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"Where are those pen guys?"
Somehow, over the course of four days, I managed to travel from Columbus to Nashville to Tampa to Albuquerque to Portland. There is some trivia in that: every segment of my trip required a time change, meaning that in my five-node journey I managed to visit all four of the time zones in the Continental United States. It was almost as confusing as a weekend spent in Southwest Indiana!
The usual background applies here. For...well, really, for no readily discernible reason, I hold a NAARSO ride inspection certification. I attended their school, I took their test just to see if I could pass, and, oddly enough, passed it. To maintain that certification, I am required to obtain continuing education in ride inspection, operation and maintenance. It just so happens that I have family in Portland, Oregon, so when the Northwest Showmen's Club holds their annual safety seminar in Portland, it's an ideal opportunity for me: I get the continuing education credit I need for NAARSO, and I get to spend a few days visiting with my brother and his family. I've been to this particular school before, so I was expecting a pretty good week of classes.
There were, as you might expect, returning courses...Martin Vine with tools, Joe Bixler with emergency evacuation plans, Patty Sullivan with Scramblers and Wheels, Guy Sherbourne with the Eyerly rides, Steve Elliott with an ASTM update (mostly an explanation of the F-24 realignment), Kim Jones with midway electrical, and the IBEW guys with their ever-popular GFCI and electrical safety demo. There was also some new material this year. Joe Bixler did a whole hour on inspecting interlocking ride restraints. Steve Swika did a class billed as "Items the Average Inspectors Miss," but in fact it was more like a fascinating look at how a perfectionist maintains a 40-miler. I know I want to see his show (S&S Amusements) in action now! Patty Sullivan brought us a new presentation this year, detailing her efforts at young rider education. Dave Collins changed up his shows a little, with an advanced hydraulics class, then two new classes, one on useful inspection and maintenance tools, and one on identifying "at-risk" behavior. Vic Wisdom (Wisdom) talked about his rides, and Bob Coil (Dartron) not only talked about his rides, we all got to watch a few members of the Funtastic crew take down a Zero Gravity. Davis Shows NW (I think that's the right one...) brought along their new ARM drop tower, setting it up in Funtastic's driveway. The ARM representative explained how the ride works, and most of the hour got taken up with answering questions about eddy current magnetic brakes as used on the tower.
That was all great stuff. Less spectacular were the presentations from vendors whose core business is outside the amusement industry, including the guy who was talking about AED systems, the drugs and violence people, the bolt guy, the wire rope guy, the fall protection guy, and the lubrication guy. They all had important and often interesting stuff to say, but invariably they seemed lost, like they didn't quite understand what kind of audience they were playing to. The exception was the gentleman from Uremet who talked about urethane wheels. He knows his audience and adjusts his talk accordingly; unfortunately it was the third or fourth time I've seen his presentation.
The food was excellent as usual, and once again the Northwest Showmen demonstrated why they represent some of the finest carnivals in the industry. Besides being one of the best bargains in amusement ride safety forums, the NWSC seminar was full of interesting and useful content.
--Dave Althoff, Jr.
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