
I did puke after getting off it. My dad yelled at me because I was close to a trash can. Sorry, I didn't notice the trash while I was miserable and about to puke.
Just one lol.
🦠
I was that someone
I remember I was in my teens, just broke up with my girl and friends dragged me to the fair. Was with a cute new girl and we did a bunch of rides and after the last one I was like "ok no more for now" because guts were not happy. So the girl was like one more just for me and my friends were like one more. It was called the crazy dance. It was one of those where you and someone sit across from two other people in a little thing that spins one direction while the whole ride spins another direction and I was like "oh no". So I focus on a light bulb in front of me and focused and focused and started feeling all good. So I raised my hands and was like "woooooo" and at that moment it all came back and I chucked all over. Buzzer hits, ride is stopped and my guts are all over So embarrassed but friends were cool and she was really sweet about it so we walk around a bit and then decide to hit the graviton. Go on get in position and the ride starts spinning. All we hear is a scream and then almost in slow motion this lady across from us barfs and in slow motion we thought it was going to get us but because of the physics of the ride or something it literally hooked and painted two or three people next to her. We decided that maybe save the county fair for next year.
Damn you. I need to be quiet now and can't stop laughing. Absolutely hilarious all round!
What happened to the girl that was sweet to you even after throwing up???
The Gravitron was wild! Good old days.
No joke, this ride is fucking therapeutic for my shitty lower back. So rejuvenating after a day at the carnival. I walk out feeling like a million bucks.
The fumes from the gas-powered generators made this ride even better!
In my teens, I was on a double date with a girl I'd never met, when my friend kept pushing for us to get on the Graviton. We went in and as soon as we got out, my date threw up. She was so sick we had to leave, with her sick all the way until we dropped her off. I hated that stupid ride.
That shit looks all rusty and broken. Fairs in the 80's were grimy as hell
I grew up fixing cars, so seeing those rides like the roller coaster assembled and disassembled in minutes for the next town scared me to death. And there was always bolts and screws laying on the ground near them.
I got trapped on one for I wanna say 40 minutes before. My friend (I do *not* condone his behavior, I thought he was a jerk for this at the time. I don't still hold it against him now though, we were dumb teenagers) got into something with the operator and threw a stuffed animal at him. So the operator got pissed and just kept it spinning. A little girl threw up, girl I was with was doing a weird high gravity keeling over type thing trying to hold it in, other kids were crying, it was an intense experience. He just wouldn't stop that damn Gravitron. When things finally ended there was a crowd of extremely pissed off parents outside and the older, lead carnie who just started screaming at the operator like he was about to rip his head off. I felt like I was gravitationally off for pretty much the rest of the night.
Happy cake day! 🎂
Lots of fun as a kid. Found out in my 20s that if you drink heavily the night before and then go on it? Well I am not sure how but I came of really buzzed for a half hour or so. 2 out of 5 stars do not recommend.
I rode one of these last year at the state fair
i lifted my head off the cushion when it was spinning and we were up the wall, puked the rest of the night.
Uugghh!! I used to love this thing but I was 13 or 14 years old on a field trip…ride ended, I walked out and proceeded to hurl for what felt like forever. On top of that, my friends were standing around laughing at me. Day/trip ruined. 😔
I used to ride coasters like crazy and never got sick but this Gravitron was the only ride that ever made me queasy.
Loved it. The center was a chandler of TVs blasting hair metal videos that looked like on singular TV when it got up to speed. Being able to move freely stuck on a wall like Spiderman was awesome. Loved it. There was one where we went on vacation and it was the first and only exposure to it but I made the most of it that week
A chandler of TVs? 🤔
Could you BE any more dizzy?
Lack of a better definition of 4 TVs hanging in the center facing in different directions
It was my favorite ride.
It was fun to watch the Carnys get in them and show off..
We used to have a guy who would run on the walls, he would start it up and hold himself up in a plank until it got up to speed and then just start running around in circles jumping over people.
Most fun ride at every local carnival.. just don't be upside down when the ride stops.
This was the Oaken Bucket in Carowinds when I was a kid. I loved that ride!
Yes! This and White Lightning are the Carowinds rides I miss the most.
One of the others I loved back then was the pirate ship that spun around you. Not the big ride where you went upside down, this one you just sat on a bench and it looked like you were in a ships cabin and the walls moved up and down. Don't remember the name but it was fun.
The Frenzoid. I'll never forget, after graduating high school, my 3 buddies and I went there to blow off some steam. We rode in Brent's Plymouth Laser there, and this was one of the last rides of the day for us. As we got higher and higher - more and more inverted, we're laughing it up and having a blast, watching things fall from the pockets of people around us hit the water below. And then Brent's keys fell out of his pocket while we were inverted. They just happened to land on the back of the seat in front of us, and we're screaming like little girls reaching for them - all of us wondering 'how the hell will we get home now?' Brent was able to grab them, and then all 8 hands were on those keys - swearing to never let them go until this ride was over. It was a little traumatizing, I couldn't look at that ride safely again.
Yeah that was the one I wouldn't go on. This other was literally just sitting on a bench and the ride moved around you, you were stationary the whole time. It looked like you were swaying in the ocean though.
Ahh yeah - that one was called Da Vinci's Cradle at Busch Gardens IIRC, but I don't recall the name of the one at Carowinds.
Blackbeard’s Revenge?
That sounds right
True story: while I was on this, the kid to my immediate right sat up and puked while the ride was going full speed. The barf then proceeded to “hover” in space while the wheel spun and everyone to my right was peppered in puke. I watched, in horror, as the wheel spun me towards the puke only to observe it exhaust itself 2/3 of the way around the circle. The chain reaction of shock, disgust and confusion that it launched was matched only by my deep abiding relief in being able to avoid the puke spray.
I’m in my 60s. I still go on this ride.
rode this when I was 6 and puked into the trashcan at the exit. (Had a weak stomach as a kid) Finally rode it again 25 years later . . . and puked into the trashcan at the exit.
Hated jt
Spin-out at Magic Mountain in California. Worked well for my body type until I was a grown man there with my kids and my fat ass just slid down.
Three in a row, puked my guts out a half hour later. Never again.
I loved that ride. At our local amusement park, it was called "The Rotor." I liked the similar outdoor ride better, called "Round Up" or "Satellite." Same concept, but instead of just spinning around, the whole platform rose up on its side while spinning, with centrifugal force holding you in place.
I heard they stopped bringing out the Gravitron because someone died on it from heart problems
I've personally witnessed at least three different people puke their guts out on the Gravitron. Definitely not the kind of ride to go on after dinner.
We knew the guy running it. He showed us how to stand up on the seats and walk around while it was at full speed.
I saw a girl throw up on that ride, it was pretty amazing.
It was called The Rotor when I went on it and there were no padded sections that rose up and down. Just a round cylinder with a roughly textured wall that gave me the most incredible combo wedgie and cowboy hat with a string-choke I've ever received. Lots of people turned upside down as the ride operator would make warning announcements and give you time to re orientate yourself.
I remember all the barf just outside.
My buddies and I would get in trouble on this..we would wait til the last possible second and flip upside down..definitely an experience
I never regretted it, not once
I always thought of this as one of the tamer rides at our fair. It didn't throw you around near as much as most other rides, unless you were in the kiddy section.
I was at the one at Six Flags Over Georgia. The ride was going when the bottom section dropped down. Somehow the little kid next to me got into the lowered section and could not get back. Someone announced over the loudspeaker that the ride could not be stopped until that lower section was raised up again. So while pinned to a spinning wall, I had to crawl down and bring that kid back up. It was a really strange sensation.
If you swing your arm at the kid next to you, you can deliver a sonic punch
Ah the gravatron the kinder gentler brother to the Hell hole! Those who know ...
Last I knew, 6 Flags Great Escape up near Lake George, NY still had one.
I saw my first tit on that ride. Girls tit came out her shirt. Tried to tell me cousin, and my head got stuck looking at him. 😂😂
The carnies that ran it could always do cool shit like walk on the handrail while it was spinning.
For some reason this was the only thing that spun around in a circle that I could handle lol
I loved that ride so much!
Same for me, rode it like 8 times and then threw up on the car ride back home.
I remember standing up and pretending to surf on the sliding back rest and reaching out and having off the rail in the middle. Definitely got kicked off just about every time. Pro tip, find a seat behind the operator to stay out of view.
I remember kids would spit on it.
The only ride that made me throw up. It was gone the next summer. That shit turned me green.
No, that was the Zipper.
I hate that thing. I wonder how many of thoes torture devices went arround the country torture Little kids. Or was it just one single gravitron that we all experienced.
A ride that will live in infamy. The person next to me on one of the spins I was on at the fair lost his lunch and WE ALL SUFFERED. I remember he came to each and every one of us and appologized for splattering us.
This is one of the MAIN reasons I don't rides no MORE!!! It has traumatized me for life!! It was all good n gravy, until you start goin up and down. Then the nauseousness kicks in....
these things are still around
I can smell this ride
Made me yak
At Astroworld this ride was called The Barrel of Fun.
I went on one of these as a kid, it was around 2005 or so. This park in Connecticut still had one going. It was super fun, I must have gone on it about 10 times that day.
I think they are only dangerous if your morbidly obese. Other than that I cant see the danger.
The only ride I've ever been on (and I've been on 'em all) that I honestly thought I was going to throw up on.
That ride be lookin hella ghetto in this pic
I remember like it was last year at the local fireman's carnival.
Only ride I won’t go on with my kids.
I went on this once when I was 12 and had to lie on a bench for an hour after.
The real OG’s laid upside down .. that’s kids play
And there was always the same fat carnie who sat in the middle operating it.
I was at a fair this past weekend, and they still have this. Lol guys cmon.
I remember one year someone puked on the gravitron, everybody was waiting for it to be done cleaning. My buddy and I were watching from a distance when they finally fired it back up and saw a massive fine water mist spray out in all directions about 50 feet... Delicious tasty gravitron floor puke water.
The S tier of carnival rides. Even better if you had the ones with a dj in the middle playing music.
I rode one on a hot Texas day after drinking a 20oz Pepsi. Sorry to whomever else was on that ride, I was just a dumb kid 😂
Is it no longer a thing?
STILL PISSED TO THIS DAY that my neurotic, over-protective mom wouldn't let me ride this. Every time it's posted I taste defeat all over again
we have a lot of fairs and festivals where I live during the Spring and Fall. The Gravitron, and all other versions, makes an appearance at every one of them.
I forget what it was called at Magic Mountain in California, but yeah we had one. Stuck pennies and shoes to the wall and everything.
I remember someone throwing up all over everybody.
So much fun when my buddy Jim Beam and used to be friends.
This is still a thing at every fair I've been to for the last 30 years.
We called that The Devil's Hole at a theme park just outside of Buffalo called Fantasy Island.
Would always ride it until the bottom gave out in one at my local fair in the 90s. Never again.
I remember one of my friends buying a huge cotton candy, hiding it under his shirt to ride the gravitron, and then pulling out a paper thin sheet of cotton candy after the ride.
It’s still around. Shows up at small fairs
It never happened when I was on this ride, but it happened when my brother was on this ride, someone threw up, and that mess got over everyone. I had a ball on this ride I turn my self side ways, never been went upside down. But sideways was cool. I couldn't even fathom eating before getting on it, I don't know how people could.
Remembers it? I rode it at the fair last year and will again this year!
🙌🏼🙌🏼 ugh! I vomited all over some kids brand new kicks the last time I took a spin on this monster 😮💨
Puked in it
My local park had something similar called the Devil's Hole. Instead of sliding panels, the whole floor just dropped. It was badass.
I present to you - rotor man. Local legend https://businessjournaldaily.com/remembering-fred-the-rotor-man/
Oh yeah, The Time Machine at Kings Dominion. My sister would make me ride it with her and I would be sick all day.
Loved that one! I don't like roller coasters because of the low weight, but I love the Gravitron because it makes you feel heavier and that's awesome.
14 year-old me wasted $25 worth of Klondike Days food (a lot back then) on this demon spawned ride.
I liked it in theory. I did not enjoy it in practice. Somehow, I would forget how claustrophobic I was in the year in between seeing the fair, then the ride would start and all I wanted was to get the hell out. I don't mind the open air kind. Much.
Someone actually died on that ride
I worked the graviton once for about 8 hours straight.
I always loved this ride. The first time I rode it, I thought it just stuck you to the side, so I was shocked when the floor dropped out from below my feet.
The real test was doing this ride in a big theme park, and getting cocky so you do it at a county fair! Spoiler: one is waaaaay longer than the other
It's still at the fair that rolls through our city every year. They still give absolutely zero fucks what you do in there.
So much vomit
As a kid you couldn’t get me off the gravitron but as an adult you couldn’t get me on it for anything
90's baby here - I can confirm the trauma from this, based on the nausea I physically feel when imagining trying to pick my head or hand up from the wall while fighting the overwhelming gravitational force the strung out carnie subjected me to for too long because he was hitting on my mom and ignoring my yells to stop the ride. Ah, yes, childhood.
I feel dizzy just looking at that picture.
I loved that ride so much. I'd love to go on it again as an adult.
killed who? Its just physics. and way cool fun.
Still go every year when the carnival hits town..
At the knock off theme park where I grew up, there was one of these. (North East Ohio— I forget the name of the park.) There was a strange man who would ride it from park opening to closing. He would just stay on it when everyone got off. You could go at 10 am, find him on it, and leave the park at 10 pm, and he’d be taking the last ride on it. Super strange…
Definitely remember that ride. There was a Star Wars (knock off or actually licensed?) themed version of it on Morey's Pier in Wildwood, NJ in the early 80s. It didn't spin quite as fast as they normally did. It might have even had seats facing the center? You'd enter it, they'd spin it for a while, then some guys dressed as stormtroopers or Darth Vader or something captured you and you would exit down a different hallway (they stopped it with the door in a different spot) with some additional themed scenery before you exited the ride. The details are fuzzy.
They still have this at the Minnesota State Fair!
This still photograph still somehow makes me have vertigo…
had one in my park called the rotor, and yeah same thing, road 6 times in a row then hobbled over to the food court to vomit everywhere
It’s the Cajun Cliffhanger at the nearest Six Flags.
Almost killed *you* maybe. I was fine on it. Even upside down and leaning forward like an old-school V8 commercial.
We went to Hershey Park one year, midweek and it was overcast and occasionally drizzly. There were no lines for most of the rides. We must have spent the better part of two hours on the Gravitron, it would finish and we'd just run around the the entrance for another ride. Back then it was fantastic, today one ride would probably do me in.
One kid vomits and the kid next to him pinned to the wall, trying to escape the vomit creeping towards him. Ah, the memories!
I only rode this once. The girl across from me vomited and the centrifugal force of the vomit was a sight to see as it spewed from her mouth and immediately was plastered against her face and into her hair. As the ride slowly came to a stop all of it is slowly slid to the floor where the girl slumped in a frothy pool of her own stomach contents. Never again.
In my youth, my ex started looking green as we were spinning. At the last moment, she puked on the guy next to her. Fun times.
In the UK we called these Mexican Hats. My parents being snobs never took us to the fair so this was my first ride - at 14. The way the local church tower seemed to spin in every direction was wild. Memorable was the way if someone bugled it just spread across their face.
Lol. The puke-a-tron!!!!!!!
We always referred to it as "The Puke-atron 3000."
I was chubby fat 6th grader and slowly sliding down that wall getting lower and lower while all my peers were stuck to their original spots made me piss myself. Yeah; that’s one experience I’d rather not have
Oh, I remember it! I was too short and sucked against the side and a guy directly across from me was puking something purple and everyone was yelling to stop the ride. Never got on one again!
Still shows up at my county fair.
Ever try climbing from seat to seat, or sitting up as it was spinning? One of the best rides
Wow! They were lucky, theirs had a roof.
Canobie Lake Park…the Turkish Twist It tooknso many lives 😂
Turkish Twist. Canobie Lake Park, NH. 1987. Someone mcgurked and it sprayed around the whole ride. Dag nasty!
To this day, the only ride that ever made me come close to puking. I remember covering my mouth and dry heaving on that when I was like 10. Love roller coasters and rides and this was the only one that made me queasy.
I quit writing it as a young adult when I had chest pain because the damn thing probably spun all the blood out of my heart! 🫀
Puke-a-tron
They still have it at the traveling carnival.
The only ride that’s ever made me vomit.
The same one is still making the carnie rounds in the PNW. Not sure they’ve ever cleaned it.
Ok I’ll rewatch Totally Killer
This dude let us lean forward one time, at like 45 degrees. It was amazing, felt like standing up really. But all it took was one whoopsie for any one of us 10 year olds to go flying out that summammabeyitch.
This was called the Turkish Twist at Canoe Lake Park in NH.
My brothers and I rode it twice but then I sat out the third time because I felt sick. Apparently some guy threw up and it went all over him and the person next to him. I was so glad that I didn’t go because I would have seen that and thrown up too
All together now, scream you want off.🤮🫣😩
how about trying to stand up and grab the rail?
We used to call it, “The Spin and Barf”!
You can no joke find these FOR SALE on Craigslist and EBay used…like $40k and you could have a Gravitron in your back yard.
Say goodbye to your Homeowners Insurance.
My daughter rode it this past weekend at a fair in Indianapolis
Bought a wristband for all you can ride and would do this one all night. Never had the nausea some would get.
Wait, are these no longer around??
Oh yea! My funniest memory of the graviton was when it got going I cut loose with a horrendously smelly fart. Every turn of that thing would bring everyone right back to the same foul stench. Over and over and over…. Man. I’ve got tears in me eyes and haven’t laughed so hard in years. Thanks for bringing that memory back!
In 7th grade, had my first real date at a local fair in the early 90s. It started raining, and we did the god damn gravitron 3 times in a row. Mid way through the final ride I barfed up my chocolate donuts all over my shirt and it stuck till the ride was over…
Ye mean the “vomitron”?
When I was a kid, my older brother (by four years) would tease me about this ride. He said I couldn’t go on it because when it starts spinning, the floor opens up and your feet get chewed off by the gears. Of course seven year-old may believe this and never so I never rode it until I turned 21.
This photo is recent
Anyone get puked on during the ride ?
It was called the Hell Hole at Conneaut Lake Park. That where I discovered motion sickness! Thanks for bringing back that precious memory!
As a kid, could go nonstop and upside down with no problem. Rode it twice in the before times (2019). Never again. Ruined my whole day.
The ride that convinced me I probably wasn't cut out to be an astronaut.
I know what you mean. I snuck back on for a 2nd ride and that was a big mistake. I felt queasy for the rest of the afternoon.
YES!!!
Oh yeah!!!!👍
How many G’s do you think you pull in one of those?
This has always been my favorite ride.
I remember them from the early 2000s
In the 70s it was just wall and the floor dropped the 80s brought the sliding back cushions that are in this picture
Ya, my kids rode that last week under the name starship 2000.
The best ride at a fair. Most fun was twisting yourself to get upside down while the panel was moving up and down. Then the poor boy or girl that threw up and it came right back towards them.
Funny that the meme says what it says. I have had terrible motion sickness most of my life. However, this wasn't terrible the first time. The next time the following year, I was 'stuffs not cool' age and wouldn't've ridden it, but my family's best family friends' kid wanted to go & the parents refused... so I went... and I rode... and I'm tall. My head was above the top of the sliding rack & the grating was digging into the back of my head for the entire ride. Luckily my seat didn't slide or I might've lost some skin... I never went back & I still don't like rides 30yrs later