inflatable slide Archives - Blast Zone Blog

How To Use Your Inflatable Slide All Year Round

February 8, 2018 BlastZone 3 Comments

Inflatable Water Slides are Fun

During the summertime, an inflatable water slide adds interactive play to any backyard bash. Inflatable water slides and combos can be an excellent way to beat the summer heat and keep your little water-bugs entertained.

But Inflatable water slides don’t just keep kids entertained and active, they also save you travel and admission costs during breaks from school. Families don’t have to pack lunches, load up the car, and hit the amusement park lines anymore. With an inflatable water slide, you just skip the trouble and bring the amusement park into your own back yard!

Not only are they perfect for parties, inflatable slides can also be easily used in between holidays and family functions. Parents can bust out the inflatable slide after school and on weekends as well, and get a much-deserved reprieve from the furniture-gymnastics. That’s what having your own inflatable is all about! Even the easy-to-use compact inflatable slides can add some zest to parties and holiday celebrations.

Do You Use Your Water Inflatable Year Round?

Sadly, many inflatable water parks sit in storage during the colder months, cold, lonely and reminiscing over the fun days. Every year they wait patiently for their chance to shine in the summertime. What a waste! If this is how you’ve been using your inflatable, you may not realize that some Blast Zone slides can be used dry as well.

Inflatable combos can be used wet or dry, as long as they do not rely on the weight of water in the splash area for added stability. While home-use slides are not quite as slick when they are used without water, you can easily remedy this by sliding in sweat pants and socks.

Bounce and Slide combos like the Princess Palace and the Misty Kingdom work well without water, thanks to their fun castle themes and their multiple-activity designs. Having more than one feature makes these types of inflatable combos great for year-round use. When the weather is warm you can connect the included sprayer attachment for some summertime splashing. During the cooler months, your little princes and princesses can dress up in their regular playtime regalia and enjoy their fortress of fun without water.

For more space and interactivity, several inflatable water parks can also be used dry, including the Shark Park 10-in-1, the Pirate’s Bay and the Pirate Blaster. Set up an inflatable water park without water and watch the splash zone become a play zone! Try filling the splash area with playballs, plushies, or a few soft toys instead of water for a designated play area in between turns sliding.

You can even set your inflatable slide up indoors in any place where you have the space. This is good news for your sofa! Protect your furniture from becoming a jungle gym during rainy days or cold weather. Using inflatables indoors is a great alternative to video games and TV when it comes to your family’s winter entertainment. It also allows you to trick your kids into exercising without even realizing, giving kids access to physical activity and fun whenever the weather has them stuck indoors.

Don’t Forget About Commercial Grade Inflatables for a Bigger and Stronger Slide

For the thrill seekers out there looking for an even bigger sliding experience, we offer several commercial grade inflatable water slides that can be used dry. In fact, all of our 14-foot inflatable water slides can be used with or without water.

The Mystic Mountain, Roaring Rainforest, and the Great White Wild Slide 14 can be used wet or dry. If you’re a believer that bigger is better, you’ll be stoked that our 18-foot slides are designed to be just as fun as a water slide without the water! The Mystic 18 and Roaring 18-foot slides are made for dry-use, so these huge slides are a great option for the colder seasons. The best part? All of Blast Zone’s commercial grade inflatables are strong enough to support both children and adults, so adults can get in on the fun too.

The Mystic 18 Foot Commercial Grade Slide is BIG fun, no water required!

Safety First

When using an inflatable water slide, safe play practices make the experience a lot more fun for everyone involved. Players should never slide head first and should always limit sliding to one person at a time. In order to ensure that everyone is playing safely, adult supervision is required for the use of all Blast Zone inflatables.

In some inflatable slides, the weight of water in the splash area helps with stabilizing the slide. Slides like the Spray N Splash 2 or the Crocodile Isle Water Park are best used with water, and are not designed to be used dry. Also, ensure that your inflatable water slide is being properly anchored at all times using the included anchoring stakes, sandbags for weighted anchoring, or a combination of both.

As always, use common sense, follow safety guidelines, and have a blast!

Recap:

Inflatable Water Parks, Combos, and Slides can help make any event or family function more fun.
When you own an inflatable slide you can set it up for any reason, or for no reason at all.
Some Blast Zone Inflatables can be used without water for year-round fun.
The “splash zone” doubles as a “play zone” when it’s too cold for water.
Many inflatable slides work better with water, but some water parks can be used wet or dry.
If you have the space, you can even set your inflatable up indoors.
As always, use common sense, follow the safety guidelines, and have a fun!

New! – Rocket Racer 3 Lane Inflatable Slide

May 29, 2015January 9, 2018 BlastZone 5 Comments

The Rocket Racer 3 name may imply that it’s the third iteration of this slide. Nope! It has 3 lanes. That’s 3 times as cool!

Rocket-Racer-3-Inflatable-Slide-Main

An indoor facility came to us awhile back with a request for a custom Commercial Inflatable Slide. They had a very popular slide, but it had some safety and quality issues that made them uncomfortable continuing to offer it to the public.

First, it was produced before the Consumer Product Safety Commission implemented guidelines for lead and other contaminants in kids toys. No problem there: Blast Zone Inflatables all comply with these guidelines, and are free of lead, contaminants and phthalates.

Next, they felt that the climbing wall was too steep, and this caused 2 problems. Kids couldn’t safely climb to the top of the slide lanes, without potentially falling backwards onto the platform below. The kids who did fall or slip caused the seams to split on the platform below. To solve this on the Rocket Racer 3, we created a reduced climbing angle, to make it easier for kids to climb, and added a replaceable climbing surface with steps and hand-holds. By making this piece replaceable, the lifespan of the product is greatly increased. We also covered the entire safety platform at the bottom of the climbing wall with a replaceable surface, for the same longevity purposes.

Rocket-Racer-3-Inflatable-Slide-Angle-Climb

The slide they had was designed with one very wide sliding lane in front. This compelled kids to slide and roll down sideways, and with no dividers, kids rolled, slid and knocked into each other. We solved this by dividing the slide into 3 separate racing lanes. This took the ‘standard” slide style and made it more fun and safer with the racing elements added.

Additionally, the Inflatable Slide they had allowed kids to stand up at the top platform, which is certainly not a great safety practice. Kids could legitimately stand up and fall or jump off the top to the ground, which in that case was nearly 12 feet below. We added net protection up top, so kids are safely enclosed at the high elevation.

Safety. Check.

Finally the slide they wished to replace was open at the end. They placed a bunch of foam mats down there, because kids often slide off the end onto the ground. We simply added a safety bumper at the end and extended the landing area, so it’s impossible for kids to slide off.

Rocket-Racer-3-Inflatable-Slide-Features

A little investment ended up making for a larger inflatable, but an inflatable that is safe, will last longer, and lo-and-behold, the Rocket Racer 3 is their most popular slide with both kids and parents alike!

With that said, we are pleased to offer the Rocket Racer 3 to our awesome customers!

Inflatable Slide Safety: 1 Rider at-a-time

May 18, 2015January 10, 2018 BlastZone Leave a comment

As part of our ongoing commitment to safety, we are exploring deeper into the general rules of using Bounce Houses and Inflatable Water Parks safely. During this series we explore the “how’s” and “why’s” of the various aspects of safe inflatable use, such as anchoring, evenly matching players, sliding independently and more.

1 Rider at-a-time!

1 Rider at a Time Inflatable Slide Safety

Kids want to test and push past boundaries, and this can lead to stretching the safety rules. If the rules are followed, Inflatable Slides are not only super-awesome, but also safe. However, after a few zips down the sliding lane, and as the play escalates, kids may be tempted to double up, and ride down together, as they look for new and exciting ways to test their boundaries.

Don’t allow this.

Man, we sure seem like wet beach towels over here at Blast Zone, don’t we? Well, for each safety rule, we have reason. And those reasons are, well… for safety. So what are those reasons?

1) The inflatable is engineered for specific user weights. Doubling up these weights will most likely put the rider’s collective weight over the weight the inflatable is engineered for. This could potentially damage your valuable inflatable, or worse, lead to instability on the slide.

2) Bonk. Yup. Bonk. The rider in front is going to stop an instant before the rider in the back. They are going to possibly bonk teeth-to-head, nose-to-head, or tumble over each other. These are not fun outcomes. This could lead to injury, and nothing takes away the fun like tears.

1 Rider at a Time Inflatable Slide Safety Mystic Mountain

With Commercial Inflatable Slides, we’ve witnessed parents sliding down with their kids in their laps. This may seem like a great way to bond with your kids, but the result could be even worse. Check out our piece on Evenly-Matching Players for further insight behind the physics of a large adult landing on a small child, and reconsider this plan before sliding down. In cases with commercial inflatables, often the Inflatable Slide is rated to accommodate adults as well as kids, and many times younger kids like the adults to accompany them to the top. In this case, help your child up, let them slide first, make sure they have cleared out of the landing path, then try to hide your own childish grin as you zip on down.

And please don’t slide head first. Well talk about this later.

So keep it safe, and keep the fun going. Resist the urge to ride down the slide with your kids, and if you see kids “doubling up” use your keen common-sense-parenting skills to break it up. Always make sure kids are following the safety rules, and Have a Blast!