New Amusement Park Will Open with a Gerstlauer Looping Roller Coaster
New Houston-area amusement park, Galveston Island Historical Pleasure Pier, will be opening this summer with a signature roller coaster. The aptly named, Iron Shark will be yet another compact thriller from Gerstlauer. The ride’s blue steel track will send riders plummeting down a beyond-vertical drop and then it’ll invert riders four times. The Pleasure Pier has posted a few images of Iron Shark’s construction on their Facebook page.
Iron Shark will be America’s fifth Gerstlauer-designed looping roller coaster. Similar coasters include Dollywood’s Mystery Mine, Spongebob Square Pants at Nickelodeon Universe, and 2011’s Six Flags Over Georgia’s Dare Devil Dive and Canobie Lake’s Untamed. They’re known for their small 
footprints packed with loops, and their distinctive vertical lift hills that are followed by beyond-vertical drops.
I’m glad to see that the Houston area is getting another roller coaster. For such a large city (4th largest in the U.S.), it’s a crime that there’s no major theme park there. At least Houstonians and Texans in the area have Gravity Group’s Boardwalk Bullet at Kemah Boardwalk and now Iron Shark at the new Pleasure Pier.
Visit Pleasure Pier’s website to learn more about the park.
Somehow this Gerstlauer coaster has been off of my new coaster radar. I actually remember the initial news about this coaster, but I almost forgot about it. Luckily, I came across it while I was doing research for My Top 10 New Roller Coasters of 2012. Check back soon for that.
What’s Your Take?
Are you looking forward to Pleasure Pier’s Iron Shark? Leave a comment below.
 Go to Apocalypse at Six Flags America |
 2012 Roller Coasters Page |
 Go to Goliath at Six Flags New England |