I have always wanted to do something daring and out of the ordinary. I didn’t really know what this was, until I came up upon a site about zorbing. I had never heard about it before. But browsing around, I realized this was an extreme sport that I wanted to practice as soon as possible.
So what is zorbing? But it seems it all originated back in the 1900s or something like that, when some people came with the idea of taking a person, putting it inside a huge inflatable ball, and holding him or her over a slope, while safe inside the ball.
I thought to myself this a pretty interesting idea but how does it work? Modern day zorbing is done inside these spheres made of plastic, called zorbing balls or zorbs. Each sphere is actually made up of two plastic spheres one inside the other. They are linked between themselves by a network of nylon threads holding them together. Then, using an electric pump, you pump air inside the cushion that forms within the two spheres. Then you get inside this giant sphere and you get pushed onto a hill slope.
This is now considered an extreme sport, although it was not always so. But taking into account that you can reach speeds of more than 65 km an hour while the ball rolls down the slope, I think they finally gave it the designation of an extreme sport.
I’ve heard people do it in different locations. Some guys even tried to go Zorbing on a mountain slope. But that’s not advisable because as I read in the news that’s dangerous. If you want to be safe think the best thing is to go to a specially organized park. I read today have them all over the world. Since I’m from the USA I decided to take a trip to Roundtop Zorbing-Parc.
When I reached my destination, I was made available a wide variety of activities. I decided to go water Zorbing. That means that one of the guys from the park filled the inner sphere of the Zorbing-Ball with a bucket of water. Then I got my swimming suit, jumped in the ball, and they gently pushed me down the hill. As the giant hamster ball started gaining speed, I started tumbling around inside the ball. Water was splashing all over and through the transparent ball could see the sky and the end of my ride.
The ball came to a slow stop and I got out of it all wet. But you know what it was super fun. They call this an extreme sport but actually it was a very enjoyable and fun outdoor activity for me. Maybe the other type of zorbing is more extreme: the one where you get harnessed inside the inner ball of the zorb. Because when you get harnessed you’re stuck to the inner sphere, and when you go zorbing like this, I guess it could be a pretty extreme sensation to roll around with the spheres rotation.
I didn’t try that one, but I did really enjoy zorbing with water quite a lot. I think the next summer vacation I get, I will go zorbing once again. Here are some zorbing pictures so you can have an idea of what it’s like.