It was on September 11, 1983 that Kings Dominion experienced its first death when 13-year-old Daniel Watkins stood up during a ride on the S.D.C. Galaxi model steel coaster, simply named Galaxie, and was decapitated by a support beam. Though the boy’s death was found to be a result of his own actions, the incident became the leading example of unsafe rides in press coverage of US Senate hearings on amusement ride safety. As a result, the park chose not to reopen the ride and instead sold it to the Myrtle Beach Pavilion, where it operated until that park closed in 2006, leaving that plot of land vacant.

After three years without a new roller coaster opening, since Grizzly in 1982, and the removal of the parks Schwarzkopf shuttle loop coaster, King Kobra, the park was ready for a new addition. For their next addition, Kings Dominion turned to TOGO to build a stand-up coaster, Shockwave, on the site of the former Galaxie roller coaster. Shockwave would become the third and final TOGO stand-up coaster to be built in North America.

Unfortunately, Shockwave was unable to shake off the curse which had taken the life of its predecessor, Galaxie, and experienced its own rider death. On August 23, 1999, a 20-year-old-man fell to his death after he freed himself from the train’s restraint system and was thrown from his seat on the rides final turn. The man suffered a fatal head injury when he hit the rides steel catwalk. As a result of the injury, Shockwave, and its two sister rides at Kings Island and Canada’s Wonderland were closed indefinetly, but were reopened when the cause of death was due to the rider’s disregard of the ride’s safety guidelines. Less than a year later, a 13-year-old boy slipped out of his restraints, because he was concerned he was not properly fastened in, and jumped onto the coasters catwalk while it was ascending the lift hill, but avoided serious injury.

Overall, the ride is almost identical to its “sister” coasters, SkyRider at Canada’s Wonderland and King Cobra at Kings Island, but it has a slightly different ending. Once riders enter the station, they board the two-abreast rows, and “sit” on a bicycle style seat, secured in by over-the-shoulder-restraints. A keen observer will notice something unique about this station—the station is actually sloped downward, so that the trains can be released without the use of a drive system, instead relying on gravity to move the trains out of the station to the lift. Moving straight out onto the lift hill, the train ascends to a height of 95 feet before leveling out, gradually descending, and turning around 180-degrees. The floor drops out from below riders feet as the train plummets down to the ground, reaching a top speed of 50 mph, then pulling up quickly into a 4-G loop. The train then rises over what can only be described as an airtime hill, which curves rightward into a 540-degree, heavily banked, downward helix. Out of the helix, the track straightens out and traverses an awkwardly-shaped airtime hill. From here, the track rises up again into a tight, left-hand turnaround, and then hops over a low-lying bunny hill before rising up into the final brake run, ending the 2,200 foot long run.

The six-car trains were originally painted blue with yellow restraints, while the superstructure (track and supports) and rails received a color scheme of teal and yellow. In 2000, to celebrate the parks 25th anniversary, the superstructure was repainted periwinkle, while the rails were painted in alternating sections of neon green and orange. The trains were also repainted orange, and the previously naturally stained station was repainted to match the new neon palette.

Though the ride is not the first of its kind, the closure of other similar rides, such as King Cobra, has since rendered the coaster the oldest currently operating stand-up roller coaster in the United States.