September 24, 1983 was the date that Pontchartrain Beach, a classic beachside New Orleans, Louisiana amusement park, was closed, and with it forever departed the Edward Vettel-designed Zephyr, an out and back wooden coaster known throughout the coaster world as an exceptional ride, with its hilly 2,300-foot run. Thus, a piece of coaster culture was lost. But 17 years beyond the closure of Pontchartrain, the first park to hit the New Orleans region since was on the ride, and in the year 2000, Jazzland (now Six Flags New Orleans) opened their gates with, in good taste, a section named after the park that was lost, containing a modern-day version of the woodie that went down with Pontchartrain Beach. The Zephyr would fly once more. Brought to life by Custom Coasters Inc., Mega Zeph brings back some classic wooden coaster charm to New Orleans in its double out and back, airtime-inducing course. Gerstlauer-crafted trains soar along a 4,000-foot wooden track layout supported by a steel structure, with fourteen hills and humps contained in the two-and-a-half-minute ride. And with a lift height of 110 feet, passengers onboard Mega Zeph are treated to fifty-seven mile an hour velocity to send the train roaring through the course and ripping over the hilltops with abundant airtime.

Riders enter the queue line in the Pontchartrain Beach section and make their way onto the twenty-four-passenger train in the station. After restraints are secured, it's thumbs up and beginning the ride out of the station with a U-curve to the left to bring passengers to the lift hill. Mega Zeph climbs above the park on its brown wooden track, topping out at eleven stories in height and beginning to dive. The first drop ventures down 100 feet and under the structure of a hill, then riders are catapaulted back up and into the first speedy turnaround hill. Diving under a section of track, the train speeds ahead and encounters a hop curving to the right, sending thrillseekers out of their seats and hurtling ahead. Another hill, larger than the last, follows, and sends the ride into the second elevated turnaround section of the double out and back layout. The track drops back down again and rises in a hill curving over the first drop to the left, then rises again in the next turnaround sending riders out over water and encircling the second. Mega Zeph dips down, climbs over a hill, then drops into an airtime hop, then passengers are sent up and over a double-up hill and back down over one more hop. Finally, the coaster gears up for the grand finale: rising over another hill, then diving through a right-hand curve under steel structure, circling around in a winding 400-degree helix and then gracefully climbing into the brake run.