One of my Favorite Coasters
The Boss
Six Flags St. Louis
Published 8/3/00, updated 5/8/01
I rode the new wooden roller coaster, the Boss, at Six Flags St. Louis for my first time on Saturday, July 22, 2000. My first ride happened to be after dark! The Boss is, in my opinion, the most incredible roller coaster I have ever ridden. To ride it in the dark (and it is IN the dark!) just added to the wonders of this first ride experience! This ride has four fabulous drops into a ravine, and it was especially impossible to see in this ravine at night. I liked the Gerstlauer trains. I particularly liked the open fronts. The start of the ride features a little swoop out of the transfer house, which leads onto the chain lift. The lift hill carries riders to 120 feet above the ground. The top of the lift includes (like the neighboring Screamin' Eagle) a swooping curve. This is followed by the first drop. I will rate this drop as my favorite now existing on a wooden coaster. It is steep, sudden, and FAST!
At the bottom of the first drop is a lengthy flat stretch of track. While the ride essentially features a double dip on the first drop, this long flat section makes it very different from any existing double dip. Just as the train enters through structure of an overhead turnaround, the second portion of the first drop begins. This drop, at 30 feet, after the first drop of 120 feet, does not sound like much. But riders' senses tend to get confused in that the train is riding the flat stretch at ground level, and suddenly it begins to drop more, curving at an exceptionally high rate of speed. After dark, this drop was a complete surprise, even though I knew it was coming! This ride practically terrified me. I didn't know what was happening! Even in daylight, as I learned the next day, this section is surprising, as this second part of the drop occurs while you're surrounded by wooden structure. Riders have no time to recover as they're thrust through a wild, curving speed bump, and shot up into a very high turnaround, taken at surprising speed.
The second drop seems as huge as the first. Again, it's steep, and the speed is shocking. This drop begins to curve, and the curve continues as the train climbs up into the third hill. The third hill is a flat turnaround, which leads into block brakes. Normally, I don't like trim brakes on a coaster; however, the Boss actually loses sufficient speed due to the extraordinary height of the third hill that I had no problem with the brakes (which really weren't on at all during my 2001 visit!). They're fairly minimal, and the speed is logically slow enough that the brakes don't interrupt the ride, nor did I feel we lost too much speed due to the brakes. The drop (#3) off the block brakes is even more surprising; it's extremely sudden and steep (and without the brakes, this drop features great air time), and once again riders are plunged into a "nasty" curve! The ride continues with a curving upward climb into the 4th hill, which is an incredibly deep swoop curve. In the daylight, a pause is noted here; at night, when the coaster has picked up mind-blowing speed, there is NO pause there! One of the things I really liked, at least visually prior to riding, about this entire first sequence of the ride was the way the bottoms of the first 4 drops all curved together, parallel to each other. It really reminded me of old photos I'd seen of the Revere Beach (Mass.) Thunderbolt. In reality, this feature was not really obvious in riding, as the intense speed just kept my eyes blurred and my attention focused only on the track we were on.
The 4th drop, another wonderful drop, leads into a series of curving speed hills that gradually wrap around the station, taking riders into the most wonderfully fast and intense helix I've ever found! The pressures on this ride are astounding. This is THE most intense roller coaster I've ever found. I consider it my #1, and I consider it to be my ultimate coaster. I can't imagine a more intense ride will exist! If you like your coasters wild, fast, long, and intense, this is YOUR ride. Go to St. Louis to ride the Boss!!! My son agreed; it's his #1. My wife liked it, but found it to be more than she seeks. My daughter, whose first ride was early in the day in the back seat, loved it, but said she thought her head was going to fall off! Could PTC trains withstand this coaster? I can't imagine they would. A tunnel would make this coaster perfect. My friends and I were completely blown away. We've never experienced this kind of exhilaration!!!
Check out additional Boss photos on my Trip Report page.
Be sure to visit Pages Two and Three for some wonderful Jeff King photos!
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