I’ve been to Blackpool Pleasure Beach 2 or 3 times and as well as other rides I’ve been on Infusion and Pepsi Max. Infusion is a suspended monorail. You sit in a seat with your feet dangling but your torso is held in a yoke that locks around your waist. The main feature on Infusion is the corkscrew which tosses you round and its not gentle. Pepsi Max is more traditional roller coaster but it is very high and the initial drop is near vertical (not for the faint-hearted). Your feet are in the car and you are securely held by a yoke

Somehow, on Infusion you feel more secure because you can sense that you are being held around your shoulders and you feel attached to the vehicle by your upper body. On Pepsi Max you don’t get that sense of security because its your feet that feel secure. On New Year’s Eve I felt quite insecure riding into 2010, not because I couldn’t call on people who cared for me but because the security I longed for wasn’t there. It struck me that security is not about what you know but how you feel.

When you know where your heart will be at the ride’s end you don’t care that your head rattles or your feet swing but nothing can assuage the fear when your heart feels exposed. You just have to endure and hope that your heart will hold out till you stop. Unfortunately you can’t always enjoy the ride, sometimes you just have to trust you will get to your destination in one piece.