daddym's Full Review: Aviva Sports Slider Island Inflatable Water Slide
We bought the Aviva Sports Rider Slider because we thought it would be to play with inside of our above ground pool, but we should have thought more before making this purchase.
The Aviva Sports Slider is a blow up type slide that can be used in pools, or at a lake. When you read the box it looks as if the slide will hold in place. The slide actually has nothing to hold in place and does move around. The Slider blows up instantly with the pump, which is sold separately, but if you buy it on line the pump is usually advertised on the same page. The instant air pump sells for about $30.00, but if you have any other larger blow up items you can use the same pump to pump this one up, and the pump can also be used for your other inflatable items.
When the Aviva Sports Rider Glider is all blown up it is 41 inches by 84 inches, so as you can imagine for a blow up pool thing this is quite large. Too large in fact for our pool at least, which is a pretty good sized pool for an above ground. The scary part with the Rider Glider is that it does move around unless you find some way to tie to the sides of the pool. I will talk more about that later.
The Rider Glider holds up to 160 pounds which is great for kids, but I was hoping to get on it myself and I am an average sized man and I am too heavy for this. I actually did do it a couple times and didn’t really hurt it, but I did not want to push my luck.
There are foot holds to climb on and you hold on to there are not really handles per say, you just kind of use the side of the slide to pull yourself up. There is a little length at the back that you can get on before climbing this little shelf like space is helpful. It also gives kids something to hang on to if they just want to kind of float around.
The slider glider itself costs about $40.00, which is not too bad, but remember you will still need to buy the pump.
In order to keep the slide slick and safe you will need to throw water on it often.
The Aviva Sports Slider is meant to be used by children 3 years and up.
Now I will give you our experience. The Aviva Sports Slider should not in any case be used without parental/adult guidance. And by that I don’t mean a parent standing outside of the pool watching. I mean the parent or adult should be in the pool actually making sure that everything is safe. First of all it is very hard for most kids to climb up on. Little kids in particular have a lot of trouble getting on here, and the slide does tip, so a young child could quickly find themselves under water way more quickly than they might expect.
Aside from it being difficult for young children to climb another problem is that it moves a lot throughout the pool. Especially if there are people swimming and jumping about in other parts of the pool. That means that it can get close to the sides of the pool. So if the a child has climbed to the top of the slide and it has moved close to the side, and tips the child off the child could hit their head on the side of the pool. Therefore it is important to have someone there to make sure the slide is stable and to make sure that it has not floated over towards the side of the pool.
My wife became a nervous wreck whenever the kids were using the slide, and when there were a lot of kids using the pool during a birthday party we had to take it out of the pool, because it just got to crazy and the slide kept going towards the side, and the kids were hanging on while other kids were trying to slide, and also the weight limit does not allow for two older kids to be on it at the same time. Not to mention if a little kid tried to get on it with all the jumping in the pool it was almost impossible for them to get up without falling off. I can’t blame the glider for all of this because the pool was crazy that day, but be aware, that this is not safe to use if there are more than a few people in the pool at once.
We used it about 5 times before that big party I mentioned above and one more time after that, and then it started to tear. We patched it up and were able to use it one more time before it was finished. I have to take in to account that it got jumped on quite a bit at the party and that probably wore down.
The kids did have some fun with it, and it did last longer than most pool toys that our kids have had in the pool, but of course it did cost a bit more, but for $40.00 I didn’t expect it to last more than one or two swimming seasons. I had however hoped that it would last through the entire Summer which it did not.
This slide I think would be much more fun in a lake, and it would be more fun for older kids or teenagers. Bu t the weight limit might not allow for some teenagers.
I also don’t know why they had to add the word Island to this product, as Island would imply that you might rest or sit on it. This is not a real easy task to do, you pretty much get to the top and slide down or tip over.
I am really on the fence about this product, but over all I think I disliked it better than I liked it. The kids would probably disagree as they did have fun using it. However, as a parent this thing made me nervous. If I was not able to go in to the pool and the slide was in there and I didn’t have time to pull it out I did not even want the kids to go in the pool, even if I was out there in the yard washing them. I just kept imagining one of them smacking their head on the side of the pool. One time when we were in the pool and the slider was in the pool my one son got on it not noticing his little brother close by who was floating in is safety inner tube, the slider hit my younger son really hard and knocked him on his side in the inner tube, tipping his head half way in to the water, it was a good thing I was there to pick him up quickly.
Honestly if there was some way to stabilize this I would feel a lot more confident about this product, of course that would make it less fun.
Frankly because it worried me I am giving it a low grade, but because the kids enjoyed it so much I will give it an average rating, I will give it a recommendation, but if there was a choice for being on the fence I would choose that. Buy this at your own discretion, and please don’t ever let your kids play on it without being nearby to help them or in case of an emergency.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): $40.00 Type of Toy: Other
Age Range of Child: 9 Years or Older
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