OMG THAT LOOKS AMAZINGLY FUN!

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.

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"

"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.

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)

It's like the difference between a rugby tackle and a football tackle...

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!

There is a Jacki Chan movie where he does this down a mountain in the jungle. Anybody seen it?

PhysicsJunky

Armor of God 2, also known as Operation Condor.

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?

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

OMG! That looks like so much fun! Wow!

I want one!

This is totally my extreme Sport!

zorb photoshop contest from last year. the vast majority of the images still show up

Anyone remember Zorb II: The Wizard of Frokozz?

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.

Looks like quite a work out.

Zing.

Peter Gabriel was rolling around onstage in one of those, and making it jump up and down.

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...

/ unavailable for comment

There's a lot of crazy shiat I'd do if I have free health care. I'd even go hunting with Cheney.

Man I gotta start previewing my posts...LOL

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.

2000? Baloney. Jackie Chan did that in 1991 in operation condor.

Unavailable for comment.

Didn't they do this on Celebrity Fit Club?

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

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.

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.

This thread is useless without picsvideo.

Me in a Zorb on course at Rotorua, NZ:



My Zorb exit:

This thread is pics without useless.

I fail to see the enjoyment one would gain from this type of activity.

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...

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

there's a zorbing video here

And before a convict gets in with a joke....



/not obscure

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.

Looks like it's a whole lot of fun. It also looks like a great way to break your neck.

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.

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.

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

Psumek

Didn't they do this on Celebrity Fit Club?

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

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.

Man, I want to try that...

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

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.

If I ever hit the Powerball or invent the better mousetrap, you better believe there is a spot in my garage for a Zorb.

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.

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?