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Funny enough, just yesterday some German tourists watched my not-quite-2 year old slide down a giant slide in San Francisco and remarked that they don't have su

Funny enough, just yesterday some German tourists watched my not-quite-2 year old slide down a giant slide in San Francisco and remarked that they don't have such big slides where they live in Germany.

javajosh 8y ago
There are some seriously cool and dangerous looking playgrounds in Berlin. Many of them have ziplines, trampolines, and other long-since banned playthings. And I see kids on them almost every day.
- scandinavegan 8y ago
  We vacationed in Berlin last summer with two kids, and that place is famous for its fantastic playgrounds. It was rare to see the same designs repeated over and over as you do in other cities, and each playground was more or less unique. As you say, stuff where you balance quite high up, but usually with a softer material on the ground than asphalt so that a fall isn't lethal. I never saw kids fall and hurt themselves, so I don't know what would happen if they fell from the maximum height, but they wouldn't die.
wiredfool 8y ago
We were in Germany last summer and I was amazed that they had a 5m diving platform at a public pool. (along with 3m & 1m springboards). I had my (then) 10 and 12yr olds go for it, because I had no idea where else they'd ever get the chance to try. (OTOH, I tried the 1m springboard and got water in my ear that took days to get out. I'm not as young as I once was)
- namibj 8y ago
  At public pay-per-use pools we sometimes also have 7.5m and 10m platforms. As well as 5m springboards. They require deeper water, and are more expensive to build, but that's about it. E.g., near cologne there is an indoor pool with at least a 7.5m and 10m platform. I don't remember if the 5m one is a board or a concrete slab. But from 5m upwards it hurts on your feet if you hit the water at the wrong angle, and it only get's worse from there.
  - wiredfool 8y ago
    It's not the building expense, it's the insurance. I remember the 3m springboard taken out of my pool in the states in the 80's, and I can't remember ever seeing a diving board in use at a pool in Ireland.
    - namibj 8y ago
      Uh, no, this is the reason I assume for why only some pools in Germany have them. But I pity the american bubble wrap culture. It makes my dislike for visiting the states just stronger.
      - throwawayjava 8y ago
        > But I pity the american bubble wrap culture. I don't see this in pools. 3m spring boards are still pretty common at pools in the US. My "nothing special" high school had 3m springs. It's true that the 5m,7m,10m platforms are usually only found in sportsplex-type pools. They typically come as a package. But as you mentioned in an earlier comment, 5m+ starts the get actually dangerous. Flopping from 10m or even 7m without an agitator can do serious permanent damage. IMO a platform tower above 3m (or maybe 5m) is more "expensive sports equipment" than "general public recreational equipment". I maybe could see a 5m platform as "general public recreational equipment", but 7 and 10 are definitely not. And there are just better ways to use time/money than building a 5m platform when you already have 3m spring boards. American pools are moving away from exercise and toward recreation/amusement (i.e., switching out swimming lanes for "water playgrounds" and switching out diving boards for water slides). But that's a totally different phenomenon from "bubble wrap culture"; IMO those water playgrounds are way more dangerous than traditional pools (I've seen more than one kid injure themselves pretty seriously jumping off of the water playground into ~2ft water; that would never happen in a lane-swimming pool). And personally, I've had more injuries on water slides than on 1m or 3m spring boards. So there's something annoying going on with American swimming pools, but it's not bubble wrap culture.
        namibj 8y ago

javajosh 8y ago

There are some seriously cool and dangerous looking playgrounds in Berlin. Many of them have ziplines, trampolines, and other long-since banned playthings. And I see kids on them almost every day.

scandinavegan 8y ago
We vacationed in Berlin last summer with two kids, and that place is famous for its fantastic playgrounds. It was rare to see the same designs repeated over and over as you do in other cities, and each playground was more or less unique. As you say, stuff where you balance quite high up, but usually with a softer material on the ground than asphalt so that a fall isn't lethal. I never saw kids fall and hurt themselves, so I don't know what would happen if they fell from the maximum height, but they wouldn't die.

wiredfool 8y ago

We were in Germany last summer and I was amazed that they had a 5m diving platform at a public pool. (along with 3m & 1m springboards). I had my (then) 10 and 12yr olds go for it, because I had no idea where else they'd ever get the chance to try. (OTOH, I tried the 1m springboard and got water in my ear that took days to get out. I'm not as young as I once was)

namibj 8y ago
At public pay-per-use pools we sometimes also have 7.5m and 10m platforms. As well as 5m springboards. They require deeper water, and are more expensive to build, but that's about it. E.g., near cologne there is an indoor pool with at least a 7.5m and 10m platform. I don't remember if the 5m one is a board or a concrete slab. But from 5m upwards it hurts on your feet if you hit the water at the wrong angle, and it only get's worse from there.
- wiredfool 8y ago
  It's not the building expense, it's the insurance. I remember the 3m springboard taken out of my pool in the states in the 80's, and I can't remember ever seeing a diving board in use at a pool in Ireland.
  - namibj 8y ago
    Uh, no, this is the reason I assume for why only some pools in Germany have them. But I pity the american bubble wrap culture. It makes my dislike for visiting the states just stronger.
    - throwawayjava 8y ago
      > But I pity the american bubble wrap culture. I don't see this in pools. 3m spring boards are still pretty common at pools in the US. My "nothing special" high school had 3m springs. It's true that the 5m,7m,10m platforms are usually only found in sportsplex-type pools. They typically come as a package. But as you mentioned in an earlier comment, 5m+ starts the get actually dangerous. Flopping from 10m or even 7m without an agitator can do serious permanent damage. IMO a platform tower above 3m (or maybe 5m) is more "expensive sports equipment" than "general public recreational equipment". I maybe could see a 5m platform as "general public recreational equipment", but 7 and 10 are definitely not. And there are just better ways to use time/money than building a 5m platform when you already have 3m spring boards. American pools are moving away from exercise and toward recreation/amusement (i.e., switching out swimming lanes for "water playgrounds" and switching out diving boards for water slides). But that's a totally different phenomenon from "bubble wrap culture"; IMO those water playgrounds are way more dangerous than traditional pools (I've seen more than one kid injure themselves pretty seriously jumping off of the water playground into ~2ft water; that would never happen in a lane-swimming pool). And personally, I've had more injuries on water slides than on 1m or 3m spring boards. So there's something annoying going on with American swimming pools, but it's not bubble wrap culture.
      - namibj 8y ago