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(BBC) Cool "Zorbing," the act of rolling downhill inside inflatable ball, catching on worldwide. Bonus: Kiwi inventor openly cites socialized medicine as safety net for asinine activities   (news.bbc.co.uk) divider line 102
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matt4684 2006-03-31 12:47:25 PM  
OMG THAT LOOKS AMAZINGLY FUN!

 
ronin 2006-03-31 12:55:55 PM  
I agree matt4684. I'm sure there is bound to be motion sickness associated with it, but nothing beyond what one encounters while riding a gyroscope ride. I'd be up for up.

 
NikolaiFarkoff [TotalFark] 2006-03-31 12:59:15 PM  
Bellsouth features that thing heavily in their new commercials (knocking down giant targets called "high prices", "service fees", etc).

That's the only time I've seen it outside of those Travel Channel shows like "Ten crazy-assed stunts to do in New Zealand"

 
EvilEgg [TotalFark] 2006-03-31 12:59:40 PM  
"Also, if you injure yourself, then the government is going to pay for you to not only get back on your feet, but they're going to rehabilitate you and get you back into the workplace as well."

This has got to be the single stupidest argument for trying a new activity ever.

 
ArcadianRefugee 2006-03-31 01:07:26 PM  
It involves a giant plastic ball, which has two skins - one inside the other. The person zorbing is in the area between the skins, which is pumped up with air. The middle ball effectively suspends them on a cushion of air

Uhm, isn't the person inside the inner ball? Thus enabling "the middle ball effectively suspends them on a cushion of air"?

(And hence the large tube leading from the outside directly to the inner ball)

 
OlafTheBent [TotalFark] 2006-03-31 01:15:39 PM  
It's like the difference between a rugby tackle and a football tackle...

 
So_it_goes 2006-03-31 01:18:24 PM  
Zorbing huh? What do they call having sex in an enclosed space with flaming dead people? Cuz that's the new hotness right there. Let's grab some gas a couple of shovels and head to the cemetery! Let's do this!

/Leeeerooooy Jeeeennnkkkiinnnsss!

 
PhysicsJunky 2006-03-31 01:37:08 PM  
There is a Jacki Chan movie where he does this down a mountain in the jungle. Anybody seen it?

 
Dr.Fey [TotalFark] 2006-03-31 01:57:44 PM  
PhysicsJunky

Armor of God 2, also known as Operation Condor.

 
PhysicsJunky 2006-03-31 01:59:22 PM  
Dr. Fey
Armor of God 2, also known as Operation Condor.

That was my guess, it was so long ago I saw that though. That's the one with the fight in the fan room isn't it?

 
Dr.Fey [TotalFark] 2006-03-31 02:04:35 PM  
PhysicsJunky,

'tis. Nazis and all.

Oddly, and confusingly, this flick was released in the States years before the original Armour of God was, so now the original is known as Operation Condor II: Armour of God in the U.S.

/both are great flicks

 
st_gulik 2006-03-31 02:15:20 PM  
OMG! That looks like so much fun! Wow!

I want one!

This is totally my extreme Sport!

 
Megain [TotalFark] 2006-03-31 02:58:25 PM  
zorb photoshop contest from last year. the vast majority of the images still show up

 
Choo-Choo Bear 2006-03-31 04:30:45 PM  
Anyone remember Zorb II: The Wizard of Frokozz?

 
Wizzin 2006-03-31 04:33:07 PM  
This is the best argument I have ever heard against socialized medicine. Considering the per capita number of retards here in the U.S., the system would be broke inside a month.

 
hnlzero 2006-03-31 04:33:41 PM  
Looks like quite a work out.

 
tricycleracer 2006-03-31 04:33:47 PM  
Zing.

 
wingnutx 2006-03-31 04:35:07 PM  
Peter Gabriel was rolling around onstage in one of those, and making it jump up and down.

 
smoky2010 2006-03-31 04:35:29 PM  
Who gets to clean out the ball when somebody blows chunks in it?

You know that some poor bastard has to slide through someboby else's returned lunch to wipe to ball out the innerds.

\\Does NOT clean balls
\\\\Except his own...

 
veedeevadeevoodee [TotalFark] 2006-03-31 04:35:49 PM  
www.kcet.orgwww.gotpetsonline.com

/ unavailable for comment

 
tricycleracer 2006-03-31 04:36:00 PM  
There's a lot of crazy shiat I'd do if I have free health care. I'd even go hunting with Cheney.

 
smoky2010 2006-03-31 04:36:14 PM  
Man I gotta start previewing my posts...LOL

 
safeinsane 2006-03-31 04:36:20 PM  
Looks fun but it would probably freak me out being inside that orb. Hell, I couldn't ride the Submarine Voyage at Disneyland because of the confinement.

 
VTSquire 2006-03-31 04:37:32 PM  
2000? Baloney. Jackie Chan did that in 1991 in operation condor.

 
MurphyManifesto 2006-03-31 04:37:38 PM  
img134.imageshack.us

Unavailable for comment.

 
Psumek 2006-03-31 04:38:03 PM  
Didn't they do this on Celebrity Fit Club?

 
Porcelina 2006-03-31 04:43:32 PM  
I saw this on The Amazing Race 5 - this has to be one of the coolest things I've ever seen. I think that they did the "Zorbing" on the farm where they filmed the Hobbit part of the Lord of the Rings.

That and "sledging," where you go down a whitewater river on basically a kickboard... I am so totally doing both of these one day.

But not bungee jumping... that's just crazy.

/LOVES The Amazing Race

 
bmc132 2006-03-31 04:43:52 PM  
ArcadianRefugee: It involves a giant plastic ball, which has two skins - one inside the other. The person zorbing is in the area between the skins, which is pumped up with air. The middle ball effectively suspends them on a cushion of air

Uhm, isn't the person inside the inner ball? Thus enabling "the middle ball effectively suspends them on a cushion of air"?


Yeah you're right. I noticed that when I read the article too.

Apparently nobody has ever gotten sick in a Zorb either, since it only rotates once every 10 meters. Although I would have to try it myself before I believed that it isn't a gut-wrenching experience.

 
bourgeois_sabotage 2006-03-31 04:46:44 PM  
I got to do this when I was in NZ...It was either Zorbing or bungee jumping and since I'm afraid of heights (and jumping from them) I did the Zorb.

The best is when they fill the ball part-way with water and you get the washing machine effect as you go down the hill.
I'm surprised it hasn't made it's way over to the states, but the liability stuff and our whacked out paranoid bubble-wrap everything safety-culture is probably why.

 
Pxtl 2006-03-31 04:46:44 PM  
This thread is useless without picsvideo.

 
Amigajoe [TotalFark] 2006-03-31 04:47:08 PM  
www.filmtotaal.nl

 
davezog 2006-03-31 04:47:09 PM  
Me in a Zorb on course at Rotorua, NZ:

i2.tinypic.com

My Zorb exit:

i2.tinypic.com

 
trobb23 2006-03-31 04:48:08 PM  
This thread is pics without useless.

 
tricycleracer 2006-03-31 04:49:08 PM  
I fail to see the enjoyment one would gain from this type of activity.

 
delau 2006-03-31 04:49:25 PM  
Ok, Im a kiwi, so im really getting a kick out of these replies... etc etc

but really. I am. Zorbing is fun, but kinda stupid, I would much rather go bungie jumping. You feel sick as at the end of it.

I had a mate that purchased one and just took it to random places and found some way bigger hills than the standard touristy ones. you have to be careful though as if you roll onto a sharp stick....

As for the free healthcare, it is true. We have a thing called ACC. if you damage yourself in any sport and cant work you get 80% of your current wage, no insurance required.

I just spent a bout 4 hours yesterday trying to fill out my American medical, as i have just moved to Denver. Oh for ACC...

 
davezog 2006-03-31 04:50:16 PM  
Also, I was in the "wet" Zorb, the only option for the banked turn course, you're in the Zorb with about half a foot of water and slide all over the place; the dry Zorb was for the straight course. If you could stay on your feet running hamster-style down the whole run, I think your ride was free.

/mmmmm, hamster-style

 
Megain [TotalFark] 2006-03-31 04:52:36 PM  
there's a zorbing video here

 
delau 2006-03-31 04:53:20 PM  
And before a convict gets in with a joke....

i20.photobucket.com

/not obscure

 
Pxtl 2006-03-31 04:54:55 PM  
Reminds me of when I was a kid - in Blue Mountain, Ontario (a ski resort) they had these slide-things for summer in addition to the usual water slides. It was a huge long concrete bobsled-track-like dealy. You would sit in a plastic sled with a lever - pull back would drop to skids, neutral would be soft brakes on the wheels (for an even pace), push forward to open it up and let the wheels roll.

It was hell for road-rash if you screwed up, but hella fun. If you leaned the wrong way you could hurt yourself, so I bet it's gone now. Still, it was awsome.

Totally unrelated, just the sight of giant grooves cut in a hill and talk of various unsafe activites took me back.

 
Scrotar 2006-03-31 04:58:45 PM  
Looks like it's a whole lot of fun. It also looks like a great way to break your neck.

 
dbaggins 2006-03-31 05:01:58 PM  
Pxtl


Reminds me of when I was a kid - in Blue Mountain, Ontario (a ski resort) they had these slide-things for summer in addition to the usual water slides. It was a huge long concrete bobsled-track-like dealy. You would sit in a plastic sled with a lever - pull back would drop to skids, neutral would be soft brakes on the wheels (for an even pace), push forward to open it up and let the wheels roll.


I remember that! great fun. I always wanted it to go faster. I think you used the same chair lifts that they ran in the winter for the skiiers. it was a good idea, I thought, to make income off their investments in the down months.

 
TheWizard 2006-03-31 05:03:16 PM  
I would love to get one and take it down some of the hills round here, but I assume since there is no braking mechanism, I'd best be on the lookout for what is at the bottom.


I also wonder how hard it would be to do repairs for a punctured zorb.

 
kippson 2006-03-31 05:05:24 PM  
Also, if you injure yourself, then the government is going to pay for you to not only get back on your feet, but they're going to rehabilitate you and get you back into the workplace as well.

This guy is a living, breathing definition of Moral Hazard

 
Toshiro Mifune's Letter Opener [TotalFark] 2006-03-31 05:05:37 PM  
Psumek

Didn't they do this on Celebrity Fit Club?

Indeed - 'twas a defining moment in the life of Willie Aames.

 
Igloo 2006-03-31 05:09:07 PM  
TheWizard: Probably not that much more difficult than repairs on a punctured Zodiac/rigid hull inflatable. Also PVC, if I remember right.

It takes a bit of work and the right temperature for curing, but it can be done.

 
IXI Jim IXI [TotalFark] 2006-03-31 05:11:00 PM  
Man, I want to try that...

/had fun in a gyroscope a few years back, no hurling

 
bill4935 2006-03-31 05:11:09 PM  
How much do extreme sports cost?

Is zorbing more expensive than bungee jumping?

What about skydiving or windsurfing?

I'm guessing the most expensive would be that hot-athletes-only co-ed orgy pool they have in Montreal.


/Watches the lines form at the border.

 
HugeMidget [TotalFark] 2006-03-31 05:11:22 PM  
If I ever hit the Powerball or invent the better mousetrap, you better believe there is a spot in my garage for a Zorb.

 
KevinOfOz 2006-03-31 05:14:32 PM  
Pxtl: They have alpine slides at a lot of ski resorts. The one in Jackson Hole is a pretty good one. Especially since they have these two dips in the track. At full speed, you will go slightly airborne. Fortunately, you usually land back on the track.

 
Honk Bag 2006-03-31 05:16:39 PM  
Pxtl: Reminds me of when I was a kid - in Blue Mountain, Ontario (a ski resort) they had these slide-things for summer in addition to the usual water slides. It was a huge long concrete bobsled-track-like dealy. You would sit in a plastic sled with a lever - pull back would drop to skids, neutral would be soft brakes on the wheels (for an even pace), push forward to open it up and let the wheels roll.

We used to have one of those in Colorado Springs when I lived there many years ago. They called it the "Alpine Slide". It was hella fun, but apparently too many people got hurt on it, and it was shut down and dismantled.

Back on topic, this Zorbing thing looks like it's at least as much fun as said Alpine Slide. Any chance there's a place here in the States that has these?

 
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