Slip ‘N Slide at Summer Camp

Slip ‘N Slide is so popular, that it became plural at CLUBWAKA’s Adult Summer Camp this year.  Two giant tarps greeted campers who converged on the Los Angeles National Forest the weekend of June 3rd for fun, games, challenges, and adult beverages.  They were also met with a new rule connected to the games and challenges tied to those Slip ‘N Slide tarps.  “This event at Summer Camp is our most popular one,” says Sa Dao who is CLUBWAKA’s national events director. “It’s so, popular we had to change it to a double-elimination showcase in order to allow our campers to have more runs down the slip n’ slide!”

In addition to “runs,” wobbles, face plants, and fumbles also fit.  Both Dizzy bats and Flip Cup got integrated with the slide events at camp.  Belly flops from some provided belly laughs for others.  You’ll see. Watch:

Slip ’N Slide: The Accident Waiting to Happen. Literally.

Meanwhile, just 35 minutes away from the campground and 62 years earlier, this invention was born in the LA suburb of Lakewood.  It was not the brainchild of professional inventors or toy company executives.  The muse, instead, was a 10-year-0ld boy.  As the story goes, Robert Carrier returned home from work one day to find his son Mike and some of the kid’s friends sliding down the driveway with the help of water spewing from a garden hose.  Carrier, who worked doing upholstery on boats, thought the boys could use something softer than concert driveway to body plane.  He returned home from work again with boat materials and configured what is better known as the slip ’n slide.  By 1961, stores across the US sold his invention.  Happy accident.

Kickball Remix

Walk down those store aisles today that sell the toy and you’ll notice a remix with two sports, one of them our absolute favorite… Kickball! Or, Kick ‘N slip ball?  Or, Slip ‘N Kickball?  Just watch.  And right beneath it is a remix with baseball that virtually works the same.

So, will we see the kickball remix at CLUBWAKA events such as Wakapalooza or Summer Camp?  “Yes, and yes,  We’ve actually done it before at both Camp and WAKApalooza.  Our challenge, however, is that it gets so popular, that the format of the games makes it difficult to have a lot of participation.  And to have more Slip ‘n Slide fields to play kickball, we need more access points to water, which is the other major challenge”, says Dao.

You heard the man — find water now!!