THE world’s longest inner tube water slide at the Escape theme park in Teluk Bahang is the latest attraction in the state that is bound to boost tourism.
To mark that recognition, Escape theme park founder and chief executive officer Sim Choo Kheng received a Guinness World Record (GWR) certificate from the GWR adjudicator Pete Fairbairn at the theme park today.
The official opening is, however, expected to be sometime next month.
According to Sim, the world record for the 1,111m-long water slide was unintentional at the outset of the project under Phase 3 of the theme park’s development.
“Today is an important milestone for Escape, a significant achievement that we hope will help put Penang on the world tourism map,” Sim said in his speech.
“Breaking the previous record of 356m set in Germany was never my original intention. I would not have broken it three times its length. I am baffled why theme park rides are made so short.
“I would always want rides that will last really long, to satisfy the kid in all of us. A ride that will exhaust the riders from a good few minutes of non-stop giggling and laughing.
“So, I looked up the hill and it was during the conceptual design stage we realised this slide would exceed 1km and it would be the longest in the world.
“That was it. The Guinness World Record suddenly became our goal.”
Fairbairn commended Sim Leisure for the remarkable record which is so much bigger than the previous record set in Germany and before that the record of 266m set in Japan.
“I have seen all sorts of amazing records in my journey but it would be remiss of me not to acknowledge and reflect this is one of the most extraordinary things that I have ever seen.
“I think an extraordinary amount of hard work has gone into this project. This is one of the coolest things I have seen in my life. Not only any kid in the world would like to have a go for it, but the kid in me feel excited too.
“Every person I told that I am coming here to do this (present the certificate) wants to come to Penang and wants to have an opportunity themselves to ride the water slide.
“This sort of ambition and achievement is really exciting for Penang. I am absolutely certain we will see an even greater influx of tourists. I am certainly excited to come back with my family and my friends to show them this water park.”
Also present at the ceremony were Ministry of Tourism Penang director Jonathan Bagang, Penang Global Tourism chief executive officer Ooi Chok Yan and Sim Leisure board chairman Jackson Tay.
Sim said Escape was the answer to the state government’s vision for a world-class theme park destination back in 2009 and that they have been delivering new exciting products since.
He said the record does not belong to him alone but to a group of dedicated men and women from Sim Leisure who had been working very hard in the last 24 months.
He added they had gone through some of the most challenging moments of their career, especially the last eight months during the physical installation of the water slide inside the rain forest.
Because of accessibility inside the forest and to avoid damaging the surrounding trees, he said the slide was installed using very basic equipment, mainly scaffolds and chain hoist without heavy machinery.
The water slide is made up of 488 pieces slide sections, 326 pieces of side guards, secured with 10,248 sets of bolts and nuts and washers.
They used a total of 1.2km of steel pipes and 1.2km of rectangular steel sections to support the slide. The total combined amount of steel used was 66 tonnes. All these were done manually.
Sim said the total investment on the development phase was RM12 million and water slide alone was RM5 million.
Some of the guests took the opportunity to test out the rides.
The start platform of the slide sits on a 70m elevation (23 storeys). The guests had to walk up the slope to get there although during the actual operation, they can take a ski lift to the top of the slide tower.
A tube can seat two persons. And it takes about four and a half minutes to complete the twisting course through 20 turns and five loops over the tree canopy.
“We opt for moderate speed and the waterpark tubes indeed make the slide very safe to use, without losing the fun excitement,” Sim explained.
“This slide runs at 4.1 metres per second, which is very slow. Some water slides run at three or four times faster. This is not an unusual water slide except that it is designed and built that long and going through the rainforest. That gives a different perspective, not the design itself.
“Most theme parks are designed by professionals, like engineers and architects and not by children like me. You really need to have an inner child to design something that is playful.”
Sim said Escape was built with the purpose to provide children and the kid in us to rediscover our childhood.
He said it was their belief that if they want the public to protect nature, the public must have a love for nature.
“It is the same with your car. If you love your car, you will protect your car; if you love your children, you will protect your children.
“When I used to play in the kampung with my mates, we learned about nature through fun. That was very natural.
“So, we need to bring the public closer to nature through love. So, we at Escape, have all the fun games inside nature, we want the public to have fun in nature … lots of trees, roofs planted with grass and thought-provoking ideas.”
Besides the water slide ride, the water park has several other exciting activities such as the wave ball, speed racer, banana flip, mega drop, super looper and 10m diving platform at Atan’s jump.
For Sim, one of his next ambitious projects is in Shandong, China, where he may go for another world record. For the moment, he is keeping that close to his chest.
Story by K.H. Ong
Pix by Darwina Mohd Daud