Belle Isle giant slide reopens, and nobody will be flying off of it this time

In August 2022, Detroit Rapper Gmac Cash made a viral song about Belle Isle’s Giant Slide. In the song, Gmac Cash raps: “Hey, you could break your back on the giant slide / You could even break your neck on the giant slide / You might even bump your head on the giant slide.”

Well, that might not be the case anymore.

On Friday, the slide, which the Michigan Department of Natural Resources maintains, was reopened to the public after closing in 2022 amid safety concerns and a lawsuit filed against the DNR — around the same time Gmac Cash’s song went viral. At the opening, rides were free all day, while they are usually one dollar.

While the slide may be safer, it is much slower. During the first ride down at the reopening, all three sliders got stuck halfway down and had to scoot over the final bumps.

Detroit’s Lorrain Edwards, 66, was one of three people who went down first at the reopening.

“We had a great time, but the Giant Slide, it doesn’t go fast at all!” Edwards said. “They gotta do something about that.”

Gail Fitch, Belle Isle park supervisor, said a few tweaks were made so the slide is safer for visitors. The landing surface as the base of the slide was redone, and the slide is no longer waxed, Fitch said.

Jaida Perkins, 26 of Detroit, had ridden the slide since she was a child, and she said you can still go fast. The secret, she said, is to lean forward.

“(To go fast) you lean forward all the way. I remember that from my childhood,” she said.

The reopening drew a big crowd. For 32-year-olds Arshelle Tyus and Ray Breckenridge of Detroit, the reopening reminded them of when they were kids.

“It was nice coming with my family. That’s what I remember growing up as a kid, so when it came out again, I was like, ‘We gotta go!’” Tyus said, before sliding down.

Fitch, with the DNR, said it was a “very happy day” for Belle Isle to have the slide back open.

During the summer, the slide will be open from 12:30 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. on Fridays and 10:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. on Saturdays and Sundays until Sept. 2.