Matt Walker was eight years old when he went on his first big rollercoaster.

“It scared the hell out of me,” he admits, before adding “but I quite enjoyed it”.

But it wasn’t until he returned to Alton Towers with a group of mates many years later that a real passion for rides was born.

“It was before smart phones and all this media stuff,” remembers Matt, from West Parley.

“Some calamity was occurring, but we knew nothing of it because we were in this little world, a bubble almost. You just have a fantastic day. Then you leave, and when you get back to the car, the radio comes back on and you hear about what’s happening in the real world.

“At that point I thought ‘l like theme parks’, because it’s escapism. It’s not so much like that today, but that’s what kicked it off.”

The 43-year-old, who works in IT, loved the rollercoasters the most, and wanted to do more, so began visiting as many theme parks as he could find the time, and money, for.

It was on one of these days out that he spotted a man wearing a Rollercoaster Club of Great Britain jacket.

“They gave me all the information, so I joined up in the late 1990s and never looked back,” he smiles.

The club has more than 1,000 members ranging from 1.4 metres tall right up to age 80, from 17 countries and organises several events a year.

Matt, who now takes care of the website, has been on numerous tours all over the world with the organisation, including Europe, America and China.

On the day we meet, he’s ridden 925 different coasters, but was planning a trip to Italy in the next few weeks, where he hoped to bring his total up to around 999.

“I’m aiming for my 1,000th to be a good one. There’s a new one in Ireland, it’s a proper wooden one at a little place called Tayto Park, so it might be that one.”

Matt, whose sister Rachel sometimes accompanies him on trips, will try all coasters he comes across, including wooden or metal, huge, adrenaline-fuelled rides and tiny, children’s ones “just for the sake of completeness”, but his favourite are the more traditionally-built attractions.

“My favourite is called The Voyage at Holiday World in a little town called Santa Claus in Indiana. It’s a proper wooden coaster. Wooden ones you don’t go upside down, so you just have a bar across your lap, so you can come out of your seat a bit – we call that ‘air time’. You feel like you’re out of control, but you’re safe.

“The Voyager is big and fast and just relentless – it seems to get quicker and quicker. It goes through tunnels, it goes around 90 degree bank turns which, at 70mph, are quite good fun. I’m out of breath at the end, it’s that good. I could sit on it all day. I’ve been to that park three times.”

Matt, who is off to Florida again in November, believes there are around 3,000 to 4,000 rollercoasters in the world and admits he will never do them all.

But there are certain “must-dos” that he’s hoping to tick off his list, including one at Ferrari World in Dubai, which is believed to be the fastest in existence.

His current record is 18 rides on Nemesis in one hour, when the club booked the attraction privately during one of its trips.

But he says the club is about more than just rollercoasters: “The trips are where you get to know people and you end up in a coaster family.

“You’re on a bus going to a theme park every day – it’s a fantastic life. We call it a coaster bubble. It’s fun, and I love that. Life friends have been generated through that because we all have the same interests.”

•To find out more about the Rollercoaster Club of Great Britain, visit rccgb.co.uk.