'Screaming Squirrel' lives up to name in premiere

Lagoon's Wild Mouse ride not exciting enough for you? Hankering for a bit more of a rush?

All right. Let's try, say, putting the Wild Mouse on its side.

That's the basic concept behind the newest hair-raising ride from S&S Power, the Logan company that has manufactured various adrenaline-pumped amusement park rides scaring people around the world.

S&S Power staged a demonstration of the "Screaming Squirrel" Wednesday, inviting the media and students from local schools looking for a thrill.

They got it.

The Screaming Squirrel lifts riders (four to a car) 89 feet up a 65-degree incline, then subjects them to a series of vertical undulations, with the riders upside-down half the time. They reach terra firma only after 75 seconds of white-knuckle time.

"It certainly made me catch my breath," said S&S Power human resources manager Kathy Archer, who finally rode the ride this week for the first time at the urging of her boss and family.

Stan Checketts, the mad genius behind S&S Power's 120 "tower" rides (Lagoon's Rocket is a tower ride) in 24 countries as well as the world's fastest rollercoaster (in Japan — zero to 107 miles per hour in 1.8 seconds), wanted to come up with a ride that the whole family could go on together.

You move relatively slowly on the Screaming Squirrel, which is good for the old folks and the young 'uns, but you're orienting your body in ways that, well, just aren't natural, which is good for teens and other adrenaline junkies.

While Archer was gripping the bar, her 75-year-old father, also on the ride, was throwing water balloons and having a great time.

With tower ride sales reaching saturation, Checketts is looking to branch out, and the Screaming Squirrel is one way to do that. It's cheap as far as these things go (less than $2 million per) and has a small footprint, valuable for space-strapped amusement parks.

The Screaming Squirrel is getting attention. This week's unveiling attracted various amusement park magazines as well as local media. Park representatives from Asia are in town negotiating to make the first purchase of the ride. Today a video crew from Germany, representing Europe's version of the Discovery Channel, is scheduled to spend the day at S&S Power.

"Yeah, it's been a long day," Archer said Wednesday night. "But that's what makes this job so fun."

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