The following article was written by Matt Mottl, a Public Services Assistant at the Manitowoc Public Library
All my life I have been fascinated by theme/amusement parks. And the one thing that always caught my eye was the towering roller coasters. But I’ll be honest—even though I was intrigued by them, I was absolutely terrified to ride them at first.
When I was younger, when we visited these parks, I always wanted to ride the coasters, but I always lost my nerve at the last minute and ended up leaving the parks without a single ride on them. The kiddie coasters I rode as a kid were fun, but it was that feeling in your stomach when the first drop happens is what really prevented me from riding the big ones. Because I knew—in my heart and in my stomach—that those towering coasters would be even worse compared to the kiddie coasters.
My first “big” coaster I remember was at our closest park, which is Six Flags Great America. The coaster was the classic older coaster, The Whizzer. Not a behemoth by any means but still intimidating to a young kid like me. I sucked it up though and after the ride I realized I had so much fun! I had been worrying about nothing. After that encounter, I slowly eased my way up, still having an element of nervousness each time, but biting the bullet and riding them. I now consider myself a coaster and theme park expert, and I really want to share my love of these coasters with the public.
Matt Mottl
I am excited to headline a program coming up at Manitowoc Public Library called Coaster Craze: Ten Craziest Roller Coasters. This program—taking place on Thursday, July 30, from 6-7 PM in the Balkasnky Community Room—will place the spotlight on ten of the most thrilling and intimidating coasters every built. We, as an audience, will ride them via the magic of the internet through POV videos that give you the thrill of riding them from the safety of your chair in the Balkansky Community Room. Throughout the program, I will also provide important facts and insights about each one that you would also encounter on other coasters around the world. It was not easy to narrow down the list to just ten since there are so many crazy coasters out there. However, I believe these ten represent the best that are out there, as well as presenting the different types of coasters that exist.
I have personally ridden some of the coasters in this program, but still to this day, there are a few of the rides featured in Coaster Craze that I would hesitate to ride because they are just so massive and extreme. I still somewhat dread that stomach feeling I get after the drop after all this time, but that’s part of the adrenaline rush people crave.
We will feature coasters from all over the United States, as well as one from the other side of the world, and I assume people who will attend Coaster Craze will hopefully know of some of them. Maybe they’ll even have ridden one or two. I love sharing my knowledge of coasters, rides, and just the parks, in general. That said, I am looking forward to having a thrill junkie audience to have a great time with. See you there!
