Head Spin was a steel shuttle boomerang roller coaster that operated at Geauga Lake in Aurora, Ohio, one of several thrill rides that defined the park’s later years before its 2007 closure. Built by the Dutch manufacturer Vekoma, the ride launched riders backward and forward through a cobra roll and vertical loop, each element traversed twice for a jolting out-and-back experience.
The coaster actually debuted years earlier as The Mind Eraser on May 10, 1996, when the park was still called Geauga Lake under new owner Premier Parks (the company that would later become Six Flags). The park wasn’t renamed Six Flags Worlds of Adventure until 2001, after Six Flags acquired the neighboring SeaWorld Ohio. When Cedar Fair purchased the property in 2004 and restored the Geauga Lake name, the coaster was rebranded Head Spin and ran under that name until the park shuttered for good in 2007. The trains and track didn’t disappear for long — the ride was later relocated to Carowinds, where it reopened in 2009 and still operates today under a different name.
Stats at a Glance
- Park: Geauga Lake (Aurora, Ohio)
- Manufacturer: Vekoma
- Opened: May 10, 1996 (as The Mind Eraser); renamed Head Spin in 2004
- Closed: 2007
- Height: About 116.5 ft
- Top speed: About 47 mph
- Length: 935 ft
- Inversions: 3 (each traversed twice, for 6 total inversions per ride)
The Ride Experience
Head Spin was a Vekoma Boomerang, a coaster type known for its distinctive lift-and-drop layout. A catch car hauled the single train up a vertical spike, released it to plunge backward through a loop and cobra roll, then repeated the sequence forward on a second spike at the opposite end of the track. The full cycle lasted just under two minutes but packed in six total inversions.
Riding a Boomerang was as much about the abrupt, repeated stops and reversals as it was about the inversions themselves, and Head Spin’s 935-foot layout gave Geauga Lake visitors one of the park’s more intense, disorienting rides in its final operating years.
From Mind Eraser to Carowinds
The ride opened on May 10, 1996 as The Mind Eraser, one of several new attractions added after Premier Parks acquired Geauga Lake’s previous owner, Funtime Incorporated, the year before. The park kept the Geauga Lake name through the 1990s, becoming Six Flags Ohio for the 2000 season and then Six Flags Worlds of Adventure in 2001. When Cedar Fair bought the park in 2004 and reverted it to the Geauga Lake name, the coaster was renamed Head Spin, a name it carried through the park’s closure in September 2007.
Rather than being scrapped, the Boomerang trains and track were dismantled and shipped to Carowinds in Charlotte, North Carolina, where they reopened in March 2009 as Carolina Cobra. The ride got yet another name in 2017, becoming The Flying Cobras after a repaint, and it remains in operation at Carowinds today.
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Head Spin Photo Archive: 2000, as Mind Eraser
This is an original ThrillZing photo of the Vekoma Boomerang at Six Flags Ohio, taken in 2000 when it still ran as Mind Eraser (it became Head Spin under Cedar Fair in 2004), restored and upscaled from the original camera file. It shows the teal loop with the yellow train and the midway below. Click the photo for the full-size version.
Head Spin FAQs
Is Head Spin still operating anywhere?
Not under that name. The physical ride was relocated from Geauga Lake to Carowinds in North Carolina, where it reopened in 2009 and now runs as The Flying Cobras.
What type of roller coaster was Head Spin?
It was a Vekoma Boomerang, a steel shuttle coaster that launches its train backward and forward through a cobra roll and vertical loop rather than completing a full circuit.
Why did Head Spin change its name so many times?
The ride opened in 1996 as The Mind Eraser while the park was still called Geauga Lake. When Cedar Fair bought the park in 2004 and restored the Geauga Lake name (after a stint as Six Flags Ohio and Six Flags Worlds of Adventure), the coaster was renamed Head Spin, and after its later move to Carowinds it was renamed twice more, ending up as The Flying Cobras in 2017.
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Photo: Martin Lewison / CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.