The Comet at Great Escape (formerly Six Flags and now Enchanted Parks) is a relocation from a shuttered park in Canada called Crystal Beach. The ride has a fascinating history in that it was also known as the Comet at Crystal Beach at the time of its closure, but in the early 1900’st it was known as the infamous Crystal Beach Cyclone, considered one of the most violent and terrifying rides ever built. It had a “modern” metal support structure with wooden tracks which allowed for more aggressive elements than would normally be seen on a wooden coaster. The layout featured no straight sections of track (except through the station), non-stop banked turns and drops and a sharp turn near the ground with a 90-degree bank that would cause many riders to temporarily pass out. The ride had 4-5 G’s of force, which some rides actually exceed today, but with G-force it’s not just about intensity, but duration as well. The Crystal Beach Cyclone would operate for 20 years before being shuttered, but its structure gave birth to a new and less intense coaster called the Comet that would eventually move from Canada to Great Escape in New York.
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