Six thousand thrill-seekers legally sped down three blocks of Lonsdale Avenue in inner tubes Saturday for the first-ever massive slip-and-slide event to hit B.C.’s south coast.
By all accounts, Slide the City and Car Free Day on Aug. 22 made a giant splash with locals and visitors alike, as well as businesses in the Lower Lonsdale area that benefited from the extra exposure and foot traffic.
The main attraction was clearly the 1,000-foot (300 metre) slip-and-slide, which stretched from Keith Road near Victoria Park to Fourth Street. A crowd gathered around the large landing pool to critique each slider’s splash at the end.
Excited riders, most of whom secured their chance to slide down a steep section of North Van’s famous arterial road months ago, started lining up just before 9 a.m. Saturday for the sold-out event. A family from Langley was among those waiting in line, eagerly anticipating their first slide of the day.
“I booked it in March; I was like, ‘Hell, yeah,’” said Tara Payne.
By early afternoon adrenaline was running high.
“I actually hurt my vocal cords,” said 15-year-old Carson Graham secondary student Jude Tear, of the jubilant screaming he did on the slide.
The three-lane slide course even had a hurdle that tried its best to steal the infamous Lions Gate Bridge bump’s thunder.
“There is a bump in the middle and you are not sure if you are going to bail,” reported slider Kelly Gemini.
Meanwhile, father and daughter duo Leslie Connor, 55, and Danielle, 21, were amused by the fact the slip-and-slide stopped right outside their home at Fourth Street.
Layne Schad, who was visiting from Saskatchewan, took full advantage of the slide, saying the event would logistically never fly in his vertically challenged province.
Most participants hurtled down Lonsdale on official Slide the City inner tubes of bright colours, while others were more creative with their inflatables brought from home: a large orca, an old-school Nintendo game controller, a pizza slice, a cow and a queen-size mattress helmed by a guy wearing a captain’s hat charting a course down Lonsdale.
The long lineups were the only downside to the water slide, with many people reporting they waited an hour and a half between turns. North Vancouver resident Steph McWatters said she was misled by Utah-based Slide the City organizers after buying what she believed to be an unlimited, all-day $61-pass, only to be cut off from sliding around 1:30 p.m.
“And that seems expensive for two slides, maybe three,” said McWatters.
Not everyone that turned up to the event was there to partake in the sliding. Seven-year-old Jude manned a lemonade stand for his friend while she went down the slide, and even had the city’s mayor as a customer. Also on the sidelines was Patricia Blanchard who said she could hear organizers setting up the slide overnight from her apartment at the corner of Keith Road and Lonsdale.
“From midnight you could hear them laughing while setting it up. They were having fun,” said Blanchard.
Fun was the operative word for the day, agreed City of North Vancouver Mayor Darrell Mussatto.
“Everybody is having a ton of fun. I don’t think I’ve seen Lonsdale this fun in many years,” said Mussatto, adding that he would love to see the water slide return next year.
Given the Stage 3 Metro Vancouver watering restrictions, in the weeks leading up to the event the city faced some criticism. Around 50,000 litres of water — purchased by STC organizers from privately owned Country Fountain Spring Water in Abbotsford — was trucked to North Vancouver and used on the slip and slide.
A portion of that water was salvaged after the event, dechlorinated and put into a water storage tank to be later used to irrigate plants and trees in the city’s parks.
Meanwhile, the Car Free Day festival below Third Street that featured a beer garden, live entertainment and vendors selling goods and services that included artisan freezies, wood combs and intricate temporary tattoos was hailed a success by the Lower Lonsdale business community.
“Oh yeah, absolutely,” said Pete Turcotte, owner of Big Pete’s Comics & Collectibles. The extra foot traffic didn’t immediately translate into more dollars for Big Pete’s, but new faces came by the store that Turcotte hopes will become repeat customers.
“It was better than any normal Saturday,” said Turcotte.
