Water slide tube with braking while hydroplaning

Ride hardware: water slide tube with braking.

A water slide tube adapted for braking during hydroplaning in a catch or landing pool of a water slide. The water slide tube includes a tube body and a tube speed control assembly, which has a floor attached to a bottom surface of the tube body. The assembly includes one or more drag-inducing elements, provided in or on the floor, configured to produce drag when an outer surface of the floor travels over an upper surface of the catch or landing pool. The floor includes a sheet of flexible material joined along its peripheral edge to the tube body. The sheet of the floor includes a planar portion arranged to be tangential to the bottom surface of the tube body. The one or more drag-inducing elements may include at least one hole extending through the floor providing a passageway for water to an interior space of the tube body.

BACKGROUND1. Field of the Description(1) The present description relates, in general, to water slide systems and rider tube designs for water slide systems, and, more particularly, to water slide tubes for use by one or more riders in a water slide (such as a speed slide). The new water slide tubes are designed to provide controlled deceleration or braking of the tube in a landing or catch pool while retaining desirable ride stability (e.g., to limit tipping upon entering the landing or catch pool).2. Relevant Background(2) Water slides are a type of slide designed for warm weather or indoor recreational use as part of water parks. Some water slides require riders to sit on a tube or “water slide tube” that is designed to be used with the slide, with water slides using such a tube being classified as “tube slides” and those that exceed a certain speed (such as 25 ft/s) and using a tube being “tubed speed slides.” A typical water slide uses a pump system (or water circulation system) to pump water to the top of the slide, and the water is then allowed to freely flow down the inner slide or flume surfaces. The water reduces friction between the water slide tube with its rider and the inner surfaces of the slide, when the rider travels faster than the water (e.g., in speed slides or downward valley sections of water coasters), so riders or sliders travel down the slide or flume very quickly. Other slides are designed to have the water push the rider through the slide. Many water