What about a water slide?

[Mr.?]

I have been kicking around the idea of building a larg water slide this next year, (06) and was wondering if anyone else has attempted this before. I saw pictures of a slip and slide once, but it wasn't recycled water and the people were just sliding off into the mud.
I have plans drawn up to construct a 25 foot high slide about 4 foot wide and 50 foot run. I can get the water (500-1000 gallons) to the playa, but I don't know were to discared it? The water would be recycled through out the day, but each new day I would clean the slide and use new water. I'm also concered that I wouldn't be able to support the amount of traffic it would generate.

[antron]

not to discourage you, but i've seen kiddy pools on the playa. they get pretty muddy pretty quickly. if not from the dust tracked in, then from the dust blown in.

i know that jots would empty the water for you (for a fee), and may even bring new non-potable water for it. not sure about how frequently.

have you considered an inflatable dry slide?

[Chai Guy]

The water would be recycled through out the day

I believe the health dept. would have an issue with this. You might want to contact them and find out before you put any serious efforts behind your project.

If I'm not mistaken, this was the reason they shut down the public showers (among other things).

[Mr.?]

thanks for your input! I'm not familer with "jots"? What if I were to make it a private slide and keep it smaller? I also made a really cool slip and slide plan with it being recycled as well. I would elevate the slide surface and keep it pretty low key. What do you know about keeping something like that quiet?

[geekster]

I would guess you would need chlorine and test the water to the same standard a public swimming pool would be. There would also be an alternative to dumping all the water at once.

You could have a system where water is constantly being misted (say at the top of the slide and possibly along the sides of it for about half the run). This increased evaporation means make-up water is constantly added so over the course of time, the water is constantly being replaced.

[Kinetic IV]

Mr.? , JOTS is Johnny on the Spot. As for water removal you might wanna look at this thread and send out some PM's to inquire about how they did it. Their pool seems to be on a larger scale than your idea and they pulled it off.

viewtopic.php?p=180278&highlight=swimming+pool+playa#180278

Also Geekster's post is spot on. I betcha that's the standard you'll have to meet.

There's an old saying that if it's not difficult, expensive, or outlandish it's likely not a good playa project or something like that. I like your idea and I hope you pursue it. Good luck.

[robotland]

I had a "luge" that came down out of the deck on top of my dome this year, total ride about 25 feet on a wooden sled...(When we soaped the runners it got SCARY fast!) I had originally planned to include a mister system, so while it wasn't a slip'n'slide you at least got a modest dampening. I went through several design stages before the wooden final version, as I was trying to combine a fast slide with a practical stairway, but an earlier incarnation was made from blue nylon barrels cut in half and bolted together- Suspended from ropes, it worked okay but created killer static cling when you rode it. Adding H2O would speed the ride up, and you could create virtually any shape depending on how you bolted the sections together. Plus, they stack and nest into a very small area for transport! Details to follow, if you're intrigued at all.

[Mr. Polando]

I was camped next to a big water slide this year - about 3:00 and Gestalt. They used scaffolding to hold the high end of the slide - made from what looked like sections of a cement shoot - and dumped it into a big pool. They didn't filter it and used water from one of the big water trucks. They shut it down after someone put their foot through the slide.

[robotland]

Damn- That wasn't too far from where I was....Goes to show you how big of a thing you can hide out there, in plain sight!

[Kinetic IV]

I missed the water slide, the swimming pool and a bunch of other stuff. Then I come back here and read about it and wonder if I'm in a parallel universe or something. Did I attend the same event they did? And how did I miss that?

[Mr.?]

The idea of putting together a potatoe sack slide did cross my mind, but I do like the ice slide Idea. I would imagine that you could pick up a large freezer and use sleds to make a luge.

[Mr.?]

Ok wow, everyone has good ideas. I like the waterslide Idea now I just have to find how much water I can get and that will be the deciding factor. I envite everyone to join me next year for as many runs down it as you can stand.

[geekster]

I wonder if some kind of "ground effect" thingy might be buildable. Once you get up enough speed, the shape of it causes a cusion of air to form under it and you fly on the ground effect. Think of a boogie board with a modified leading edge and underside that acts as a "scoop". Might be tricky to ride, though.

[dragonfly Jafe]

Or for the brave build an electromagnetic slide, with an oppositily polarized electromagnetic sled....

[Mr.?]

What about a roller coaster with a rocket sled that went 500 MPH, and went through loops and drops with a course about 2 miles long?

[geekster]

Or for the brave build an electromagnetic slide, with an oppositily polarized electromagnetic sled....

Permanent magnets?

Ohh! SHit! I just had a HELLA idea! What happens when you move a coil through a magnetic field? Yeah, you generate a current! might make lights blink, might even make sparks fly. So imagine coils along the sides of the track and permanent magnets on the sides of the "sled" and when the sled comes through, it generates a current. This would also act as a braking force on the sled. So ... you have a track with embedded magnets polarized one way, a sled with magnets polarized the other way. Maybe tangs on either side of the sled that ride in grooves on either side of the track rails to keep the sled from flipping over. Get on the sled, pull the pin, down it goes on a magnetic cusion.

[Mr.?]

My god! The only down side to that would be making it, and possibly a huge shock when you ground yourself. I like the water slide, but it gets better and better every time I read the new Ideas.
This weekend I'm going to put scan my plans and put them up online for more input.
Stay tuned.

[dragonfly Jafe]

How about a slip-n-slide on the ground with a water-ski style handle that is attached to a weight that is dropped from a tower, pulling you across the slip-n-slide at an accelerating rate (into what, I do not know...)

Still have some water problems, but this way there aren't slippery drunks 25' above the Playa.

[kilngod]

Even if you don't make it into a slide, the magnet idea has potential. Imagine a large flat surface covered with the hard disk drive magnets from old computers, all facing north side up. Then get a big piece of plywood lined on the bottom with magnets north down. Say at least 4x4, or whatever it takes to keep the sucker floating with someone sitting on it. You could make it into some kind of magnetic human-sized rideable air hockey game, just sit on the patform and have someone give you a push to see how far you go on a frictionless cushion. Interesting excercise in ballistics.

Would the repelling field of enough drive magnets support a person?

[EvilDustBooger]

Even if you don't make it into a slide, the magnet idea has potential. Imagine a large flat surface covered with the hard disk drive magnets from old computers, all facing north side up. Then get a big piece of plywood lined on the bottom with magnets north down. Say at least 4x4, or whatever it takes to keep the sucker floating with someone sitting on it. You could make it into some kind of magnetic human-sized rideable air hockey game, just sit on the patform and have someone give you a push to see how far you go on a frictionless cushion. Interesting excercise in ballistics.

Would the repelling field of enough drive magnets support a person?

Yeah. A "back to the future" anti-gravity skate board type device would be
fabulous.
but
Unfortunately even though you could arrange powerful magnets to generate the "kinetic" energy or force to support and propel great weight , it would have to be done on a fixed track of some sort, unless
you could also design a gyroscopic aerial weight distribution system
to go with it. So you couldn`t do the really spacy lateral movements
like in the movies.....or could you???
But I agree it would be.....very cool.
Anti-gravity...develope that....and you could rule the playa and beyond...
(mysterious technical music here)~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

[kilngod]

Hmm. I'm not sure you'd have a big problem with stability if you made the hovering platform wide enough and used enough magnets. Have you ever pulled a hard drive apart and stuck the magnet to your fridge? It's pretty robust. Imagine sitting on 500 of those on a field of 10,000.

[EvilDustBooger]

Yeah
the 10,000
would be constantly trying to "flip"
the 500
over to their way of thinking


so to speak

[EvilDustBooger]

Hmmmmmmmmmmm.

I`m liking this thread.

[robotland]

Yeah....rare earth mags are coming down in price, too.....

I was thinking about a monorail....Maybe a Man-O-Rail, running from Center Camp out to The Man....It'd be easier to just lay 2x4s on the ground for track, but I can see the Powers That Be being concerned with it as a tripping (or crashing) hazard...Elevating it to 8' or so, running alongside the lantern poles, oughta be okay. (Maybe start higher on the Center Camp side- An elevated Departure Lounge would be cool.)

[geekster]

Hmm, I think an art car or stilt walker would probably run into it unless you have the entire thing very well lit at night.

[robotland]

Agreed.
It would really multiply the complication factor to put it on elevated pylons AND light it safely....pity.....Maybe Hushville needs a monorail around the Towne Rounde and over to the AEZ.....Seems a shame not to put one SOMEWHERE, given that 2x4s are so easy to transport (and I could convince others to bring some, too!) and you'd just need the car and the tracks, basically....Perhaps a rope-following vehicle, or (complication alert!) a GPS follower or laser-tracker.....
Or, I need to trade the Element in for a TRUCK so I can haul all necessary components for the elevated version....I'll write that into the grant proposal.....

[Will]

How about a slip-n-slide on the ground with a water-ski style handle that is attached to a weight that is dropped from a tower, pulling you across the slip-n-slide at an accelerating rate (into what, I do not know...)

Still have some water problems, but this way there aren't slippery drunks 25' above the Playa.

This seems to be most likely to me. 25' Tower, 200' rope, two pulleys, and a slip-n-slide.

The pulley at the top of the tower will have up down on both sides. Weight on one side. The other pulley will be at the bottom of the tower. It takes the up down rope from the top pulley and directs the rope side to side. Make the rope long enough so that a person can be far enough away so they don't get pulled into the tower. A pully at ground level will direct all the force horizontally, and the user can go faster. Or ditch the slip-n-slide and wait for it to rain. Flying along a muddy playa could be fun.

Whee!

[kilngod]

Instead of a slip-n-slide you could double up the use of a giant communal evap pond. Include innoculation booth for first time users.

[robotland]

Or 'biner onto the water truck and ski behind...

[theCryptofishist]

Like this?