This commercial shows exactly what I mean in the first few seconds:
It seems slides like these were also in the Disney River Country park, and I’ve looked at some other water park info and seen them elsewhere.
That said, they’re not in every park. Michigan’s Adventure, the first and only water park I’ve been too (twice, recently) doesn’t have them. I seriously have to question whether they’re a good idea or not.
I got dumped into 3.5 feet of water at that park, and it was a shock. I got a face full of water, then a nose full of water, and when I hit the water it was hard to tell up from down and getting to my feet. Now, I’m not a strong swimmer at all. But my thoughts about the slides that just dump people into water are as follows:
Even if they have they have warnings on them that say, “You have to be a strong swimmer or ELSE!” on them, some people who are not strong swimmers are going to:
A. Not see them.
B. Ignore them.
C. Be pressured by their friends into trying them.
D. Overestimate their swimming ability.
I would imagine even pretty good swimmers could find themselves in trouble with these these. Those slides can be really fast, and of course going around a bunch of curves is intentionally disorienting, exciting, etc. It’s not like going off a stationary diving board, and there’s no pool edge to swim to immediately if you get some water down the wrong pipe.
Just knowing how statistics work, on a busy day, there would have to be several cases of kids and even adults finding they just can’t hack it. Heck, at Michigan’s Adventure on the kiddie slide, which dumps kids from a slow slide into a very shallow pool, the life guard was standing there and frequently helping kids.
So I’m putting this in GQ, since I wanted more factual answers from lifeguards and other people with experience about these things, although opinions on their virtues and dangers would also be appreciated from the knowledgeable. Thanks for assuaging my curiosity!
I totally understand what you’re getting at. I’ve been on them, they’re a bit disorienting, but you hold your breath (and your nose if you need to) and when you’re underwater, after a second or two you’ll figure out up from down…
But there aren’t or we’d hear about it if all these kids were drowning. Even if they weren’t drowning, if the lifeguards were constantly pulling people out, they’d get rid of the slides or at least not put them in at new places, but they still install them to the best of my knowledge. The ones I’ve been on certainly didn’t look like they were put in in the early '80’s.
What do you mean by helping? Was it “OMG he’s going to drown, I have to save/help him!!!” or “Got to help him because the line is an hour long and if it get’s to be 2 hours long I’ll lose my job, let’s get this kid out of the path so we can get the next one down”. IOW, I usually see the lifeguards not so much ‘helping’ as much as just ‘moving’ people so the next one can get going.
BTW, here’s something else that I’ve gone on plenty of times that’s way more disorienting.
You’re spinning, it’s slippery, you have NO way to slow your self down or control how or when you fall, then it’s a 3 foot or so fall off the ledge into a few feet of water with a ‘waterfall’ all around you.
The water park in Salt Lake City 25 years ago had a couple of these. I loved them. I think most people knew what they were getting into, since you could see the end before you got on. If they didn’t, they certainly found out after one ride on them.
I have went to the OP’s link Action Park many times. And like it says in that link ‘there is nothing in the world like Action Park’. It was very unique as it was the pioneer of water parks and safety did not seem high on the priority list. It was also know as ‘traction park’ by the local ER. (cite Action Park - Wikipedia )
As rides evolved the dump into open water seemed to somewhat went away, perhaps out of necessity. The cannonball loop and speed slides did end in a much shallower ending. (the speed slides had Action Park Staff ready in the ‘landing zone’ with nets ready to scoop out the stray tampon or turd that got dislodges by this ‘deceleration by water enema’ ride).
I do agree that just dumping one at high speed into open water is a harsh way to stop, and a more gentle way us usually possible.
But yeah, I would assume they have the water at the end of a slide at a certain depth for a reason. Maybe any shallower and too many people would slam into the bottom or something.
Those waterslides that are dumping you from probably 6 feet up and have signs warning you to be a strong swimmer are into 3.5 feet of water? I’d be worried about hitting the bottom.
It seems to me that a slide that exited that high off the water should be into 10 or 12 feet of water. That’s almost like jumping off a diving board.
I’ve not seen that at the three water parks in the US I’ve been to (Michigan’s Adventure, King’s Island, Holiday World; I didn’t do water stuff at the latter two, but my daughter did, and there was no such process).
Just an idea of what could be done instead of making the water parks safe for basically non-swimming people. It would help to keep people from being able to get in over their head so to speak.
And there is plenty to do even for little kids who can’t swim. One popular thing is this kind of big playhouse with water raining down from it. A big bucket of water fills up and periodically rains down a huge amount of water at once.
I used to lifeguard at a pool that had a slide. The pool at the bottom was about 3 feet deep and we never had anyone have a problem. There was a height requirement and a lifeguard at the pool, but I don’t think anyone ever had to go in.
There is also another pool in the county with two slides that empty into about five feet of water. The height requirement for that one is higher but they do a bunch of rescues. All I have ever seem is kids who take in a gulp of water and panic. But the guard is right there to pull them out. On the busiest days they seem like they might do two rescues a day.
Wouldn’t that have opposite effect?