Tips to prevent blackouts on rides

Hey guys... this has taken me a while to write, as I don't want to comeacross as negative toward my experience.

As a little bit of background, I have been going to Cedar Point for 25years, and have never had any medical issues while riding a coaster. I recentlyswitched to a gluten-free diet per request from my doctor.

I went to Cedar Point in September of 2013 and had terrible luck withblackouts. It started with a grey-out on TTD, and then full black-out onMaverick (smashed my head pretty bad and had a nasty headache for a while). Itook a break for a while, tried a few flat rides and felt okay, so I worked myway through several coasters up to Millennium and blacked out again.

I saw the very professional and amazing medical staff, and they told me thatI was 'getting older' and was told to hold off on riding for a while. No bigdeal to me...I was happy experiencing Halloweekends.

but... I don't want a repeat performance this year.

I am thinking that my new dietary restrictions lead me to this, but I am notsure. I drank a ton of water that day, but I think that a lot of my problemscame from not eating enough.

Does this happen to you? Have you blacked out on a coaster? What preventativemeasures do you all recommend to ensure this doesn't happen to me again?

I have found that squeezing you legs/calves/stomach/thighs really tight helps me to either not black out at all or at least reduce the duration of it.

I have never blacked out on TTD or Maverick, but I always do on GateKeeper and Millennium. I just squeeze those muscles really tight when I know the "blackout" part of the ride is coming.

Advil or non-drowsy Dramamine might help a little.

The medical staff is right though; most people will have similar side effects as they get older, myself included.

I can also vouch for squeezing your lower body, and as silly as this may sound, don't forget to breathe in the process

Definitely keep food in your body. Water is not enough. Back in 2000, I rode MF near closing time and blacked out when we hit the 1st overbank. I hadn't eaten all day. Big mistake!

It's called G-LOC (loss of consciousness) and is very common. I greyout (lose vision and get dizzy, but retain consciousness) on Millennium all the time.

I'm no doctor, but those who are claim that it's harmless (unless you hurt yourself while blacked out) and nearly unavoidable as we age, which sucks, a lot. Clenching everything you can helps because you want to keep the blood in your head. You only really need to worry about it during the high-g places.

FYI, you won't G-LOC on TDD because G-LOC is due to longitudinal G forces causing blood rushing from the head toward the feet, which doesn't happen on TDD.

Anyway, when you get to a high-G place (the big right swing on Millennium after the first hill, first hill on Maverick, etc.) just clench every muscle you can. If it helps, you can imagine that you posted something really cool and djdaemon came on and was a complete douche to you.

Thanks for the tips everybody!

I guess this is the down-side of getting old. :-)

Straining manuver works..Basically keep the blood from flowing easily and away from your head. Basically it feels like youre constipated and need to take a huge **** and nothing comes out. Do that..just without the end result of dropping logs in your cargo shorts.

Scottyf said:
If it helps, you can imagine that you posted something really cool and djdaemon came on and was a complete douche to you.

+1 Quote of the Month!

Not going to lie, I laughed at that also.