Business & Tech

Take a Virtual Ride on the New Six Flags Coaster, Boomerang

The inverted steel coaster opens to the general public Saturday, and Patch was able to preview the ride at a special event held Thursday.

Video caption: Your editor apologizes for his slightly embarrassing excess of excitement in the above clip. Seated next to him is a contributor to Park World magazine, who is a veteran of more than 500 different coasters. Video credit: Six Flags staff

Six Flags is ready to unveil it's latest coaster, the Boomerang, a 875-foot long inverted steel ride, this Saturday. 

You can preview what the experience might be like in the clip above and see how your trusty editor fared during his ride at an event held for media and other guests Thursday. 

The king of the park's coasters is Six Flags St. Louis President Dave Roemer, who started his career with the company 41 years ago working in the mail room. He said the new coaster helps balance out the park's offerings while also providing a different kind of thrill. 

"It's the only one were you go 50 mph right through the station," he said. "It's also our third coaster were you get inverted."

This means the park nows has three inverted, or upside-down, coasters and three wooden ones. It's all about having the right mix, Roemer said, so that they can draw "that kid that is ready to ride his first roller coaster and then the guy that has ridden a lot of coaster."

In addition, it's also a bit of a technological advance. It's Six Flags first steel roller coaster to be electronically driven instead of through hydraulics. Roemer said this should hopefully make the ride cycle a little bit faster and smoother and cut down on wait times. 

As a one-time low-level employee of the company, Romer also had a little bit of advice for the legion of young people who work at Six Flags every summer. 

"You gotta have a philosophy," he said. "You can either say it's not my job or that's an opportunity to do something that other people may not know I know how to do."

More about the Boomerang

Boomerang features a 28-passenger train which is pulled up 125 feet backward to the top of a lift hill and then released to propel riders through a half loop, a right half cork screw, a left half cork screw and another half loop. Riders have just seconds to catch their breath before flying through a full loop and climbing another lift hill, eventually taking the train full-circle through the rolls and spirals again.

Six Flags St. Louis bills itself as the "Coaster Capital of Missouri" with nine roller coasters including three wooden and six steel, and combined they feature over 22,720 feet of roller coaster track. 


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