Title: Wave Swinger, sit back, relax, and enjoy the ride Source:
Mike McCarthy URL Source:http://www.funtasticshows.com/market_frames.html Published:Aug 21, 2007 Author:Ferret Mike Post Date:2007-08-21 20:38:23 by Ferret Mike Keywords:None Views:277 Comments:19
One year before I fell from the tree in 1998, I travelled with Funtastic and operated their Wave Swinger. (Picture of the very machine in header URL)
I ran into several people I knew from Funtastic and got talked into running the ride at the local county fair as the ride foreman was gone with family stuff to deal with.
Flinging 48 people around in a circle on a ride that is a shear delight to ride and that I know well was tiring a way to spend 12 hours a day from Tuesday to Sunday, but I enjoyed it.
We got high marks as a crew which made me happy, as Funtastic Rides has a much higher standard for courtesy, cleanliness and maintanance then any other company I have worked with on and off over the years.
This ride and the giant Ferris Wheel is the keystone rides of Mr. Ron Burback.
If I could afford it and if my back yard was big enough, I'd get me one of these things. They are a gas.
"OMG I would never ride that .. and esp after eating"
At the Lane County Fair my friend who is the Zipper ride foreman had a sweet young thing get on with an open shoulder bag.
He told her, "Sweet heart, put the bag down here by the platform. Nobody will touch it (and he is right, nobody bothers the mark's stuff when they board, it is a core ethic of ride operation) otherwise everything in it will be all over the ground outside the ride by the time the ride cycle is over."
She insisted that it would be OK. He then asked her, "Honey, have you ridden this thing?"
She answered, "No."
He replied, "then how do you know more about what will happen then me who had has run this thing for over a decade?"
Needless to say, everything came out and she had togather up her belongings at the end of the ride. Though she was too embarrassed to gather up her tampons and a battery powered item of a personal nature that also laid out on the midway for the whole world to see. They remained there after her red faced retreat. ;-D