Erik Knapp was just 7-years-old when he took his first turn on the Cyclone, Coney Island’s famed wooden roller coaster. His mother had insisted that he was too young to ride the old rickety coaster, but his grandfather took him anyway, and to hear Knapp tell it, it was love at first ride.
In the years since, Knapp, who is now 47, estimates he’s ridden the coaster “at least 2,000 times” and says he’ll ride it until the day he dies. As proof, he points to a gigantic tattoo of the Cyclone he had inked on his right bicep many years ago. It’s a permanent depiction of the coaster’s iconic red Cyclone sign and a train of passengers falling on the ride’s first major drop. Seated in the front seat alone is a skeleton.
“That’s me,” Knapp says, grinning. “This ride is such a part of my life. I have never lost the thrill of it, and I don’t think I ever will.”
I wrote about the return of the Cyclone and Coney Island after Sandy (via Yahoo News. Photo of Erik Knapp’s epic tattoo via Facebook)