20 Years of CF: Tat Giveaway #1 - Batman...Forever

[Ian]

Let's go retro for our first tat giveaway! The Batman Forever font was associated with CF and the Batman coasters are what got many of us hooked on creds, so it make sense to give away this awesome Batman media day invite tat set:



To enter, simply tell us when and why you signed up to CF. On Friday 12th February, all members names who posted in this thread will be put in a hat and one lucky winner pulled out at random.

I can't enter, but I joined CF quite early on, must've been around 2002, a Yahoo search for "alton towers vs blackpool" got me here when I was researching theme park break for my birthday. I wasn;t really into coasters at the time, but I thought I'd ask the "experts" on the forum which park woudl be best to visit. Alton Towers got the most recommendations - I ended up doing both. After those visits, I became hoooked on coasters, and stuck on around on CF to learn more!

Small Print
1. Competition open to CoasterForce members who joined before 5th February 2021.
2. Competition ends at 18:00, 12th February 2021 (UK time).
3. You will be required to give CF an address to mail the item to, so please get a responsible adults permission before entering if you are a minor.
4. Please see CF's Terms & Conditions for everything else.

 

[Thekingin64]

It must have been 2005-2006ish when I first discovered the "main site" of CF (about the time the site went from Black background to grey background). Initially found the site through a Google Images result for Hydro at Oakwood. Many hours were spent on the main site, researching the numerous parks of the world.

After a few years hiatus, I re-discovered the site in 2010 and plucked up the courage to join the forums, kickstarting my coaster enthusiasm.

 

[Edward M]

I remember joining December 2012, at the ripe ole age of 13 years old. I was a young and bright eyed coaster enthusiast who had just gone from only visiting a few scattered parks across the Southern USA to a Cedar Point fanboy (and a visit to Kings Island for good measure). I had always had an affinity for watching coaster POVs, and Coasterforce was always my go to whenever watching them. It wasn't until that December that I realized there were forums involved, which seemed like a very fun opportunity.

I first ended up posting that March, where I posted a topic about whether Outlaw Run looked good or not (oh the naiveté). And now, a good 8 years and 200+ new coasters later, I'm still here!! Here's to another 20 years of Coasterforce!

 

[TilenB]

I joined the forums in late 2011, when I was still pretty fresh from a trip to California with my dad. Six Flags Magic Mountain really properly got me into coasters, so I spent hours drawing up random rides in No Limits and browsing through POVs on YouTube. One of the channels that had the biggest collection of videos was called www.coasterforce.com, so it being an actual website url, I just had to look it up. And the rest is history.

 

[jay37415]

Growing up with a love of coasters, I became one of those dads who would watch East Coaster General's POV videos on Youtube with my kids on my lap mimicking the motions.
In 2012 my wife and I attended opening day for Wild Eagle at Dollywood. Since the wait was about two hours we naturally got chatting with the guy in front of us in line. Super cool dude, really friendly and knowledgeable about coasters. I noticed he was holding a camera so I asked if he films many POV's and if he had a channel on Youtube. He said, "Yeah! I film for Coasterforce and I go by East Coaster General."
It was by that meeting that he informed me that CF had a website with a chat board and I should look it up.
IN 2019, the family and I attended a couple of CF Lives which led to some awesome people. Was hoping to attend a few in 2020 but we all know how that went.

 

[Howie]

I joined because Ian and @ECG told me to.
2014 was the year. There I was, just hanging out at SFGAdv with a pal, minding my own business, when I was suddenly accosted by 2 bearded goons in the smoking area near Bizarro.
"Have you heard of CoasterForce?" they said.
"Coasterforce? Isn't that just some nerd who goes around theme parks on his own filming POV's and posting them on YouTube?"
"Yes", said Jerry, "That's me, East Coaster General. But we have a website and a forum too. It's full of geeks and weirdos and we really need some new blood to make it cool again. You should join!"
"Me? Really?" I said.
"Yeah", said Ian, "we go on trips n stuff and get really drunk".
"Join us." they said.
"It'll be fun." they said...

Me: "Ok then".

 

[caffeine_demon]

I joined back in 2007, because I fancied the chance of winning some batman tat in 14 years!

 

[MouseAT]

I originally came onboard around 2007. I may have been lurking slightly before that, as I know there was a bit of a gap between when I first discovered CF, and when I actually signed up for the forums.

I'd been terrified of thrill rides as a child, and was about to revisit Lightwater Valley for the first time in over a decade. I discovered CF when trying to determine whether or not riding The Ultimate would require a change of underwear; It turned out that no, I'd probably be OK in that regard, but that it would attempt to break me in other ways. A few park visits later, I'd caught the enthusiast bug, started reading the forums on a regular basis, started posting on a less regular basis, and you lovely lot have been stuck with me ever since.

These days, CF is probably best known for its POVs, but back then, it was as much about the Live videos as anything else. The likes of Dan Farrell, Big John, Martyn Hoyer and others were churning out videos pretty much whenever there was a Live, and those really helped to showcase how awesome the group meet-ups really were. I attended my first Lives back in 2008, still try to attend as many as I feasibly can, and can safely say that there's no better way to experience most theme parks that with a bunch of like-minded CFers at your side.

 

[Sky]

I signed up in...probably 2002? Maybe 2003? Man I'm getting old... At this point, I had decided that I was ready to conquer my fear of coasters, but was living not near a major park at the time, so I had to wait until one of my parents took me somewhere and I could actually ride one. I passed the time by researching everything that I could about roller coasters to learn more about them. I remember watching the construction of Superman: Ultimate Flight at SFOG on various websites, and when I found CF, it seemed like a really cool community of people. I was just amazed that there was a whole message board of people that were just as fascinated by coasters as I was. I signed up with the super clever username of SFOGirl (which most people just called Six Flags Over Girl).

CP6 and I met up in 2006 and dated for a while after that, but that was when I started actually meeting other enthusiasts and having the time of my life.

I don't post as much these days outside of the League of Goons, but I'm still around all these years later. I've picked up so many lifetime friends over the years, so I'm forever grateful for my decision to sign up for CF.

 

[DelPiero]

I first found the site around 2009, I was searching for info on Thirteen and came across CF, found the info I was looking for then buggered off again.
I came back for Swarm info around 2011 but at this point I hung around and read up on everything. I eventually signed up in early 2013 when it was clear I wanted to meet up with the goons to see the Smiler in person.

This site opened my eyes to the number of coasters and parks worldwide, and has been a big part of my life. Goons too, you're all fab (mostly, except uncool Howie).

 

[Pear]

I joined in 2017 after lurking for a while and being a fan of the youtube channel!

 

[JoshC.]

I signed up all the way back in 2012. I liked the content CF provided and just wanted to get more into parks. I made one post then lurked around before ultimately disappearing.

I made an unremarkable return in 2015 (after resetting my long-forgotten password and blowing away the dust and cobwebs from my account), made a few more posts, then lurked around again.

Fast forward to late 2017 then I started posting more regularly, and wanted to ultimately build up to joining in with the meets and stuff. 2020 was going to be that year, but yeah.

 

[shawnoc]

I joined back in 2006..... where has that gone. I was a lot more active back then, now life has got in the way.
I remember good old banter with Ultimate Caster back in the day. Meeting Fury in Stafford may a year ago.
I lurked long before joining g as I used to like the news feed on the original site and finally made the jump to sign up to the forums.

Heres to another 15 years and more

 

[Smithy]

I wish I could remember the exact reason - It's one of two and from memory it's about 2005/2006. I think it was researching somewhere other than Alton Towers to go, possibly somewhere like Flamingo Land or Blackpool. I know what kept me coming back was the forums, and doing a lot of my GCSE and A-Level coursework around theme parks and branding so I spent a lot of times going through the forums, learning about theme parks I had no idea about, and then inevitably getting into quote war arguments.

 

[swalesuk01]

I joined in 2015 found the forum while looking for more info on the wicker man construction stayed ever since enjoying reading the forums. Ultimately opening my eyes to even more parks around the world and making me wish I could afford to travel more

Sent from my SM-G973F using Tapatalk

 

[FistedColossus]

Lurked on here in the very early days as a spotty teenager obsessed with Thorpe Park.

*10 year gap got bored of coasters*

Went on Taron which completely bamboozled me and signed up on here to express my love for it.

 

[Dar]

After ages of lurking around on here and TowersTimes, I finally got the guts to sign up and not say very much in 2011. I joined CF because I wanted to join a general coaster forum that wasn't the other one, that had friendly members and was a little silly sometimes!
2011 was a breakout year for me, went to Alton Towers for the first time, joined a couple forums, started chatting with folk, met my husband on TowersTimes. Basically it was the year I introduced myself to all the things I couldn't have growing up!

Joining CF was a bit of an eye-opener too: I'd been going to Blackpool every year for as long as I can remember, my family were some of the first people to try out this new fangled "season pass" they were introducing with the wristbands. I thought I knew everything there was to know about the Pleasure Beach! Then I joined here and realised I don't know jack!

 

[ChristianPalsson]

I joined Coasterforce after I saw a big hole and a bunch of diggers at Energylandia and had no idea what was going on. This was some time in 2019. That big hole turned out to be where Abyssus would be built. Love the community, love talking about coaster and I am so happy what I was staring at a hole and googled to try to find out what it was.

 

[Munchy Road Hippopotamus]

Apparently I joined in April 2019 (I had to look this up), I'd visited the Coasterforce site for years but never really used the forum. The last theme park forum was Rideas in the early 2000's. I think I actually joined the forums so that I could save where I was up to and only see new content!

 

[Eyebrows]

I joined in May of last year, after Robb Alvey himself banned me from TPR after I publicly disagreed with him on how he ran his forum (Don’t know how I ended up there in the first place). I lurked on here for a few months then actually started posting in November or December of last year, and now I’m here to stay, whether you like me or not.

or you could ban me I guess lol