Aquatic toboggan slide

Claim 1

In an aquatic toboggan slide comprising the combination of a steeply downwardly inclined chute, a plurality of toboggans dischargable down the chute, and a body of water adjacent the lower end of the chute, the improvement wherein: the chute is in the shape of a trough with continuous side walls and a load bearing bottom surface free of dangerous projections and formed by a plurality of parallel horizontal rollers extending laterally between the side walls, said chute providing a vertical drop of at least about 20 feet and the side walls extending higher than side walls of a toboggan so that a toboggan and rider discharged down the chute will be confined between the chute side walls, the lower portion of the chute being curved so that its discharge end is level and about 12 to about 20 inches above the surface of the body of water, and the curvature of the lower end of the chute being at least about 16 feet in radius, with the rollers being closely spaced at least in the curved lower portion of the chute; the body of water extends a distance in feet beyond the bottom of the chute which is at least about three times the velocity in feet per second at which a toboggan will leave the chute; and each toboggan is moulded from synthetic plastics material, has a continuous bottom wall defining the longitudinally ribbed under surfaces inclined upwardly at its front end to a prow, raised side walls, a resilient backless seat member at the rear of the toboggan extending between the side walls and maintained spaced from the bottom wall by a filling of foamed plastic material, a leg space extending forwardly of the seat to, and including a foot rest near the prow of the toboggan, and individual hand grips extending from the toboggan structure and located inwardly of the side walls to either side of the leg space, and between the seat and the foot rest whereby to constrain a rider to assume a position with the rider's hands within the walls and the rider's legs between the rider's arms.