Magic Mountain and Santa Barbara

Outside Dive Devel
see all photos »

Sunday Jacob, Hadi and I said goodbye to my LA friends and went to LAX to pick up our rental car and headed north and hour to Six Flags Magic Mountain rollercoaster park. It is one of the largest rollercoaster parks in the world but there is talk it may be closing due to the parent company having finacial hardship. We were fortunate going there in the middle of winter because the place was so quiet. There were practically no lines for most rides. On one rollercoaster there was no one waiting at the end of the ride so the operator made us go again :)

What we had to wear for Dive Devel
see all photos »

There was this awesome ride called "dive devel" which involed the three of us getting strapped into this special suit then tied onto a cable then hoisted 150ft into the air. Once up there dangling Hadi pulled on the rip cord and we experienced a free fall for 50ft then swang out like we were on a massive swing. It was terrifying at first but would have had to have been one of the best adrenalin raising experiences in my life. Once you acomplish dive devel the rest of the park is your oyster.

A friendly attendant at Six Flags.
see all photos »

From there we drove an hour due west to the coastal college town of Santa Barbara. Santa Barbara is a city of about 200 000 people most of whome seem to be there for college at the University of California campus. As were got there at the start of the christmas break most people had gone home. In the US unlike Australia, almost everone leaves home to attend college unless its community college (similar to TAFE). This is great because people get really involved in campus life unlike monash where most people live in the surrounding suburbs and go home right after class.

DSCF0610
see all photos »

That night in Santa Barbara we got to experience the famed american drinking game of "beer pong". It basically involves a long table with 6 cups of beer at either end. There is a team at each end that tries to throw a ping pong ball into the other teams cups. If the other team gets it in they then have to drink the beer in that cup. The team that is made to drink all its cups first, loses. We were amazed by how seriously the college students take this game. There is a strict set of rules that people follow for the game but we were informed that the rules vary from frat house to frat house.