World’s longest water slide in Penang to open next month

GEORGE TOWN, Sept 25 -- The world’s longest inner tube water slide in a theme park in Teluk Bahang here is expected to open to the public by the second half of next month.

Penang Escape theme park founder and chief executive officer Sim Choo Kheng today said the 1,111 metre-long water slide will be opened upon completion of Phase 3 of the theme park’s development.

Sim said the third phase, which focuses on gravity-play rides, includes the water slide, ski lift, hill rider and tubby racer.

“The total investment for this development phase is RM12 million and the water slide alone is RM5 million,” he told reporters here.

Earlier, Sim received the Guinness World Records (GWR) certificate from GWR adjudicator Pete Fairbairn in recognition of the world’s longest water slide, which is three times longer than the previous record holder in Germany (356 metres). GWR verified the record for the water slide on Sept 6.

Sim said the record-breaking attempt was “completely unintentional” and the development was solely focused on creating longer and enjoyable theme park rides.

“The main focus when coming up with the concept was to preserve the natural environment around and have the visitors to enjoy and love nature while having fun,” he said.

He added that the physical installation of the water slide took eight months with only basic equipment such as chain hoists and scaffolding to keep damage of the forest to a bare minimum.

The water slide, with the highest point at 70 metres above ground, is composed of 488 sections and 326 side guards, and was joined together with 10,248 sets of nuts and bolts as well as a total length of 1.2 km steel poles weighing at 66 tonnes.

-- BERNAMA