Medusa (roller coaster)

For the Six Flags Great Adventure ride formerly known as Medusa, see Bizarro (Six Flags Great Adventure).

Medusa is a steel roller coaster located at Six Flags Discovery Kingdom in Vallejo, California.

Medusa opened in 2000 as the first floorless roller coaster on the west coast. Built by Bolliger & Mabillard, the coaster features a 150-foot (46 m)-tall lift hill with a 150-foot (46 m) drop, and the first Sea serpent roll element ever built on a B&M coaster. The ride is the longest coaster in Northern California at 3,937 feet (1,200 m) long and is notable as having one of the largest vertical loops in the world at 128 ft. It also shares the height record in Northern California with another ride in the same park, V2: Vertical Velocity, at 150 feet high. It features the following seven inversions:

• 128 foot tall Vertical Loop,
• Dive Loop,
• Zero G roll,
• 2 Flatspins (commonly known as corkscrews)
• Sea Serpent roll

Discovery Kingdom's version of Medusa is often referred to as "Medusa West" by coaster enthusiasts because there are three rides with the same name, all with different layouts. "Medusa East", later renamed "Bizarro", is located at Six Flags Great Adventure and features a significantly different layout that includes a Cobra Roll and Interlocking Corkscrews. "Medusa South," a wooden coaster built by CCI, is located at Six Flags Mexico.

The ride starts with a large left-hand turnaround out of the station and onto the lift hill. At the top is a B&M pre-drop followed by a right turn. After that is the large 150' drop which achieves the same height as the lift hill despite the B&M Pre-Drop by dipping below ground level into a pit. The drop is followed by a 128' vertical loop. Medusa then features a dive loop to the left and a zero-G roll. The ride then enters a Sea Serpent roll. After a very quick breather during the mid-course brakes, the train whips into a twisting left-hand drop into a flatspin under the brake run. The on-ride photo is taken directly after the first flatspin. The ride then travels through an inclined helix to the left before diving into the second Flatspin. The ride's finale is a quick 85 degree banked helix to the right before a quick S-Turn, which creates the sensation that the train will run into one of the lift supports. Then, the ride will either glide into the brake run and travel back toward the station, or may come to a sudden stop if it is operating with three trains and another train is already in the station.