Detroit’s Belle Isle Slide Turns Into National Sensation, Song With Meme-Worthy Fun

The giant Belle Isle slide made national news over the weekend after children and adults were seen bouncing high up in the air and crashing back down roughly for the remainder of the wild ride. Captured across dozens of news outlets, the ever-growing, popular 40-foot slide has been the talk of social media throughout Detroit … Continued

Detroit’s Belle Isle Slide Turns Into National Sensation, Song With Meme-Worthy Fun

The giant Belle Isle slide made national news over the weekend after children and adults were seen bouncing high up in the air and crashing back down roughly for the remainder of the wild ride.

Captured across dozens of news outlets, the ever-growing, popular 40-foot slide has been the talk of social media throughout Detroit over the past few days, and even Detroit rapper GmacCash recently released a song about the slide.

The video, which was posted to Instagram, makes jokes about the slide after viral videos showed wild rides on the slide with people bouncing and flying into the air.

GmacCash is also known for his viral song “We on the Lodge wit it,” released in 2019, WXYZ reported.

Despite the meme-worthy hilarity that has ensued with some slide-goers bouncing down the slide, the Michigan Department of Natural Resources (DNR), which operates the slide, had to close the slide for several hours and reopened it last week to address some safety concerns.

The DNR said that there were no injuries and staff members around the slide gave slide goers tips on how to slide properly.

The Michigan Chronicle visited the park and several brave staff goers ventured down the slide and all made safe landings.

Belle Isle DNR Supervisor Joel Thomas said that they’re getting a lot of people down to watch the fun.

“We’re getting a lot of people to come down and ride the slide and we made our adjustments and everything is going nicely and I’m seeing a lot of good, clean rides,” he said adding that there is a “little sound” to the slide when some sliders bump down along the way and the noise is sometimes worse than what it looks.

Periodically after riders slide down, an attendant sprays water on the slide to help riders slide down at a slower speed, Thomas said.

“I haven’t seen anybody really injured and they keep going back for more. We’re really keeping an eye on it making sure that it’s not too fast or not too slow and everybody is having a good, fun safe ride,” Thomas said.

Detroit resident Daniel Neely, who went down the slide as a kid, described the experience as “different.”

“I haven’t been on it in about 20 years now,” he said, adding that he picked up some speed along the way when going down. “It’s your weight, size, and how you position yourself and I feel like I hurt my tailbone.”

His advice?

Follow instructions.

“Hold onto the bag for dear life and position yourself — try to balance. They tell you to lean forward but not too forward. Pose your posture good and you should be decent,” he said adding that sometimes even the best advice still can’t stop gravity (among other factors) even in the best cases. “If you ain’t got no cushion, you gone hurt your back.”

Neely added that what made him come out to see about the slide himself (despite the semi-dangerous and hilarious news reports and photos) is curiosity.

“Why not?” He said. “I just seen everybody out there and it’s been almost 20 years. I went up there and had a little fun. Got hurt but nothing I’m not used to — I played football in high school.”