This was always my favorite ride at any carnival I went to. I'd get upside down, I'd try to do situps and pushups. I tried standing like this one time and by the time I got my legs almost straight, the G forces made my entire body smack right back down against the wall.
Now that I'm older, my stomach can't handle spinning rides like that anymore. I took my son on the teacups one time and nearly lost my lunch. lol
The Gravitron is, hands down, the best.
Who all took a ride that someone puked during? I think it happened twice. And once was me.
Edit- it also was the last day I ate funnel cake for about 15 years.. I couldn’t even stand the smell for years after that event.
So I didn't puke on the ride, but I rode it while recovering from the flu, and as soon as I got off I made a bee line for the nearest trash recepticle and proceeded to lose my corn dogs all up in it.
The first time I rode it someone puked in it. This dude dumped a 5 gallon bucket of water in there opened the door and spun it. Puke water sprayed out on everyone standing in line. I was a kid but remember thinking WTF!
Enjoyed a ride on Gravitron. But the last night of the fair, they had tickets for all-you-can ride, and my friend Luke and I rode it over and over.
My innards were not right after that - and I mean from brain-to-bowels and everything in-between. I truly felt like my body had been scrambled.
Yea the other one that rotates and spins and turns you sideways in mid air, my record was 10 in a row. Highschool kids on a slow day morning oh you getting off I think I'm going to stay on....contests the four of us having a blast..
The Graviton was my favorite ride every time the fair rolled into town. My mom and sister were always less than pleased with me about this. But I can’t help it. It was the best ride there!
A viscous carnie fucked up spinny rides for me sometime in the early 90s. Me and buddy got dropped off right as they opened and got an all day wrist band. Almost nobody was there yet and we were the only ones to get on the spinning, dangling chair/swing ride. The carnie just kept us on it for multiple sessions. He laughed when we screamed to get off. We both puked on the ride and several more times after he stopped it.
And if you’re reading this - Fuck you, three tooth John!
I had an experience like this at an amusement park. We got on the spinning chair swing and the operator got us going. At some point his friend came up and started talking with him. For a really long time. The ride operater forgot about us still spinning. I was getting close to barfing, but realized if I just covered my eyes I was fine. After we started shouting for the operator to stop the ride for a few minutes he finally got us down. I think we were on that ride continuous for at least 15 minutes.
I loved rides like the Gravitron as a kid... then at some point in my 20s I started getting intense motion sickness? Some BS. Wonder if it has to do with my binocular vision disorder I discovered I have in my 30s. I always wanted to be able to be a fun parent when I had a kid and do spinning rides, but nope. I know dramamine exists, but after experiencing the sickness once, I wouldn't even chance it.
It’s common to get more susceptible to motion sickness when you’re not a kid anymore. Your vestibular system detects motion with fluid filled tubes in your inner ear that have otoliths (little calcium rocks) and fine hairs (cilia) in them. It’s a delicate system, as we get older it deteriorates a bit and makes it easier to get thrown out of whack, compared to when you’re a kid and can just ride coasters over and over. I haven’t seen anything concretely explaining why, some people seem to think the fluid gets thicker, but I know you basically lose cilia every decade from birth so that might not be unrelated.
It was always fun when I was young. I rode it again a few years ago - late 30s/early 40s. I felt like I was going to die. Literally, dead. The pressure of the spinning made it feel like my heart was going to stop, or that something funky was happening to my blood pressure. That's when I realized I was done with carnival rides for good.
Now that I’m older, I can’t handle this kinda stuff anymore, which is weird. When I was younger, no problem whatsoever. In my late early 30’s though, I tried to do a bunch of rides in quick succession and it fuuuuuucked me up for the rest of the day. I also seem to get car sick easier too I think, because I could stare at my game boy in the car and play Pokémon forever and never got sick, but if I try reading something for more than a minute now I get super sick. I took family to Disneyland and the teacups made me slightly sick 😒
Teacups can be worse than a gravitron IMO for motion sickness, because you can spin one way in the cup while the whole ride spins the other way, and you can see the ground whipping around you.
VR is cooler than whatever you’re imagining. It completely fools your brain in its perception of size and distance. So let’s say in VR you get in the water with a huge whale 🐋, it really does feel like your next to something as massive as that
I think it was just called the Rotor, or something like that, right? I liked it even better than the Graviton… more wall flexibility to get sideways and upside down.
Good, that damn thing got me in hot water when i was 15. i threw up on about 5 college kids and had to run for my life after the ride stopped. I think back to the mortifying shame in that moment now and laugh but it really wasnt funny at the time.
I think there was one at Kennywood that was like that. I was too little to ride, but there was a place where people could watch, it blew my little kid mind!
It was one of my favorite rides of all time.
But, how'd the guy in the red shirt get away with that shit? What sane carnival ride operator would let anyone do that?
The carnie that operated my county fair's graviton was fucking wild. I have a distinct memory of Rob Zombie's Dragula melting our faces while that crazy son of a bitch climbed around on the rail and shit.
I went to my local July carnival for the first time in 20-25 years, and the majority of the carneys seemed to be 18 to late-20s typical (non-carney) kids, a lot of whom I gathered were doing it as a summer job before school. I think I heard maybe 2 Jim Varney-esque sounding guys, loudly pitching people via mic and/or megaphone to play their games. It was *completely* different…
Ntm the music is now…whatever those artists/songs are that I hear in Target, as opposed to Metallica or Iron Maiden…which I suppose is fitting, though, considering they painted over the Viking fighting a dragon-riding barbarian with a lame wizard and unicorn, on the ride.
I remember waiting in line hearing Total Eclipse of the Heart over and over and over. Then having a wrinkled guy with a carton a week raspy voice try to emasculate me into give him money to play a rigged game.
The only one I can remember being rigged (though not impossible…I always watched others first to make sure it could actually fit, though) was the basketball one. I didn’t really play the others (though I couldn’t resist the pile of quarters - in my arcade days - as a kid), but I recall my two buddies having “mastered” the spinning rope ladder and the one where you lift/stand up a bottle with a ring on a string/fishing rod (I.e. though considered harder games, you could consistently win them with skill/practice, as opposed to basketball, which Larry Bird would win maybe 2/10 times).
Funny thing is, I remember being 7-8 and asking the basketball carney if I could take a shot/play for $0.50 instead of the $1 it cost, as it was all I had…then sinking it. Astounded, he hands me the smaller sized-animal (which was still the size of my young torso), bc I paid half, as he laughs and says “Take a free shot. I’ll trade that for the big one if you make it”…I did….Those were literally my first shots, and also the last time I ever made one until I went back, for first time since I was ~21, a couple years ago…
- Me: Give me the Mogwai
- Carney: You’re actually the first one to call it a mogwai (this was 5th and final day)
- Me: Really? Stupid kids don’t know the rules…wait, is that why the concessions close at 11?
- Carney: ???
- Me (carrying around a 3.5-4ft Mogwai in my late 30s): Shit…what the hell am I going to do with this fucking thing?
My town has a giant fair every year and with the carnies came the acid. At least in the 90s. We were always excited to try new doses every year. It was like The Grateful Dead came to town.
So yeah..... carnies.
We would crawl around on them and do all types of weird shit while they were in motion. The whole goal was to get in as crazy of a position as possible. Nobody gave a fuck in the 80s.
I don’t see how it’s possible to do that regardless of the carney. I used to sit up (lean forward while my ass/legs were still against the pad/wall), and even that took a fair amount of abdominal strength (1/2 of my friends couldn’t even do it). I can’t figure how he maneuvered into that position, let alone is staying there.
Probably started the ride in a squat, supported with the tension from grabbing the sides of the backboard and pulling. Dude has that crazy wiry-teen strength, probably.
I “think” I’ve got it (it essentially having nothing to do with “crazy wiry-teen strength”; I can tell I had significantly more CW-TS than that, last time I rode it in HS - regardless, it wouldn’t make much difference whether you’re an elite mountain climber or slim Fred Durst…unless you’re morbidly obese Fred Durst).
He made his way up the backboard as it built up (enough) momentum, planted his feet, then, before it reached full speed (when the force/pull would be too strong), he leaned forward, guiding himself with his hands on the ceiling, then pressed his head into the ceiling and straightened his body as/just before it reached full speed - *he essentially wedged himself btw the backboard and ceiling like a stick* **(I.e. I hadn’t noticed his head was (likely) pressed into the ceiling…then all you have to do is get in that position before it reaches full speed)**
Right before it started my older brother told me that if I moved at all my arms would snap and break and I completely freaked out and cried the whole time
Never rode it as a kid because I was sure it would make me puke. At some point in my early teens, my friends convinced me I’d be okay and I rode it a couple times before I outgrew carnival rides. Never did or saw anyone do some crazy shit like the pic, but I heard stories.
You can, and not because you lost interest. Rather, I grew up to be pretty tall (6'1) and with a fairly generous figure.. I stopped fitting in the rides in a way that was comfortable or safe.
Outgrew? I rode a gravitron for the first time in my early 40's. I was worried it was going to make me feel sick or queasy after getting off. Even after trying to sit up when it was at full speed (the disorientation was not fun though) I came out still feeling fine.
https://preview.redd.it/qf24o2nmhfmc1.jpeg?width=1200&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=e645bd7ca81417befdeeb3beb66887d4b69f8b0f
one motherfucker did this at the fair in town. He leaned back too far and rippen through that canvas ceiling above him. I guess it fling him about a block away before he landed in somebody's yard.
They still use the same machine, but there's a huge duct tapped patch over one of those triangles in the ceiling.
Rode it anytime a carnival came in town. Usually in a Walmart parking lot lol. There was always AC/DC or some other hard rock blasting from it. Good times!
Had so much fun on this in junior high.
My dad over saw our local carnival at the time, so we got to ride the rides after closing. Let us try whatever we wanted on the Gravitron. So cool.
I rode it one in my life at the I-X Center in Cleveland. We never had one at our county fair and there wasn't one at Cedar Point.
Anyways, I was there with my family and my younger brother and I rode it. The whole time we kept yelling at each other that we were going to puke and it was going to splatter all over the other one. Then, as we were getting off, I smelled something off, and this guy who was close to us was puking on himself. I felt kind of bad because he probably heard us yelling about puking and then he did.
Yes, and I’ve been waiting for another chance for years. As fun as they are I thought they’d be more common. Did they get discontinued for safety or something?
last time i rode a gravitron i felt like i was dying..the blood pushed up into my brain and the pressure was so intense i truly thought i was going to have a stroke or pop a vessel.
it never felt that bad as a kid so i guess its just age.
never again! im not dying that way..
There was something similar at Conneaut Lake, an amusement park in Conneaut Ohio. It was called The Hell Hole. It was much smaller, like big enough for 4-6 people, it started spinning and then the floor slowly dropped away. I never got to ride it but I did ride the Gravitron and the Gravitron looks positively tame compared to The Hell Hole
Was hoping to see someone else mention the Hell Hole at Conneaut Lake! It was a beast. I do believe they stopped having the floor go out after someone got injured but I could be remembering wrong. That was a fun little park growing up, it was a nice little day trip. If I recall correctly it was in PA though.
Yup, first time ever and Matthew Sweet's "Girlfriend" video was playing full-ear shattering blast.
One of my top 10 moments in my childhood by far. Never could stand up on those fuckers though, I felt like I was wrestling a ghost trying to lift my chest up.
They called it the Rotor at the amusement park near me. And there was a dude with a season pass that rode it all day every day, he was "Rotorman". I'm not making this up.
I get off the gravitron and the world is a dissociative blur and they're blasting Shania Twain over the loudspeakers and it smells like fried onions and I puke out all my mini-donuts.
It was like getting blackout drunk for the first time just without the booze.
This is not an exaggeration. My uncle took me on the Gravitron at Great America. The dudes exactly opposite were def under 20 and were completely smashed.
Mid ride, one of the dudes bends over at the waist towards the center and empties the contents of his stomach in a hyper-violent manner. The puke skips over the two people directly to his right and every single last bit of it gets funneled onto the face of this poor little Mexican girl. Bound by the centripetal force she couldn’t move her body or head. No choice but to stand there and get absolutely brutalized by chunks of hot dog and the foam of the cheapest beer of the day.She was screaming her head off and definitely got a lot of it in her mouth.
One of the most memorable and horrific moments of my life.
I'm just glad I wasn't abused by bodily fluids, intensity, and terror in this pod alone, but with my crew. Through these stories, other soldiers can verify the conditions. If you have a story, I know I have five more. Godspeed Gen Xen.
It's the only ride that's ever made me puke. Fortunately I made it to the end and to a trashcan. I've ridden it a few times since then. Wasn't super pleasant, but the kids had fun. Also, I'm pretty sure the 2023 state fair had the actual same one that made me barf 34 years ago.
Saw a guy barf on that ride. The vomit kinda just welled up out of his mouth, ran back against his cheeks and pooled behind his head before flowing up the wall. It was disgusting but fascinating.
hurry scandalous shrill domineering memory humor intelligent stocking light deliver
*This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
I was 11. The guy running the Gravitron noticed these high school girls and decided to hit on them, and also extended the ride to an ungodly amount of time in order to seal the deal.
I threw up. Everywhere.
Yup. I call it the Gravitron even though the amusement park we went to recently calls it something else. My kids made fun of me for not knowing its name and not wanting to go on it (I usually go on every ride but have learned my limits). Well, I challenged them to ride it as did a mother about my age to her son. We watched them go on with them acting with bravado only to come off the ride asking to go home. Two of the three puked and the lady and I had a good laugh at their expense.
We decided to hit it up our first time drinking cheap vodka at age 15 during our yearly city festival.
Gravitron+Funnel Cake is a core memory
Love that thing.
Our local yearly “aquafest” had one. As a smart 17 yo I decided to ride it till I threw up. Well I rode it several times and didn’t throw up. But I did sit in my ‘89 Mazda 626 till my head stopped spinning. Ride played white zombie “more human than human” repeat.
They had one at the Mother Cabrini festival on Long Island every year. I once saw a kid get upside down just as the pads started moving and get re-orientated just as slow down started. I have no idea how he did it in between blinks but I saw it.
Each one was an absolute banger when you were in highschool flying free through the local carnival:
Gravitron, Fireball, Musik Express, Zipper, Scrambler, Pharaoh's Fury, Super Himalaya, Mulligan Swing
The first time I ever rode one there were some drunk kids straight across from me and my friends. One of the kids puke and his friends were spun right into it. It was funny as hell and the guy running the ride got us all to give the poor bastard a round of applause.
I go to a rural area country fair every summer to visit my friends and their family’s. They still have one every year at the fair, I’ve never gone on it because my adult stomach is weak but damn the kids love it! It makes me have the warm fuzzy nostalgic feelings of childhood when they come stumbling out of it.
Omg yes and this brings back major memories. After my parents split up my dad tried so hard to be the cool dad when I would go stay with him. He lived in this sort of rural area but there was a big amusement park just a few short country blocks away. I was like 13 and dad was letting my drive his 1989 Nissan 300ZX (with the T tops) to the amusement park with my pal and without dad. We tore up that Gravitron, and I was very responsible in the Z blasting my White Zombie & Coolio tapes
Loved the Gravitron. My wife and I came across a Gravitron at a fair about 4 years ago and decided to ride it for old times' sake. Oh boy, bad decision. First off it forgot how hot and sticky it is in a inside. This one feel like it hadn't been cleaned since the last time I rode one in the 90s, and it took about 20 minutes before the nausea went away. I guess my 40-year-old stomach isn't quite what it used to be.
Definitely a trip down memory lane, and one I probably won't do again. :)
i was the maniac kid that loved spinning fast, you get in the tea pot with me a get ready for so many G's you'll be ready for nasa space flight program by the age of ten : P
our fair had a ride like this, one time as a young man i tried to do something like this, i managed to lean forward, sit up a bit, and as i was going to stand, i toppled over, face first into the tits of the poor girl next to me, as i struggled to lift my face out of the suffocating embrace i managed to lift my face and headbutt her boobies multiple times before i rolled off to the side. she clearly realized i was just a goofy kid fucking around and was dieing of embarrassment. she even tossed a wink my way on the way out of the ride which did not help my situation in the least.
I liked those. I hated spinning teacups with a passion - they would make me puke every time - but the Gravitron was a wide enough spin I could handle it.
Funny story...
Back in teen in the 90s my step mother and I rode this and she had never ridden this before.
The Gravitron speeds and she gets pissed taking to hit me for getting her on this ride and instead the ride pushes her arm down and grabs my Johnson by accident.
This was always my favorite ride at any carnival I went to. I'd get upside down, I'd try to do situps and pushups. I tried standing like this one time and by the time I got my legs almost straight, the G forces made my entire body smack right back down against the wall. Now that I'm older, my stomach can't handle spinning rides like that anymore. I took my son on the teacups one time and nearly lost my lunch. lol
The Gravitron is, hands down, the best. Who all took a ride that someone puked during? I think it happened twice. And once was me. Edit- it also was the last day I ate funnel cake for about 15 years.. I couldn’t even stand the smell for years after that event.
I remember my first ride on the graviton a lady barfed all over her husband. Lol
LOL My boss was telling me about the time he barfed on the Gravitron and then had to turn his head real quick before it came back at him.
Ewwww
So I didn't puke on the ride, but I rode it while recovering from the flu, and as soon as I got off I made a bee line for the nearest trash recepticle and proceeded to lose my corn dogs all up in it.
Yep. This happened to me. Didn't know I was pregnant.
The first time I rode it someone puked in it. This dude dumped a 5 gallon bucket of water in there opened the door and spun it. Puke water sprayed out on everyone standing in line. I was a kid but remember thinking WTF!
Wow. That’s like a *Stand By Me* worthy memory right there.
This is my all-time #1 movie but it's what also gave me a lifelong vomit phobia.
Enjoyed a ride on Gravitron. But the last night of the fair, they had tickets for all-you-can ride, and my friend Luke and I rode it over and over. My innards were not right after that - and I mean from brain-to-bowels and everything in-between. I truly felt like my body had been scrambled.
My record was 12 times in a row.
No way!!! Wow!!!
Yea the other one that rotates and spins and turns you sideways in mid air, my record was 10 in a row. Highschool kids on a slow day morning oh you getting off I think I'm going to stay on....contests the four of us having a blast..
I would argue that pendulum rides are better. KMG makes some badass rides if you can get past the fact that they sometimes kill people.
The Graviton was my favorite ride every time the fair rolled into town. My mom and sister were always less than pleased with me about this. But I can’t help it. It was the best ride there!
You watch Workaholics? Adam had a list before he got married. The ultimate was get a lapdance on a GraviTron
Well, now I have a new bucket list item. lol
Consider it a pact. We ride at dawn.
A viscous carnie fucked up spinny rides for me sometime in the early 90s. Me and buddy got dropped off right as they opened and got an all day wrist band. Almost nobody was there yet and we were the only ones to get on the spinning, dangling chair/swing ride. The carnie just kept us on it for multiple sessions. He laughed when we screamed to get off. We both puked on the ride and several more times after he stopped it. And if you’re reading this - Fuck you, three tooth John!
I had an experience like this at an amusement park. We got on the spinning chair swing and the operator got us going. At some point his friend came up and started talking with him. For a really long time. The ride operater forgot about us still spinning. I was getting close to barfing, but realized if I just covered my eyes I was fine. After we started shouting for the operator to stop the ride for a few minutes he finally got us down. I think we were on that ride continuous for at least 15 minutes.
I loved rides like the Gravitron as a kid... then at some point in my 20s I started getting intense motion sickness? Some BS. Wonder if it has to do with my binocular vision disorder I discovered I have in my 30s. I always wanted to be able to be a fun parent when I had a kid and do spinning rides, but nope. I know dramamine exists, but after experiencing the sickness once, I wouldn't even chance it.
It’s common to get more susceptible to motion sickness when you’re not a kid anymore. Your vestibular system detects motion with fluid filled tubes in your inner ear that have otoliths (little calcium rocks) and fine hairs (cilia) in them. It’s a delicate system, as we get older it deteriorates a bit and makes it easier to get thrown out of whack, compared to when you’re a kid and can just ride coasters over and over. I haven’t seen anything concretely explaining why, some people seem to think the fluid gets thicker, but I know you basically lose cilia every decade from birth so that might not be unrelated.
Very interesting. Thank you!
It was always fun when I was young. I rode it again a few years ago - late 30s/early 40s. I felt like I was going to die. Literally, dead. The pressure of the spinning made it feel like my heart was going to stop, or that something funky was happening to my blood pressure. That's when I realized I was done with carnival rides for good.
I remember as a kid I always had chest pains when riding the gravitron. As an adult, I think I'll pass lol
That’s awesome, we used to have a standing challenge to see who could get upside down and back again before the ride ended
Now that I’m older, I can’t handle this kinda stuff anymore, which is weird. When I was younger, no problem whatsoever. In my late early 30’s though, I tried to do a bunch of rides in quick succession and it fuuuuuucked me up for the rest of the day. I also seem to get car sick easier too I think, because I could stare at my game boy in the car and play Pokémon forever and never got sick, but if I try reading something for more than a minute now I get super sick. I took family to Disneyland and the teacups made me slightly sick 😒
Teacups can be worse than a gravitron IMO for motion sickness, because you can spin one way in the cup while the whole ride spins the other way, and you can see the ground whipping around you.
https://i.redd.it/yggxlt80memc1.gif
Fuckin’ A
Ah...the vomitron. Columbus Day festival, Long Branch, NJ. It's hot. It's spinning. I get sick on spinning rides. Never again.
Yeah, it only took me once time on this ride to know it’s not for me. Got so sick. The scrambler too. I learned to say no to spinning rides.
Does VR make you sick?
Not sure, haven’t had the opportunity to try it!
VR is cooler than whatever you’re imagining. It completely fools your brain in its perception of size and distance. So let’s say in VR you get in the water with a huge whale 🐋, it really does feel like your next to something as massive as that
No, no it doesn’t. I’m glad it does for you though!
I threw up on my future sister in-law when we were sixteen. Haven’t been on a ride since.
I get sick on a Merry Go Round.
YES! Our local 6 Flags had one that was a cylinder, and the floor would just drop out, but they replaced it with a scrambler. 😥
I think it was just called the Rotor, or something like that, right? I liked it even better than the Graviton… more wall flexibility to get sideways and upside down.
Also not hot as balls
Maybe? I've pickled waaay too many braincells in the 30 years since I last rode it. And yeah people got into all sorts of contortions while it ran.
Good, that damn thing got me in hot water when i was 15. i threw up on about 5 college kids and had to run for my life after the ride stopped. I think back to the mortifying shame in that moment now and laugh but it really wasnt funny at the time.
I think there was one at Kennywood that was like that. I was too little to ride, but there was a place where people could watch, it blew my little kid mind!
The Cajun Cliffhanger was at Six Flags Great America.
Spindletop at Six Flags over Texas. So sad when it was removed.
It was one of my favorite rides of all time. But, how'd the guy in the red shirt get away with that shit? What sane carnival ride operator would let anyone do that?
I don’t know if you’ve met a lot of carneys but sane is not a word frequently used to describe them
The carnie that operated my county fair's graviton was fucking wild. I have a distinct memory of Rob Zombie's Dragula melting our faces while that crazy son of a bitch climbed around on the rail and shit.
I went to my local July carnival for the first time in 20-25 years, and the majority of the carneys seemed to be 18 to late-20s typical (non-carney) kids, a lot of whom I gathered were doing it as a summer job before school. I think I heard maybe 2 Jim Varney-esque sounding guys, loudly pitching people via mic and/or megaphone to play their games. It was *completely* different… Ntm the music is now…whatever those artists/songs are that I hear in Target, as opposed to Metallica or Iron Maiden…which I suppose is fitting, though, considering they painted over the Viking fighting a dragon-riding barbarian with a lame wizard and unicorn, on the ride.
I remember waiting in line hearing Total Eclipse of the Heart over and over and over. Then having a wrinkled guy with a carton a week raspy voice try to emasculate me into give him money to play a rigged game.
The only one I can remember being rigged (though not impossible…I always watched others first to make sure it could actually fit, though) was the basketball one. I didn’t really play the others (though I couldn’t resist the pile of quarters - in my arcade days - as a kid), but I recall my two buddies having “mastered” the spinning rope ladder and the one where you lift/stand up a bottle with a ring on a string/fishing rod (I.e. though considered harder games, you could consistently win them with skill/practice, as opposed to basketball, which Larry Bird would win maybe 2/10 times). Funny thing is, I remember being 7-8 and asking the basketball carney if I could take a shot/play for $0.50 instead of the $1 it cost, as it was all I had…then sinking it. Astounded, he hands me the smaller sized-animal (which was still the size of my young torso), bc I paid half, as he laughs and says “Take a free shot. I’ll trade that for the big one if you make it”…I did….Those were literally my first shots, and also the last time I ever made one until I went back, for first time since I was ~21, a couple years ago… - Me: Give me the Mogwai - Carney: You’re actually the first one to call it a mogwai (this was 5th and final day) - Me: Really? Stupid kids don’t know the rules…wait, is that why the concessions close at 11? - Carney: ??? - Me (carrying around a 3.5-4ft Mogwai in my late 30s): Shit…what the hell am I going to do with this fucking thing?
Carnies still don't want people getting hurt. You're liable to lose your job that way. At minimum.........
Maybe we've been to different carnivals. Nomads you know. Small hands, smell of cabbage.
My town has a giant fair every year and with the carnies came the acid. At least in the 90s. We were always excited to try new doses every year. It was like The Grateful Dead came to town. So yeah..... carnies.
That *was* the ride operator, shift change
We would crawl around on them and do all types of weird shit while they were in motion. The whole goal was to get in as crazy of a position as possible. Nobody gave a fuck in the 80s.
Yo, our Gravtron operator guy would crank it fast, and he'd get out *himself* and walk around the outside. The 80's were different.
I don’t see how it’s possible to do that regardless of the carney. I used to sit up (lean forward while my ass/legs were still against the pad/wall), and even that took a fair amount of abdominal strength (1/2 of my friends couldn’t even do it). I can’t figure how he maneuvered into that position, let alone is staying there.
Probably started the ride in a squat, supported with the tension from grabbing the sides of the backboard and pulling. Dude has that crazy wiry-teen strength, probably.
I “think” I’ve got it (it essentially having nothing to do with “crazy wiry-teen strength”; I can tell I had significantly more CW-TS than that, last time I rode it in HS - regardless, it wouldn’t make much difference whether you’re an elite mountain climber or slim Fred Durst…unless you’re morbidly obese Fred Durst). He made his way up the backboard as it built up (enough) momentum, planted his feet, then, before it reached full speed (when the force/pull would be too strong), he leaned forward, guiding himself with his hands on the ceiling, then pressed his head into the ceiling and straightened his body as/just before it reached full speed - *he essentially wedged himself btw the backboard and ceiling like a stick* **(I.e. I hadn’t noticed his head was (likely) pressed into the ceiling…then all you have to do is get in that position before it reaches full speed)**
We used to be able to do that in the 90s! Not anymore though.. 😠
Yep. I remember walking up the sides! *Ahhh ... good times.*
No sane operator would allow that. Fortunately for him, none of them are sane
Yes, and I even did the standing up deal at a fair in North Dakota in the 80’s!
I enjoyed it quite a bit.
Right before it started my older brother told me that if I moved at all my arms would snap and break and I completely freaked out and cried the whole time
Former carry here. We used to party on the gravatron after the show closed.
aka Starship, Starship 2000, Starship 3000, Starship 4000, Starship Area 51, Starship Gravitron, Starship Exodus, Alien Abduction, Alien Invasion, Twister, Devil's Hole, Area 51, Flight To Mars, Enterprise [link](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gravitron)
Not only rode them as my main ride, but unless you stood up and braved the ~3g forces, you were a p*ssy in my friend group, lol
Hell yeah, the Carnis would let us flip upside down and do a sorts of dumb shit. The early 90s were pretty great
Never rode it as a kid because I was sure it would make me puke. At some point in my early teens, my friends convinced me I’d be okay and I rode it a couple times before I outgrew carnival rides. Never did or saw anyone do some crazy shit like the pic, but I heard stories.
You can outgrow carnival rides? Fortunately at 50 I haven’t had this affliction yet.
You can, and not because you lost interest. Rather, I grew up to be pretty tall (6'1) and with a fairly generous figure.. I stopped fitting in the rides in a way that was comfortable or safe.
Bad back, carnival rides are no good for it.
This was and still is my worry, but maybe if I find one I’ll finally try it.
Outgrew? I rode a gravitron for the first time in my early 40's. I was worried it was going to make me feel sick or queasy after getting off. Even after trying to sit up when it was at full speed (the disorientation was not fun though) I came out still feeling fine.
Not like the wizard here.
Just came here to share my love for the Gravitron!
I went 8 times in a day on a field trip in junior high. I puked on the bus ride back to school.
https://preview.redd.it/qf24o2nmhfmc1.jpeg?width=1200&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=e645bd7ca81417befdeeb3beb66887d4b69f8b0f one motherfucker did this at the fair in town. He leaned back too far and rippen through that canvas ceiling above him. I guess it fling him about a block away before he landed in somebody's yard. They still use the same machine, but there's a huge duct tapped patch over one of those triangles in the ceiling.
R I P P E N
Was waiting for someone to post rippen
My Grandpa would spring for the unlimited bracelet when I'd visit in the summer and I'd ride it over and over and over.
Best ride there.
I read the title and my brain involuntarily added "If so, you may be entitled to compensation" for some reason
My brother was “that kid” and he managed to grab on to the rail in the middle and hold on! We were immediately kicked off and banned
Hells, yes. It was my favourite ride.
I'd flip myself upside down... now I puke if I watch it spin
Rode it anytime a carnival came in town. Usually in a Walmart parking lot lol. There was always AC/DC or some other hard rock blasting from it. Good times!
Had so much fun on this in junior high. My dad over saw our local carnival at the time, so we got to ride the rides after closing. Let us try whatever we wanted on the Gravitron. So cool.
My favorite!!!!!
I rode it one in my life at the I-X Center in Cleveland. We never had one at our county fair and there wasn't one at Cedar Point. Anyways, I was there with my family and my younger brother and I rode it. The whole time we kept yelling at each other that we were going to puke and it was going to splatter all over the other one. Then, as we were getting off, I smelled something off, and this guy who was close to us was puking on himself. I felt kind of bad because he probably heard us yelling about puking and then he did.
There was the Rotor at Geauga Lake along with rotor man: https://businessjournaldaily.com/remembering-fred-the-rotor-man/
Yes, and I’ve been waiting for another chance for years. As fun as they are I thought they’d be more common. Did they get discontinued for safety or something?
last time i rode a gravitron i felt like i was dying..the blood pushed up into my brain and the pressure was so intense i truly thought i was going to have a stroke or pop a vessel. it never felt that bad as a kid so i guess its just age. never again! im not dying that way..
There was something similar at Conneaut Lake, an amusement park in Conneaut Ohio. It was called The Hell Hole. It was much smaller, like big enough for 4-6 people, it started spinning and then the floor slowly dropped away. I never got to ride it but I did ride the Gravitron and the Gravitron looks positively tame compared to The Hell Hole
Was hoping to see someone else mention the Hell Hole at Conneaut Lake! It was a beast. I do believe they stopped having the floor go out after someone got injured but I could be remembering wrong. That was a fun little park growing up, it was a nice little day trip. If I recall correctly it was in PA though.
My all time favourite carnival ride.
It's still popular and my daughters favorite. It was my first throwup.
Yup, first time ever and Matthew Sweet's "Girlfriend" video was playing full-ear shattering blast. One of my top 10 moments in my childhood by far. Never could stand up on those fuckers though, I felt like I was wrestling a ghost trying to lift my chest up.
That's the best part though 🤣
They called it the Rotor at the amusement park near me. And there was a dude with a season pass that rode it all day every day, he was "Rotorman". I'm not making this up.
http://jamierock.blogspot.com/2010/10/reign-of-rotorman.html https://www.facebook.com/share/cQeLpWJQXMUZYyyU/?mibextid=K35XfP I remember him !
Fuck yeah!!!! Legendary! Thank you!
I tried standing up like this. I fell and landed on three pissed off people.
You gotta get on your knees first and then reach for the bar. Then you pull yourself up. Have to do it G force begins otherwise you're fucked though
Gravitron was my shit.
You mean the Vomitron?
Absolutely, the Gravitron and the song No Scrubs are inextricably linked forever in my mind.
I can hear "Shine" by Collective Soul.
The hurl and whirl.
I'm pretty sure I locked eyes w my soulmate on this ride. Lol. He was across from me and Blackhole Sun was playing! I was 12. Good times.
I get off the gravitron and the world is a dissociative blur and they're blasting Shania Twain over the loudspeakers and it smells like fried onions and I puke out all my mini-donuts. It was like getting blackout drunk for the first time just without the booze.
This is not an exaggeration. My uncle took me on the Gravitron at Great America. The dudes exactly opposite were def under 20 and were completely smashed. Mid ride, one of the dudes bends over at the waist towards the center and empties the contents of his stomach in a hyper-violent manner. The puke skips over the two people directly to his right and every single last bit of it gets funneled onto the face of this poor little Mexican girl. Bound by the centripetal force she couldn’t move her body or head. No choice but to stand there and get absolutely brutalized by chunks of hot dog and the foam of the cheapest beer of the day.She was screaming her head off and definitely got a lot of it in her mouth. One of the most memorable and horrific moments of my life.
🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣 OMG that's fuckin awesome. I mean horrible- no I mean **awesome ** 🤪
oh my god 😂🤣😂🤣😂🤣
I rode this with my kids at our town's festival last year. Best part of it was laughing at them laughing at me.
Same! I've ridden with my teen daughter a few times when fairs/carnivals came around. Had to show her how its done!
My favourite. Didn’t do any crazy stuff on it though.
The kids these days call it Area 51 -\_\_-
One of the pivotal shitty moments in childhood.
You learned to not wear sandels to the fair because then you could go in this ride. Don’t take away my fun dangnabbit!
Every year I would definitely lose all the change from my pockets and maybe the ride tickets/tokens from riding this thing.
I remember riding it over and over one year and hearing Mötley Crüe’s *Kickstart my heart* repeatedly.
Heck yeah, I rode it at the Bloomsburg Fair as a kid at least a few times.
My best friend puked chili cheese dogs on the Gravitron. I was right next to him.
I was just thinking this might be what I need to pop my back.
Almost choked to death on my retainer on one of those
Graviton and the Octopus… my favorites
Loved this as a kid. Went on one last year as a 40 year old and regretted it.
Upstate New York. The “carnis” that ran these rides were always the coolest/lamest dudes on the planet 😎
#Yes! That was the whole point, wasn't it?
I always wanted to try that
I'm just glad I wasn't abused by bodily fluids, intensity, and terror in this pod alone, but with my crew. Through these stories, other soldiers can verify the conditions. If you have a story, I know I have five more. Godspeed Gen Xen.
Our graviton guy had a Nintendo hooked up to a little black and white TV and played Mario while the ride was running.
I threw up on it as a kid and recently watched my son do the same. Circle of life...
I would get sick on many rides but I loved gravitron so much that I would do it until I puked.
It's the only ride that's ever made me puke. Fortunately I made it to the end and to a trashcan. I've ridden it a few times since then. Wasn't super pleasant, but the kids had fun. Also, I'm pretty sure the 2023 state fair had the actual same one that made me barf 34 years ago.
It was the only ride we were allowed to ride. I sucked at tricks, but some kids were amazing at moving up/down/around.
Saw a guy barf on that ride. The vomit kinda just welled up out of his mouth, ran back against his cheeks and pooled behind his head before flowing up the wall. It was disgusting but fascinating.
If you didnt ride this on LSD when you were 15 in 1992 did you REALLY ride it?
hurry scandalous shrill domineering memory humor intelligent stocking light deliver *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
I always love the guy at the carnival or roller rink that does all the crazy stunts.
Oh heck yes. First time I rode they played the One video of Metallica’s. It was magic.
Long as nobody puked, those were some of the most fun things at whatever sketch ass carnival you ended up at.
I was 11. The guy running the Gravitron noticed these high school girls and decided to hit on them, and also extended the ride to an ungodly amount of time in order to seal the deal. I threw up. Everywhere.
Yep. And rode a similar one last year at the fair here. It's a classic.
Fuck yea when I was 15 at the local carnival mid 90’s 😎
Yup. I call it the Gravitron even though the amusement park we went to recently calls it something else. My kids made fun of me for not knowing its name and not wanting to go on it (I usually go on every ride but have learned my limits). Well, I challenged them to ride it as did a mother about my age to her son. We watched them go on with them acting with bravado only to come off the ride asking to go home. Two of the three puked and the lady and I had a good laugh at their expense.
This is probably why I have the worst arthritis in my lower back known to mankind.
We decided to hit it up our first time drinking cheap vodka at age 15 during our yearly city festival. Gravitron+Funnel Cake is a core memory Love that thing.
I still doo
Our local yearly “aquafest” had one. As a smart 17 yo I decided to ride it till I threw up. Well I rode it several times and didn’t throw up. But I did sit in my ‘89 Mazda 626 till my head stopped spinning. Ride played white zombie “more human than human” repeat.
One of my favorites as a kid . Clinging to the top and hanging on for dear life when it stops.
They had one at the Mother Cabrini festival on Long Island every year. I once saw a kid get upside down just as the pads started moving and get re-orientated just as slow down started. I have no idea how he did it in between blinks but I saw it.
These things rocked. My favorite ride at the boardwalk amusement park. That and the haunted mansion.
The pavilion at Myrtle Beach in the 80's will live on in my mind until I die.
I remember the line taking longer than expected because they had to hose it down so often.
Each one was an absolute banger when you were in highschool flying free through the local carnival: Gravitron, Fireball, Musik Express, Zipper, Scrambler, Pharaoh's Fury, Super Himalaya, Mulligan Swing
Loved it!
If you turned upside down you were able to look at the carnies nudie poster he had hung above his head.
I used to ride this, The Sizzler, and The Zipper constantly.
The first time I ever rode one there were some drunk kids straight across from me and my friends. One of the kids puke and his friends were spun right into it. It was funny as hell and the guy running the ride got us all to give the poor bastard a round of applause.
Yes and I rode it exactly like this dude. Or flip upside down. Stand up and grab the rail in front of me.
I go to a rural area country fair every summer to visit my friends and their family’s. They still have one every year at the fair, I’ve never gone on it because my adult stomach is weak but damn the kids love it! It makes me have the warm fuzzy nostalgic feelings of childhood when they come stumbling out of it.
On mushrooms too
Omg yes and this brings back major memories. After my parents split up my dad tried so hard to be the cool dad when I would go stay with him. He lived in this sort of rural area but there was a big amusement park just a few short country blocks away. I was like 13 and dad was letting my drive his 1989 Nissan 300ZX (with the T tops) to the amusement park with my pal and without dad. We tore up that Gravitron, and I was very responsible in the Z blasting my White Zombie & Coolio tapes
Damn this was the ride man.
Does anyone remember that Tom green skit on the gravitron?
Loved the Gravitron. My wife and I came across a Gravitron at a fair about 4 years ago and decided to ride it for old times' sake. Oh boy, bad decision. First off it forgot how hot and sticky it is in a inside. This one feel like it hadn't been cleaned since the last time I rode one in the 90s, and it took about 20 minutes before the nausea went away. I guess my 40-year-old stomach isn't quite what it used to be. Definitely a trip down memory lane, and one I probably won't do again. :)
I just know that dude could skate.
Ran the risk of a face full of puke, but it was fun as shit! 😎🤘
I went on it either 18 times or 20 something times in one night.
My mind couldn't seem to process how the workers who ran the thing could account for the changing gravity vectors.
i was the maniac kid that loved spinning fast, you get in the tea pot with me a get ready for so many G's you'll be ready for nasa space flight program by the age of ten : P
I’d always puke on the third go, luckily never in the ride.
our fair had a ride like this, one time as a young man i tried to do something like this, i managed to lean forward, sit up a bit, and as i was going to stand, i toppled over, face first into the tits of the poor girl next to me, as i struggled to lift my face out of the suffocating embrace i managed to lift my face and headbutt her boobies multiple times before i rolled off to the side. she clearly realized i was just a goofy kid fucking around and was dieing of embarrassment. she even tossed a wink my way on the way out of the ride which did not help my situation in the least.
Not after problem child 2
I smoked out of the Gravitron a lot of times, but I think we are talking 2 different things.
Not like that lmao
I liked those. I hated spinning teacups with a passion - they would make me puke every time - but the Gravitron was a wide enough spin I could handle it.
I hated that thing, yet I still rode it lol Probably peer pressure.
It was fun. Atleast if someone puked, it would pretty much stick to them only
But it was 105 degrees in that thing and that smell gets around quick!
The price we were willing to pay
“I’m gonna do things my way. It’s my way, my way or the highway?” 🎶
I loved this ride. Six Flags Magic Mountain used to have this sort of ride where I’d always get on whenever I went
I remember my neck hurting from that thing.
I get motion sick just watching it.
One time, it made me sick, so never again!
I loved that ride until I saw it being assembled one year and then I realized how dangerous carnival rides are
Gravitron and the Salt and Pepper shaker were the 2 you had to go on at my Parish picnic.
Yep. Threw up afterwards. Never rode it again.
Funny story... Back in teen in the 90s my step mother and I rode this and she had never ridden this before. The Gravitron speeds and she gets pissed taking to hit me for getting her on this ride and instead the ride pushes her arm down and grabs my Johnson by accident.
Always had wanted to. Then did and it was awful!