Any rider will tell you, the best spot in line for an amusement ride is always right at the cut-off. The operator will indicate with the gruffness of a city bus driver, “OK, two more” to the kids in front, leaving you standing at the metal gate with first dibs of the Tilt-A-Whirl car on the next ride.
If you’re a kid, and young enough to count your age on both hands, you’ll intently study the cheery red mechanical ride to see which car whips around the most, not realizing it has more to do with the teenagers who’ve figured out how to shift their weight into the spin much like they would on a playground swing.
The chaotic movement of the Tilt-A-Whirl has attracted riders (and even physicists) since its invention in 1926 by Herbert Sellner, who built 14 of them in his home basement long before amusement rides factored in computers and mathematical analyses for predictable thrills.
If you happened to ride the Tilt-A-Whirl at any country fair, mall or rodeo in British Columbia in the last 50 years, it was part of West Coast Amusements’ stable. And, chances are, the Tilt-A-Whirl at B.C. Place’s PlayDome this week is the exact same one you rode as a kid 15 times in a row until you were ill.
“There’s always new inventions but it’s all the old mechanical rides that are still the most popular,” said Stephanie Buttazzoni, the food and concession owner and operator for West Coast Amusements. “The Tilt-A-Whirl is the exact same one, we’ve just refurbished it. That, the Octopus, merry-go-round, ferris wheel — they’re some of the favourites. It’s about good old fun.”
Buttazzoni knows a thing or two about the carnival industry because she was born into it. Grandparents Bingo and Jackie Hauser started West Coast Amusements in 1962 with a merry-go-round after selling their circus animals, which included a lion and alligator, to the Calgary Zoo.
The Hausers, now on the brink of turning 90, are still active owners of the Langley and Chilliwack-based company.
“They’re still our bosses at the end of the day,” said their granddaughter. “It’s their life, their passion.”
Buttazzoni started working on fairgrounds as a ticket seller when she was just 10 years old and also helped her parents out with their ice cream concessions which is what inevitably led her to a business degree.
“I got straight A’s in math!” she said with a laugh. “I just loved the travelling and seeing the happy faces, going in and watching rodeos and enjoying different concerts. There’s so much to see and do all the time.”
West Coast Amusements shook off its months of winter hibernation for Saturday’s PlayDome opening that stretches over spring break to this Sunday for Vancouver and Lower Mainland families. Preparation for the amusement crew is no easy task as it means hectic days of fixing whatever breaker decided to die during the cold months, repairing the occasional flat tire, staring at a wall of light bulbs to make sure every last one is merrily lit, followed by rigorous safety inspections.
The 45 rides included everything from the stomach-dropping Super Shot to the baby train ride Choo Choo Charlie along with carnival games and, naturally, fair food staples of candied apples, cotton candy, and mini-donuts.
Each ride, carnival game and concession stand sits on its own truck trailer, which makes urban destinations such as B.C. Place a challenge as only one truck can load in at a time, said Buttazzoni.
The rides take between three to five hours to assemble and then there’s the cleaning and polishing because, as Buttazzoni said, West Coast likes to be known as “Disneyland on wheels.”
The carnival season lasts until mid-September with all four units (what the company calls each grouping of rides, games and food concessions) hitting the long road around B.C. and through Alberta. Vancouver’s PNE marks the wind-down of the season with the final spots being in Agassiz and Port Alberni mid-September.
Then it’s back to the warehouses and farmer’s barns in Chilliwack where the machines sleep until next year’s PlayDome where another batch of kids will line up for the Tilt-A-Whirl, hoping to luck out at being first in line to ride the car that spins uncontrollably.
