Many galaxi coasters were built across the globe, but arguably the best one is located at
Sylvan Beach Amusement Park. This particular version has several things going for it:
a great view, two car trains, and minimal braking.
Find out why all these things make this particular Galaxi coaster better than average.
In the 1960s, multiple manufacturers debuted ultra compact and portable coasters
featuring sharp drops and helixes. Pinfari debuted the zyklon. Schwarzkopf offered the
Wildcat. And S.D.C. offered the galaxi coaster. This review will follow the latter. These
coasters would stand 45 feet or 14 meters tall and feature roughly 1650 feet or 500 meters of track.
According to RCDB, 46 versions were added to amusement parks across the globe.
Some others traveled the fair circuit. Sylvan Beach Amusement Park in central New York
has been around since the 1870s. The park had gone decades without a roller coaster,
but they relocated an old Galaxi coaster from Seattle’s Fun Forest Amusement Park in 1993.
Sylvan Beach kept the Galaxi name and placed the coaster towards the back edge of the park.
This currently is still the park’s only coaster. The ride had interestingly been closed the prior
2 years. The ride, along with the entirety of Sylvan Beach Amusement Park, was closed
in 2020 for the covid-19 pandemic. When the park tried to reopen the coaster for the 2021 season,
it was discovered that a family of osprey had built a nest atop the coaster. This bird species
is endangered and extremely territorial, so the park made the difficult decision to keep
the coaster closed for another season until the birds migrated to South America in the fall.
My only visit to this park took place in 2022 and the coaster looked fresh. The
ride didn’t look nearly 50 years old. Galaxi sported bright blue track and red supports.
The coaster had 3 trains visible, but only one on the course.
This was all the park needed, as it was a walk-on even on a holiday weekend. And it was
deliberate to keep the ride open. This coaster is a valley risk according to the operators.
Each train is comprised of 2 cars, seating up to 8 riders per cycle. But the seats are pretty narrow,
so many adults choose to occupy their own row. This ride needs to be front-loaded. This can be
a little annoying on a quiet day since the back car offers the superior ride experience, but this
policy is better than having the coaster stall out and closing for a large chunk of the day.
This coaster also has very unrestrictive restraints.
There’s no seatbelt. Just a single position lap bar that was quite a ways from my lap.
Once dispatched, you round a slow corner and ascend the lone lift hill. And you
get a wonderful view of Oneida Lake, the beach, and the entire midway on the way up. This view
continues on the slow turn that follows as well. You the navigate the first drop. If you’re in the
back car, you get a little airtime. You don’t get this airtime in the front car.
And I often don’t get these negative Gs on the single car models either.
The valley offers some weak positive Gs and then you head up into a large turnaround.
Those up front get a faint pop of airtime entering this element. This turn is another slow one,
but it gives you more time to take in that view. This leads into the ride’s second,
largest, and best drop. It offers a decent burst of airtime for those in the back car.
That’s also paired with a great headchopper with the first drop and some moderate positive Gs in
the valley. This drop has considerably less power on the single car models.
You then rise upwards, losing a lot of speed, so there’s no airtime.
You then navigate a 900 degree downwards helix. It starts slow, but the final rotation has some mild
positive Gs from the speed you’ve regained. The exit from this helix delivers a sudden
jolt of laterals. The transition is much less refined than what you’d find on newer coasters,
but it works on this ride since you’re free to slide side-to-side across the entire seat.
You then head into another helix, this one being a 540 degree downwards one.
This one starts as meekly as the prior one, but it ends sooner so it has less force by the end.
At this point, the ride is supposed to hit a series of brakes before calmly
returning to the station. While the brakes are present on this one, they do not engage.
This makes the finale surprisingly good unlike the Rise of Skywalker.
The exit of the helix basically forms an s-bend. The transition out of it is unbanked and points
the train right, which throws riders to the left. Moments later, the track turns left- again
completely unbanked- so riders are aggressively launched to the other side of the train.
You then have this little hop into another set of brakes. With all the extra speed,
this hump gives a quick but decent pop of airtime across the entire train. Even better, that brake
run I mentioned fails to engage. So you then speed around this unbanked turn into the station,
getting sustained laterals the whole way. You then enter the station where an employee stops
you with a manual brake, ending the coaster. Now what about the smoothness?
This coaster has a tangible shimmy to it, but it doesn’t cause any discomfort. The
trains are comfortable and you’re not going fast enough for it to cause a headache or anything.
So what would I rate this particular Galaxi coaster?
I would give the version at Sylvan Beach a 6 out of 10. This is the best SDC galaxi I have ridden.
These rides are usually one and dones for me, but I rode this one a few times. The pops of
airtime and surprising laterals at the end had me coming off laughing. I had never gotten a finale
like that on any other galaxi. Add in the nice views and this one is a memorable experience.
I will also take this over any Schwarzkopf wildcat. I will take the Pinfari zyklons
with the 3 car trains though. Those ones have even crazier airtime in the back car.
Check out my review on Wonderland’s Mouse Trap if you want to learn more.
So those are my thoughts on Sylvan Beach’s Galaxi coaster? What are your thoughts on this model or
particular installation? Let me know in the comments. If you enjoyed this review, I’d
appreciate it if you gave this video a like and you considered subscribing since there will be a
lot more roller coaster and amusement park videos here at Canobie Coaster. Thanks for watching!