One big rush: 1,000-foot Slide the City sweeps Columbia (+video)

Maybe you got a running start, flopping on your belly and slip-sliding out of control.

Or maybe you started more cautiously, propelling yourself into full speed.

Either way, you ended up two blocks later among hundreds of others in a splash pool of smiles and laughter.

If you rode Slide the City Saturday in downtown Columbia, it’s likely you shared in what appeared to be the consensus opinion: The ride was worth it.

And if you didn’t make the 1,000-foot water slide a part of your Fourth of July festivities, you apparently missed out on what many described as a rush of fun and excitement, certainly rivaling if not surpassing the thrill of a water park on a hot day.

“I want one of these in my backyard!” one man declared as he stepped off the slide.

More than 2,000 people had purchased tickets a week before the event, which featured an inflatable slide the length of three football fields stretching down Gadsden Street past Finlay Park.

Some recent Slide the City events in other cities had experienced problems including excessive waits and malfunctioning equipment. But sliders in Columbia appeared to be having none of those complaints.

A neon-printed line of hundreds of people and inflatable tubes stretched two full blocks by early afternoon, but the crowd moved swiftly.

Not as swiftly, though, as they did on the slide.

“It goes fast. There’s water everywhere. It splashes up and you have this momentum that you can’t stop. There’s nothing you can do,” Sidara Allen said. “I definitely think they should do this every year. It was awesome.”

The ride exceeded expectations for Allen and Michael Keith, who bought VIP unlimited passes and had slid three times before the slide opened to general riders.

“We heard so much about it, and it surpassed the hype,” Keith said. “I’m looking forward to doing it again and bringing more friends.”

Lexie Yarborough, Taylor Edwards and Zailee Edwards drove 45 minutes from St. Matthews just to ride the slide once. Yarborough was so excited once she heard about the event coming to Columbia that she bought tickets almost immediately, she said.

“It was so much fun,” she said. “I can’t even describe it. I was so excited. You’re hitting the walls and spinning around. It was the coolest thing I’ve ever done.”

The girls’ only regret about the slide? They only paid to ride once.

This story was originally published July 4, 2015 at 3:21 PM.