When I was a kid I was blessed to spend every Summer at Pilling's Lake.  The place was our own little slice of heaven.  Sadly the dam broke somewhere around 1970 and was never replaced so there hasn't been a Pilling's Lake for a long time.
     Pilling's Lake had diving boards of various heights, two of which were very high.  It had a little sliding board in the lake itself for the smaller children and it had The Big Slide.  The Big Slide was about one hundred feet high and would hurl you into the lake at great speed.  Water was pumped up to the top or it would burn your skin off on the way down.  Kids invented various ways to go down the slide... backwards, landing on a raft and scooting far out into the lake, and many other variations.  Some of the more coordinated kids could go down up on their knees.
      This looked dangerous to me so I was reluctant to try it.  But other boys my age were doing it and of course they were calling me a chicken so I decided to go for it.  I was very tall, very skinny, and very uncoordinated.  I should have never attempted it. 
      It started out OK but about half way down I lost my balance. I was hanging half way off the slide with my side against the outer wall.  The pumped water never touched the outer wall of the slide.  It was always bone dry.  It was burning the hell out of my side.  I considered taking my chances and just dropping over the edge to avoid a very serious burn but when I looked down I wasn't over the water yet.  There was just concrete below me.  If I did survive the drop I'd certainly have broken bones.  So I just rode the slide hanging half way off.  I got an awful burn on my side but that was the worst of my injuries. 
     From then on I let smaller, more coordinated boys do their thing and I did mine.