I live just a few blocks from the Santa Cruz Boardwalk, a 117-year old seaside attraction that has captivated me since I moved to this coastal city seven years ago. In fact, I wrote a blogpost about the place when I first got here—my 20th (this one is number 181!), called “On the Boardwalk,” in which I tried to explain my fascination with it.
A few years ago, I caught wind of a tour, called “Behind the Scenes at the Boardwalk,” that was offered only twice a year through the Santa Cruz Parks and Recreation department. I was intrigued, but I always seemed to be out of town or busy on the dates it was offered. And then, well, COVID.
But this year, when the two tour dates were set, I made a point of getting myself onto one of them. On a sunny Saturday morning two weeks ago, I eagerly rode my bike down the street and joined about 20 other folks in a small conference room that’s usually reserved for Boardwalk birthday parties.
There, we were each given a fancy bus tour-style headset and introduced to Ted Whiting III (of the Whiting family, one the Boardwalk’s food concessionaires) and Jessie Durant, the Boardwalk’s full-time archivist (who is responsible for both live and online Boardwalk history presentations). While Ted is largely retired from Boardwalk work, Jessie is one of the corporation’s 300 full-time staff members. The number of employees swells to about 2200 at the peak of the summer season.
Whiting, who has worked at the Boardwalk since the 1950’s, talked us through some of the key dates in Boardwalk history: 1904, construction of the first casino (which burned); 1907, reconstruction of the casino; 1911 introduction of the Looff carousel; 1924, construction of the Giant Dipper roller coaster.
While Whiting wasn’t around for these, he was around for many of the changes that followed and shared his memories of numerous past rides and attractions—such as the live .22 shooting range (!!) that once occupied the spot where a creperie now stands and a high-speed boat ride that once shuttled people between the Boardwalk and the Stagnaro fish stand out on the wharf. (As the Boardwalk’s VP of Legacy Affairs, he also regularly blogs about these reminiscences.)
Listening to his stories was cool, but nowhere near as cool as going into the basement. Yep, for me, the highlight of this tour was being UNDER the Boardwalk. None of the subterranean passages were part of the Boardwalk’s original design, however, over time, adding these spaces for both structural stability and for storage and work areas has been critical to the Boardwalk’s expansion. There is now basement space under most of the amusement park, much (but not all) of which is connected.
Unfortunately, photography of non-public spaces was not allowed on the tour. If it had been, this blog would be filled with pictures of the numerous retired attraction signs and ride parts I craned my neck to see. I would have taken photos of the spray painting booth, the forklift parking area, the cages and cages of food storage, the stacks of cotton candy sugar boxes, the numerous barrels of lubricant (presumably for the rides’ moving parts), the piles of replacement lumber for the Giant Dipper, and the cartons of slushie syrups that are piped up through the ceiling to the slushie stands—just to name a few of the fascinating details I spotted while being led through the basement. But, sadly, those pictures are only in my mind.
And, in case I had any notions about snapping photos on the sly, Whiting mentioned that the Boardwalk has over 500 closed circuit security cameras on site and a staff who monitors them 24/7. One sneaky picture would have gotten me kicked off the tour pronto, so I didn’t even consider risking it.
One spot where we could take pictures was under the Giant Dipper’s scaffolding, inside one of its turns. The Giant Dipper, which will be 100 years old this year, is not the largest or the oldest or the fastest roller coaster in the country, but it is one of the most notable ones, and perhaps the one with the most character.
It’s a half-mile long “double out and back” ride that lasts for 1 minute and 52 seconds, attaining a maximum speed of 55 mph (though, as Whiting told us, that speed varies some depending upon the weight of the riders on the train and the weather—the coaster is slower on foggy days).
I’ve ridden the Giant Dipper many times; it’s one of my favorite things to do in Santa Cruz, particularly on holidays and special occasions. I love looking at its white-painted boards (which I discovered are made from southern pine, a particularly flexible wood) from all over town, especially at sunset. I loved getting a chance to see it from underneath and inside, looking up at the familiar matrix of support beams from a new and different vantage point.
We ended the tour near the Louff Carousel, a National Historic Landmark with beautiful painted horses (which Whiting estimated would fetch about $20,000 each if put on the market) and equally beautiful Wurlitzer organs.
I ride the carousel regularly, in part because it’s so aesthetically appealing, but also because I like the ring toss. Once the ride gets up to speed, steel rings are dispensed from an arm that hangs down along one side of the carousel. As your horse cruises by the dispenser, you grab one and try to toss it into the mouth of a clown painted on the adjoining wall.
The trick is that you have only a split second to line up your pitch and get it off, since the carousel continues to move along at a good clip. If you make it, however, the reward is big: The clown’s eyes light up, a lot of bells and whistles go off, and everyone knows you’ve succeeded. I’ve only done it twice, and both times it was amazingly satisfying.
There are multiple signs near the ride asking visitors to refrain from taking the rings home with them. Being the rule-follower that I am, I have always obeyed this sign. Apparently, not everyone does, however. Whiting told us that the Boardwalk replaces 50,000 rings every year. Perhaps that’s not all that many, considering that visitor attendance averages over 3 million people per year. But it’s enough to make me wonder if, this year, that number might have to be 50,001.
Or maybe not—all tour participants were given “Boardwalk insider” pins depicting the former fun house clown (who I think resembles the one I hurl rings at). And Whiting Foods footed the bill for whatever ice cream treat we wanted at the end of the tour, enabling me to eat my first hot fudge sundae in about 10 years—at 11am—served up in a take-home boardwalk cup. Maybe those are souvenirs enough.
Well…those and the mental pictures I took of what’s really behind the scenes—and under—the boardwalk.
exploraspective 