A visit to this Tijuana water park is not for the faint of heart

San Diego Union-Tribune

Aug. 24, 2018 1:52 PM PT

Nothing can really prepare you for the notorious Slip N Fly water slide in Tijuana.

I watched tons of YouTube and Instagram videos of the slide, which has recently become a social media darling. But, standing at the top of the slide, 42 feet in the air and looking at the 100 foot race to possible death in front of me, had me frozen in place.

Of paramount concern was the abrupt incline at the bottom of the slide. A woman I met at the park warned me that unless I, basically, did a pushup in the seconds before I soar off the ascent that I could rock my chin on the edge. She knew from experience.

I cursed my friend Jesus Sanchez for coming up with the idea, but it was too late. Our instructor at Albercas El Vergel blew the whistle. I jumped.

Rushing down the slide on my stomach, water splashed in my face as it seemed like I rocketed 100 mph and did the hardest pushup of my life. I burst off the slide and an instinctual belief that men are not meant to fly took over as I flailed wildly in the air.

It was over in six seconds. I landed on my side in an ungraceful crash into the water, which is the reason I still have two large bruises as I write this six days later.

The Albercas El Vergel water park in Tijuana has been a favorite of locals since 1964 when a farmer, Lucio Salazar González, decided to turn part of his land into a pool. Over the years, his family has added more attractions — a wave pool, a rope swing called Tarzan, and the frightening 344-foot tube water slide Anaconda.

In 2015, the founder’s son Gerardo Salazar, 47, dreamed up the Slip N Fly. He said he was looking for something extreme and searched YouTube videos to get ideas. It opened in March 2016 after six months of construction.

“A lot of people were telling me I was crazy,” he said.

Salazar can now pat himself on the back. He said revenue for the park has increased 20 percent since he added the Slip N Fly, and there are more and more Americans showing up each weekend.

Videos and photos of Slip N Fly have been showing up on social media with increasing frequency this summer. There was a video of a heavy man on the slide that went viral in May 2016, but it didn’t seem to take off until recently.

Jim Tobin, CEO of North Carolina-based Ignite Social Media, said it probably isn’t a coincidence in 2018 that the Slip N Fly is popping up a lot on social media. Every network from Facebook to LinkedIn is now putting an emphasis on video, and images of people flying into the air off a gigantic slide is exactly the kind of thing that begs for repeat viewings.

“This is the perfect time for this to go viral,” he said of changes across social media. “There was a change in the algorithm in the last year so that video content gets surfaced more often, and shared more quickly.”

Tobin said other factors could have influenced the popularity of the theme park, including people with large social media presences sharing their experience there, or the mystique of a place that would be hard-pressed to exist in the United States because of likely litigation.

There are plenty of crazy water attractions in the world — the 138-foot tall slide Captain Spacemaker in Italy, the Jumeirah Sceirah water slide in Dubai where riders enter a capsule and the floor is pulled out, or the Kilimanjaro in Brazil where riders are said to reach around 60 mph — but none so easy to get to for Southern Californians.

My two friends and I parked at the Las Americas Premium Outlets even though you aren’t supposed to leave your car there if you’re not shopping (I bought a pair of shoes at Cole Haan after, so I hope I don’t get in too much trouble) and strode to the United States-Mexico border. We took a $5 Uber ride from the border to get to El Vergel. The entrance fee was $8.50 and it was about $1 for a locker.

The first thing that struck me was the party atmosphere of the place. Pop music blared out of speakers throughout the park, a mix of Spanish and English songs, from Becky G to Drake. Attendees were grilling (the smell of cooking meat is ever-present at El Vergel) and large families were were huddled around picnic tables. Also, cheap beer seemed to be a big hit with Americans.

I went on almost every ride at the park and got beat up on most of them. The worst was Medusa, a nine-row water slide that is 164-feet long and ends in a 5-foot deep pool. It looks innocent enough and didn’t seem to be a problem for skinny kids. It kind of looks like one of those burlap sack rides you see at your local fair. But my friend Branden Matlock went airborne after hitting one of the bumps and landed so hard on the slide that the yellow paint from the slide actually came off on his shorts.

When we were leaving, we saw a man with a gash on his head being bandaged up outside Medusa by a medic. He had blood dripping from above his eyebrow and looked disorientated. So, I would avoid Medusa and some of the other rides if you are truly just there for Slip N Fly. Getting injured on something before the main event would not be ideal.

If you are concerned about safety, this is not the park for you. I’ve hesitated to actually recommend it to my friends, even though I plan on going back.

There is an ambulance parked under the Slip N Fly and the guy that invented the thing — Salazar — has never rode it. He’s too scared.

Yet, braving the slide can be very fun after you get the hang of it. I never quite shook the feeling of horror I had at the top, but once I was able to arch my back in the air and get my body under control, it was a blast. I ended up going seven times.

The customer service was great. For starters, everyone taking tickets at the entrance seemed very excited we were there. Also, I can think of twice when workers went above and beyond for us.

I lost the key to my locker once in the Slip N Fly landing pool. A lifeguard didn’t even blink an eye. He swam to the bottom and got it. Another time, my friend lost his wallet and we had to go back to the park. A lifeguard found it at the bottom of pool and turned it in. Nothing was missing — Not a single peso, credit card or Passport card.

Salazar said he plans on making a new Slip N Fly with a twist. He doesn’t want to say what it is.

!Buena suerte!

* * *

Name: Albercas El Vergel

Cost: $8.50 (taller than 4 foot), $4.20 (below 4 foot), free for children under 3 foot

Address: Camino Al Vergel 1, Alamar, 22110 Tijuana, B.C., Mexico

Summer attendance: 1,000-2,000 people a day on the weekend, up to 500 on the weekday.

Top attraction: Slip N Fly

Business

phillip.molnar@sduniontribune.com (619) 293-1891 Twitter: @phillipmolnar

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