Stories from the fair: Rides are 'fun for sure'

The ride swooshed from side-to-side like a seconds pendulum on a grandfather clock. And with each daunting swing, more momentum and fear were built. And it all reached a crescendo when the riders were suspended in air upside down for a few seconds – or lifetimes – before completing a loop that invited and denied death in one fell swoop.

"I'm a thrill seeker so I wouldn't call it scary, but it's fun for sure," said Jax Piepkorn after surviving the ride.

Known as the Kamikaze, this intestine-jumbler is stationed at the back of the Curry County Fairgrounds. It's yellow and dotted with neon lights that set the summer night aglow. Riders are seated in sections and held in by harnesses.

While Piepkorn wasn't scared, others around him were.

Throughout the night, when the Kamikaze seemed to defy gravity, tangled screams shot out across the night sky. Some even occurred as the Kamikaze swung back-to-back, building that flirtation with death.

Desire Holman, who rode next to Piepkorn, laid out one simple rule: Don't eat before riding.

"I had one friend who ate before riding and he threw up in the air. Yeah, it was disgusting," she said.