The next chapter

Since 2017, Pursuit of Thrills has been my way of sharing my love of theme parks through photography and artwork. But there’s another side of that passion I’ve never really shared.

In the summer of 2009, while waiting in line for Maverick at Cedar Point with my dad, I had an idea that I couldn’t shake. What if we could understand how people moved through a theme park in real time, and use that information to make their experience better?

I spent my senior year at Purdue working with one of my best friends to make it happen. We called it Ridelogix.

We developed a passive Bluetooth tracking system before Bluetooth Low Energy even existed. No wristbands, no active scanning. Just a way to understand how guests moved through an entire park.

The day after graduation, we moved to Cedar Point to test it at full scale. Eventually, Universal brought us in as well.

And it worked. The problem wasn’t the technology itself, but the cost of deploying it at scale. We had built something the industry wasn’t quite ready for.

But I never let go of that original idea. I wanted to use technology to make visiting theme parks more enjoyable, more spontaneous, and a little less complicated.

And over the next 15 years, I watched something happen to the industry I’ve loved since childhood.

Somewhere along the way, we’ve planned the fun out of theme parks.

Think about what makes these places so special. The excitement of walking through the gates. The anticipation of your favorite ride. Laughing with friends and family, getting lost in the atmosphere, and those unexpected moments that become memories you carry for years.

But increasingly, that joy has been overshadowed by reservations, complicated systems, and the pressure to make every minute count. Planning a trip can feel stressful before you even set foot in a park.

Entire industries have emerged to help people navigate that complexity. And sometimes it feels like we’ve created a whole new layer of complexity just to manage the one that already exists.

We’ve become so focused on making the most of our time that sometimes we forget to enjoy it.

That’s part of why I started Pursuit of Thrills. I wanted to capture the beauty, atmosphere, and little moments that make these places special. The things we so easily overlook when we’re rushing to the next attraction.

And through it all, I’ve held onto that original idea from the line for Maverick.

For the past two years, I’ve finally been building the app I’ve wanted to create since that day.

It’s called Ridemore.

Ridemore runs on the methods we developed with Ridelogix: a way of reading an entire park as one living system, where every ride, every closure, the weather, and the crowds all affect each other. In the 15 years since, no one has been able to accurately replicate it.

Ridemore watches the whole park as it happens and forecasts where the lines are headed, so you know when it’s worth riding and when it’s better to come back later. No rigid itineraries, no deciphering wait times, and no need to plan every minute of your day.

But the bigger idea is much simpler.

I don’t want technology to tell us how to have fun. I want it to give us the freedom to enjoy it.

To explore, change our minds, spend time with the people we love, and make memories we never could have planned.

And while the Pursuit of Thrills shop has closed, the artwork isn’t going away. It’s finding a new home in Ridemore, where I’ll continue creating and sharing the art that started this community.

I’m opening Ridemore to a small group of early beta testers, and I’d love for those of you who share my passion for theme parks to help shape what comes next.

You can learn more and request an invitation at ridemore.app.

Thank you for supporting Pursuit of Thrills over the years. It’s meant more to me than you know, and I’m excited to bring you along for this next chapter.