Zorb

4 Comments

Was looking at New Zealand tourism sites last night and came across the Zorb site. Put a person-sized transparent plastic ball inside a bigger transparent plastic ball, with the space between filled with air. Now put a person in the inner ball:

He's got about 700 mm of air between him and the ground and this air cushion keeps him safe as he hurtles down the side of a hill at speeds of up to 50 kilometres per hour. ...[As] the ball rolls around, the person ... becomes pinned to the inside, just like water inside a bucket being spun around your head.

(Quote from the Zorb: Rotorua Adventure page.)

Apparently Peter Gabriel used one of these in a recent concert tour. Presumably without the hurtling down a hill part.

4 Responses to “Zorb”

  1. irilyth

    An episode of the bizarre Comedy Central series Travel Sick featured Zorbing at one point (their New Zealand episode, of course). They did the downhill-with-a-bucket-of-water-inside version. It looked cool. :^)

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  2. David Moles

    Jed, how can you quote that passage and elide the word “Zorbonaut”?

    I think I’d like it a lot better if the inner sphere was gyroscopically stabilized, anyway.

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  3. Jed

    I was hoping people would follow the link and have the joy of discovering the word “Zorbonaut” for themselves. 🙂 Okay, maybe not.

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  4. Andrea

    I’ve wanted to go Zorbing for about two years now. So sad that I haven’t been able to. But everyone needs a goal in life, and I will have do it eventually!

    reply

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