l would like to thank a freind of mine Gordon Clinton-Lindop for allowing me to use these photographs of American adventure.

They were taken during the 1990 season and I know from comments to the site and emails its a park allot of people have missed.

I only got to visit the park once during its operation and that was the year before it closed.

The Vekoma boomerang coaster featured on the left  hand side was once classed as Britains best coaster after it opened in 1989.

For anyone that have never been to American Adventure theme park, it was built on the site of an old open cast coal mine and centered around a huge lake in the middle of the park. Some people believe the demise of the park came in 2005 when they re-themed the park as a family park and got rid of the white knuckle rides  including the Vekoma Boomerang coaster they named “the missile’.

Bottom of the first hill, beginning the slow pull back.

Buffalo ride.

I’m guessing this photograph was taken from the wheel. In the distance the log ride and balloons (far left)

Helter Skelter.

A view across the huge lake.

Thanks again to Gordon Clinton-Lindop for the use of the photographs.

To see my previous trip report from American Adventure click here.

If you want to comment on this please use the comment form, contact form or join the ridemad discussion forums.

Thanks for reading.

I was in a group of about 50 members of Club Pleasure Beach and we got to ride Traumatizer (now relocated to Blackpool as Infusion) and the Cyclone wooden roller coaster (which was later demolished).

Also included in the tour was a Q&A session with one of the parks directors and a look into the workshops located behind the cyclone and finally a tour of the ghost train with the lights on.

These are the pictures taken at this event.

Scary looking head

This stunt jumps up when the cars go past.

Im not sure what this is, it looks like an old rag.

Behind one of the stunts.

From the front end.

Opening coffin, a dark ride default stunt 

An open coffin.

Walking into the ride.

Generally walking around.

Activated as the car goes past, it drops down.

Workshops located behind the Cyclone.

Well after been threatened with closure for a number years its finally happened Ocean Beach fun fair closed it gates for the last time yesterday (Sunday 2nd September 2007).

I wasnt suprised to see the park busy for its final day as press the mayor and a lot of local residents came to give the park a good send of.

Ive visited Rhyl since I was a little child perhaps 30 years or more and have fond memories of visiting the park with my family over the summer holidays.

After operating in the area since 1954 the fun fair become one of North Wales most visited tourist attractions. The park has suffered over the last few years though with the only recent addition been the Pepsi-Cola Looping coaster a Pinfari ZL42.

It was a sad day for me yesterday as I have visited Ocean Beach for the last 30+ years and I have some great memories as a child. None of them are very vivid mainly the smell of donuts, toffee apples and chips. But it was a place that kept my family visiting a number of times every summer. To many residents in the north west of england Rhyl, Towyn and Colwyn Bay were always somewhere we looked forward to visiting at summer. Looking back now we never had much money but we always spent the full day on the fair and come home with a belly full of fast food and sugar filled snacks.

The park has been on its last legs for a number of years though and after our visit last year and the year before I was suprised the park could open for another summer the visitor numbers were rock bottom and that was in the middle of summer.

What attractions were left in the end.

All of the attractions that were open at the start of the season were operational yesterday, heres some pictures of the fair on its last day. The weather was really bad yesterday and I don’t think it stopped raining during the duration of our visit.

Waltzers.

Giant Slide.

Ghost Train.

Twister ride.

My two children enjoying the twister.

Juvenille Big Wheel.

Fun House.

Ski Jump.

Dodgems.

Star wars ride.

Nessie Kiddie coaster.

Terminator 3.

Jetstar Coaster.

Pepsi-Cola Looping coaster.

Water Chute.

Selection of Juvenille rides.

And finally some general views of the park.

Heres some comments about the fair from a reader Juliet and her family.

I spent lots of time there as a kid with my older sisters. They were usually getting chatted up by the ride operators..I got quite a few free rides just to keep me out of the way! I remember very fondly the Speedway, Caterpiller, The Roter (I never went on it…but it was my cousins favourite). I also remember from when I was little a Big Wheel, a large wooden Rollercoaster, A beautiful set of Gallopers (which seemed to vanish about 5 years ago!!). The Waltzer i spent many happy hours on burned down (can’t recall when) but thankfully the replacement was just as good..its the one we rode on yesterday. The Helterskelter appears to be the same one its always been. The Twister I remember was an older, wooden model which was near the entrance to the park.
When I was in my early teens, me and my friends would get the train from Abergele into Rhyl to go shopping…usually spending our money on records. In the summer months (even after school!) we would take our new tunes to the fairground and ask the ops to play them for us while we were on the rides!
Happy times.
Happy memories.

I had a quick look on youtube and found a couple of Ocean beach videos.

The Water chute taken by David Ellis.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Jetstream Coaster taken by David Ellis.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Pepsi Cola looping coaster taken by David Ellis.

Click here to view the embedded video.

A video shot in 1982 and published by furiekins.

Click here to view the embedded video.

A nicely put together video by serialdownloader.

Click here to view the embedded video.

So whats happening to Ocean Beach.

As part of a 50 million pound regeneration plan the developers Modus based in Manchester have called the new development Ocean Plaza. It includes an 85,000 sq ft Asda supermarket, 40,000 sq ft of leisure space likely to be used as a fitness suite and bingo hall, offices, 60-bedroom hotel, bars, restaurants and cafes, 1,000 car park spaces and 180 apartments.

Heres a proposed view of how the site will look taken from Modus website.

I don’t want to get really nostalgic about this but im really going to miss this park. I wish Rhyl Council good luck with the regeneration.

If you have any comments or memories about this fair id love to hear from you.

Related articles and websites.

A Closer look at Rhyl’s waterchute.

Modus Properties

Closed Park archive on Ridemad.

Thanks to Juliet and David Ellis for the use of the materials.

If you want to use any photographs on this blog please get in touch paul@ridemad.com im quite happy to share and have high resolution copies of everything used, to see the complete gallery visit the Ridemad Gallery

Thanks for Reading.

The offical news came through yesterday that the land which was the former Pleasureland site has been handed over to Sefton council for redevelopment. As it was my closest park and probably one I visited most as a child ive decided to dig out some pictures from the last season so anyone that hadnt visited for some time can see the park in full swing.

Before we get to the pictures, lets just have a quick look back at the events since closure.

Ive took quite alot of pictures of pleasureland since the closure, most have been published on other sites and a couple made it to First drop issue 76 the publication of the European Coaster club, some have made their way as far as the states and will be used in a ACE (american coaster enthusiasts) newsletter thats coming up shortly.

If you look back 7 months or so to the 5th September 2006 when the park offically closed the only headlines we have seen since have been bad ones. They started with the protests as soon as the park closed a couple of protestors climbed up the cyclone to protest about the closure, I even took the trip to Southport to take a look, by the time I had arrived the rain had started and they had climbed down, it did make local radio and TV news though.

The same protestors then came back even stronger when it was revealed the cyclone was getting cut up by chainsaws, they tried to play on the fact that the cyclone had a group of protected newts under its structure, sadly nothing came of this and the subsequent attempt at making the structure listed.

Following on from this a couple of urban explorers from 28dayslater.co.uk evaded security on a number of occasions to get pictures from such places as the traumatizer lift hill and the ghost train, I dont agree with breaking into theme parks but the pictures were stunning. If you havent seen them i suggest you take a look.

Traumatizer was moved to Blackpool and will shortly open as infusion, the track has been painted blue and it does look nice in its new position been dwarfed by the giant pepsi max big one, right next to the big dipper.

The Cyclone demolition saddened quite a few enthusiasts me included, the pictures of the track bent, twisted and cut up quickly spread over the internet and finally the ride was flattened by bull dozers and giant nibblers.

Some of the rides have moved on since, chaos up to Lightwater Valley, the galleon to M&D’s in Scotland and the space shot to Loudon Castle.

The fun house closed its doors for the final time last weekend, I was lucky enough to be invited to a party organised by Club Pleasure Beach, the event was fantastic fun with 50 enthusiasts and some staff in attendance. More of this to follow at a later point, i have a load of interior pictures ill publish shortly.

Ok then onto 2006 and the final year of Pleasureland.

The Cyclone.

who could forget the bent lift hill

The Galleon.

The Space shot.

ready for loading.

A piece of theming around the kids car ride.

Kids car ride.

The Carousel.

The interior of the caterpillar ride.

The Chewits Log Flume.

Log flume showing the skyride station.

My daughter the only one mad enough on a cold day.

Kiddie coaster.

Traumatizer.

Skyride and views of the park in general.

Anyone reading from the NSPCC, she wanted to go on it

And finally.

to read more about the history of pleasureland, i strongly recommend reading pleasureland memories by Stephen Copnall.

If you want to use any photographs on this blog please get in touch via email paul@ridemad.com or through the contact form im quite happy to share and have high resolution copies of everything used, to see the complete ride mad gallery with over 4,000 additional park photographs visit the Ridemad Gallery

Thanks for Reading.

After years of speculation it looks like the fun fair at Rhyl known as Ocean beach has closed its gates for the final time. I visited Rhyl twice in 2006 once at the start of the season and then towards the end of September when most rides had packed up, apart from the obivous 2 steel coasters the water chute was also standing.

A lapse in security allowed me to take a look around the Water chute for what may be the final time.

The water chute was originally brought to Rhyl from Kursaal Amusment park in southend in 1972.

I’ll take a look at the station building and queue lines first.

A view looking into the queue line at the rear of the car.

Looking out to where the cars come into the station.

A couple of shots of the cars.

A close up showing the lap bars.

From just before the cars enter the lift hill.

Parked and ready to go.

The control hut, as a child I often wondered what they did in this box. I always remember someone pulling a giant lever. This picture is taken from the side of the track as the trains come back into the station.

A look into the mysterious box. I like the addition of the electric heater. Apologies for the picture quality (dirty perspex theres nothing worse)

The bar that operates the ride brakes. This is connected to the lever in the control box.

A pump thing. I dont know what it is, looks like it controls water though.

A bit of a closer look at the track coming into the station.

Heres a couple of lift hill shots.

A view from near the control box, looking at the ride.

The splash pool

A bit of theming.

Will the last one out switch off the lights.

And finally to prove I dont break into farigrounds to take pictures.

I took about 300 images over my last two trips to Rhyl once sorted out ill be sure to post them on here.

All images are copyright ridemad.com, if you want to use any please get in touch paul@ridemad.com, where ill be more than happy to share, i have higher resolution copies of all images, to see all the images from this visit, go to the Album

http://www.ridemad.com is an independant website not affiliated to any theme parks or fairgrounds, the views expressed are my opinions.

Thanks for Reading.

Well I suppose we all knew it was coming, yep another theme park in the UK has closed down. I was going to make this a trip report but considering whats happened recently its more a fond look back at the park in its final year of operation in 2006.

We visited the park in the height of summer last year and it was very quiet considering the time of the year. One of the ride ops mentioned they normally get about 600 people through the gates during the summer raising to 2000 on a very busy day. It was dead when we visited and you can see by the photographs it was a glorious day.

The park first opened in 1985 and was owned by a few companies the final one been Venture World Ltd.

The great rapids ride called Rocky Mountain Rapids, the boats are huge.

The Buffalo Stampede ride.

The parks Skycoaster

I didnt get many riders the day we were at the park.

Finally a ride for Dads. The great JCB Digger depot.

The Twin Looper coaster.

notice the JCB theming.

A closer look at the loops

The Santa Fe Railway that takes you around the lake.

A railway for the kids.

Inside the 4d cinema, one of the biggest ive ever seen. 4d Motion master. with very uncomfortable seats.

Junior Clipper pirate ship

Custers carousel. a nice carousel.

A view of the Aztec Kingdom

Junior Bronco buggie ride.

A couple of general views of the park. See how deserted the place is.

A similar view looking out at the lake.

Theming in the Aztec Kingdom. very appropriate.

The Performance area for the Silver City live show.

A Spot of maintenance before the show.

The live show in action.

They have a few horsemen and women.

They had a great speedboat trip for £3 each.

The wild mine ride from Gullivers, Called mini mine rush – now at Flamingo land.

Pedaloes. great on a warm day.

The Balloon Ride.

Left overs of the log flume removed earlier.

This guy was making fudge, he was recovering from a hangover the day we visited and still put on a good show. It tasted lovely.

A view of the pirate ship and western themed wheel.

Another view of the pirate ship, looking toward the park entrance.

The juvenille carousel.

A menacing looking Tenessee tentacles.

The ride in action

San Fransisco fire department ride. Good fun this in the summer.

Mississippi boat terminus.

This was one of the best days out we had in the summer holidays, it was a lovely park with a great atmosphere, friendly ride ops and a good choice of rides. The reason for the closure was money as with most things these days.

Its definately a day out I was looking forward to this year.:-(

I wish the staff all the best in the future

All images are copyright ridemad.com, if you want to use any please get in touch paul@ridemad.com, where ill be more than happy to share, i have higher resolution copies of all images, to see all the images from this visit, go to the Album

http://www.ridemad.com is an independant website not affiliated to any theme parks or fairgrounds, the views expressed are my opinions.

Thanks for Reading.