New Zealand has already given us lots of excitement with bungee jumping. Now , it's the Zorb's turn!
Have you ever wondered what it would be like to roll down a hill at speeds of up to 30 mph inside a huge ball? Perhaps not, but that was what Andrew Akers wondered while he was looking through some drawings by Leonardo da Vinci, or so he says. wherever the idea came from ,Andrew and ex-research scientist Dwane van der sluis began designing such a ball, which they called a Zorb.
The job was far from easy. "We took the prototype to our bank manager, hoping to get a loan, but he wasn't very enthusiastic," say Andrew. "His actual words were: 'That's a nice beach ball,' which didn't really give us much confidence." Luckily, they were not discouraged and each one decided to design a sphere separately. "Dwane's sphere was too small and mine was too large. Each one was useless on its own, but we put one inside the other and the Zorb was born."
The Zorbonaut, the person enjoying the thrill of Zorbing, climbs into the inside ball through a hole or kind of tunnel that passes through the outside ball. There is moer than 2 ft. of air between the Zorbonaut and the ground to protect the person from the effects of the ball bouncing along. now the Zorb has been fully tested to make sure it is completely safe, which wasn't what happened originally. "I broke my arm in the prototype, but we have done our best to prevent injury since then," says Andrew.
Only the strongest materials have been used to make Zorbs. The plastic does not tear and the outside ball is designed so that it does not lose its shape. After designers had been experimenting for a long time, they made Zorb with harnesses to keep people safely in position while they are Zorbing on their own or with a friend.
Zorbing is so new that Andrew and Dwane still have to answer questions about it. "People asked us a lot of questions at first , but we were able to answer them because we had thought about the problems carefully before the Zorb went on sale," says Dwane. "And one thing they still want to know is whether they will be sick in it. Well,we've had over 10000 Zorbonauts and not one has been sick yet!"
So, what's it like? "It's not like being in a tumble dryer and it doesn't turn your stomach, but the feeling is very, very strange. Why don't you try it?" says Andrew, encouraginiy