Tuesday, December 8, 2009

Aerial Antics: Sarkanniemi


Finland is really far away from where I am, something like 4,200 hundred miles to be exact. But that distance doesn't stop me from checking out the offerings of Sarkanniemi park in this week's Aerial Antics.

Sarkanniemi is located on beautiful lake Nasijarvi, and really offers guests much more than just rides - the "Adventure Park" boasts amusements, an aquarium, art museum, planetarium, restaurants, zoo, and more.

But as always, we care about rides, right? Well here's the Tornado, a custom Intamin inverted coaster. Intamin hasn't done many custom inverted rides, so it's pretty unique from that standpoint. But even more so because the ride's layout includes a heartline that goes through the middle of the underground station.

Here you can see the train flying out the station inversion into a helix before taking on another heartline. Pretty cool.

A Whirlwind! The park was home to one of the few Vekoma whirlwind coasters up until the end of this past season when it closed for good. The ride is said to be partially replaced with a new motorbike launched coaster for 2010.

Two more coasters located on the edge of the property by the water. On the left is a Schwarzkopf Jet Star, and on the right a Zamperla flying coaster named Trombi. Perhaps after some people come off Trombi they wish it would fall into the water?

Another popular attraction, as seen by the mass of people waiting at the entrance, is the park's Dolphinarium, the north-most Dolphin aquarium in the world. Hope it's warm in there!

This is the Nasinneula Tower, an attraction in itself. Standing some 550 ft. tall, it has both a revolving restaurant at the top and large lights that tell the local citizens the weather. Tricky.

Although it's located on a beautiful lake, Sarkanniemi still features water rides. Here we have a fun looking river rapids ride. Elsewhere on property is a log flume that intertwines itself with the Tornado coaster.

Finally, the park's Half Pipe coaster was Intamin's first, of which only a handful have followed. Riders sit in two circles of outward facing seats as they are launched up each of the towers. I've never been on one, but have a strange feeling that it would make me quite sick. I'd still try, though.

Here's a link to Bing's aerials.


2 comments:

Nicholas Tucker said...

Love these aerial photos!

Rian said...

After riding the one at Elitch Gardens I can understand why parks don't buy them. They're kind of boring, the thrill factor is only there as it looks like you're going to go over the top that's about it.