Diamondback is a
steel roller coaster
A steel roller coaster is a roller coaster that is defined by having a track made of steel. Steel coasters have earned immense popularity in the past 50 years throughout the world. Incorporating tubular steel track and polyurethane-coated wheel ...
located at
Kings Island
Kings Island is a amusement park located northeast of Cincinnati in Mason, Ohio, United States. Owned and operated by Cedar Fair, the park first opened in 1972 by the Taft Broadcasting Company. It was part of a larger effort to move and exp ...
in
Mason, Ohio
Mason is a city in southwestern Warren County, Ohio, United States, approximately north of downtown Cincinnati. As of the 2020 census, Mason's population was 34,792.
Mason is home to Kings Island amusement park and one of the largest tennis st ...
, United States. Manufactured by
Bolliger & Mabillard
Bolliger & Mabillard, officially Bolliger & Mabillard Consulting Engineers, Inc. and often abbreviated B&M, is a roller coaster design consultancy based in Monthey, Switzerland. The company was founded in 1988 by Walter Bolliger and Claude Mabil ...
(B&M), the ride opened in 2009 as the first
hypercoaster
A hypercoaster can mean one of two things:
*Any continuous-circuit roller coaster with a height or drop measuring greater than 200 feet
Or, more narrowly:
*Any complete-circuit roller coaster with a height or drop between 200 and 299 feet ( ...
to feature a
splashdown effect and the first B&M roller coaster at Kings Island.
It is located in
Rivertown just behind
International Street and the
Eiffel Tower
The Eiffel Tower ( ; french: links=yes, tour Eiffel ) is a wrought-iron lattice tower on the Champ de Mars in Paris, France. It is named after the engineer Gustave Eiffel, whose company designed and built the tower.
Locally nickname ...
. Diamondback was the biggest investment in Kings Island’s history at the time, costing $22 million to build, but that figure was surpassed in 2014 by
Banshee
A banshee ( ; Modern Irish , from sga, ben síde , "woman of the fairy mound" or "fairy woman") is a female spirit in Irish folklore who heralds the death of a family member, usually by screaming, wailing, shrieking, or keening. Her name is ...
. The coaster features a lift hill with a drop and a maximum speed of .
It is similar to
Behemoth
Behemoth (; he, בְּהֵמוֹת, ''bəhēmōṯ'') is a beast from the biblical Book of Job, and is a form of the primeval chaos-monster created by God at the beginning of creation; he is paired with the other chaos-monster, Leviathan, and ...
at
Canada's Wonderland
Canada's Wonderland, formerly known as Paramount Canada's Wonderland, is a amusement park located in Vaughan, Ontario, a municipality within the Greater Toronto Area. Opened in 1981 by the Taft Broadcasting Company and the Great-West Life A ...
in statistics, layout, and seating.
History
Construction of Diamondback began on October 11, 2007, with the removal of a tree.
Swan Lake was drained and filled with concrete before opening day in 2008; this would become the location of Diamondback's splashdown element.
Kings Island started teasing visitors during the Fourth of July weekend in 2008 with signs saying, "Ride Sally ride" and "Steep incline ahead."
Diamondback was announced on August 6, 2008 as the largest investment in Kings Island history. The ride was topped off with the lift hill on October 30. The last piece of track was installed on January 26, 2009.
Testing began the following month.
Diamondback officially opened on April 18, 2009. Diamondback reached a milestone of one million riders in July 2009,
and another milestone of ten million riders in July 2014.
First rider auction
On February 3, 2009, Kings Island announced they would hold an auction for the first riders on Diamondback. The winners of the auction would be given a commemorative first rider ticket, a special gift from the park, and an admission ticket. All proceeds from the auction would go to ''A Kid Again'' non-profit organization, formerly known as ''Adventures for Wish Kids''.
The first rider auction raised $102,000. The first eight trains, or the first 256 seats were auctioned off. The average bid was $398 per seat.
Ride experience
After the
train
In rail transport, a train (from Old French , from Latin , "to pull, to draw") is a series of connected vehicles that run along a railway track and transport people or freight. Trains are typically pulled or pushed by locomotives (often k ...
leaves the
station, it begins its ascent up the
chain lift hill
A lift hill, or chain hill, is an upward-sloping section of track on a roller coaster on which the roller coaster train is mechanically lifted to an elevated point or peak in the track. Upon reaching the peak, the train is then propelled from t ...
. Once reaching the top of the hill, the coaster drops at 74° over the
Rivertown midway reaching speeds up to . It then curves to the right up a hill, past
Mystic Timbers' first drop, and then dives into the ravine, curving again to the left. The ride then ascends a camelback hill and drops, curving left into the
hammerhead turn. After dropping out of the hammerhead, the train travels up a hill (which has a
trim brake). After the fourth hill, the train turns down into a 287° counter-clockwise helix, containing the on-ride photo camera, and into the
mid-course brake run
A brake run on a roller coaster is any section of Rail tracks, track meant to slow or stop a Train (roller coaster), roller coaster train. Brake runs may be located anywhere along the circuit of a coaster and may be designed to bring the train to ...
. After the short brake run the train drops down into the ravine, raising into a pair of bunny hop hills before entering the final clockwise helix of 323°. After the final helix, the train passes over the Rivertown midway a second time and drops into the splashdown finale, slowing the train down before going up another hill into the final
brake run
A brake run on a roller coaster is any section of track meant to slow or stop a roller coaster train. Brake runs may be located anywhere along the circuit of a coaster and may be designed to bring the train to a complete halt or to simply adjust ...
. After braking, the train takes a left U-turn and heads back into the station.
One cycle of the ride lasts about 3 minutes.
Characteristics

Diamondback is the first hyper coaster to feature a
splashdown
Splashdown is the method of landing a spacecraft by parachute in a body of water. It was used by crewed American space capsules prior to the Space Shuttle program, by SpaceX Dragon and Dragon 2 capsules and by NASA's Orion Multipurpose ...
. Scoops positioned at the back sides of the last car on each train send water soaring at heights of as the train passes. Splashdowns generally do not cause riders to get wet; they are used for a visual effect as well as to slow the train down. The splashdown is located in the former Swan Boat pond.
Diamondback operates with three open-air stadium style steel and fiberglass trains. The trains are the same prototype trains seen on
Behemoth
Behemoth (; he, בְּהֵמוֹת, ''bəhēmōṯ'') is a beast from the biblical Book of Job, and is a form of the primeval chaos-monster created by God at the beginning of creation; he is paired with the other chaos-monster, Leviathan, and ...
at
Canada's Wonderland
Canada's Wonderland, formerly known as Paramount Canada's Wonderland, is a amusement park located in Vaughan, Ontario, a municipality within the Greater Toronto Area. Opened in 1981 by the Taft Broadcasting Company and the Great-West Life A ...
,
Intimidator at
Carowinds
Carowinds is a amusement park located adjacent to Interstate 77 in Charlotte, North Carolina. The park straddles the North Carolina-South Carolina state line, with a portion of the park located in Fort Mill, South Carolina. However, it has an o ...
and
Shambhala: Expedición al Himalaya at
PortAventura Park
PortAventura Park is a theme park located in the PortAventura World Resort, 85 km southwest of Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain, in the municipalities of Salou and Vila-seca, on the Costa Daurada. The park opened on 1 May 1995 under the managem ...
. Diamondback was the first roller coaster in the United States to feature the new trains. Each car seats four passengers, with two front seats set near the middle of the car and two rear seats set closer to the sides of the car, forming a "V" shape. The front car of each train features a yellow/orange snake head with long fangs, while the inside of the trains are black, red, and orange. Riders are restrained by a single T-shaped lap bar. There are three trains total, each train featuring a different fin color: green, red, or brown. Under the sides of the last car on each train are the scoops for the splashdown at the end.
For the 2018 season, the original red seats were replaced with new black ones.

The steel track is in length and the height of the lift is approximately .
The ride has red track and tan supports, although for the first few years, the supports on the lift hill and second hill were painted yellow.
The track was fabricated at the
Ohio
Ohio () is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. Of the List of states and territories of the United States, fifty U.S. states, it is the List of U.S. states and territories by area, 34th-l ...
-based
Clermont Steel Fabricators
Clermont Steel Fabricators (abbreviated as CSF) is a private steel products manufacturing company known for making Bolliger & Mabillard roller coasters. The plant is located in Batavia, Ohio. CSF was founded in 2004 after the closing of Southern O ...
.
Awards
Diamondback won the award for "Best New Attraction in 2009" from the
National Amusement Park Historical Association.
Also the roller coaster was ranked second in the ''
Amusement Today
''Amusement Today'' is a monthly periodical that features articles, news, pictures and reviews about all things relating to the amusement park industry, including parks, rides, and ride manufacturers. The trade newspaper, which is based in Ar ...
s
Golden Ticket Awards
''Amusement Today'' is a monthly periodical that features articles, news, pictures and reviews about all things relating to the amusement park industry, including parks, rides, and ride manufacturers. The trade newspaper, which is based in Arl ...
for
best new ride of 2009.
References
External links
Diamondback official site*
{{Kings Island
Roller coasters in Ohio
Roller coasters operated by Cedar Fair
Roller coasters introduced in 2009
Hypercoasters manufactured by Bolliger & Mabillard