Spins and screams
<p>Melody Breidenbach, director of sales for Holiday Inn Express in Coeur d'Alene, takes a photo of a rendition Tuesday following the announcement of two new rides to be added to Silverwood Theme Park this year.</p>
<p>Nancy DiGiamarcco, director of marketing, sales and public relations for Silverwood Theme Park, announces the park's plans to add two new rides for 2013.</p>
COEUR d'ALENE - Silverwood Theme Park's new thrill ride is not for the faint of heart.
Actually, if you're squeamish at all, if you have a delicate stomach, you should just plain stay away from this one.
"This," said Nancy DiGiammarco, "is going to be a real heart pounder."
The 104-foot tall attraction will swing like a pendulum, rising higher on each rotation, while also spinning its 24 riders seated in a circular platform.
It will perform a complete 360, repeatedly placing riders upside down, while spinning, "over and over and over," said DiGiammarco, Silverwood's marketing director, during a press conference Tuesday.
Groundbreaking on the $2 million ride being made by Visa International in Italy is set for February. It's scheduled to arrive at the park in April, and be ready for the park's 26th season opening in May.
It's expected to boost attendance to the 700,000 mark, up from around 650,000, and should help fill area hotels.
When the roller coaster Tremors opened in 1999, attendance jumped 47 percent to 345,614.
When Panic Plunge opened in 2006, attendance was 518,358, a 16 percent increase.
When the coaster Aftershock opened in late July of 2008, attendance was 554,002, up 3 percent from the year before, the small increase likely due to the late opening.
That trend should continue with this latest, bright purple scream machine.
"We feel there's going to be a huge impact as far as the park is concerned and our attendance this year," DiGiammarco said.
A contest to name the new ride is under way at Silverwood's website. The winner will receive a free gold pass for this season and be among the first to ride it.
Silverwood also introduced plans for a new children's ride called the Barnstormer, a relaxed plane-type ride perfect for parents, too. The Italian-made ride cost $200,000 and will stand 25-feet tall. It will carry 20 passengers and is coming from a park in Scotch Plains, N.J.
The new monster thrill ride will be visible from U.S. 95 and near Timber Terror.
It will stand a shade taller than rollercoasters Tremors at 100 feet and Timber Terror at 85 feet, but shorter than Aftershock at 191 feet, or Panic Plunge at 140 feet.
It's touted to have a g-force of 3.5, which means, basically, it could make you sick with all that spinning and swinging. It will be one of the most "intensive" rides in the park and last 2-3 minutes.
"I imagine if you're on that, two minutes is going to feel like a lifetime," DiGiammarco said.
This will be the first such ride in the U.S., which Silverwood landed by outbidding another company. A 40-foot version stands in Sweden. A video played Tuesday showed screaming passengers being tossed up, down and all around while harnessed into their seats.
The 50 people watching cringed, not sure they wanted any part of it.
"That's the baby sister of the one we'll have," DiGiammarco said.
Businessman Alan Golub, who attended the conference at the Best Western Coeur d'Alene Inn, believes it will attract more people to the area - good for Silverwood and the local economy.
"It's an awesome ride," he said.
But he's not entirely sure anyone will find him on it.
"I'll have to think about it," Golub said.