Ride through the trees on the world’s longest mat water slide – all 1,111 m of it

The joy of a water slide usually ends in less than 30 seconds at a regular water park. However, ESCAPE, an outdoor theme park in Penang, Malaysia, has decided to act and solve this problem.

Hidden among a forest hillside in Penang, Malaysia, the longest inner tube / mat water slide zig zags for 1,111 m (3,645 ft 0.1 in) and lasts for a full three minutes. At ESCAPES’s grand opening on 6 September, the slide was measured from the beginning to the end and verified.

ESCAPE believes that there is no age limit to having fun. All of its rides and games are designed for a wide range of age groups and abilities, with an emphasis on self-directed and self-powered play. 

This water slide has been an idea at the back of its bosses' minds for years. It is only when they started designing the water park in 2015 that this dream could become a reality. However, due to financial constraints, it had to be postponed until 2017. 

The longest inner tube / mat water slide was built to be the highlight of ESCAPE’s third phase, Gravityplay, where they installed a 420-m-long chair lift to ease the uphill ascent to top of the slide, which is elevated 70 m from the bottom of the hill.

ESCAPE is the fun destination with exciting rides and games hosted in a natural environment. The core element in this project was to protect and care for the environment. Building around a rainforest brought along some major challenges. ESCAPE were unable to use heavy machinery and installed the entire ride manually.

The design ensured no trees were cut down in the creation of the water slide. Throughout the design and installation process, they had to make many changes due to the hostile terrain and to meet safety and regulatory compliance in a process that took around eight months. 

"Guinness World Records helped ESCAPE gain international media coverage and solidified ESCAPE's brand recognition globally. This world record has started attracting increasing numbers of international and domestic tourists to ESCAPE," Sim Choo Kheng, Chief ESCAPE Officer at Sim Leisure Escape Sdn Bhd.