It’s estimated at least 2,000 people went on the long decline that was Slide the City on July 1.
The screams of the steady stream of people rocketing down 300-metres of slippery, watery vinyl could be heard from blocks around the Vancouver Avenue course throughout the day.
According to executive director Kerri Milton of the Downtown Penticton Association, the group that brought the slide to Penticton, said overall the event was a smooth ride.
“It was so successful, we had a lot of fun, everyone I spoke to on site there was big smiles, lots of happy people, lots of great comments,” said Milton. “Everybody was very behaved, there were no issues, no
injuries, and really nothing negative to speak of, everybody just had a really good time.
“There was lots of laughter at the top as people got prepared to go down the hill and lots of yelling once you hit the bottom.”
Work to set up the slide began about 3 a.m. and everything was disassembled and the trucks were rolling out of town by just after 9 p.m.
According to Milton, earlier concerns about possible traffic problems and other issues did not materialize.
She added people were especially pleased with the package they received with their ticket purchase, which included a backpack containing a floatie, mouth guard, T-shirt, wristband and sticker.
Single slider tickets were sold out (1,300) prior to the event and triple slider passes also sold out on the day of.
There was an added bonus with the company hiring 15 local people to help with set up and take down and course monitoring.
Adam Glousher was one of them.
“The day was amazing. Everyone seemed to have a lot of fun, it was nice seeing everyone coming down the water slide with a big smile on their face and enjoying it,” said Glousher. “I’ve done a lot of events around town but nothing like this and I think the day went really well. I even talked to someone from Calgary and they had never seen anything like it.”
For Glousher there was the added perk of being able to try the slide himself, a couple of times.
“I went down twice and what I found was the bigger you are the faster you go so I had to push the people in front of me,” he said with a laugh. “A 100 per cent this should come back.”
Milton has sent a letter to the company asking whether they would consider returning in the future, however said she would defer the decision to extend a formal invitation to her replacement, Lynn Allin, who takes over next week.
