Giant Tube Slides: Why New Zealand Suppliers Should Adopt the Supplementary Safety Guidance

Giant tube slides and tall play towers have become landmark features in modern playgrounds. They offer excitement, challenge and valuable opportunities for children to develop confidence and judgement.

However, as playground equipment grows in size and complexity, the industry is also seeing hazards associated with external climbing, falls, excessive sliding speeds and injuries occurring inside the tubes.

Published by Standards Australia in February 2025, SA HB 244:2025—Supplementary guide to AS 4685.3:2021—

Giant tube slides provides additional guidance to help address these issues.

Playsafe strongly recommends that all New Zealand playground suppliers implement this guidance alongside, and over and above, the requirements of EN 1176 Part 3 for giant tube slides.

Why was supplementary guidance needed?

The existing playground slide standards were developed around traditional slide designs. Today’s giant tube slides and towers can extend beyond the scale and design concepts originally contemplated by those standards.

Longer sliding sections, greater descent heights, different materials and complex bends affect how users move through a slide.

Enclosing the sliding surface can prevent a child from falling out during descent, but it does not resolve every potential hazard.

Users can still experience excessive speed, strike internal walls, become unstable through bends or injure themselves while attempting to slow down. Meanwhile, the outside of the tube can become an unintended climbing route.

The handbook provides supplementary guidance for the design, verification, certification, testing and inspection of these larger structures. Its objective is to preserve the benefits of challenging play while reducing the potential for serious injury.

Relevant to New Zealand playgrounds

Although published under the Standards Australia banner, the handbook was prepared by the Australian members of the Joint Standards Australia/Standards New Zealand Committee CS-005, Playground Equipment.

It supplements AS 4685.3 and provides relevant technical guidance when applying the NZS 5828 / EN 1176 framework to giant tube slides.

The handbook does not replace those standards or automatically create new mandatory requirements in New Zealand. However, its Australian publication label should not be a reason to overlook guidance addressing hazards equally relevant to New Zealand playgrounds.

Playsafe recommends that suppliers actively incorporate its recommendations into their design, supply, verification and installation processes.

Sliding length matters—not just tower height

The handbook defines a giant tunnel slide as having a sliding section of 7.5 metres or more. This is the length of the sliding section, rather than the height of the tower.

Long straight descents allow users to build speed. The handbook highlights guidance limiting the initial straight sliding section to 7 metres, with subsequent straight sections after a bend limited to 5 metres. Shorter sections should be considered where gradients approach the recommended maximums.

Sliding length must therefore be assessed together with gradient, descent height, bends and run-out performance.

The user’s speed should approach zero before reaching the end of the run-out section. A slide needs sufficient space and suitable geometry to deliver a controlled exit across the anticipated range of users and conditions.

Different materials create different sliding speeds

The sliding surface has a significant influence on performance.

Stainless steel and rotationally moulded plastic have different friction characteristics. Clothing, footwear, moisture, sand and surface wear can further change how quickly a user travels.

The handbook recognises this through material-specific gradient recommendations. For descent heights of 5 metres or more, for example, it recommends maximum average gradients of 30° for stainless steel and 35° for rotationally moulded HDPE, with separate allowances for constant-radius spiral slides.

Manufacturers should test with a variety of clothing materials and consider foreseeable conditions that could increase speed.

A slide that performs satisfactorily for one person wearing one type of clothing may behave very differently for another user. Design verification needs to account for that variation.

Injuries can occur inside an enclosed slide

Containment is only one part of slide safety.

Entering a tight bend at speed can propel a user against the tube wall. Closely spaced bends in opposing directions can leave insufficient time to regain a stable position. An unexpected increase in speed may cause a frightened user to brake with their hands or feet, creating further injury potential.

The handbook provides recommendations addressing bend radii, separation between opposing bends and a straight enclosed section before the run-out, subject to specified exceptions.

It also identifies tandem riding as a concern. An adult taking a small child down on their lap may believe they are helping, yet the combined movement and weight can increase the risk of injury to the smaller rider.

These considerations require attention to the complete sliding experience, including how different users respond during descent.

External climbing, anti-climb shrouds and falling spaces

Children climbing onto the outside of tube slides is foreseeable behaviour.

The exit, tube joints, supports and adjacent equipment can provide access to increasingly elevated sections. The accompanying photograph illustrates how the external surface can become an unintended climbing activity.

The handbook recommends an anti-climb barrier or shroud near the base to deter access to elevated external surfaces. An additional barrier is recommended at the top where the slide entry is not fully enclosed, as may occur with embankment slides.

A shroud must be considered within the overall playground layout. Nearby platforms, climbing nets or other structures may allow children to bypass it.

Where external surfaces remain accessible, the assessment needs to address:

• The height from which a child could fall.

• The extent of the falling space and impact area.

• The impact performance of the surfacing below.

• Hard objects or surfaces within the potential fall area.

Paths, retaining walls, seats and other hard features should not be positioned beneath accessible sections.

For embankment slides with accessible tube exteriors, the handbook specifically identifies assessing impact protection from the outside top of the tube. Measuring only from the internal sliding surface can overlook the actual climbing and falling exposure.

Challenge points should reflect the activity ahead

The approach to a giant slide should help children and carers judge whether the activity suits the user’s ability.

The handbook recommends at least one ability filter, or challenge point, on every access route to the slide. This could involve a climbing net or another physical task that requires an appropriate level of coordination and confidence.

A meaningful challenge point provides a physical and visual indication of the ability needed. Its purpose can be undermined when adults lift younger children past it.

The wider playground should also provide appealing alternatives for younger and less able users, including smaller slides. This allows children to choose suitable challenges while retaining more demanding experiences for those ready to use them.

Clear signage supports safe use

Signage should be visible at the point where users decide to enter the slide, with pictograms to help communicate the messages.

The handbook recommends advice covering:

• Sliding feet first.

• Avoiding tandem riding.

• Avoiding slowing or stopping inside the tube.

• Leaving the run-out promptly.

• Avoiding climbing inside the slide from the exit.

• Avoiding climbing onto the outside of the tube.

It also includes user-height guidance around a minimum of 1.2 metres.

Signs support appropriate design and management, but their effectiveness has limits.

Children may not see, read or understand them, so they cannot be relied upon to resolve an underlying design hazard.

Design verification and ongoing monitoring matter

Before purchase, owners should obtain information about sliding lengths, average and maximum gradients, bend radii and descent height.

The handbook recognises that giant slide design verification and certification require specialist competence in the forces and dynamics involved. This assessment goes beyond a comprehensive playground inspection and should be addressed by the manufacturer before supply and installation.

Once a slide is operating, owners should monitor behaviour and record reported injuries and near misses. Repeated incidents should prompt investigation with the manufacturer and design verifier, with modifications considered where unacceptable risks are identified.

Playsafe’s position

Playsafe strongly recommends that New Zealand playground suppliers adopt SA HB 244:2025 as supplementary guidance over and above EN 1176 Part 3 when designing, supplying and installing giant tube slides.

The handbook addresses known hazards associated with the size, speed and complexity of modern slides. Incorporating this guidance provides a more informed basis for delivering challenging play while managing the potential for serious harm.

Adam Stride from Playsafe served on the Joint Australian/New Zealand committee and welcomes questions from suppliers, designers, councils and playground owners about the guidance and its application in New Zealand.

For assistance with an independent design review, playground inspection or assessment of an existing giant tube slide, contact Playsafe.