SheiKra. An African hawk known for diving straight down for its prey.
SheiKra. Busch Gardens Tampa's newest rollercoaster that, like a hunting hawk, plummets straight toward the ground before swooping skyward again at the last second.
SheiKra is the first-ever diving rollercoaster in the United States, and the tallest rollercoaster in Florida. The lift hill carries you at a steep 45° angle to a height of 200 feet.
After a slow, steady U-turn that gives you a bird's-eye view of surrounding Tampa, the coaster edges you over the precipice... but then freezes for several seconds,
giving you a chance to peer straight down at the drop before it releases you into a face-down, 90° drop with G-forces that almost reach zero!
You are then thrown
upside-down into a loop, followed by several more twists and turns. But there is nothing else like that first drop.
Unless it's the second one. The ride pauses midway, and takes another 90-degree dive for 138 feet.
You plummet underground before taking a banked turn through water, splashing and drenching nearby spectators, before returning, breathless and awed, to the loading platform.
I love SheiKra. I love the feeling of weightlessness as you drop straight down toward the ground, not once, but twice!
The area I perform in at Busch Gardens is just around the corner from SheiKra, so many mornings, before starting work, I wake myself up with a ride on this exhilarating coaster! It is an electrifying adrenaline rush!
