Slip 'n Slide Parties--a Really Bad Idea
 

It's Summer and a slip 'n slide party might sound like a great idea. Fun, cheap, etc. The trouble is, it's not safe and should generally be avoided. These things are not made for adults.

Last Spring, at TCU, the University became aware that their chapter of Beta Theta Pi was planning on having a massive slip & slide party. Upon learning this, they shut the event down citing safety hazards. The student paper ran this story:

http://www.tcu360.com/campus/2012/04...enge-cancelled

Apparently, the student newspaper didn't understand the risk involved, nor did the fraternity. Slip and slides for adults are simply not safe according to the U.S. Consumer Products Safety Commission.

http://www.cpsc.gov/cpscpub/prerel/prhtml93/93076.html

There is an unacceptable risk associated with these things for adults and recently (as we discussed in another thread) a young man was nearly made a quadriplegic and suffered permanent nerve damage at a fraternity slip and slide party costing that fraternity's liability policy $7.2 million dollars.

http://www.newschannel5.com/story/18...nst-fraternity

One of my daughters was badly injured on a fraternity slip 'n' slide several years ago. The slip 'n' slide was stationed on a hill and was aimed down into a lake and mostly the riders did end up where they were supposed to. My daughter (a dance team member) and a cheerleader went down at the same time (it was a wide, homemade one). They sailed out further into the air than they were "supposed" to (maybe because they were so light?) and landed sitting up on a submerged stump.

Both were hurt badly and didn't dance/cheer for months. The fraternity paid all the bills, which were huge.

Please don't have Slip 'n' Slide parties!

Last year my cousin broke her leg in two places on a fraternity slip n slide. She is still doing physical therapy. :(

Hi, people.

Just a little article about a fraternity -- Sigma Pi -- having a slip 'n' slide event at Wisconsin-Oshkosh.

You will note that this took place well after the GC posters ^^ had shared some horror stories, and well after regional and national news had covered the $7.2 million settlement in a slip ' n' slide case. (That's seven point two million dollars, for those people who care more about the money than the people injured.)

I hope no one was injured at the Sigma Pi event.

http://www.uwosh.edu/today/21175/uw-...uitment-event/

Edited to add:

And at Oklahoma State within the last week , if one can believe the report in their student paper about Lambda Chi’s Watermelon Bust . . .

http://www.ocolly.com/news/osu/artic...9bb30f31a.html

“At the field day, the girls compete in a queen pageant, slip-n-slide and wheelbarrow race.”

:eek:

Oh geez. Slip n Slide parties are huge at my school. I'm going to pass this along to my UGs.

I'm more amused than I should be that a Slip & Slide thread is sticky. LOL

I remember hearing about how the insurance policies stopped covering events where a slip-n-slide was involved. So its not that you shouldn't do it, but you are discouraged in almost every way.

It's one of those unique things which seems harmless, but is apparently pretty gravely dangerous. I'll probably take this down at some point, but am inclined to leave it up for awhile as sort of a PSA.

:O Holy crow!! Loved those things when I was a kid, I had no idea they were so dangerous for adults! Glad this idea hasn't popped up in my chapter yet for an event, thanks for the warning.

I was doing a 5K walk around a large campus Saturday morning. There was a tarp on the ground outside of one of the fraternity houses. Apparently, they had a slip and slide party the night before. There were baby oil bottles still on the ground. What made it even more stupid was the fact that the tarp was pretty much on a curb next to a city street.

Oh my freakin stars, that sounds like a disaster waiting to happen. Especially with baby oil...

Seems like "even more stupid" in this case means "even more dangerous."

So I'm watching Travel Channel, and this comes on (link below)...start at the 0.27 mark..."what happens when you give 4 guys dish soap and a whole lotta plastic..." The next thing you see is a paramedic dealing with a guy with a dislocated shoulder.

http://www.travelchannel.com/video/getting-wet-in-vail

Made me think of this thread.

The men in a coed dorm I lived in used to squirt a bottle of dish soap into the hall, hook up a hose to their sinks, and blast water into the soap. Whooo! What a great slip 'n' slide it made!

A lot of us frequently felt sorry for their RA.