Sea Serpent is a

steel roller coaster A steel roller coaster is a type of roller coaster classified by its steel Railway track, track, which consists of long steel tubes that are run in pairs, supported by larger steel columns or beams. Trains running along the track typically rely ...

Morey's Piers Morey's Piers & Beachfront Waterparks is a seaside amusement park located on The Wildwoods' boardwalk in Wildwood and North Wildwood, New Jersey. The park has been family owned and operated since 1969 and was run by second generation Morey Br ...

Wildwood, New Jersey Wildwood is a city in Cape May County in the U.S. state of New Jersey. The city, and all of Cape May County, is part of the Ocean City metropolitan statistical area, and is part of the Philadelphia- Wilmington- Camden, PA-NJ- DE- MD combined ...

. Opened in 1984, it was built by

Vekoma Vekoma Rides Manufacturing is an amusement ride manufacturer. Vekoma is a syllabic abbreviation of Veld Koning Machinefabriek (Veld Koning Machine Factory) which was established in 1926 by Hendrik op het Veld. History The company originally manu ...

, and was the first boomerang-style coaster to be built in the US. The coaster's installation was part of a redevelopment of the Marine Pier into a new Mariner's Landing area in 1984. The Sea Serpent currently sits in the middle of Mariners Landing and serves as an icon for the pier along with The Giant Wheel. Riders board yellow, orange and green

trains A train (from Old French , from Latin">-4; we might wonder whether there's a point at which it's appropriate to talk of the beginnings of French, that is, when it wa ... , from Latin , "to pull, to draw") is a series of connected vehicles th ...

to go with the theme. It is a single train with 7 cars. Riders are arranged 2 across in 2 rows for a total of 28 riders. The train begins its backwards climb up the first of the ride's two 116 foot lift hills, both of which are placed diagonally towards each other. The train continues to slowly rise for thirty seconds before dropping at forty-seven miles per hour right through the station and through the coaster's first inversion, a

Cobra Roll Roller coasters are widely known for their drops, inversions, airtime (rides), airtime, and other intense ride elements that contribute to the ride. They are also made up of a variety of features and components responsible for the mechanical opera ...

, exerting as many as 5.2 g's on riders throughout the two elements. The train then goes through a Loop before ending up on the second lift section. The second lift pulls riders upwards for a few seconds, then releases, sending riders backwards. The train encounters the loop first this time, only to then go through the cobra roll once again which leads riders back through the station and partially up the first lift section again. The train then slowly lowers back down into the station, having sent riders through 935 feet of three inversions in total, both forwards and backwards. During the 2019-2020 off season, the ride underwent a makeover, which includes replacing the second lift hill, brakes, and the trains.

1998 incident

In June 1998 the coaster suffered its first ever accident, injuring 14 of the 23 riders on board, some of whom were stranded upside down. According to Will Morey, chief executive officer of the Morey Organization, the accident was thought to have been due to a wheel coming off a rear axle, causing the coaster train to jerk to a stop midway through the ride, as it was looping backwards. A less serious incident trapped all 28 riders for four hours in 1984, just two weeks after the ride was installed, after an operator mistakenly engaged a braking system though no serious injuries were reported.

References

{{Morey's Piers Coasters Roller coasters in New Jersey Roller coasters introduced in 1984 Morey's Piers Boomerang roller coasters