Originally published at: http://boingboing.net/2017/08/01/watch-two-young-women-stuck-i.html
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At the water park I go to regularly, they have employees at the top and bottom of the slide at the landing pool who signal each other when it’s all clear.
Weird that the practice isn’t standard, apparently; you’d think it would be a ‘no-brainer.’
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Good example of a useful vertical video, this time unnecessarily ruined by horizontal fill ins.
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This bridge in Xel-Ha used to be without rails.
On one side is a lagoon and on the other is the ocean. When the surf is rough, which is often, the floating bridge undulates like a snake on fire. Walking across after a margarita or two was, umm, challenging. Looks like they have implemented safety measures since. Somebody finally thought it was a no-brainer.
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Even if they did that here, the torpedoer was going so much faster than the girls that he would’ve caught up if they did the standard practice of waiting til the person passes a specific spot where it’s deemed safe to let another person on. Same exact thing happened to me once. I like to go down fast, and the person in front of me was quite slow. I caught up (not intentionally, mind you, I trusted the timing of the spotters) right before the big steep part at the end. I was able to hold onto the edges and slow down a bit so we didn’t crash into the pool together, but it was scary.
Edit to fix typo.
From the sound of the impact, you can tell somebody got hurt. I hope the torpedoers neck isn’t broken.
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The water slides I’m speaking of don’t give the rider any modicum of control over how fast or slow they go; it’s essentially an artificial current that sweeps you along with it.
The only way to try to slow one’s self down would be to wedge a foot against one of the sides, but not only is that against the rules, it moves so quickly it’s also hard to accomplish.
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I wonder whether this is due to the"torpedo" using the trick of blocking as much water as possible behind you to maximize your speed. The downside of that is is starves the water from the people below you leading to just this sort of collision.
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I don’t have many phobias. Heights? Bring 'em on. Spiders? They are my bros. Public speaking, confined spaces, blood and gore? Meh.
But, man, do I ever have an irrational fear of falling into bodies of water. I frequently have dreams where I am on a dock an fall into the water. I think it stems from a childhood incident where I tripped and into a creek – while it didn’t do much other than hurt my pride, that incident must have stuck with me.
Anyway, looking at that picture gives me such weird levels of anxiety.
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There was very little water coming from the other side either. Looks about the same amount.
Christ, turn up the tap…
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ménage a(qua) trois
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Water slides do this to me. Steep, slippery walls are too confining and there is a lack of control that edges on butt clinching uncomfortable. The climatic splash at the end is always welcome and for some reason I’d always get back into line. 
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This is also not possible at the water park I frequent.
That was exactly my job when I worked at a water park. However, some riders still went before I passed along the OK from the guard at the bottom. On rides like this, we wouldn’t allow more than one slider at a time.
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At the park Im thinking of, the employee at the top of the slide physically blocks the entrance until they get the all clear from below; unless someone is slacking on their job, it’s highly unlikely.
I never thought about it before, but their safety precautions are pretty thorough.
We did too, but I still had one or two people manage to slip through – no collisions though fortunately.
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you have to insert fraction to go with the no-brainer
i just got a black out head injury on a water slide on sunday. one of those dark tunnel tube ones. i went down quite a few times before without issue, not sure what happened the last time, i think i just randomly got thrown on a curve and nailed my head on the wall. my arm and leg on the opposite side of my body are pretty banged up as well. glad i came to when i hit the bottom pool.
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You’ll notice that the rails don’t connect though. You’d have to zigzag from one side to the other to use the rails the whole way down.
I crossed it in rough surf a few times the day I was there, and I found it was better to avoid the rails and stay as close to the middle as possible.
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Yikes!
I would whine for weeks when I got a little abrasion on my elbows from unlubricated fiberglass. Thank goodness my waterslide days are behind me.
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