Man skates down roller coaster

An adrenaline junkie has set a new world record by skating down a roller coaster. Wearing specially designed in-line skates, Dirk Auer made the attempt at the Trips Drill theme park in Stuttgart, Germany.

Reaching speeds of 90 kph, Mr Auer skated the 860 metre track in just over one minute. "This was a very dangerous stunt because there were so many factors to consider," said the 36-year-old, who conquered the rickety ride last weekend.



"The roller caster is wooden and so unlike rides made from iron and steel there was always a chance of the odd nail or screw that would not be entirely flat. "If the skates were to catch a stray nail then I could have fallen and I would almost certainly have died."

Spending two months planning the outrageous stunt, Dirk also designed and made the monster skates, which took him a total of 110 hours work. For Dirk however, there was no room for error.



I used 16 rolls on each shoe," says Dirk, "When I reached the first drop I was 30 metres high and this allowed me to reach speeds of 90 km/h on descent. "After this some of the sides were so high that at times I was at 90 degrees and so it was very important to have as much traction as possible.

"Luckily everything went according to plan - it was a lot of fun."