Image of the Week: Seaside Heights Thrill Ride

Before Hurricane Sandy laid waste to the Seaside Heights Amusement Park in New Jersey and a whole lot more of the Jersey Shore last fall, it was a popular place for families to catch an easy thrill on the roller coaster or, for the slightly less adventurous, the Ferris wheel. Packed with tourists and locals during the summer, the place attracted visitors from across the Northeast. It was the prototypical East Coast amusement park.

And the Jersey Shore will rise again. Photos courtesy/copyright Tim Sharkey/Sharkey Images.

“In better days, it was an attraction for many people on vacation with their families,” says Tim Sharkey, who captured the image above of a Cigarette high-performance powerboat catching air during the 2009 New Jersey Performance Power Boat Club Roar at the Shore event in front of an iconic fun zone that no longer exists.

But given the resolve of those who live in the Garden State, in time something good will rise there again. You can count on it.

This is speedonthewater.com’s first “Image of the Week” for 2013, and we think it is the perfect image to lead off the New Year. What once was good can be good again—for all of us. As singer Bruce Springteen wrote in his famed ballad Atlantic City, “Everything that dies some day comes back.”

Happy New Year.

Hurricane Sandy’s aftermath in the fun zone.