A Windsor water slide has a new weight limit. This woman says the way it's being enforced should change

A woman who wasn't allowed to ride an indoor water slide with her son says the City of Windsor needs to come up with a more sensitive way to enforce a new weight restriction for the attraction.

At the end of November, Jessica Cameron went to Adventure Bay Family Water Park with her seven-year-old. A frequent user of the city-run park, Cameron said this was the first time she noticed a new rule for one of the slides, called The Python. It now has a 300-pound weight restriction, which meant she and her son had to be weighed. 

As a result, Cameron and her son weren't allowed to go down the slide together. The whole experience left Cameron feeling ashamed and worried about others who may be put in a similar situation. 

The regulatory body that oversees safety of these slides told CBC News that recent incidents have forced them to temporarily reduce the slide's weight limit. Cameron said she understands the need for safety, but her experience made her think "there's gotta be a better way to do this."

Scale that flashes weight feels 'intrusive' 

After walking up a series of steps to get to the top of The Python, a large blue slide where people sit in a tube and ride down together, Cameron noticed a scale and sign that said weight requirements for the slide were now different. 

Cameron said a digital screen flashes the person's weight at the on-duty lifeguard. 

"It was unnerving, first of all, to see a scale on the floor that looked like something you would put a dog on," she said. 

"I felt embarrassed. I felt like it was intrusive to me."

CBC has not seen the scale. 

Cameron said her son stepped on the scale first and she then joined him, even though she knew they would surpass the weight allowed to use the slide. When she turned to the lifeguard to ask what would happen now that they were over the limit, he told her he'd get another lifeguard to go down the slide with her son. 

Cameron said she then had to go back down the stairs, which felt like a "walk of shame." 

Cameron teaches middle-school girls and said she's been thinking about how such an experience could impact them. 

"In 2024, I think we need to be more sensitive towards people, towards mental health and body issues, and all of these things. So while my skin is tough and I can handle that sort of thing, I don't know that everybody can and I don't want them to have to go through that." 

2 recent incidents led to new slide weight limit

In an email, a spokesperson for the Technical Standards and Safety Authority (TSSA), which provides safety oversight for amusement rides, told CBC News there were two recent incidents on The Python where "riders fell off the tube." 

As a result, TSSA said, it issued an order requiring the total weight limit on the slide be temporarily reduced from 600 pounds to 300 pounds, "until the park owner can complete an engineering assessment and testing of the ride to determine a safe total upper weight limit."

TSSA said it will follow up with an inspection to confirm the maximum capacity. 

City says scale it ordered hasn't arrived yet

In an emailed statement, the City of Windsor's senior executive director of community service, Michael Chantler, said the "safety of guests ... is always our number one priority." 

"In the case of The Python ride, the weight limit issued by the regulatory body is something with which we must comply. Signs are posted at the front desk, entrance gate and at the bottom of the entrance to the ride," said Chantler. 

He said the signs offer information on the weight limit and "notify all guests that they will be weighed discreetly." 

But Cameron said there weren't any signs at the bottom, and if she had seen any, she wouldn't have gone up. 

"When a guest is on the scale, the only person who can view the number is the lifeguard," said Chantler. 

"No numbers are stated out loud and staff are trained on how to communicate kindly with patrons. Weight, age and height restrictions are commonly used throughout the amusement industry and are in place to ensure guest safety."

The city said it continues to follow TSSA direction and "review this [weight] regulation with the authority." 

It also said the scale it originally ordered hasn't yet arrived, but the one it plans to get is "designed specifically for the amusement industry."

"The scale has the ability to weigh multiple people at one time to ensure that the combination does not put them over a certain weight for safety reasons. No weight is ever displayed; rather it's just a green or red light." 

Expert says moments can trigger body image issues

Kyle Ganson, assistant professor at Factor-Inwentash Faculty of Social Work at the University of Toronto, has worked with people with eating disorders, body image issues and mental health or addictions issues. 

When CBC told Ganson about the water-slide situation, he called it another example of "weight stigma, weight bias — that in order to engage in a life and have fun activities and experience things that people maybe in smaller bodies would experience, you have to be a certain weight." 

"Don't develop something and make it publicly available if it can't hold various types of weights and high amounts of weight just because we know that people [who] are going to use them are going to come in all different types of body shapes and sizes," said Ganson. 

He added while he's not an engineer or an expert in these sorts of slides, there needs to be a way to make these materials so that they can hold higher amounts. 

Ganson said experiences such as the one involving the water slide can cause shame, and create body image issues or reinforce a weight stigma of, "I should be a different size."  

That could lead to someone trying to change their body by excessive dieting and overexercising, which could result in problems like eating disorders. 

When asked whether a scale with a green or red light for the water slide is any better, Cameron said it still is saying "yes or no" to a group or a person, but she feels it may be better than having someone's weight on display. 

After her experience, Cameron made a Facebook post on a local group for mothers to inform other women. 

"People [in the post comments] were definitely on the side of this is not appropriate, this is harmful, this is demeaning, you know, especially for the young girls and for the moms like me who are just there with their kids, who are brave enough to put on the bathing suit.... It's a huge step, at my age after having kids to want to put on a bathing suit," she told CBC. 

"I think that everybody deserves to feel respected and feel like they can go and do things in their own body the way they are right now."