China looks to Hawaii
for its thrills

It turns out that one of the biggest customers for E.K. Fernandez's castoff amusement thrill rides is China. For about $200,000, China recently bought the Chaos ride, the circular one where you stand up and are pinned against wall, kind of like riding the inside of a giant Frisbee.

I was excited to find out that E.K. Fernandez, Hawaii's premier operator of amusement rides, was selling used machines online. I was trying to figure out how to install the "Inverter" into my back yard and explain to my wife how it would increase our property value, when I found out that blasted thing costs $250,000. The Inverter is a vomit-comet ride in which 30 or 40 of your closest friends can lose their lunch and pocket change at the same time. But even used, the price was too steep. Not to mention getting a permit for a thrill ride in your back yard is a little harder than getting a permit to put a helicopter pad on your garage roof.

I mentioned the rides for sale in Friday's column and hope I didn't get anyone's hopes up. Steven Lau, Fernandez chief financial officer, after a lot of browbeating on my part, said all the big thrill rides go out of state, including to China and Australia. But if you own a large island or small country, you still might want to check out the 1992 Giant Wheel that can be snapped up for a measly $500,000. Also for sale is a 1997 Dragon Coaster, a 1998 Yo Yo, a 1995 Ring of Fire, a 1998 Silver Streak and the 1995 Tilt A Whirl that I had my eye on.

E.K. Fernandez is getting rid of the rides because it is constantly bringing in new ones. The used rides are in good shape, less than 45,000 rotations and only ridden by a gray-haired granny on Sundays. Or maybe several thousand people every weekend. You'd better read the fine print if you are interested.

The fact that China is buying up American thrill rides isn't as unnerving as China trying to buy up our oil companies. But it is still alarming. They clearly intend to reverse-engineer the Chaos machine and start selling brand-new ones on the world market for $325 each. If that happens, the U.S. thrill-ride industry will collapse faster than an overweight man with bad balance on a Tilt A Whirl.