Catching air, with wood

Officially, true-blue enthusiasts will tell you that the best roller coaster is the one you're riding. But many prefer the white-knuckle thrills of the clickety-clacking wooden variety. They deliver better air time - that feeling of floating out of your seat - and more creaks of imaginary danger than the tightly-strapped steel hyper-coasters do. With roller coaster season upon us, it seems like the perfect time to survey New England's classic "woodies."

The Yankee Cannnonball (1930) at Canobie Lake (canobie.com) in Salem, N.H., has survived hurricanes and fires to remain a peppy, smooth "out-and-back" coaster, with whips and bunny hills for generous air time. The figure-eight Thunderbolt (1941) at Six Flags New England (sixflags.com/newengland) in Agawam is a swift ride of more extreme air time and vertical jerks than the 1939 World's Fair coaster it emulates. Folklore says the Cyclone (1983), across the park, inherited its nastiness from designer William Cobb, who was grumpy from a recent surgery. Cobb crammed 3,600 feet of track into a small footprint, yielding a bruising adrenaline rush (0 to 60 mph in three seconds) of out-of-control drops, including a first-hill plunge of 70 feet at 54 degrees.

Newer woodies include the majestic Excalibur (1998) at Funtown (funtownsplashtownusa.com) in Saco, Maine. It travels at 55 miles per hour through an 82-foot first hill and helix finale. In 2000, Lake Compounce (lakecompounce.com) in Bristol, Conn., launched Boulder Dash, an exhilarating zip across a woodsy hillside that was retracked and reprofiled this past winter. Offering a view of the mellower Wildcat (1927), a golden-age woodie, the speed demon Boulder Dash (inset) drops from 145 feet at 60 miles per hour, alternately floating and slamming riders while picking up momentum along 4,500 feet of banking track, double-up hills, and lunging lateral turns.

Before new brakes and cars curbed its relentlessness, the Cyclone might have been tops. But Boulder Dash, with its raging twists and turns, is a pure joy to ride - and our pick for wooden coaster bliss.

[Tristram Lozaw]