The official history is offered in "The Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk: A Century by the Sea" (Ten Speed Press, $18.95, 164 pages), jammed with detailed text and hundreds of fascinating vintage photographs. It was compiled by staff members of the Santa Cruz Seaside Co., which owns and operates the Boardwalk.
If the Boardwalk has a signature sound, it's the chorus of screams coming from hundreds of thrill-seekers on rides, combined with the whoosh and rattle of those rides -- the legendary Giant Dipper wooden roller coaster (1924), the new Double Shot, the Fireball, Cyclone, Tornado, Wipeout, Typhoon, Hurricane, Blaster and Pirate Ship, to name some. Obviously, being spun around and flung through space at high speeds is more popular than ever.
A more sedate choice is the Looff Carousel, built in 1911. Quaintly, you can snag a steel ring as you go around on a wooden horse, and then try to throw the ring into a clown's mouth. The carousel and the Giant Dipper are National Historic Landmarks.
Then there's the refurbished Laffing Sal from the 1930s, a freckle-faced redhead (all 5 feet of her) who occupies a display case just outside the entrance to Neptune's Kingdom on the Colonnade. She has good reason for her nonstop laughter: She was a fixture at San Francisco's Playland at the Beach until it closed in 1972, then moved in to a private collection. Eventually, she went up for bid, and Boardwalk officials paid $50,000 for her.
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Recently, we played on the Boardwalk and walked over to the nearby Santa Cruz Wharf, built in 1914. The Boardwalk fronts part of a mile-long beach that borders the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary. By the numbers, the Boardwalk looks like this: 35 rides, 26 games of skill (or not), 300 video and pinball games, a Laser Tag arena, a miniature golf course, 30 food outlets and 15 specialty shops. Yes, you can still buy saltwater taffy at Marini's, in business since 1915.
A stroll along the Boardwalk is a delightful calliope of sensory overload -- colors, sounds, movement. Permeating the overlaying sense of excitement (where is everyone rushing to?) is the unique aroma that comes when fresh salt air mingles with the smells of deep-fried foods. Are those the scents of funnel cakes, garlic fries and corn dogs wafting in the wind? Throw in a pinch of anticipation, a dash of adrenaline, some shivers and shouts, and you have a dish that's been a favorite for decades.
Here's what we liked best:
• Giant Dipper: Why get an EKG when you can test your heart health on this classic roller coaster? It's one of the few remaining coasters originally built with steel running rails on top of a wooden track, which gives it a distinctive edginess.
For $4.50, you can join the 50 million riders who have screamed their hearts out on the Dipper since it opened. Warning: The first 60 seconds are terrifying -- and so much fun.
• Fright Walk: It's disconcertingly dark in this creepy maze of creaky hallways, made more disorienting by strategically placed mirrors and flickering lights. Uh, which way do we go? Whose shoulder is that I'm touching? We inched ahead, groping with outstretched arms, anticipating the next skeleton or monster crouched and ready to jump out at us.
• Casino Arcade: Hundreds of video games and simulators make the sprawling room a labyrinth of action and noise. Check it: a shooting gallery, a 3,500-square-foot Laser Tag arena, Skee Ball and Classic Corner, with games that include Pong, Frogger, Ms. Pacman and Donkey Kong.
• Neptune's Kingdom: Originally, this warehouse-size space was an indoor swimming pool filled with heated seawater pumped in daily from the ocean, and was known as the Plunge or the Natatorium when it opened in 1907. It was later reborn as a nautically themed playground that now features the Buccaneer Bay miniature golf course (with thundering cannons and animatronic pirates), a video and pinball arcade, pool tables, air hockey and a display of historical artifacts and photographs.
The Bee's Allen Pierleoni can be reached at (916) 321-1128 or apierleoni@sacbee.com.
