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Speaker 1: Welcome to you Stuff you should know Frondhouse stuff works

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Speaker 1: dot Com. Hey, I'm welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh Clark.

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Speaker 1: There's Charles W. Chuck Bryant, there's Jerry slowing us down.

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Speaker 1: And this is stuff you should know the podcast. That's right.

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Speaker 1: The water slide addition. Yeah, man, you like water slides.

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Speaker 1: Who doesn't? Nobody? Pretty much? Water slides are point man.

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Speaker 1: I used to go to uh Whitewater here in Atlanta

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Speaker 1: growing up. I haven't been in years and years to

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Speaker 1: a water park. Yeah. I would like to go, though,

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Speaker 1: Oh you're gonna go again. Yeah. I mean I don't

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Speaker 1: know the Whitewater because I don't know if it's any good.

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Speaker 1: I mean, it was great when I was a kid,

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Speaker 1: but now that I'm adults, I'm a little more discerning

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Speaker 1: with my needs. I see, you know, reading about some

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Speaker 1: of these water parks, I'm like, they're really doing it right. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: like the one in Kansas City. Yeah, what's it called

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Speaker 1: the well? I think it's a German name, isn't it. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: um schlitterband. And you know why it's German? Why because

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Speaker 1: German invented the water sign. Okay, I was looking this up.

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Speaker 1: I was looking all over for the first water slide. Um,

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Speaker 1: I think I found it. I want to hear all right,

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Speaker 1: And it was fairly recent too, Like I thought water

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Speaker 1: slides probably the four hundreds. Yeah, this is what I

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Speaker 1: would have guessed. Nope, I was way off. Well, this

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Speaker 1: one article I found says that the very first time

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Speaker 1: people did this was people aqueduct workers in Rome and Egypt.

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Speaker 1: They would, you know, to get from one point to another,

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Speaker 1: quicker would just slide down the aqueduct. Very smart. So

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Speaker 1: they think that's where the idea may have come from.

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Speaker 1: But well, there's also plenty. There's a lot of natural

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Speaker 1: water slides around the world to um that people take advare.

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Speaker 1: So I would imagine it started out like even maybe

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Speaker 1: before then. Yeah, where someone finally said though, hey, this

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Speaker 1: is nido, I can make money off of it, and

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Speaker 1: let's build one just for this purpose. And what I

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Speaker 1: found was nineteen three with Herbert selna Um, who was

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Speaker 1: actually an American. I thought he was German. Um. Uh, well,

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Speaker 1: this was in Minnesota. You invented the water toboggan slide

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Speaker 1: and they got to use it two days out of

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Speaker 1: the year. Um. And I think it was more it

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Speaker 1: was a sled type deal. And then I saw one

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Speaker 1: in England or in the nineteen thirties or so, where

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Speaker 1: it was the same deal. It was like a little

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Speaker 1: flat bottomed boat that you know, you in England they

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Speaker 1: still had on their full they weren't even like in

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Speaker 1: bading gear. They're like in there, they're full suits and

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Speaker 1: monocles and frocks sitting in this boat. So it's basically

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Speaker 1: a little flat bottom boat that would go down to

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Speaker 1: slide and then skitter across the water like the log

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Speaker 1: ride or something like that. Yeah, that's that's the water slide,

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Speaker 1: except way more dangerous, I would guess, because it's the

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Speaker 1: uh yeah, exactly. So I thought the providence was even

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Speaker 1: more recent than that. I thought it was the nineteen seventies.

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Speaker 1: Well that's where the water park was born. Okay. I

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Speaker 1: ran across mentions of water slides, original water slides in

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Speaker 1: the United States from like the seventies the earliest I found. Well,

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Speaker 1: you'll find the Minnesota one. You didn't find the Minnesota

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Speaker 1: Well here's did you read that story? The history of

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Speaker 1: water parks? Yeah? Man, you came up with this great

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Speaker 1: article from grant Land, which is a publication that has

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Speaker 1: some really good long form articles, but this one in

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Speaker 1: particular was really cool. Uh. And it is what is

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Speaker 1: it called? Do you remember the wet stuff that we

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Speaker 1: have a play on the right stuff? Yeah, like the

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Speaker 1: original astronauts of water parks. Well, in this case, um

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Speaker 1: George Malay in nineteen seventy four was sort of the

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Speaker 1: inventor and main thief that built the water park by

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Speaker 1: stealing a bunch and this out. Now there were water

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Speaker 1: slide because he would travel all over the country and

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Speaker 1: they'll be like, oh, there's this concrete water slide, but

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Speaker 1: that was all it was at the time. It was

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Speaker 1: like this hill with like three curvy concrete slides cut

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Speaker 1: into the side of it. Yeah, and you heard chuck right,

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Speaker 1: he just said concrete. The original man made water slides

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Speaker 1: were made of concrete. Yes, I've been on those. Did

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Speaker 1: it not like tear your skin up? No, it was

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Speaker 1: really Yeah, it's like a concrete swimming pool. Um, yeah,

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Speaker 1: which I mean like if you ever come in contact

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Speaker 1: with the bottom of it, it hurts. Well. No, there's

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Speaker 1: a lot of water first of all, and then these

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Speaker 1: are the ones you needed the little mat to sit on. Okay,

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Speaker 1: that makes sense. It's gonna stay like you just stand

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Speaker 1: up in the bottom of your swimming trus to be

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Speaker 1: totally shredded. So Malay had the original idea when he

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Speaker 1: went to a wave pool um in Alabama and said

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Speaker 1: this is awesome. He would see a water slide and

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Speaker 1: say that is awesome. He would see like a little

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Speaker 1: kid's water thing, say that is awesome. Him, let's bring

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Speaker 1: it all together. Let's bring it all together. And then

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Speaker 1: he was the guy who made Wet and Wild. Yeah.

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Speaker 1: Well he was originally of the creator sea World and

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Speaker 1: then left the Sea World in nineteen seventy four. Who's

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Speaker 1: fourced out? Yeah. I get the feeling that he was

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Speaker 1: not an easy guy to work with. No Supposedly in

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Speaker 1: this Grantland article, supposedly his he had red hair and

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Speaker 1: his face would get just as red when he'd start yelling,

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Speaker 1: which was a lot. Yeah. So he said, let's bring

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Speaker 1: this all together. Um, let's go um Inland to where

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Speaker 1: people don't have access to beaches and things, which makes

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Speaker 1: sense human maide beaches. Yeah, with these wave pools and uh.

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Speaker 1: He was rebuffed by investors at first because they were like,

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Speaker 1: no one's gonna pay the swim you big dummy. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: that's really stupid idea. Yeah, that was like the initial

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Speaker 1: response that he got. Yeah, and like I can kind

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Speaker 1: of understand that no one had ever tried it before.

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Speaker 1: Swimming and bathing was one of those things that like

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Speaker 1: you just went to the beach and it was free. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: So the idea of bringing the beach to people was

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Speaker 1: kind of lost on on the early investors, not all

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Speaker 1: of them. He managed to raise like three million bucks. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: or they'd be like community pools and things, but not

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Speaker 1: like a theme park, just without without roller coasters and rides.

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Speaker 1: People thought he was nuts, so he built it anyway.

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Speaker 1: In Orlando. He called it Wet and Wild um, because

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Speaker 1: he said, apparently in a meeting, I want it, it's

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Speaker 1: gotta be the name's gotta be wet and wild, and

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Speaker 1: they're like, how about that. We're ready to go home

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Speaker 1: pretty much even yelling at us all day. Um. The

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Speaker 1: center piece of Wet and Wild was the wave pool. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: which you know it's like that that well, it's a

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Speaker 1: wave pool. It's a pool that creates waves, which was

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Speaker 1: a huge deal. And that's the one that's what he

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Speaker 1: saw Indicatur Alabama vour right, that's the thing that kicked

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Speaker 1: it all off, and like you said, it was the centerpiece.

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Speaker 1: So when you came into Wet and Wild in Orlando

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Speaker 1: on International Drive, um, that was the first thing you saw,

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Speaker 1: and it was meant to kind of bull you over

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Speaker 1: a little bit, like, oh my gosh, it's a it's

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Speaker 1: a human made beach. Trying to discontinue my use of

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Speaker 1: man made by the way. Oh really, Yeah, sure, it's

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Speaker 1: really easy to say too, because you grow you grow

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Speaker 1: up saying that, but yeah, human made it's harder to say.

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Speaker 1: It's harder to remember. So I'm training myself. Good job.

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Speaker 1: I'm gonna start that too now. But you're gonna say

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Speaker 1: human made, right, maybe you and Terry Gross So uh,

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Speaker 1: the the idea was pretty great, but it didn't take

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Speaker 1: off at first. Um he lost about four grand in

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Speaker 1: his first year because people were used to roller coaster

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Speaker 1: parks and they were used to go go, go, go

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Speaker 1: go at those things. He was trying to talk parents

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Speaker 1: into kicking back on the lounge chair by the wave

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Speaker 1: pool while the kids partied, and the parents were like yeah.

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Speaker 1: The parents who went though were like this is kind

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Speaker 1: of awesome, actually yeah, But getting them there at first

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Speaker 1: was a lot harder than he anticipated. Yeah. Um. He

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Speaker 1: figured out though that there was kind of a too

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Speaker 1: to a dual attractiveness to um a water park depending

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Speaker 1: on your age. So like, if you're a teenager, you

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Speaker 1: wanted something fast and scary and fun and sure, sure,

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Speaker 1: but you wanted something that you wanted thrills and spills

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Speaker 1: and chills. Right, if you're a parent, by the time

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Speaker 1: you're at this place, it's probably very hot. You've probably

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Speaker 1: already been to Disney World or whatever, and you are tired,

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Speaker 1: worn out, but your kids still has tons of energy,

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Speaker 1: so they're running around. You don't feel like running around.

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Speaker 1: You feel like sitting in a way pool, You feel

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Speaker 1: like sitting on a lounge chair, or you feel like

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Speaker 1: and this is an idea he ripped off from I

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Speaker 1: think um Sri Lanka or something like that river, the

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Speaker 1: lazy river that was the stroke of genius. It seems

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Speaker 1: like that apparently sealed the fate of wet and wild

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Speaker 1: was introducing this lazy river where you don't even have

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Speaker 1: to propel yourself. You just get in this river or

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Speaker 1: and you're gently pushed along by the current, along and along,

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Speaker 1: and you can just chill out and not think about

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Speaker 1: anything in the nice cool water on a hot day

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Speaker 1: in Orlando. Yeah, and apparently when he had stole that idea, Um,

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Speaker 1: the guys, the humans building this thing, was like, well, yeah,

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Speaker 1: well we can build a river like you get in

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Speaker 1: one and get out the other. And he's like, no,

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Speaker 1: no, no no, no, this thing is fully enclosed. You never

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Speaker 1: have to get out if you don't want to write.

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Speaker 1: He's like, do I have to explain the concept of

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Speaker 1: infinity to you? So they build it shaped like the

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Speaker 1: infinity signer got fired. But and yeah, because in the

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Speaker 1: middle they'd all just bumped together. They glutinated traffic jam.

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Speaker 1: So I mentioned him stealing. Uh, everyone was stealing because

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Speaker 1: after this water parks started opening up. It was the seventies.

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Speaker 1: Everybody was stealing. Yeah, all over the country. And they

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Speaker 1: they stole their names. Like every water park in the

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Speaker 1: world has the same like twenty words over and over

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Speaker 1: to describe their rides, and they all just from each other,

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Speaker 1: like flumes and raging and wild and splash and storm

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Speaker 1: and typhoon or in his case, the Kama Kaze. Well, yeah,

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Speaker 1: that was the first really big in the States, at

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Speaker 1: least I think he stole it from somewhere overseas from Japan.

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Speaker 1: Actually it was Japan, that's try, which is appropriate and

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Speaker 1: highly inappropriate to have named it the kama Kaze then,

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Speaker 1: but he uh. It was the the first really tall

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Speaker 1: water slide in the United States. And the way that

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Speaker 1: it was allowed to be made really tall is because

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Speaker 1: he used fiberglass, which revolutionized water parks because again they

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Speaker 1: would use skin shredding concrete that had some real serious

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Speaker 1: like structural limitations, like you had to build it into

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Speaker 1: a hill. She had to build build a hill, and

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Speaker 1: then you had to build the water slide into the hill.

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Speaker 1: With fiberglass, it was like just build straight up into

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Speaker 1: the air and you're fine, Yeah, it's pretty cool. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: and the Kamikaze was the first one. Plus they built

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Speaker 1: it and situated it in a water park in a

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Speaker 1: way where you could see that thing from miles away,

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Speaker 1: and it was basically like a beacon, like, come check

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Speaker 1: this out, you twelve year old crazy person. Yeah, they

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Speaker 1: call it a skyline feature. It's the same reason that

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Speaker 1: the biggest roller coasters are going to be situated near

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Speaker 1: the highway most times. So it's basically self made advertising

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Speaker 1: and marketing. Um. So they also found that they could

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Speaker 1: make a lot of money doing other things like selling concessions.

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Speaker 1: And at first they would put the concessions all, you know,

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Speaker 1: the lockers, because you're not gonna carry on money. But

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Speaker 1: then they said in this article that became the mother

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Speaker 1: of invention, and they were like, they invented the water wallet.

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Speaker 1: And they sold a lot of bathing suits because women

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Speaker 1: would come in their bikinis and get their bikini tops

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Speaker 1: thrown off in these some of these rides, So they

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Speaker 1: sold a lot of one piece bathing suits once people

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Speaker 1: got there. Um, and it was kind of genius. They

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Speaker 1: were making money hand over fist at a certain point.

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Speaker 1: And this is one of the reasons why I think

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Speaker 1: the seventies are possibly the greatest decade of all time.

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Speaker 1: The water park was established in the seventies. Yeah, so um,

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Speaker 1: these days there are some really really innovative um slides

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Speaker 1: going on and we'll talk about those later. Um, first,

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Speaker 1: let's take a break and then we'll get back to

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Speaker 1: like how water slides actually work. So, Chuck, I promised physics,

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Speaker 1: and we're going to deliver on physics. If you have

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Speaker 1: listened to our roller Coaster episode, you'll probably get a

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Speaker 1: lot of this. But the basic premise between a roller

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Speaker 1: coaster and a person on a water slide is virtually

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Speaker 1: the same thing. Like when you're on a water slide,

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Speaker 1: you have when you're at the top of you're just

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Speaker 1: sitting there, you like a slinky, have a lot of

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Speaker 1: potential energy, and then once you shove off, that potential

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Speaker 1: energy is translated into kinetic energy and gravity starts to

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Speaker 1: pull you downward. That's right. And when you're traveling on

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Speaker 1: a relatively straight slope, the force of gravity pushing down

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Speaker 1: on your body is counteracted by the force of the

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Speaker 1: slide pushing up, and you're you're going kind of slow. Sure,

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Speaker 1: but if you take that slide and move it more

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Speaker 1: from the horizontal to the vertical, it's still pushing you forward,

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Speaker 1: but it's not counteracting gravity any longer. It's just basically

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Speaker 1: allowing you to drop very quickly from a high place

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Speaker 1: to a lower place. Yeah, and uh aided the whole time. Um, well,

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Speaker 1: I guess combating friction, you're aided by the water. Of course,

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Speaker 1: that's gonna help the friction not take hold and you

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Speaker 1: won't scrape your little bottom on the concrete water slide

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Speaker 1: any longer because they're sending tons and tons of water

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Speaker 1: constantly down these water slide. Yes, And the the higher

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Speaker 1: the drop and the steeper the grade, the less friction

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Speaker 1: is allowed to generate because the less the slide is

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Speaker 1: counteracting directly the force of gravity. So you can get

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Speaker 1: going pretty quick. Yeah, And I remember on some of

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Speaker 1: these tall slides that would have like a big drop

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Speaker 1: and then a little small hill, like I remember leaving

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Speaker 1: my butt leaving the slide. The concrete sly Yeah mean, no, no,

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Speaker 1: this is but when they were fiber class at this point.

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Speaker 1: But um, yeah, like zero friction because I'm airborne slightly.

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Speaker 1: And they had missteps along the way, like sending kids

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Speaker 1: off into the world, launching them from these water slides.

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Speaker 1: And so they especially with the Serpentine slide, which all

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Speaker 1: of a sudden you have angles introduced to the physics

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Speaker 1: um and curves and inertia, and so they realized, we

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Speaker 1: gotta build these walls up pretty high on some of

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Speaker 1: these curves because your inertia, you're working against your own inertia.

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Speaker 1: It's take in one direction and then boom, you're taking

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Speaker 1: a hard left turn. Your body still wants to go

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Speaker 1: that direction exactly. Slide says no, no, you're going this

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Speaker 1: way now, so it adds a whole other sensation to it,

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Speaker 1: not just the downward fall, but a change in velocity too. Yeah.

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Speaker 1: So they raised these side walls and then eventually some

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Speaker 1: of them were so extreme that they just said that

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Speaker 1: you were you have to be in a tube altogether, right,

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Speaker 1: completely enclosed, which is also a feature, like they have

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Speaker 1: something that have like, uh, well it'll be dark and

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Speaker 1: they'll have lights inside the tube and you know they've

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Speaker 1: got seat them up over the years, right, they clean

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Speaker 1: up real nice. So, um, well, that's pretty much the

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Speaker 1: physics of water slides. There's not a whole lot else

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Speaker 1: to know about it. Well, there's the water break. That's

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Speaker 1: another feature. Okay, so you made mention of like, um,

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Speaker 1: people being thrown all over the place. There's a story

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Speaker 1: in that grant Land article where George Malay was showing, um,

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Speaker 1: I guess an investor or something like that, this new

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Speaker 1: slide and had one of his teen age employees go

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Speaker 1: down the slide and at the bottom of the slide,

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Speaker 1: um the collecting pool. Well before the collecting pool are

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Speaker 1: supposed to be a dip which is filled with water

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Speaker 1: and that serves as the water break. And then you've

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Speaker 1: got the collecting pool, the place where you spill out into,

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Speaker 1: and that's supposed to slow you down even further. Apparently

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Speaker 1: the design of this slide was such that this little

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Speaker 1: teenage kid wasn't really slowed down with the water break

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Speaker 1: and skipped across the collecting pool onto the concrete in

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Speaker 1: front of the investor who's like, Um, I don't think

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Speaker 1: that's supposed to happen, right, You may want to check

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Speaker 1: your numbers. Yeah, I think that may have been a

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Speaker 1: sled maybe not a sled slide. Well, with a sled slide,

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Speaker 1: you would guess that there's even less friction. You know,

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Speaker 1: you need to have a longer water break going on.

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Speaker 1: But the cool thing about the water break is that

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Speaker 1: was invented by somebody who's actually one of the foremost

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Speaker 1: water slide designers working today, guy named Jeff Henry. Jeff

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Speaker 1: Henry's family owned like a campground in the sixties, I

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Speaker 1: think Texas in Texas, and um, one of the things

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Speaker 1: they had going for this campground, because you know those

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Speaker 1: are usually pretty boring places, was a slide, A regular slide, yes,

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Speaker 1: from the second floor. I think of one of the

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Speaker 1: cabins down, not a water slide at this point, um,

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Speaker 1: until Jeff added the water break feature and that became

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Speaker 1: like a standard feature for all water slides. Started out

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Speaker 1: on a regular slide. Yeah, And he's the guy that

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Speaker 1: basically saw what Malay was doing and said I can

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Speaker 1: Like he wasn't too impressed with Malay and said, I

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Speaker 1: see what you're doing, but I can do this a

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Speaker 1: lot better. And I think his parks today are some

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Speaker 1: of the coolest ones. Right. Well, yeah, he's working. Um.

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Speaker 1: He co owns um the one in Kansas City, the

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Speaker 1: one with the German name. Yeah, I don't know why

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Speaker 1: the name won't stick in my head. Schlitterbon, Schlitterbon. You

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Speaker 1: don't know why that doesn't stick. I mean it's so memorable, sure,

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Speaker 1: schliter bond Uh. That's the one that has the tallest

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Speaker 1: one in the world now, right, Yeah, So the tallest

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Speaker 1: one in the world is called or, which is German

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Speaker 1: for crazier insane. And how high is it? A hundred

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Speaker 1: and sixty eight feet and seven inches tall. The second

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Speaker 1: place one is called Kilimanjaro. It's in Brazil. It's a

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Speaker 1: hundred and sixty four The third one is also in Brazil.

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Speaker 1: It's called Insano. It's a hundred and thirty five ft

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Speaker 1: that's really tall. Man. Oh yeah, do they have little

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Speaker 1: elevators for those? Do you know? Are you? I think

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Speaker 1: you have to climb, which makes the whole thing even scarier.

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Speaker 1: Really yeah, that's to me the worst part about the

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Speaker 1: water park is, uh, the and it even puts it

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Speaker 1: this way in this article. The potential energy is you

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Speaker 1: climbing steps. That's how you develop the potential energy. And

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Speaker 1: the higher up you go, the higher you climb, the

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Speaker 1: more potential energy you have, which means the more is

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Speaker 1: released in transferred to kinetic, which is scary, but you're right,

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Speaker 1: it does built up like as you go. I imagine

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Speaker 1: you're like, man, I've climbed a lot of steps here,

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Speaker 1: I can see really really far. One of the cool

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Speaker 1: things about that grant Land article too, by the way,

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Speaker 1: Chuck is at the top. Rather than a photo, they

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Speaker 1: have like a gift that's a p o V video

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Speaker 1: of going down. It's pretty neat and I believe that

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Speaker 1: is also one that uses is that a water coaster?

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Speaker 1: So that is the latest and greatest um feature going

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Speaker 1: is Someone at some point said it was probably uh,

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Speaker 1: what's his name, Jeff? Jeff did he invent the water coaster?

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Speaker 1: He said, you know, this is neat, but it would

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Speaker 1: be really neat if you go up and down and

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Speaker 1: you didn't just uh go down and stop and maybe

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Speaker 1: a little hill here and there. But he invented I

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Speaker 1: guess the water uh was it called the water cannon,

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Speaker 1: water blaster, the water blaster, which is exactly what you think.

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Speaker 1: It's a lot of water when you start to go

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Speaker 1: up that hill to shoot you up that hill, right,

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Speaker 1: it's it's um, you know, like the chains that clink

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Speaker 1: you up on a roller coaster. It serves the exact

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Speaker 1: same purpose. So uh with the addition of these water

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Speaker 1: blasters that that move you along, um, it's just completely

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Speaker 1: opened up the field of of water slides. It's just

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Speaker 1: no longer using gravity to push you down. So um,

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Speaker 1: chuck with with a water slide like it's This article

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Speaker 1: makes a pretty good analogy that when you build a

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Speaker 1: water slide, you're basically it's the same process as putting

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Speaker 1: together like a matchbox track. It's the them the fiber

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Speaker 1: last pieces are designed. For the most part, there's companies

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Speaker 1: that design water slides. Four water parks. Rare is the

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Speaker 1: water park that designs its own slides. But Jeff Henry

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Speaker 1: and um the co his co owner of um Schlitterbond

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Speaker 1: in Kansas City. Yeah, what is the guy's name? Do

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Speaker 1: they design these together? Yes, John John School, he's the

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Speaker 1: co owner's name. So they'll dream it up and then

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Speaker 1: work with another company who will actually put it together

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Speaker 1: or build it and then put it together. These two, yeah,

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Speaker 1: they do their own designs, but for the most part

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Speaker 1: of you in a water park or something, you'll contract

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Speaker 1: out the whole thing, design, building, implementation, all that stuff

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Speaker 1: a fun job. But this is one of the things

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Speaker 1: that makes these two um some of the foremost designers

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Speaker 1: is because they're they're not only owners of water parks,

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Speaker 1: they're designing it themselves. They're testing it out themselves, and

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Speaker 1: they're really putting a lot of thought into the water

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Speaker 1: features that they're coming up with. Let's spend his life

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Speaker 1: since the sixties, you know, Yeah, this is passion alright.

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Speaker 1: So like you said, they are dozens and dozens of

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Speaker 1: fiberglass pieces that just fit together. Like you said, like

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Speaker 1: a little car track, you gotta raise lip on one

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Speaker 1: end and a little sunken step and just slide them

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Speaker 1: together and bolt them together boom, And what you want

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Speaker 1: is to have a very smooth um single slide feel

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Speaker 1: to that on your autom half. Yes, you know, once

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Speaker 1: you're butt like bumping against every you know, every time

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Speaker 1: there's a new section and then you have some steel

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00:22:07,440 --> 00:22:09,600
Speaker 1: that holds the thing up and there you go. You've

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Speaker 1: got the world's tallest water slide. Um. One of the things, though,

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Speaker 1: besides physical harm that you have to combat as a

399
00:22:18,160 --> 00:22:22,960
Speaker 1: water park owner is also p Yeah. Sure, have you

400
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Speaker 1: ever seen that South Park or the water the water

401
00:22:25,760 --> 00:22:29,920
Speaker 1: park there, The concentration of PE is so much that

402
00:22:30,040 --> 00:22:34,280
Speaker 1: it flips over and there's a chain reaction and everything

403
00:22:34,359 --> 00:22:37,880
Speaker 1: turns to pe and like they're trapped in this water

404
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Speaker 1: park and can't get out because everything is p it's

405
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Speaker 1: so gross. Do they have measures in place for pin

406
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Speaker 1: now or is it? Um? Well, just massive amounts of

407
00:22:46,080 --> 00:22:50,800
Speaker 1: filtration and yes, chemicals just like in a pool, exactly right.

408
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Speaker 1: But um, one of the ways that you combat this

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Speaker 1: is to keep water circulate all the time. You don't

410
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Speaker 1: want it to stagnate. And the other um, but honus

411
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Speaker 1: of having water circulating all the time is you don't

412
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Speaker 1: have to just use water once to go down the

413
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Speaker 1: slide and then flush it down the train. A water

414
00:23:08,720 --> 00:23:12,159
Speaker 1: slide is basically a closed circuit, and actually most water parks,

415
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Speaker 1: or at least several of the features in the water

416
00:23:14,359 --> 00:23:17,920
Speaker 1: park are closed systems themselves, so like the water will

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Speaker 1: circulate through several different parts of the park in a

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Speaker 1: closed system. Right, all right, Well we'll talk a little

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Speaker 1: bit more about these pump hounds is and how that

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Speaker 1: all works right after this break. All right, Josh, you

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00:23:46,840 --> 00:23:51,720
Speaker 1: mentioned um pumps. This water doesn't move itself, you know,

422
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Speaker 1: I mean gravity helps on the way down. Yeah, I

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Speaker 1: guess it does. You need to get it up right

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Speaker 1: to the top of the slide her for this all

425
00:24:00,560 --> 00:24:02,520
Speaker 1: to work correctly. And to do that you just use

426
00:24:02,600 --> 00:24:06,360
Speaker 1: some pumps. You put a pump at a smart location,

427
00:24:06,520 --> 00:24:09,960
Speaker 1: say a collection sump, and in most cases this is

428
00:24:10,040 --> 00:24:12,240
Speaker 1: the pool that's at the bottom of the water for

429
00:24:12,520 --> 00:24:16,359
Speaker 1: the um water slide that they fall into, right, and

430
00:24:16,480 --> 00:24:19,520
Speaker 1: that water, that water is collected and sucked out and

431
00:24:20,160 --> 00:24:23,159
Speaker 1: run through a filter, which is pretty simple. It sounds

432
00:24:23,240 --> 00:24:27,800
Speaker 1: like filters for water parks. I'm sure, I'm sure get

433
00:24:29,080 --> 00:24:32,560
Speaker 1: more technologically advanced than this, but at their basis, they

434
00:24:33,040 --> 00:24:35,399
Speaker 1: um the waters run through a layer of sand and

435
00:24:35,480 --> 00:24:39,000
Speaker 1: a layer of gravel, and the edges of the sand

436
00:24:39,040 --> 00:24:43,200
Speaker 1: and the gravel pick out fine particulate matter, hopefully proteins

437
00:24:43,240 --> 00:24:48,200
Speaker 1: from urine and um. The water, the clean water, the

438
00:24:48,400 --> 00:24:51,760
Speaker 1: cleaner water is run through the other end and up

439
00:24:51,840 --> 00:24:55,920
Speaker 1: to the the water slide and then down again. Yeah.

440
00:24:56,040 --> 00:24:58,760
Speaker 1: And most of these slides, especially the ones where you

441
00:24:58,800 --> 00:25:00,600
Speaker 1: have to work water all the to the top, have

442
00:25:00,960 --> 00:25:04,560
Speaker 1: um one way valves or check valves. And that means

443
00:25:04,600 --> 00:25:06,600
Speaker 1: at the end of the night, when they turn everything

444
00:25:06,640 --> 00:25:09,280
Speaker 1: off and clock out and go to the local beer

445
00:25:09,320 --> 00:25:11,280
Speaker 1: and pizza joint to I'll hang out, because that's what

446
00:25:11,359 --> 00:25:13,840
Speaker 1: all water park employees do, right, It's like summer camp.

447
00:25:14,480 --> 00:25:18,200
Speaker 1: They the water stays at the top. It stays in

448
00:25:18,320 --> 00:25:21,280
Speaker 1: that pipe. It doesn't flow backward because then you would

449
00:25:21,280 --> 00:25:23,080
Speaker 1: have to work to get it all pump back up

450
00:25:23,119 --> 00:25:25,720
Speaker 1: to the top again every morning. Yeah. So it's a

451
00:25:25,760 --> 00:25:27,720
Speaker 1: one way system and it just stays ready to go

452
00:25:28,320 --> 00:25:30,159
Speaker 1: when they turn it on at the beginning of the day.

453
00:25:30,200 --> 00:25:33,000
Speaker 1: They take their advil and wipe the crust from their

454
00:25:33,040 --> 00:25:37,160
Speaker 1: eyes too. Pizza. Uh. They turn on that pump switch

455
00:25:37,320 --> 00:25:39,080
Speaker 1: and the water is just right there at the top,

456
00:25:39,200 --> 00:25:46,680
Speaker 1: rady to be uh. Squirted back out. Um. Backwashing is

457
00:25:46,760 --> 00:25:48,600
Speaker 1: very important feature. If you ever worked at a pool

458
00:25:48,760 --> 00:25:51,800
Speaker 1: or owned a pool, you know how to backwash and

459
00:25:52,160 --> 00:25:55,960
Speaker 1: that is another uh sanitation method which you will reverse

460
00:25:56,040 --> 00:25:59,000
Speaker 1: the flow of water through the filter and backwash it

461
00:25:59,080 --> 00:26:01,200
Speaker 1: and it moves back through it cleans all the crud

462
00:26:01,320 --> 00:26:03,840
Speaker 1: that the filter caught out. Yeah, and then pumps it

463
00:26:03,920 --> 00:26:07,600
Speaker 1: out into the sewer system exactly. It's a very important part.

464
00:26:07,640 --> 00:26:09,760
Speaker 1: It doesn't pump it back out into the collection pool

465
00:26:09,800 --> 00:26:11,760
Speaker 1: because that would be so gross. That's right. And they're

466
00:26:11,760 --> 00:26:13,880
Speaker 1: always pumping new water in there too, because you're losing

467
00:26:13,920 --> 00:26:15,800
Speaker 1: a lot of water throughout the day as well. Yeah,

468
00:26:15,880 --> 00:26:20,240
Speaker 1: people's bathing suits carry that water away evaporation. Sure, all

469
00:26:20,320 --> 00:26:23,040
Speaker 1: that stuff. And as much pe as they're adding, they

470
00:26:23,080 --> 00:26:28,479
Speaker 1: still need to add water, which is good. Um. Did

471
00:26:28,560 --> 00:26:31,320
Speaker 1: you read the bit on Action Park? Yeah? Man, so

472
00:26:31,520 --> 00:26:34,720
Speaker 1: this is pretty cool. It's I read and watched that

473
00:26:34,840 --> 00:26:39,520
Speaker 1: documentary about a year ago, and uh, it was amazing.

474
00:26:39,680 --> 00:26:42,960
Speaker 1: I can't say enough about the Mashable. Um, did they

475
00:26:42,960 --> 00:26:45,639
Speaker 1: actually do the documentary? I think they hosted it. Okay.

476
00:26:46,359 --> 00:26:49,520
Speaker 1: It was a park in New Jersey, the deadliest amusement

477
00:26:49,560 --> 00:26:51,440
Speaker 1: park in the history of the world. Apparently. Yeah, it

478
00:26:51,480 --> 00:26:54,000
Speaker 1: was called Action Park, and it was from the seventies

479
00:26:54,080 --> 00:26:58,159
Speaker 1: till I think, and um, it had such a horrible

480
00:26:58,240 --> 00:27:03,800
Speaker 1: track record of causing injuries and just being insanely flagrant

481
00:27:03,880 --> 00:27:10,920
Speaker 1: with Yeah, pretty much that had the name Traction Park. Um.

482
00:27:11,160 --> 00:27:15,080
Speaker 1: And there's a legend that the Smashable Articles or was

483
00:27:15,160 --> 00:27:18,280
Speaker 1: it the New York Post, which now I'm questioning the

484
00:27:18,400 --> 00:27:21,920
Speaker 1: veracity of this legend. But um that Action Park bought

485
00:27:22,359 --> 00:27:28,320
Speaker 1: ambulances for the local township because they used them so much. Well,

486
00:27:28,400 --> 00:27:31,320
Speaker 1: it's pretty cool. If you watch the documentary interviews, Uh,

487
00:27:31,440 --> 00:27:34,400
Speaker 1: it details the features of the park, which are all, um,

488
00:27:34,960 --> 00:27:36,920
Speaker 1: you seem like you were teetering on the edge of

489
00:27:37,640 --> 00:27:41,680
Speaker 1: injury at all times. And um, but when you entered.

490
00:27:41,720 --> 00:27:43,720
Speaker 1: They interviewed a lot of people that were now adults

491
00:27:43,800 --> 00:27:47,320
Speaker 1: that went there as teenagers and they were like, Action

492
00:27:47,400 --> 00:27:50,080
Speaker 1: Park was the best thing ever. Well, and the reason

493
00:27:50,160 --> 00:27:54,840
Speaker 1: why it wasn't just because they didn't care about your safety. Yet.

494
00:27:54,960 --> 00:27:57,240
Speaker 1: They had really cool rides to Like, they had a

495
00:27:57,320 --> 00:28:03,000
Speaker 1: water slide that made a pleat loop and that's not

496
00:28:03,240 --> 00:28:05,680
Speaker 1: water slides don't do that normally. Yeah, it was a

497
00:28:05,760 --> 00:28:07,280
Speaker 1: tube and if you look at this thing they have

498
00:28:07,440 --> 00:28:11,800
Speaker 1: video of someone going through it. Um, it seems like

499
00:28:11,840 --> 00:28:13,639
Speaker 1: the way Action Park was laid out, it wasn't like

500
00:28:14,840 --> 00:28:17,320
Speaker 1: it was a sort of piecemeal like this thing looks

501
00:28:17,359 --> 00:28:20,000
Speaker 1: like it was just built in a parking lot. Uh.

502
00:28:20,119 --> 00:28:21,760
Speaker 1: And it was a complete and closed tube and you

503
00:28:21,800 --> 00:28:24,920
Speaker 1: would just go down, do one loop and get spit

504
00:28:24,960 --> 00:28:27,800
Speaker 1: out the other end. And it didn't always work great though.

505
00:28:27,920 --> 00:28:30,080
Speaker 1: It's a problem. Yeah, it didn't always spit you out

506
00:28:30,119 --> 00:28:33,320
Speaker 1: the other end. You might get stuck, broken or whatever

507
00:28:33,480 --> 00:28:36,360
Speaker 1: in the in the loop. Yeah, it seems pretty great.

508
00:28:36,400 --> 00:28:39,960
Speaker 1: They're like everyone across the board had fond memories. Um.

509
00:28:40,320 --> 00:28:42,520
Speaker 1: And I know in the seventies we all like pat

510
00:28:42,600 --> 00:28:45,800
Speaker 1: ourselves on the back for having you know, we didn't Yeah,

511
00:28:45,840 --> 00:28:47,920
Speaker 1: we didn't have bicycle helmets and like we were all

512
00:28:48,000 --> 00:28:51,240
Speaker 1: dangerous and our parents didn't care. But um, that sort

513
00:28:51,240 --> 00:28:53,560
Speaker 1: of was the heyday, you know, like when kids were

514
00:28:53,600 --> 00:28:56,400
Speaker 1: just left to their own devices and apparently everyone that

515
00:28:56,440 --> 00:28:58,640
Speaker 1: worked there it was just like a really fun time.

516
00:28:59,280 --> 00:29:03,600
Speaker 1: Like the cards are party in, the kids were partying.

517
00:29:03,920 --> 00:29:06,040
Speaker 1: It was just a good old time at Action Park.

518
00:29:06,520 --> 00:29:09,200
Speaker 1: So they're bringing it back now, right they are. After

519
00:29:09,320 --> 00:29:13,040
Speaker 1: this this documentary went viral. Um and it's like a

520
00:29:13,160 --> 00:29:15,560
Speaker 1: web documentaries. I don't think it's feature length or anything

521
00:29:15,640 --> 00:29:18,480
Speaker 1: like that. But um, the once they went viral, the

522
00:29:18,680 --> 00:29:21,800
Speaker 1: former owners were like, oh, okay, well I guess there's

523
00:29:21,840 --> 00:29:25,960
Speaker 1: still demand for Action Park, so they bought back the

524
00:29:26,080 --> 00:29:29,080
Speaker 1: old Action Park and it's the family business, right Yeah.

525
00:29:29,560 --> 00:29:34,040
Speaker 1: And the the they basically said the recent owners who

526
00:29:34,120 --> 00:29:36,840
Speaker 1: they sold it to back in the nineties made everything

527
00:29:36,880 --> 00:29:39,120
Speaker 1: way too safe. So they've said about making the rides

528
00:29:39,160 --> 00:29:43,320
Speaker 1: more dangerous, which is nuts. Yeah, they're probably walking that

529
00:29:43,480 --> 00:29:49,160
Speaker 1: fine line, especially these days litigation and kids feeling like they're,

530
00:29:49,400 --> 00:29:51,640
Speaker 1: you know, in peril. Yeah, it makes more exciting. I

531
00:29:51,760 --> 00:29:55,480
Speaker 1: came across another article, um that basically said if you

532
00:29:55,720 --> 00:29:59,560
Speaker 1: are worried about roller coasters, you should be way more

533
00:29:59,600 --> 00:30:02,800
Speaker 1: worried about water parks. Yeah. The death rate is much higher,

534
00:30:02,840 --> 00:30:05,800
Speaker 1: isn't it. Yeah, the in the injury rate, the incident rate,

535
00:30:05,880 --> 00:30:08,840
Speaker 1: for sure. So um, there was It was a study

536
00:30:08,880 --> 00:30:12,120
Speaker 1: in New Jersey, which is where Action Park is. Um.

537
00:30:12,280 --> 00:30:14,840
Speaker 1: But the studies between two thousand and seven and two twelve,

538
00:30:14,920 --> 00:30:17,280
Speaker 1: So this is while Action Park isn't even operating, so

539
00:30:17,400 --> 00:30:20,880
Speaker 1: it's not adding to these statistics. But one fifth of

540
00:30:20,960 --> 00:30:24,080
Speaker 1: all amusement park accidents in New Jersey between those years

541
00:30:24,360 --> 00:30:28,480
Speaker 1: where water park attractions, whereas only like thirty nine incidents

542
00:30:28,520 --> 00:30:30,240
Speaker 1: were due to roller coasters, So like a hundred and

543
00:30:30,280 --> 00:30:34,160
Speaker 1: twenty out of like five hundred something where things like, um,

544
00:30:34,560 --> 00:30:38,960
Speaker 1: drownings in a collection pool or just injuries on a

545
00:30:39,040 --> 00:30:41,440
Speaker 1: water slide, that kind of stuff. So if you're afraid

546
00:30:41,480 --> 00:30:43,480
Speaker 1: of roller coasters, you should be way more afraid of

547
00:30:43,600 --> 00:30:45,840
Speaker 1: water slide. Yeah. The one thing that I read in

548
00:30:45,920 --> 00:30:48,440
Speaker 1: that article that made sense to me was they said that, um,

549
00:30:49,280 --> 00:30:52,560
Speaker 1: with a roller coaster, you're generally looking at some sort

550
00:30:52,600 --> 00:30:57,480
Speaker 1: of a malfunction, mechanical malfunction that causes injury. But water

551
00:30:57,920 --> 00:31:01,480
Speaker 1: is unpredictable. It's not on a track, and sometimes you know,

552
00:31:01,720 --> 00:31:03,920
Speaker 1: it does whatever the heck it pleases, that does whatever

553
00:31:04,040 --> 00:31:07,080
Speaker 1: it wants, and maybe someone's size and weight will contribute

554
00:31:07,880 --> 00:31:10,800
Speaker 1: to it in such a fashion where um, it's yeah,

555
00:31:10,920 --> 00:31:13,760
Speaker 1: you're taking its humble and breaking a leg or something.

556
00:31:14,760 --> 00:31:17,720
Speaker 1: Good times. I can't wait to go again. I got

557
00:31:17,800 --> 00:31:19,680
Speaker 1: one last step for you once you got There are

558
00:31:19,760 --> 00:31:23,280
Speaker 1: twelve water parks in North America. You know how many

559
00:31:23,360 --> 00:31:27,360
Speaker 1: in the rest of the world. Wow? Really, yeah, crazy,

560
00:31:27,640 --> 00:31:31,480
Speaker 1: it's the North American tradition. It is um. I used

561
00:31:31,480 --> 00:31:34,000
Speaker 1: to love the Lazy River. What I would do is

562
00:31:34,880 --> 00:31:36,480
Speaker 1: my friends and I would play hide and go seek

563
00:31:37,200 --> 00:31:40,560
Speaker 1: in the Lazy River, which was fun. You basically get

564
00:31:40,640 --> 00:31:44,160
Speaker 1: like five or six dudes because we didn't play with girls.

565
00:31:44,200 --> 00:31:47,240
Speaker 1: You know, we were scared of them, and one of

566
00:31:47,320 --> 00:31:49,320
Speaker 1: them would kind of hang back and the other ones

567
00:31:49,440 --> 00:31:52,480
Speaker 1: would get in and then you'd wait like thirty seconds

568
00:31:52,560 --> 00:31:54,120
Speaker 1: or whatever, and then you jump in the Lazy river

569
00:31:54,160 --> 00:31:56,800
Speaker 1: and they'd have a little head start and you would, Uh,

570
00:31:57,080 --> 00:31:59,080
Speaker 1: we would spend hours due playing hide and go seeking

571
00:31:59,120 --> 00:32:02,080
Speaker 1: this thing because you would us creep along behind some

572
00:32:02,440 --> 00:32:05,480
Speaker 1: uh you know, some big fat guy on a on

573
00:32:05,600 --> 00:32:07,719
Speaker 1: a raft. You would just sort of hide behind him

574
00:32:07,760 --> 00:32:10,800
Speaker 1: and see your friends swim by. And you know, you

575
00:32:10,880 --> 00:32:13,520
Speaker 1: can swim with the current go super fast, so there

576
00:32:13,560 --> 00:32:16,440
Speaker 1: are all sorts of techniques of hiding and evading and capture.

577
00:32:16,440 --> 00:32:19,120
Speaker 1: It was pretty fun. That is pretty cool, man, that's awesome.

578
00:32:19,200 --> 00:32:20,720
Speaker 1: I think we would spend like half our day doing

579
00:32:20,760 --> 00:32:23,400
Speaker 1: that because we realized standing in line for a water

580
00:32:23,480 --> 00:32:27,440
Speaker 1: slide is for the birds. Thinks will make our own fun.

581
00:32:29,320 --> 00:32:33,640
Speaker 1: Look at girls, but not talk to them. They're scary. Uh,

582
00:32:33,960 --> 00:32:35,640
Speaker 1: you got anything else No, and this is when I

583
00:32:35,720 --> 00:32:39,760
Speaker 1: was in my thirties. By the way, if you want

584
00:32:39,800 --> 00:32:43,160
Speaker 1: to know more about water slides, go visit our podcast page.

585
00:32:43,240 --> 00:32:46,840
Speaker 1: It's got tons of stuff, including this podcast, so the

586
00:32:46,880 --> 00:32:49,840
Speaker 1: circle of life will be complete. You can also type

587
00:32:49,880 --> 00:32:52,440
Speaker 1: water slides into the search bar how stuff works dot Com.

588
00:32:53,000 --> 00:32:57,040
Speaker 1: And since I said that, it's time for uh listener, man,

589
00:32:59,400 --> 00:33:01,960
Speaker 1: I'm gonna be all this from our buddy, Murph Tyler Murphy.

590
00:33:02,480 --> 00:33:04,360
Speaker 1: All you had to say was Murph. Yeah, he's our

591
00:33:04,440 --> 00:33:08,840
Speaker 1: our friend. It's a teacher and um sends this stuff sometimes. Yeah,

592
00:33:08,840 --> 00:33:13,600
Speaker 1: in part time put putt golf course worker. And he

593
00:33:13,680 --> 00:33:15,880
Speaker 1: wrote in about slinky's he said, he guys, as you know,

594
00:33:15,960 --> 00:33:18,280
Speaker 1: I teach history and science, and in science class I

595
00:33:18,360 --> 00:33:21,400
Speaker 1: do use a slinky to demonstrate concepts and physics that

596
00:33:21,480 --> 00:33:23,600
Speaker 1: they may find hard to understand. What I do is

597
00:33:23,640 --> 00:33:25,760
Speaker 1: I hold up as slinky with a class to see,

598
00:33:26,360 --> 00:33:29,880
Speaker 1: um it is uncompressed or slinked. And I asked the

599
00:33:29,920 --> 00:33:32,000
Speaker 1: students what they think will happen if I drop it,

600
00:33:32,240 --> 00:33:36,160
Speaker 1: and response is always it will fall Mr Murphy up

601
00:33:36,320 --> 00:33:38,880
Speaker 1: or down. Though, kids, then I drop it and it

602
00:33:39,000 --> 00:33:41,200
Speaker 1: naturally falls, and they look at me like I'm unfit

603
00:33:41,320 --> 00:33:43,680
Speaker 1: to teach. Uh. Then I use their cell phones or

604
00:33:43,720 --> 00:33:46,240
Speaker 1: my cell phone and record the drop in slow motion

605
00:33:46,800 --> 00:33:50,000
Speaker 1: to demonstrate the fact that, uh, information of an object

606
00:33:50,080 --> 00:33:52,440
Speaker 1: state takes time to permeate. This is what you were

607
00:33:52,440 --> 00:33:55,719
Speaker 1: talking about, remember, uh, and what this means for the slinky?

608
00:33:55,920 --> 00:33:58,360
Speaker 1: Um to know that when it's dropped, it takes time

609
00:33:58,560 --> 00:34:00,880
Speaker 1: to move as a wave through this ink. The slinky

610
00:34:00,960 --> 00:34:03,880
Speaker 1: until the status quo of the slinkys ends are matched,

611
00:34:04,200 --> 00:34:10,080
Speaker 1: stays closed. That science maybe political science. Basically, one end

612
00:34:10,120 --> 00:34:11,880
Speaker 1: of the slinky moves and follows by the other end

613
00:34:11,920 --> 00:34:15,319
Speaker 1: remains motionless, floating until the information reaches the motionless end

614
00:34:15,840 --> 00:34:17,680
Speaker 1: and says you can fall now, which is what we

615
00:34:18,000 --> 00:34:19,640
Speaker 1: talked about at the end there. I like how he

616
00:34:19,760 --> 00:34:22,520
Speaker 1: put it. Yeah, so you do this in class and um,

617
00:34:23,520 --> 00:34:26,960
Speaker 1: kids are amazed and delighted. I'm sure. Yeah, finally ste

618
00:34:27,120 --> 00:34:30,880
Speaker 1: the slow motion camera fon. That's from Tyler Murphy and um,

619
00:34:31,040 --> 00:34:33,239
Speaker 1: thanks Murphy. Yeah, thanks for all the support man. Yeah.

620
00:34:33,480 --> 00:34:35,840
Speaker 1: As always, if you want to show your support for

621
00:34:35,920 --> 00:34:38,880
Speaker 1: me and Chuck, you can tweet it to us at

622
00:34:39,120 --> 00:34:41,160
Speaker 1: s Y s K podcast. You can join us on

623
00:34:41,320 --> 00:34:43,920
Speaker 1: Facebook dot com slash stuff You should know You can

624
00:34:43,960 --> 00:34:46,880
Speaker 1: send us an email of support to Stuff podcast, to

625
00:34:46,920 --> 00:34:50,120
Speaker 1: how stuff Works dot com, and as always, you can

626
00:34:50,200 --> 00:34:52,680
Speaker 1: support us at our home on the web Stuff you

627
00:34:52,719 --> 00:35:00,360
Speaker 1: Should Know dot com For more on this and thousands

628
00:35:00,400 --> 00:35:02,719
Speaker 1: of other topics. Is it how stuff Works dot com?

629
00:35:03,480 --> 00:35:09,480
Speaker 1: Mhmm