This time, I will share an easy to make water game that we made. It allows both kids and adults to have an awesome time challenging each other.

One day I was strolling through the city and saw a tractor tyre repair shop. Right in front of it were dumpsters full of old and broken inner tubes. At that exact moment, I thought that it could make a really fun water game. I asked the guys there if I could have one and they said yes of course! Awesome!

Since tractors have massive inner tubes I realised that climbing on top of it in water would be a difficult task. There are no spots to grab on and hoist yourself up. To deal with that problem I went to hardware store and bought few rolls of synthetic rope. As I was in there I also bought contact cement to repair the tube. That was it!

I took my treasures home and started crafting!

:Let's get started!

Step 1: So What Did I Use?

Materials

Tractor inner tube (the larger one)
100 meters of synthetic rope
Tape

To fix the tube I used:

Contact cement
Old bike´s inner tube
Scissors
Sandpaper and gasoline to clean the surfaces
Small board and few clamp

Having a compressor is also really helpful. I could not imagine pumping it by hand - it would take ages! Extra pair of hands is useful too. My son came to help me.

Step 2: Repairing the Inner Tube

If you got a tube with a hole(s) in it then this is something for you, otherwise, you can skip this step!

The inner tube should be well repaired as it will get lots of stress both from in and outside. The patch you gonna stick on there should be fairly large.

To begin, with I located the hole. I did this by listening to the hissing sound. The guys had also marked what seemed to be the weak spots with a marker, but only one had a hole in it. I cut a large patch from a bike´s old inner tube. Then I sanded both surfaces to remove bigger dust particles and then wiped it down with a cloth soaked in gasoline. This helped to remove fine dust and grease. This step is essential as otherwise a tight bond cannot be formed and the patch comes loose.

I applied a thick layer of contact cement on both surfaces and let it dry completely. Then I pressed the patch on there and just to be sure I get it to stick I clamped it between two blocks of wood. I let it sit for ten minutes or so.

Before you move on to the next step it is probably a good idea to test out if your tube is now airtight. Pump it completely full and leave it overnight. When it is as full as it was in the evening, then you are good to go!

Step 3: Let´s Roll!

At this point, I had already come up with the way I wanted to tie the rope around the tube. Orange rope was going to make the main structure and the blue rope was going to be used to make knots and hooks and to fix the orange rope so that I could not slide around and come loose.

Oh and before you start tying the rope let some air out of the tube. This way the tying process will be easier and later when you pump it full the ropes will be held in place by the pressure. This last part is really important as minimizes the chance of somebody getting stuck between the rope and the tube and thus creating an accident!

Not gonna go much further with this since our first attempt was unsuccessful. See the pictures and do not do it this way.

Step 4: Let´s Roll Again

After the first attempt, we left it there and brainstormed new ways to tie. We came up with this solution.

Once again the orange rope would be the main structure and the blue one would fix it all together.

This time, we twirled the orange rope around the tube from both directions while making knots at the points where they met. We used two rolls (25 meters) for this. When this was done we took the blue rope (20 meters) and started making a circle on the outer side. From time to time we made small hooks for grabbing on. Oce again try to make the hooks small enough so that no one can get stuck. When this was done we took another blue rope and repeated the same process on top. Pictures are probably better expositors.

Double rainbow that appeared confirmed that we were on the right track ;)

Now there was nothing left to do but to pump it full and have some fun!

No, wait! The valve! This thing can cause some pain when it scratches you. Unfortunately, it can not be removed so the only thing that can be done is to cover it up with something to make it "softer". Regular electrical tape does the trick.

Now you can have some fun!