Mekado Murphy, The Times’ unofficial roller coaster correspondent

Mekado Murphy, the assistant film editor for The New York Times, also moonlights as the newspaper’s unofficial roller coaster correspondent. Over the past 15 years he has published more than a dozen stories and, he says, ridden at least 360 coasters, which he tracks on the website Coaster-Count; he most recently took the new Epic Universe theme park in Orlando for a test drive.

Murphy grew up in Shawnee, Okla., and at 10 created a homemade park called Fun World, inventing a founder — H.G. Fun — and drawing dozens of rides, including the Clown Hat, Logger+ and the Space Tunnel. His first coaster was the Mini Mine Train at Six Flags Over Texas, which he rode at 6, and that early experience set him on the path to pursuing coasters.

When reporting a day at a park, Murphy said he rides, records an immediate voice memo of reactions, then rides again to get the beats and better understand what the coaster feels like. His ideal coaster, he said, has lots of airtime and “takes you on a journey,” so you can’t tell where you’re going.

He called Steel Vengeance at Cedar Point the scariest coaster he’s ridden, citing a “mammoth first drop” and a feeling that “there are no brakes.” On logistics, Murphy said he sometimes buys skip-the-line passes so he can be sure to get on everything he needs and can expense them; he tries to avoid giant funnel cakes to prevent getting sick.

Key Topics

Culture, Mekado Murphy, Epic Universe, Coaster-count, Cedar Point, Steel Vengeance