Needlessly risky things

[carreauchompeur]

I have a poorly northerner at home, who insisted we should subject ourselves to an hour of Jayne McDonald. Anyhoo…

This episode featured a rollercoaster on top of the Stratosphere in Las Vegas, which repeatedly runs you down a curved track in a car to stop at the end, teeter over the edge, tilt back and repeat.



I mean, call me a stick in the mud, and I’m sure there are lots of engineering measures to ensure that you don’t fall to your death, but do we really need to tease physics to this degree?

[ChocolateFrog]

Didn't appeal when I was there.

[M4cruiser]

That and bungee jumping are a complete no-no for me!

[037]

Putting Christmas light high up on a house to me is a risk not worth taking. Seeing blokes who don't normally use ladders doing this once a year makes me anxious

[carlove]

I've seen that come up on YouTube before. I hate rollercosters and that looks like my absolute idea of Hell. I wouldn't say I'm a stick in the mud, just a wimp. I have been to Vegas, but had no interest in going on it.

[sociopath]

I used to love roller coasters and would go on anything I could find. Then one year I tried a ride at a travelling fair in Plymouth which made some very ominous sounds, like it hadn't been bolted together properly.
I'm sure it was fine, but haven't been on anything similar since.

[StevieBee]

Given the age we live in, it has long struck me as odd that once a year, anyone over the age of 18 can go and buy tubes of explosives to explode for nothing other than amusement.

[anonymous-user]

I had to go on it when I was there, it was great. The other ride was worse though. It spins around and centripetally expands so you’re facing down then moves out off the side of the tower so you’re facing straight down over the side 350meters down.

[popeyewhite]

Don't like rides like that personally. But for impressively (read: stupidly) dangerous see free climbing.
Any retirees about?
Precisely.

[Digger]

Can I just say - Women, or will that get me in a spot of bother?

[DavePanda]

Went on it in 2012, only time i've heard my well spoken friend swear in public.

Only problem i see is there being no redundancy, if something fails as it goes forward, it's a long way down until you stop

[steveatesh]

Digger said:

Can I just say - Women, or will that get me in a spot of bother?

[bigandclever]

DavePanda said:

Only problem i see is there being no redundancy, if something fails as it goes forward, it's a long way down until you stop

Unlike flying on the plane to Vegas which, erm, hang on ...

[bearman68]

popeyewhite said:

Don't like rides like that personally. But for impressively (read: stupidly) dangerous see free climbing.
Any retirees about?
Precisely.

Plenty.
Most competent climbers have 'free climbed' something in their lives.

Damn, I bet you go up the stairs without fall arrest gear? Not much different, just a degree of technical difficulty you are happy or not to climb.

Free climbing is a bit of an Americanism. In the UK and Europe 'free climbing' is climbing without the direct aid of artificial gear, but using the gear to arrest a fall. (I don't know what they call that in the US), whereas here climbing with no ropes / gear is called soloing.

[ntiz]

I imagine driving down the motorway in the UK you are more at risk of death or serious injury than you are on a roller coaster.

I believe to take risk for a thrill is to feel alive and part of the human condition.

[chris116]

Wingsuit flying always strikes me as utterly mental. I don't think those that fly them tend to last very long, not many veterans shall we say.

[-Cappo-]

ntiz said:

I believe to take risk for a thrill is to feel alive and part of the human condition.

Up to a point, yes, but then you get people doing things like this:



Each to their own and all that but - assuming of course that this is real and not CGI - this one not only unquestionably fits the thread title but is also IMO bloody selfish, potentially to his friends and family, if he has those, but also to the poor sods who will almost certainly have scrape bits of him off the street one day.

There are so many points of lunacy in this, but a special mention for around 2:30 - 2:40

[HFLagos]

The ride referred to in the OP is named X-Scream. Myself and a work colleague were in Vegas and thought it would be fun to have a go on it….. it wasn’t.

Scariest ride I’ve ever been on, truly hideous.

[Evoluzione]

I have to decide if Paramotoring is needlessly risky, or if I should do it before I can't.

[popeyewhite]

bearman68 said:

Plenty.
Most competent climbers have 'free climbed' something in their lives.

Not what i mean at all. I mean the nutters that almost run to the top of vertiginous cliffs like the Eiger, with no safety equipment/rope whatever. HTH.