Guinness Record-breaking, World’s longest waterslide opens in Malaysia
The downside to waterslides? The effort usually always exceeds the reward, at least where time’s concerned.
You climb dozens of steps to reach the slide’s entry point, huffing and puffing your way to the top, only to find yourself floundering about in the exit pool mere seconds later.
This won’t be the case with a new waterslide that’s just opened in Malaysia.
ESCAPE is about 30 minutes from George Town and offers a variety of adventure activities including waterslides, ziplines and obstacle courses.
Stretching a whopping 1,111 meters (3,645 feet) long, the ride snakes through the undergrowth at Penang’s ESCAPE theme park is claimed to have smashed the previous record for world’s longest tube waterslide held by Action Park, a theme park in Vernon, New Jersey.
Unlike the New Jersey version, which is inflatable, ESCAPE’s new slide is made of fiber-reinforced polymer and is a permanent structure attached to steel poles.
“Breaking the world record was never our intention,” said Sim Choo Kheng, CEO of ESCAPE operator Sim Leisure Group, in a statement. “I’m always baffled by how rides are made so short and quick. I wanted to build rides that last a good few minutes.”
The slide offers a four-minute ride that meanders its way down a 70-meter slope, passing through jungle scenery.
Huffing and puffing won’t be part of the experience either. Visitors access the slide via a cable car chairlift.
His main focus, he explained to Channel News Asia, was to protect the environment by “not chopping down the trees” for the ride.
A video the park released explains how construction is being done manually, without machinery, to “preserve the surrounding nature”.
Guests can use the cable car to get to the top of the hill for the water slide.
