Few good things result when water and gravity meet. Getting caught in a torrential downpour on your way to a date? No thanks. Slipping on a puddle in the lobby of your office? Save it for the next guy.
Waterslides, however, are a different story. By mixing gravity and water together, engineers around the world seem to one-up each other with every new trick.
A huge waterslide is touring the country this summer to (somewhat ironically) raise awareness for water conservation, and while the concept of flying face-first down a 1,000-foot sheet of plastic in the streets of, say, downtown Manhattan might put your bikini in a twist, it's hardly the scariest waterslide imaginable.
Below are the slides that are sure to give you the atomic wedgie of your dreams.
1. Scorpion's Tail, Noah's Ark Waterpark, Wisconsin
Scorpion's Tail is regularly ranked as one of the USA's best waterslides. Noah's Ark calls it the world's first near-vertical waterslide: It's 10 stories high, and when a trap door opens under your feet, you'll drop down the 400-foot long chute at 50 feet per second.
2. Summit Plummet, Walt Disney World, Florida
Carved into the side of Blizzard Beach's Mount Gushmore, Summit Plummet sends sliders down a 120-foot blind slope for a total drop of 12 stories at about 60mph.
3. Verruckt, Schlitterbahn, Kansas City
At 168 feet tall, Verruckt currently boasts the title of being the world's tallest waterslide. After an initial drop, riders (three to a raft) fly back up a five-story hump before dropping again, ultimately reaching 65 miles per hour.
4. Insano, Beach Park, Brazil
A former title-holder of the tallest in the world, this 135-foot waterslide flings people down a 14-story drop to speeds of 65 miles per hour in less than 5 seconds.
5. The Leap Of Faith, Atlantis Resort
It's not the 60-foot near-vertical drop down the Mayan Temple or the speed of this slide that gives us the heebie-jeebies. It's the pool of live sharks that waits at the end.
6. Jumeirah Sceirah, Dubai
Jumeirah Sceirah, in Dubai's Wild Wadi waterpark, recently reopened to give riders nearly 400 feet of sliding (at almost 50 miles per hour) that they can race in tandem with a buddy.
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