SeaWorld San Diego’s new “world’s first” Tidal Twister dueling roller coaster debuting in May won’t actually have trains that race one another and may not technically qualify as a roller coaster.

Tidal Twister has ignited debate among ride enthusiasts about whether the trains “coast” along the track, a key qualification of a coaster, and if either train can “win” the duel.

The new SeaWorld ride features a nearly 300-foot-long single-rail figure-eight track with an airtime camelback hill that crosses over a zero-g corkscrew twist in the middle. Designed by Orlando-based Skyline Attractions, the 30-mph Skywarp Horizon ride has two trains that are attached in the middle and powered by drive wheels. The track rises a mere 16 feet above the ground and will be surrounded by faux rock work.

“This is a high-speed dueling figure 8 roller coaster,” said Jeff Pike, president of Skyline Attractions. “Other people want to disagree with me, that’s fine. I’m happy to discuss it with them.”


One flank of the debate centers around whether Tidal Twister is a roller coaster or what’s known in the amusement industry as a flat ride. The term refers to compact carnival-style rides that can be folded up and transported on the back of a big rig flatbed truck.

“I find it hard to call the Tidal Twister a proper coaster,” said James Disney, founder of the Westcoaster theme park and travel website. “It’s more of a glorified flat ride with some coaster elements.”

Ride enthusiasts liken Tidal Twister to the “Ring of Fire” flat rides by Larson International commonly found on carnival midways. In recent years, Six Flags has erroneously billed the Larson Giant Loops added to its parks as “roller coasters,” much to the consternation of coaster fans.

Skyline’s Pike says it doesn’t really matter if Tidal Twister is a flat ride or a roller coaster as long as it’s thrilling.


“I haven’t looked up the definition of ‘roller coaster’ in a dictionary,” Pike said. “I just know what it is when I look at it.”

But Pike welcomes the flat ride-roller coaster debate.

“I think this is a fun discussion and it’s actually really engaging,” Pike said during a phone interview with The San Diego Union-Tribune. “I believe it’s a roller coaster. We’re on a track, we’re on wheels and we coast. ”

The second flank of the debate focuses on whether the tandem trains can really duel one another in a race to the finish if they are connected in the middle.


The one-of-a-kind ride features two loading stations at opposite ends of the figure eight where 32 passengers board two trains with seats facing forward and backward. The best way to visualize the layout is to imagine a coaster train with the cars and seats in the middle removed, leaving a gap between the front and back seating areas.

“One of the really interesting parts of Skywarp is the interaction of what appears to be two separate trains as they pass each other frequently,” Pike said. “It looks like there’s two separate trains racing along the same track chasing each other and interacting with each other and really kind of raising the stakes from an excitement standpoint.”

Pike acknowledges the two ends of the Skywarp Horizon train can’t race each other like early dueling coasters such as Gwazi at Busch Gardens Tampa and Dragon Challenge at Universal’s Islands of Adventure once did. Those racing coasters pitted train against train, with riders racing side by side and crossing paths along the dueling route. The Skywarp Horizon trains will continually interact and fly past each other at high speeds, Pike argues.

“As long as we’re interacting and having those sort of threats of a high-speed collision kind of feeling to them, then I think that qualifies,” Pike said. “It’s not a race. It’s a duel to the thrill. Whoever gets thrilled the most wins.”


For its part, SeaWorld believes there is no debate.

“We consider the ride a coaster,” SeaWorld San Diego spokesman David Koontz said via email. “The trains pass over and under each other at the center of the figure 8.”

Skyline Attractions opened a 62-foot-tall vertical version of the Skywarp ride in August at Six Flags Discovery Kingdom in Vallejo. The Harley Quinn Crazy Coaster raised the same flat ride-roller coaster debate that Tidal Twister is embroiled in today.

“The Discovery Kingdom ride made it into the database by a tiny margin due to the ride freely rolling for a moment,” said Duane Marden, who runs the respected Roller Coaster Database. “I don’t know if the San Diego ride works the same way.”


Marden took a lot of heat from the coaster community for adding Discovery Kingdom’s Harley Quinn Crazy Coaster to the database. Marden plans to discuss SeaWorld’s Tidal Twister with Pike during the annual International Association of Amusement Parks and Attractions expo, or IAAPA, in Orlando, Florida this week. If Tidal Twister works the same as Harley Quinn, Marden will add it to the database, he said during an email interview.

At first glance, Skywarp Horizon looks like somebody tipped the original vertical Skywarp at Discovery Kingdom on its side. But Pike says Skywarp Horizon is a completely different attraction that offers a totally different experience.

“The fact that it’s not 60 feet in the air really accentuates the speed of it because you’re now close to the ground,” Pike said. “You’ve got the vantage point of all the rock work, station platforms and things that are around you that are much more apparent as you go zipping around. I think it’s really going to accentuate the thrill factor.”

Unafraid of controversy, Pike believes Skywarp Horizon could shatter world records for most launches and most looping inversions on a coaster. Boasts like that will surely elicit calls from coaster enthusiasts for an asterisk in the record books akin to the steroid era in baseball.


The standard program for Skywarp Horizon calls for four inversions with eight launches during a 1-minute ride cycle. But in theory, the ride time could be extended.

“I just don’t think we want to thrill people quite that much,” Pike said. “I don’t think we want to get into full-on 2 ½- minute ride cycles where you’re going upside down 15 times.”

It’s no accident Pike chose 15 inversions for his example -- one more than the world record-holder Smiler coaster at Alton Towers in England.

“The ride is certainly capable of beating Alton from a number of inversions standpoint,” he said with a showman’s flair for braggadocio.


SeaWorld has not yet determined the ride time or number of circuits for Tidal Twister.

Skyline pitched Skyline Horizon at last year’s IAAPA expo as the coaster with the most launches in the world.

SeaWorld has no plans to set any launch or inversion records with Tidal Twister.

Skyline and SeaWorld will unveil the lead coach for Tidal Twister at the IAAPA expo this week. Expect the debate to continue raging on the convention floor.


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Brady MacDonald is a freelance writer based in Orange County who has written about theme parks for the past decade.