Time to 'Panic'

Vicky Richardson plans to be among those in line when Silverwood Theme Park opens May 1.

But her visit won’t be another day in the park. She has a mission. This is serious. She knows exactly which ride she will be on first. It may be the only ride she enjoys that day: Panic Plunge.

But this isn’t a one-and-done deal. She intends on riding it over and over and over until she has gone up and down 40 times. That’s right. Forty times. Up and down. Up and down.

That, she says with a laugh, will break her June 8, 2008, unofficial record of riding Panic Plunge 35 straight times. And she remembers that well, not entirely fondly.

“At 34, my stomach was getting the heebie-jeebies,” she said.

Still, Richardson survived.

Now, the Bayview woman and former Silverwood employee wants another shot at Panic Plunge. She said she’ll be in line by 10 a.m. with her season pass and when the gates open at 11, Richardson will calmly meander her way to the ride that rises high into the sky.

Richardson is used to accolades and attention. She was once named the “Queen of Bayview,” a title she still claims to hold to this day.

“I really do want to break that record,” she said.

The circular Panic Plunge, with 12 passengers on board, slowly ascends 140 feet, pauses at the top, then drops 120 feet at 47 mph in a few seconds. It’s a death-defying, scream-filled downward spiral, described by Silverwood like this: “Hearts will jump as gravity takes over dragging you screaming towards the earth. Then, just before sudden impact, you are slowed down to a gentle landing.”

Richardson figures each ride, start to finish, loading to unloading, takes about 10 minutes. And she’ll have to return to the end of the line each time. So, she expects to spend at least six or seven hours, maybe more, either in line, going up and coming down.

"I hoping I don't drink a lot of water," Richardson said.

Richardson doesn’t mind being known as “the only crazy lady” of Panic Plunge. She's actually quite proud.

“I do love that ride,” she said.

She said the idea of repeatedly riding Panic Plunge, which was added to Silverwood's lineup in 2006, came to her when she was at Silverwood more than a decade ago and struck up a conversation with a mom and daughter who told her they rode it 10 times.

That led Richardson to wonder if she could do the same — or perhaps even more. So she did.

There is a secret to success of riding Panic Plunge. While most hold on tight so they don't fly away, she extends her arms and legs straight out. When it drops, “it lifts your rear end off the seat,” she said.

She said in the seconds the ride waits before the big drop, you have a great view of U.S. 95 “as far as you can see.”

In her four years working at Silverwood, Richardsons said she loved greeting guests at the front gate and wore big glasses to generate laughs.

She still loves to laugh.

“I just want to have fun this year,” she said.

By the way, in case you were wondering, why she settled on 40 trips on Panic Plunge, it's because that's the football jersey number of her high school boyfriend.

Good thing it wasn't 99.