New High Quality Son of Beast POV

[FUN&ONLY!]

Here is a surprisingly smooth and clear point-of-view video of Son of Beast in its original form that was just posted to YouTube within the last 24 hours. I have never seen such a good POV of this ride on the internet until now. Enjoy!

[Benjamin22]

Wow that is really great quality, especially considering most of the SoB povs suck, Thanks for sharing!

[ThrillKingsFitzy]

Wow that pov makes SoB look fun. What was the experience like anyways?

[SOBwasaSOB]

7 minutes ago, ThrillKingsFitzy said:

Wow that pov makes SoB look fun. What was the experience like anyways?

I was young, so it didn't beat me up that bad.  I loved it.  It was definitely rough but I loved how out of control it felt and the structure itself was beyond intimidating.  The first drop and the loop were definite highlights.  The loud clink of the lift hill added to the atmosphere a lot too.  That said, I understand why it had to go.

[CoastersRZ]

I once rode that ride nine times in a two hour span back in 2000, when they had ERT for pass holders from 8-10pm one day in late July.  My thighs had bruises from the sides of the lapbars.  

The first drop was incredible.  The loop was also very smooth.   That first helix though...  Ouch!

[silver2005]

All the elements were drawn out so there was no sense of airtime to be had.   Mostly positive G's, which is a bad sign on a wooden coaster. The helices were where most of the harsher roughness lied.  The first drop was alright, though it needed drive tires to actually get over the crest of the swoop.   The loop was smooth due to it being steel.  

Only got worse with switching out the Premier trains with the Gerstlauers.  It felt like it likely would have stalled in high winds. 

Tis why you don't let engineers who primarily design steel coasters to design wooden ones.  Even if RMC could have saved it, they'd be hard pressed to make it good using such a boring layout. 

[IndyGuy4KI]

31 minutes ago, ThrillKingsFitzy said:

Wow that pov makes SoB look fun. What was the experience like anyways?

As Robbie said, it was an awesome first drop. The helixs were very rough. The loop was awesome. 

The most noteible thing about SOB was the the chain lift. You think an RMC chain lift is loud..

[tuxedoman52]

This is by far the best video of Son of Beast out there. Thanks so much for sharing this. The video says 2002 but I'm thinking this was more likely 2001 for a couple reasons. 1. The trim brake has been removed prior to the rose bowl and 2. King Cobra is still standing. I know removal of KC lasted into the start of the 2002 season but I believe it had been partially removed by opening day.

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[DeltaFlyer]

23 minutes ago, silver2005 said:

Tis why you don't let engineers who primarily design steel coasters to design wooden ones.  Even if RMC could have saved it, they'd be hard pressed to make it good using such a boring layout. 

I don't think the engineering was primarily to blame- Stengel (and company) went on to design the Intamin pre-fab wooden coasters. Seems like it was really just RCCA's horrendous accuracy and material quality that made it so rough.

You can see pretty clearly in that POV (For example, 0:18) where the track just doesn't look quite... right; like they didn't have the best handle on how to fluidly fabricate curves.

[silver2005]

I'm thinking it was before 2002 as I don't see the Tomb Raider building. 

[KI FANATIC 37]

28 minutes ago, IndyGuy4KI said:

As Robbie said, it was an awesome first drop. The helixs were very rough. The loop was awesome. 

The most noteible thing about SOB was the the chain lift. You think an RMC chain lift is loud..

The chain noise was amazing. It filled all of Action Zone. Even if you hated the ride, it was spectacular to look at. Also during the second helix, looking up at the wall of wood on your left was a site to see.

[silver2005]

You could hear the train cresting the lift from the parking tolls.

[SonofBaconator]

3 minutes ago, silver2005 said:

You could hear the train cresting the lift from the parking tolls.

You should hear Raptor from off the peninsula

[tuxedoman52]

The heavyweight class Premier trains didn't help over time, either.

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[Braves0511]

I only got to ride it twice, once with the loop and once without and with the 'new' trains... I definitely preferred it with the Premier trains and loop. After the loop removal, it was just rough with very few redeeming qualities. What I really miss about the ride is its intimidating presence, it was so immense.  The way it loomed over everything, no matter where you were in the park you could see it. I loved watching the train go through the swoop before the drop, and the sound it made coming off the lift is ingrained in my memory forever.  SoB added a lot to the atmosphere of the park even if you never rode it.

[gforce1994]

2 hours ago, DeltaFlyer said:

I don't think the engineering was primarily to blame- Stengel (and company) went on to design the Intamin pre-fab wooden coasters. Seems like it was really just RCCA's horrendous accuracy and material quality that made it so rough.

You can see pretty clearly in that POV (For example, 0:18) where the track just doesn't look quite... right; like they didn't have the best handle on how to fluidly fabricate curves.

The engineering of it was a nightmare from the initial conception of the ride. SOB was originally pitched by RCCA to a SF park (they went with and SLC), and that when dropped, Paramount picked it up. 

The cars were designed with a rubber ring in between the steel halves of the wheel. The rubber was supposed to be a dampening agent, and it was supposed to be a critical part of ensuring the ride ran smoothly. It seems that this design was dropped in late design which is extremely fascinating.

You have a ride that doesn’t have the proper wheels that were designed for it, you have wood superstructure collapse during construction (progressive collapse), and you have a wood structure where the members are slightly weakened.

Speaking of the POV is not an HD POV, it is a video that has been enhanced through AI algorithms. Furthermore, it was likely shot at 30 FPS, and the computer generated a new frame between every other frame to produce a 60 FPS footage. The person did an amazing job with the upscale though.

The footage was indeed shot as part of Discovery’s Top Ten Coasters 2002 special. While shot in high quality, the original footage has been upgraded to 4K quality by computer algorithms. 
 

Edit: Furthermore, the first commercial 4K camera came out in 2003, a year after this was filmed.

[CorkscrewMcPuke]

I never thought I'd see it again this well. Thank you for posting this.

[tuxedoman52]

For anyone interested, that channel also posted the upscaled POV of The Beast.

Notice the skid brakes. Pinch brakes were added in the next off season, while magnetic trims came about during August of 2002.

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[Pagoda Gift Shop]

Watching the Son of Beast POV reminded me of the kicker tire at the top of the lift before the first drop.  There is something terribly wrong with that from a design perspective.

Heading into the 2nd hill on Son of Beast is still the roughest element of any roller coaster I've experienced.  It wasn't awful every time, and depended on where you were sitting, but there were times where it felt like the train was bouncing all over the place to navigate that hill and turn into the rose bowl.

[Kyle100991]

This is one coaster I wish I could have ridden and that POV is great. I wasn't able to go to the park during most of Son of Beast's lifespan, only being able to go until about 2003, and I was scared of most coasters during that time. When I got to go to Kings Island in June of 2012, I couldn't take my eyes off SOB. It was an amazing structure to look at and I was sad to learn about a month later that it would be removed from the park. I love Banshee but part of me wishes Son of Beast was still there.

[JimParker85]

Great POV, thanks for posting. Four rides over two days in early June 2009, less than a month before it closed forever. The big double helix in the back was so jarring, and the rest of the ride was so bland. Only thing that stunk about the removal was the long gap between it closing in early 09 and Banshee finally coming online in 2014. It was fun at least to say we rode Diamondback and SoB on the same trip, like those very few Kings Dominion guests who hit Twisted Timbers right when it opened in 2018, in those first two weeks before Volcano closed forever. 

[MDMC01]

Good stuff; thank you for posting! I never realized how far back the ride went (like, as you look over going down into the Rose Bowl, you can see FoF in the distance- that's mind blowing). That thing was truly massive. The Rose Bowl was (IMO) easily the roughest part of the ride, especially the bottom part when you first go into it. I remember enjoying the drop, loop and the twisty sections after the loop before the brake run. I also remember riding after the loop was removed and being disappointed when we came to that part and there it wasn't there.

[Stitch]

 Thank you for sharing the video, it is the best quality pov I have seen of Son of Beast. A definite nostalgia trip, that's for sure.

[wabashcr]

That's amazing quality.  Thanks for sharing.  Made me a bit sad to see the Cobra from the top of the lift, knowing it had reached the end of its life.  I certainly miss KC a lot more than SOB.

[purdude86]

12 hours ago, silver2005 said:

All the elements were drawn out so there was no sense of airtime to be had.   Mostly positive G's, which is a bad sign on a wooden coaster. The helices were where most of the harsher roughness lied.  The first drop was alright, though it needed drive tires to actually get over the crest of the swoop.   The loop was smooth due to it being steel.  

Only got worse with switching out the Premier trains with the Gerstlauers.  It felt like it likely would have stalled in high winds. 

Tis why you don't let engineers who primarily design steel coasters to design wooden ones.  Even if RMC could have saved it, they'd be hard pressed to make it good using such a boring layout. 

This was my thoughts on it overall. I was still in my teens when it came opened so the roughness didn't bother me at all. But aside from the first drop and loop I found the overall ride experience pretty dull. It was basically just a bunch of helices with a loop in the middle. I still enjoyed it while it was there but wasn't really that sad to see it go, especially once the loop was removed. 

[silver2005]

While I used to work at Coaster-Net, I did an editorial on Son of Beast after stumbling on the forensics report from the 2006 accident (the comments by the forensics person were scathing in combination with the evidence, both physical evidence and SOB's maintenance history) and learning more about the 2009 accident to piece together its history more.  After that, I can't bring myself to miss it even though I somewhat enjoyed it in my early teens (I was 13 when it opened).  To me, its a ride that shouldn't have opened in the condition it did and is a stain on Paramount's legacy that I won't forgive them for.  I am irked at CF a little for thinking they could try and redeem it as short lived as that experiment was.  

Glad there's a really good inverted coaster in its place.  

[TombRaiderFTW]

This is purely conjecture and is completely unsubstantiated: In retrospect, I feel like the ride's shaping looks kiiinda like CCI designed a layout and then RCCA got their hands on it and "dumbed it down" for their manufacturing capability and/or to remove laterals and airtime. Like, the post-lift swoop looks like a positive g-heavy version of that of Legend, the turn after the big drop looks like the second turn after Boss's first drop if a bunch of banking was clumsily added to remove laterals, the last turn does that CCI thing of banking during airtime, but it's like they went out of their way to remove the airtime or used the wrong friction factors or something. Y'know? Kinda in the same vein as Arrow Arrow-fying a B&M layout with Drachen Fire?

Anyway, as someone who didn't ride Son of Beast till 2008, I only recently realized that the original trains had Flight of Fear-style lapbars. Y'know, ones that ratchet downward but have no upwards movement once they do. Pretty sure riding Son of Beast with those should have qualified as cruel and unusual punishment, because oh man. Kinda glad I missed that.

Coincidentally, had CCI designed Son of Beast, it possibly would have opened with Gerstlauer trains, which is what it switched to later in life. Unless parks bought trains straight from PTC (or another manufacturer), CCIs in 2000 opened with Gerstlauer trains.

 

[silver2005]

^I think another reason it was stretched out was so they could give it the length to be the 2nd longest wooden coaster in the world (both the length and the use of helices were inspired by the father).   I just don't get how you put in so few elements in a coaster that's over 7000 ft long.  Most steel hypers aren't that long and have more meat to their layouts than Son of Beast did.   

[McSalsa]

14 hours ago, tuxedoman52 said:

For anyone interested, that channel also posted the upscaled POV of The Beast.

Notice the skid brakes. Pinch brakes were added in the next off season, while magnetic trims came about during August of 2002.

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I will actually link that video in case anyone wants to see it:

I am 99% sure this was filmed in 2001 (and thus SOB was probably also filmed in 2001)- if you look to the left behind the trees as Beast is returning to the station, Kenton's Cove Keelboat Canal can be seen as a pile of rubble. That plus the fact King Cobra is still intact in the SOB video really suggests these were filmed in 2001. Plus the parts of Vortex you could see next to Beast needed paint badly, those would be painted by 2002 if I recall.

Also, I think this Beast POV shows the ride running under nearly "ideal" conditions: it appears to have rained not long before the POV was filmed, and with the old skid brakes Beast had in 2001, that means they would not have been working as well as when wet skid brakes do not slow the train as much (which is a reason they were changed: In October 2001 during a bad storm, the final skid brakes failed to fully stop a train and it bumped into a train in the station. No major injuries but the accident caused Paramount to swap for magnetic brakes in 2002, which don't weaken due to rain). Plus the train seems mostly full- most official POVs these days have empty trains which run slower due to less weight. As a result, Beast seems like it is HAULING in this POV, barely even slowing for the long brake shed mid-ride! As much as I love Beast now, part of me does wish I could go back and ride it with the skid brakes on a wet day (or even better- a wet night!) just to experience the madness.

[tuxedoman52]

I will actually link that video in case anyone wants to see it:
I am 99% sure this was filmed in 2001 (and thus SOB was probably also filmed in 2001)- if you look to the left behind the trees as Beast is returning to the station, Kenton's Cove Keelboat Canal can be seen as a pile of rubble. That plus the fact King Cobra is still intact in the SOB video really suggests these were filmed in 2001. Plus the parts of Vortex you could see next to Beast needed paint badly, those would be painted by 2002 if I recall.
Also, I think this Beast POV shows the ride running under nearly "ideal" conditions: it appears to have rained not long before the POV was filmed, and with the old skid brakes Beast had in 2001, that means they would not have been working as well as when wet skid brakes do not slow the train as much (which is a reason they were changed: In October 2001 during a bad storm, the final skid brakes failed to fully stop a train and it bumped into a train in the station. No major injuries but the accident caused Paramount to swap for magnetic brakes in 2002, which don't weaken due to rain). Plus the train seems mostly full- most official POVs these days have empty trains which run slower due to less weight. As a result, Beast seems like it is HAULING in this POV, barely even slowing for the long brake shed mid-ride! As much as I love Beast now, part of me does wish I could go back and ride it with the skid brakes on a wet day (or even better- a wet night!) just to experience the madness.

Yep, agreed. Vortex was painted throughout the beginning of the 2002 season.

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