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Surfing on Air

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I'm hoping no one's posted something terribly similar to this already.

Anyway, here's my idea. This activity takes place in a room. The room is maybe 18x18 feet. The walls, the cieling, the floor, and the door are all padded for safety, except for vents in the wall that blow air in and vents in the cieling that allow air out. This makes the overall direction of airflow be pointing upward.

The game would involve 'surfing' on the air. A person would enter, stand on a surfboard on the floor, and wait as the air is turned on. The lowest vents would turn on first, then the next ones, etc. causing the 'surfer' to rise into the air relatively slowly. Once this was done, the airflow pattern would change. Vents would start and stop blowing randomly, being controlled by a computer, and the challenge would be to stay on the board as it moved erratically around the room.

Alternatively, air could be blowing out of the floor. Instead of turning off vents, they could just vary constantly in intensity. A possible problem with this would be the 'surfer' falling and landing on the vents and injuring himself, but if the air was strong enough it would hold him up once he had fallen and the air would slowly shut off, lowering him gently to the ground. I'm not sure whether the air would be controlled by a human, watching, or a computer which would detect the fall somehow.

Also, the exit vents in the ceiling would have to have a grate and be large enough that once the 'surfer' fell off and the board was sucked up to the cieling, it would not fully cover the exit vent.

Another possiblity is that the room be used as a relaxation chamber. There would be a soft light and possibly some music, and if you were tense you could just lay down on the floor and be lifted by the air and float gently for a bit, with the air changing in intensity to provide a sort of massage.

Darcey, Aug 28 2005

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       That'll take some aggressive vents ;-)
bristolz, Aug 28 2005
  

       Pople have posted ideas about "flying" in vertical wind tunnels before, but I don't think surfing was involved.
DrCurry, Aug 28 2005
  

       Just body surfing, [link]. A surf board should work though.   

       Chill out and relax in a 200mph hurricane, while all the soothing music gets blown away through a body shredding ceiling grate. It would certainly be invigorating.
oldchina, Aug 31 2005
  

       Beats the Sky Skiing Idea I once had. At least you survive the wipeout.
Zimmy, Aug 31 2005
  

       Would the soothing music come from an air guitar?   

       We obviously have to come up with a new name for this since "surfing" implies riding on water. And the equipment will have to have a new name, too. Can you hang ten on your Airboard, dude?
Canuck, Aug 31 2005
  

       "Air boarding" is fine.
DrCurry, Sep 02 2005
  

       Yeah, air boarding's good.   

       I wonder if the airboard would have the same shape as a surfboard...
Darcey, Sep 03 2005
  

       I suspect the cross section would be larger and more triangular than flattened elliptic, but that's just me extrapolating.
Zimmy, Sep 03 2005
  

       They have something like this already. There is a wind room in LA I think (saw it on a show on the discovery channel, I think) with a giant vent in the middle and you just stand on it and the vent kicks you up. It's supposed to be an indoor sky diving room.
EvilPickels, Sep 03 2005
  


 

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