Hangtime – a striking new Infinity Coaster from Gerstlauer – has opened at Knott’s Berry Farm in California.

Knott’s vice-president and general manager Jon Storbeck is excited about the new ride. “Hangtime is the first and only dive coaster in California,” he said at the ride’s opening ceremony on May 17.

“Hangtime towers 150-feet [45m] over the boardwalk area. It includes five gravity-defying inversions, mid-air suspensions and a beyond-vertical drop, the steepest in California. Hangtime ascends 15 storeys up a vertical lift hill and will pause at the top, leaving riders suspended at the crest for seconds before descending down a 96-degree drop.”

The holding brake has quickly become a popular photo spot. As riders pause over a hundred feet above the ground their faces show every emotion, from excitement to fear, before they speed down the first drop. Other elements include a negative-G stall loop, corkscrew, cutback, airtime hill and cobra roll. The total track length is 2,189ft (670m).

The attraction is similar to the Schwur des Kärnan Infinity Coaster introduced from Gerstlauer at Heide Park in Germany in 2015. On that ride, however, the vertical lift is completely enclosed inside a tower. At Knott’s, Hangtime pays homage to California’s beach and surf culture.

Rob Decker, senior vice-president of planning & design for Knott’s parent company Cedar Fair, told Coaster 101 that Hangtime “looks intimidating, but the restraint system and the seats are a really nice design so we could get the rider height we wanted and still get the dynamics. It’s really smooth, I don’t think we’re going to have any issues.”

The construction was erected by Gerstlauer’s US representative Ride Entertainment and comes complete with a beautiful light package from contractor KCL Engineering.