Shockwave opened in 1988 as the worlds tallest and fastest roller coaster with most inversions. I remember always driving by, or in the park, greeted by the massive blue and white structure. I also remember back in the day it was regarded in the Chicago area as the ultimate roller coaster, a big hit for Great America with the public. Later though, I also remember opinions about that changing quite a bit :lol:.

I'll start off with the rides entrance, its rails and arches all painted light blue. You walk through the queue house (which is now used for SUF), and it looked quite different with a staircase and a big blue loop behind it instead of a B&M drop and straight path. When the ride was popular this was almost always full, though in the latter years it was always empty.
You then proceeded on a bridge over the maintenence road (which was now moved in front of SUF to allow for a straight queue path). On the bridge, the queue and exit path ran side by side, with a door in the middle of it that allowed for rerides (just in case all the rows were full). Also while on the bridge the loop is directly over and to the left of you, when the train went roaring by at 60mph the structure would sway a lot. This freaked a lot of people out, support was also added to that area some time after the ride was built. The queue stairs then went under the final block brake and more stairs led up to the station.

A unique thing about Shockwave was that the transfer track was a straight portion of track after dispatching from the station, and the storage tracks were next to the station (uncovered). After going straight for about a trains length after the station it did a small dip and an unbanked turn into the lift.

Like all Arrow coasters, the chain lift was loud and could be heard from a long distance away (quite the opposite from SUF). You could also hear the lights on the lift buzzing and shaking as you went up the long traditional lift. Then you crest the lift and go down the long swooping drop angled to the left. Then into the loop that was very high off the ground (over 100 feet), in the front row it felt like a normal loop high off the ground, but in the back row it was really freaky and dizzying. With the seven car trains, going through that really tall loop with that amount of hangtime was truly something unique i've never experienced on any other coaster (other than its sisters GASM and Viper).

Then another thing that made Shockwave unique is after a long sweeping quarter helix into two more vertical loops, the second loop was by far the most intense vertical loop of any coaster i've been on. Unlike its sisters, Shockwave had no trim brake before these loops, which made them more intense. After some extreme positive g's you do a sharp left "Toomer turn" into the mid course block brake, which is when everyone on the train started screaming for pain as it jabbed you to one side (though it was fairly smooth transition in the back car). Then the butterfly inversion which is basically a half loop sandwiched in two half corkscrews, a right turn into a standard double corkscrew thats basically the same as Demon but a bit faster, and then a left turn into the block brakes that were very strong and made a quick stop.

I did most of my Shockwave riding in 2002 when it was really unpopular with the public, over 150 times that season. Unlike Demon which is still popular with families, Shockwave never had a line past 5pm in 2002, and was normally running mostly empty trains by 6 despite the crowds. You can see why the park made the choice to can it :lol:. I really enjoyed it, although a bit jerky it was one of the most intense coasters out there, i'd normally sit on it for a few hours late afternoon while all the other rides had lines. Like Demon (and most all Arrow loopers) the back car first row was the smoothest, though as I said before, that first loop in the back car was dizzying cause of the height and seven car train so have your dramamine ready. I had no problem when the park decided to take it out and it was very understandable, though I lost my marathoning ride lol. I did get on GASM at Great Adventure in 2005 and brought back some good memories (although its a bit smoother and less intense).

I honestly found the ride to be monotonous with having the 3 loops in a row, the 2 other inversions and than later on the 2 corkscrews in a row. I also found it just quite boring. Demon to me is much more fun because there isn't 3 of something in a row, and on that ride you don't have to go through that "other inversion" like on Shockwave.

2/10

Don't get me wrong DEMON is a great ride but it is over all too quickly. I would love to have a sitdown multi looper in the park again. To me it fit Orleans place much better then Superman.