Zorbing
Thursday, 10th May 2007 by Alex Turnbull
Here in Rotorua, New Zealand, we find the birthplace of possibly the most ridiculous pastime ever - Zorbing. Invented here in 1967, Zorbing involves nothing more than climbing into a giant PVC sphere and being chucked down a hill.
Yes, that's it. Sounds cool huh?
In our thumbnail you can see several zorbuses (or should that be zorbii?) gathered at the top of the hill, and there also seems to one being hoisted back to the top using the, er... zorb-lift, just like in this image.
More on Zorbing and links to where you can try it at Wikipedia
Thanks to Mike P.
About the author
Alex has decided that his title will be Senior Vice President of Stuff.
This is wierd, cool and looks like alot of fun. Definitely somthing to add to my to do one day list.
Grrrr! The plural of ‘zorbus’ would be ‘zorbi’, not ‘zorbii’. The plural of ‘radius’ is ‘radii’. The plural of ‘terminus’ is ‘termini’. Get it? Where did you get the extra ‘i’ from?
/resident spelling-Nazi
So two of you (God forbid) would be Ambarii?
Aqua-zorbing sounds like an amazing day.
It also sounds like it should be horrifying.
Zorbing is one of the best 30-40 seconds things that you can do. If there are two of you in there, it’s even more fun! If you get a chance, give it a go.
M
I googled for some zorb places here (ireland) and they claim to have the worlds longest run at 750m. 1 min 48 secs of zorbing, nice! Not enough details to try find it on google maps. http://www.zorb.ie/html/world_record_zorb_run.html
I read they do aqua zorbing in the UK. The ball is half filled with water so you get wet as you roll. Sounds a bit dangerous to me!
I actually heard a rumour they also do naked aqua-zorbing…
Yeah, well I heard they do naked piranha aqua zorbing.
Too lazy to search – anyone know the root of the name?
Well 5 minutes of Googling didn’t get me any closer than “-ORIGIN 1990s: invented word from zorb (the name of the ball used in this activity) + -ING“, which isn’t really very helpful…
Zorb was the Greek God of Pointless Activities, hence the name. He sat alongside Bungee – the God of Dull People Who Need Some Excitement In Their Lives and Dude – the God of Skateboarders, Surfers and Free Climbers.
I did a Google search what do you know I found a location supposedly opening this year in the US. And what’s more cool it’s only like 3 hours where my parents live. Definitely gonna have to go.
Website for the location – awesome construction photos are posted. http://www.zorb.com/smoky/index.html Location for Zorbing in the USA. View Placemark (35.8181,-83.5707)
Location for Zorbing in the UK View Placemark (50.7224,-2.38538)
Location for Zorbing in Australia View Placemark (-27.8309,153.302)
@Ambarish: Thanks, saved me job there.
I propose that as a “Zorb” is the sphere into which you climb that the plural is in fact “Zorbs”.
Nev, I think you mean “saved me a job there”.
😀
Aargh!
Stupid karma.
Sorry to take the quibbling further, but surely Zorbus it is an English not a Latin word. If it were a Latin word then it probably would probably be a mass noun and would not have a plural, see the Wikipedia discussion on the plural of virus
The plural of Zorbus is Zorbuses. End of rant.
SHAMELESS PLUG You can do zorbing in Aberfeldy, just north of Perth. Check the NaeLimits website for more details!
I went zorbing at that place, it was great fun, the people who ran it were really nice as well. After I’d had a few goes and I’d had been chatting with the main guy a bit he asked if I fancied getting run over by one, so I went and I laid down as one came down the hill, it didn’t hurt at all it was a bit weird.
It’s definitely not a dangerous activity and they don’t half-fill the ball, there’s just a puddle at the bottom to help you slip around a bit.
I recommend it to anyone up for a bit of fun on a hot day.
Zorbing is really fun but the Zorb company doesnt sell to the public. So I have found a website that sells Zorb.type hamster balls to the general public
http://WWW.ZORRB.COM http://www.zorrb.com http://WWW.ZORRB.COM
It was invented in 1967? I had no clue it was that old!
It took quite a while to build up steam I guess!
Invented in 1967!? Pffft – rubbish!
Check out http://www.theogo.com the website of the inventors of zorbing – they have a whole timeline and history. Zorbing was invented in New Zealand in 1994.