Happy National Roller Coaster Day — Magic Mountain's Vekoma Thrill Glider Is Finally Happening

Happy National Roller Coaster Day, you magnificent thrill-seekers. Today, August 16, is the one day a year where it's socially acceptable to spend eight hours in a polyester shirt standing in a switchback line under the July sun while your inner ear threatens to mutiny. And to celebrate, Six Flags Magic Mountain just gave us the best present: they've finally broken ground on that Vekoma Thrill Glider we've been hearing whispers about for two years.

Let's be honest — Magic Mountain has been coasting (sorry) on reputation for a minute. Their last new coaster was Wonder Woman Flight of Courage back in 2022, and since then it's been retracking and paint jobs. Meanwhile, Cedar Point keeps stacking record-breakers and Kings Island is laughing all the way to the giga-coaster bank. But the new Vekoma — a "first-of-its-kind" suspended motorbike coaster that makes you feel less like a passenger and more like you're piloting a low-flying fighter jet — might just silence the critics.

Vekoma's Thrill Glider model works on a simple premise: instead of sitting in a train, you lean forward like you're on a motorcycle, suspended from an overhead track. Your body is almost prone, arms forward, chin tucked. It's not just a ride — it's a posture. The Dutch manufacturer has been quietly dominating the coaster world with these things in Asia and Europe, but this would be the first in North America. And given that the permits got approved back in January (codenamed "Project 26" on the blueprints), the fact that we're finally seeing vertical construction in August means 2027 is locked in as the opening target.

I love the audacity here. Instead of another hyper-hyper-extreme inverted launched 500-foot thing that costs a billion dollars and needs its own zip code, Magic Mountain is betting on a weird, elegant, human-scale experience. A coaster that prioritizes sensation over stats. The world has enough 300-foot drops. What it doesn't have enough of is coasters that make you feel like you're flying — not falling, not getting slammed, but genuinely gliding.

So go ride something today, will you? It's National Roller Coaster Day. Drag a friend, buy the FastPass, eat a funnel cake that'll haunt your dreams (and your colon). And if you're within driving distance of Valencia, California, you can go stand outside the fence and watch the dirt move. I hear the construction cam goes live next week.

Happy screaming.