These twins have ridden over 1,100 roller coasters. They aren't slowing down.

Derek and Doug Perry got bit by the roller coaster bug early.

"Our mom really loves roller coasters," Derek recalled. "On our summer vacations, we would hop in the van, and we would go driving around to different theme parks."

"(Our dad) didn't love them as much as the three of us did, but he was always a good sport about it," Doug added. "He would hang out in the theme parks, and he had fun still."

As adults, the twins have taken that love to the next level, riding more than 1,100 different roller coasters around the world, often together. Last year, they rode every new coaster that opened across the U.S. and hope to do the same this year.

"I know, it's an obsession," Derek laughed. "People think, 'What's wrong with you?' But it makes me so happy." And they aren't alone.

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Early memories

"I remember one time being a kid, there was an amusement park book, and our mom would read us pages from it like as a bedtime story," Derek said with a smile. He still loves park statistics. "We just retained all this information."

"Then I remember I was talking to my mom one day about EPCOT and the different countries that have (pavilions), and she was like, 'If you focused this much on your school work, you'd be getting straight A's,' " he added. "But my passion was theme parks."

Turning point

The brothers vividly recall their first "big rides" at around age 10. They were at Six Flags Great Adventure, the first stop of theme park road trip, which also included Hershey Park, Kings Dominion and Busch Gardens Williamsburg.

"We're looking at these big rollercoasters, and we're thinking, 'We don't want to go on, and we're too scared to go on.' Do you remember?" Derek said, turning to Doug, who immediately agreed. "And our parents said, 'Well, if you're not going to ride the big rides, we can just go to museums for the rest of the trip.' "

"They're not going to spend all this money going to these theme parks," Doug chimed in. Even back then, tickets weren't cheap, but nowadays, the starting price for daily park admission ranges from $39.99 at Kings Dominion, with its Early Days Deal, to $109 at Universal Studios Hollywood.

"And we're kids," Doug said. "We don't want to spend our summer vacation in museums, so that forced us on the rides. And as soon as we did go on the big rides, we fell in love."

Being a kid again

"When you're on a coaster, for me, I'm not thinking about anything else. All my cares from the world, from the day, they go away, and I'm just living in the moment, which is hard to do nowadays," Derek said. "For theme parks, same thing. It reminds me of being a kid and just being blissful and happy."

"I feel exactly the same way, and I just love that fake fantasy world and just the themes," Doug chuckled. "It's an escape."

Dream jobs

When the brothers were 16, they got jobs at Rocky Point Park, a Rhode Island amusement park that opened in the 1840s and shuttered in the 1990s.

"We just loved being in the park and you know, we would do anything," Derek said. The jobs included operating games and giving guests temporary tattoos. "And we would ride as much as possible, even if we weren't supposed to."

He said one rainy day with low attendance, they rode the Corkscrew roller coaster, their first upside-down roller coaster, over 30 times in a row. "Surprisingly, we didn't get sick," he said. "We just had the time of our lives."

They began traveling on their own for coasters in college and got really into it after moving from Rhode Island to California.

Real jobs

Nowadays, Derek and Doug are DJs and music producers. "I'm thinking about music and coasters all the time," Derek said. Whenever they travel to new cities for gigs, they try to ride roller coasters nearby.

They'd hoped to ride Dr. Diabolical’s Cliffhanger, which is billed as the "world's steepest dive coaster," when they DJed at Six Flags Fiesta Texas' Pride event last June, but it wasn't open yet.

"We did go back," Derek laughed. "It was the end of October, and Doug was like, 'You know we've been on pretty much every new roller coaster that opened this year. We haven't been on Dr. Diabolical. It's a shame we can't get on it.' So for our birthday, we planned a trip to go ride Dr. Diabolical." They did wind up riding every new coaster in the U.S. last year, making special trips for most of them.

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Counting coasters

Derek has now ridden more than 1,200 roller coasters. Doug has ridden over 1,100.

"For Derek, there's no coaster too small. He will travel – and we have – hours and hours out of our way for some kiddie coaster that's considered a (coaster) credit because he counts all his coasters," Doug said with a laugh.

"If I fit, I sit; like a cat in a box," Derek laughed. "If I'm going to a kiddie coaster in South Dakota and I've never been to South Dakota, it forces me to go out and see this area of the country I haven't been to."

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Coaster community

The brothers aren't the only ones willing to go the distance. American Coaster Enthusiasts describes itself as the "world's largest club of amusement ride enthusiasts," and many members are willing to travel for their shared love.

Derek serves as the group's communications director. Doug joked that he's Derek's assistant, but he really helps with ACE's social media and other areas. "It's like a full-time job, but it's all volunteer," he said.

Derek and Doug have met some of their closest friends through ACE events, which include exclusive ride times on attractions before or after theme parks open to the public.

"It's like a dream come true being at a park when there aren't lines, and you can just sit on a roller coaster and go on it over and over and over and try all the different seats," Derek said, joking that their early Rocky Point days prepared them for that.

Favorite roller coasters

Derek says his favorite roller coaster is "always the roller coaster that I'm currently riding," but noted appreciation for traditional coasters like Leap-the-Dips, which Lakemont Park bills as the "oldest wooden roller coaster in the world," and newer ones like VelociCoaster at Universal Orlando Resort.

"Maybe Derek's are off the record," Doug laughed. "I have so many." Doug's favorites include Superman at Six Flags New England, Iron Gwazi at Busch Gardens Tampa Bay, X2 at Six Flags Magic Mountain and Leviathan at Canada's Wonderland just outside Toronto.

"For me, Hershey Park has the best collection of roller coasters, and now they're getting a new roller coaster this year," he added. "Busch Gardens Williamsburg is my favorite park overall. I have so many memories there."

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Making the most of it

"Unfortunately, our parents don't travel with us anymore because our dad had a stroke a few years ago," Doug said. The summer before the stroke, they got in one last big road trip all together with visits to Six Flags St. Louis, Silver Dollar City and Hershey Park.

"After our dad had his stroke, for me, it's kind of like I don't want to miss any opportunity because I never know when I won't be able to do something," Derek said. "So even though I might not want to travel those two hours to go to that little coaster or get up at four in the morning and go to a roller coaster, I just do it because I know I'm going to make such good memories."

Now the brothers FaceTime or call their parents from parks. "It's like they're there as much as they can be, but it brings back like all the memories of being a kid," Derek said. "But yeah, our mom loves roller coasters, and I feel like she lives vicariously now, through what we're doing."

And "we do have our coaster enthusiast friends now to go on these big epic trips with," Doug added.

Roller coaster tips

• "When you get to a park and there's a roller coaster you want to ride, ride the roller coaster first," Derek advised. "You never know if a storm is going to come or what the case may be."

• Take the first available seat. "Do not wait for the front. Do not wait for the back," he added. "Just get on the coaster, and then afterwards you have that cushion. You can wait for the back; you can wait for the front."

• Derek loves the front for views and the back for the feel of being pulled over the first drop. "The front and the back of the train can make such a difference," Doug noted.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Twin brothers take mom's love for roller coasters to next level