Backyard Roller Coaster Video is a YouTube Hit (VIDEO)
A video on YouTube showing a young boy enjoying a homemade roller coaster has gone viral.
The builders, Jon and Natasha Cain of Lancaster Ohio, constructed the roller coaster on their own from the ground up using only wood, concrete and PVC pipe.
The roller coaster was built in the summer 2009 for their daughter, Olyvia, and son, Samual, but the Cains only uploaded the video to YouTube in February 2012. The video has now become a viral hit with more than half a million views, according to ABC.
The video shows Jon Cain using a pole to push the cart to the top of the first drop as his son Samual screams with joy as the 12-second ride takes him through twists and turns as he lets out screams of delight.
The roller coaster is 12-feet-high and took the couple three weeks to build. It cost the pair $700 to build, which was more than the estimated budget of $300 they started with.
"My daughter was three when we built it and she loved it. At first, she was hesitant, but not scared," Natasha Cain said during an interview with ABC, adding that both of her children enjoyed the homemade ride.
At six years old, Olyvia is now too big to ride the coaster over the 12-foot drop, but she can still go over the smaller hills on the ride, her mother explained.
The Cains did get permission from the city before they constructed the coaster, revealing that city officials encouraged them to build it.
"They said, 'Go ahead, build it,'" Cain said.
Kids in the neighborhood were surely disappointed when they learned that they would not be able to partake in the backyard fun as they were only allowed to watch.
"I was concerned at first … but we test-rode it several times. And only my children are allowed on it," Cain explained.
The Cains are not just content with building a roller coaster, they have their eyes set on even bigger rides.
"We did talk about doing a Ferris wheel at the new house … not like a ginormous one, just one that you could manually do," she said.