Grass burns here we come!

May 30, 2009 9:49 PM

Help me make an awesome homemade (adult) Slip N' Slide.

After seeing one of those cheesy little Slip N Slides in Target this afternoon, I decided I want to pull off a major adult-size contraption for our 4th of July shindig. I looked at a few videos on YouTube and this one in particular suggests using simple 6 Mil Plastic Sheeting from a home store. Will that work?

Here's where it gets tricky. The yard we plan to use it in is level for the most part. How do I get water to run the length of it? Just a sprinkler at the top and maybe one in the middle? Or should I use baby oil like a friend suggested and fore go the water completely? Do I just stake it into the ground (tent stakes?) and repair it as it eventually starts to tear? I also plan on getting a few floats so people can sled down it if that will work better. Is there a way to do a ramp into a kiddie pool that won't be life threatening for possibly inebriated attendees?

I'm thinking, i'll probably end up with something like this. which frankly, might be a little boring. Any suggestions on games we could play (human bowling? where to get the pins?) or other things we could do to spice it up?

Any and all advice, suggestions, and warnings welcome.

posted by Ugh to sports, hobbies, & recreation (18 comments total)

I wouldn't go baby oil, that sounds gross. Alls you should need is a tarp and some soap.
posted by Mach5 at 10:01 PM on May 30

Make sure there are no rocks underneath it! I remember getting terrible scrapes and bruises from relatively little rocks underneath the Slip N Slide.
posted by sugarfish at 10:08 PM on May 30

Be careful if you use laundry detergent.
posted by ALongDecember at 10:12 PM on May 30

Yeah, I think soap's out. Personally, I wouldn't be having too much fun if it splashed into my eyes, and there will be kids participating as well. Maybe Johnson's Baby Shampoo?
posted by Ugh at 10:20 PM on May 30

If a recent episode of Mythbusters taught me anything, it's that for major slipperiness, you want cattle birthing lubricant. Sounds gross, sure, but it's nongreasy, nonirritating, cheap, and, if that's similar to what they used for something slicker than banana peels, sure to make you slide like the wind.
posted by mostlymartha at 10:36 PM on May 30 [4 favorites has favorites]

A friend setup a slip'n'slide for her 30th birthday. They actually sell adult sized ones.
posted by delmoi at 11:02 PM on May 30

I've enjoyed a 30m+ slip & slide down a steep grade with copious amounts of water and dish soap. YMMV.
posted by a halcyon day at 11:54 PM on May 30

I'd try it with just water at first. (Get some cheap super soakers and give them to party attendees to pelt the sliders too.) I've done this many times with just a hose and 30 feet of plastic. We went the length of the plastic with only water.

Remember anything you flush down the slide is going into your lawn and staying there. Oil will do very unpleasant things, and doesn't mix with water. (And baby oil is stupid expensive.)

Some store brand detergent in moderation is probably not going to do to much damage to anything, but I'd try just the water first.

(And don't leave it on your lawn for two weeks or you'll end up with a strip of dead grass like we did.)
posted by Ookseer at 1:30 AM on May 31

Tent stakes sound like injury waiting to happen. Also, I'd stick with water, but I'd worry it would tend to flow together and off at the lowest point. How about a couple of cheap soaker hoses along both edges, aimed inward?
posted by jon1270 at 2:15 AM on May 31 [3 favorites has favorites]

Buy a hose, cap it at the end, then, poke a tiny hole in the hose every foot or so in the side along the length of the slip 'n' slide. You'll get an even distribution of squirt pressure as long as there is more water going into the hose than coming out.
posted by Jon_Evil at 6:43 AM on May 31

Without some kind of padding I feel this is a terrible injury waiting to happen. You and your friends are a lot bigger and heavier than you were when you were children, so the consequences of flinging yourself to the ground over and over are more unpredictable and ultimately more painful. Expect everyone to try it once, stand up rather shaken (but still laughing) and wincingly decide that's once is enough.
posted by hermitosis at 7:04 AM on May 31

I attended a party over Memorial Day weekend that included a wonderful home made adult size slip n slide made of huge sheets of bubble wrap (textured side down) duct taped together and tent staked in place. The thing that made this extra fun/not painful was that snow tubes/pool rafts were used for sliding. Good luck!
posted by zem at 8:30 AM on May 31 [1 favorite has favorites]

I remember reading somewhere that slip n slides were dangerous for adults precisely because of what hermitosis said above. I think I'd find something else fun to do.
posted by St. Alia of the Bunnies at 8:57 AM on May 31

I used to help set up the Slip-n-Slide at Reed College. Despite what the party poopers above say, it's a lot of fun and not dangerous if you're not stupid. A bunch of reckless college students, most drunk or stoned out of their minds, managed to have fun every year with just a little rib bruising.

6 mil plastic sheeting will work fine. Water distribution isn't a big problem, since the people sliding down it will push the water down. Just keep water running at the top. Plain water will work just fine. A bit of a hill will definitely help.

The one drawback to adult slip-n-sliding is that bathing suits really slow down the ride. We just turned that into an excuse to go naked, which works great.
posted by Nelson at 9:17 AM on May 31 [1 favorite has favorites]

Did you know that they rent them? We had one of these inflatables at a family reunion. Kind of pricey but it worked great with no soap. Not all of them have the pool at the bottom, ours did and I think it added to the experience.
posted by BoscosMom at 10:14 AM on May 31

10 mil plastic sheeting (20x100).
posted by mrmojoflying at 10:53 AM on May 31

I bought an el-cheapo Target slip and slide type device for my 6 year old niece and it was a ton of fun, for all of us! I popped the included inflatable thing though. But even after that, I still had a lot of fun, although I was sore for the next few days. So, for any adults, especially larger size ones, I would recommend something inflatable to ride on.

Consider getting PVC pipe and putting holes in that. One problem with the el-cheapo special was that the water tube that ran down the side of the slide was soft plastic and it kept rotating away from the slide.

Also figure out some way to get a pool of water at the end of the slide. It doesn't have to be that big, but a nice splash at the end is part of the fun.
posted by reddot at 8:37 PM on June 3

A late update:

If you don't have a hill but you have trees, you might make a giant slingshot as they did here.
posted by Ookseer at 8:53 PM on June 20