The five-metre-high slide will be open during the school holidays.

Jasper Muscat, 10, tried it out with three friends from Duffy Primary School.

''It's kind of steep and you get to jump off and you can go off with your mates, it's really fun,'' he said.

Justine Evesson was queueing for the slide with her twin sons, Jack and Oliver, 10.

She said her boys had been to many of the pools around Canberra and they loved playing outdoors. ''This [pool] is a very popular one at the moment because they've gone a bit daredevil because of the diving boards,'' she said.

Other pools across Canberra were reporting a good start to the summer season. Big Splash Waterpark in Macquarie reopened for the summer on November 9, offering the chance to try out a twister slide bought last season, and owner Ron Watkins said visitor numbers were already up on last year.

Mr Watkins said another new slide would open in January, a twin-tube ride that would accommodate four people at a time, which he bought from the Wet'n'Wild theme park in Queensland.

Manuka Swimming Pool manager Bryan Pasfield said it had been very busy on Friday, with about 550 people through the gates, and he expected similar numbers on Sunday.

''We find a lot of families coming in, either mum and the kids, or dad and the kids. It's about a 50-50 split between kids and adults,'' Mr Pasfield said.

Most Canberra swimming pools will open throughout summer, but close on Christmas Day.