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This urinal video game allows you to control a slalom skier via *ahem* your stream, as you try to reach the finish line before you’re finished emptying your bladder. And while this might sound like fun after lifting a few pints, I can’t imagine it’s going to last long in the typical men’s bathroom, what with all the graffiti artists and *ahem* wetness everywhere.
The site is in Italian, which I’ve run through Google Translate, but as I understand it, the LEAP (Living Ecological Alpine Pod) is a ski cabin design. Heavy-lift helicopters move prefabricated modules into position, which are then bolted together. The modules are interchangeable, so you can select which sections you need for your mountain cabin.
Link (Google Translate) -via American Digest | Photo: Fuoriserie Sas
Even super heroes like to take time for a little recreational skiing! This picture was taken at Sea World in Orlando, Florida during the mid 1970s. Link -via Mostly Forbidden Zone
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John’s post about Horse Boarding is pretty nifty, but I believe I can top that. Behold, the extreme sports of yak skiing. All you need are a yak, a pair of skiis, and some nuts (well, it helps if you yourself are a bit nuts):
In the Indian hill resort of Manali, Tibetan Peter Dorje runs an operation dedicated to the most implausible extreme sport in the world: yak skiing…
Pete heads to a high slope with the yaks, trailing out a rope behind him. You wait below, wearing your skis and holding a bucket of pony nuts. When Pete reaches the top, he ties a large pulley to a tree, loops the rope through it and onto a stamping, snorting yak.
Now it’s your turn—and this is the important part. First tie yourself onto the other end of the rope, then shake the bucket of nuts and quickly put it down. The yak charges down the mountain after the nuts, pulling you up it at rocket speed. If you forget yourself in the excitement and shake the bucket too soon, you’ll be flattened by two hairy tons of behemoth. Or as Pete says, “Never shake the bucket of nuts before you’re tied to the yak rope.”
Link – via The Rag Bag
Comments Off Sergei Khvalin made a propeller, attached it to a 200 cc lawnmower engine, and strapped the assembly to his back. This clever gadget can move him as fast as 25 MPH.
via DVICE
Vikersundbakken — the world’s highest ski jump — opened this past week in Norway. Its staggering 440-foot height allowed champion jumper Johan Remen Evensen to set a new world record by jumping 797 feet. The above video shows that jump. You can watch more videos about Vikersundbakken and the sport of ski jumping at the link.
Remember the post about the rollerblading Amish? Well, this is what they do for winter sports: Horse-and-buggy skiing.
Viral Footage has the video clip: Link
The Skizee was originally designed for the ski patrol, but it can also serve recreational purposes. The 10.5 hp 4-stroke engine can propel a skiier to high speeds, as you can see in the video at the link. Naturally, this is a product of Canada.
Attention, couch potatoes! Wanna ski but too lazy to get off the sofa to hit the slopes? Try skouching: Just screw a pair of skis to an old sofa or La-Z-boy and down you go! Hit play or go to Link [YouTube]
The only bad thing about skouching is that you have to push the sofa back up the hill.
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The final day of the Winter Olympics this Sunday has only two events: the gold medal men’s hockey game and the 50km cross-country skiing race. Brian McKeever will be skiing for Canada. This race will make him the first Olympian ever to participate in both the Winter Olympics and Paralympics in the same year. McKeever is legally blind.
In 1998, McKeever was a promising 19-year-old skier when he was diagnosed with Stargardt’s disease, a type of juvenile macular degeneration that gradually leads to blindness. Twelve years later, McKeever only has 10 percent of his vision, and that tiny fraction is in his peripheral vision.
Rather than rolling over when he lost his sight, though, McKeever got back on his skis.
Read about how McKeever does it at mental_floss. Link
Vancouver is a city, but the community of Whistler, where the winter Olympic skiing events are actually held, is shared with native wildlife. A family of lynx was spotted hanging out near the luge track, and on Wednesday a lynx crossed the downhill skiing track.
The lynx is a large cat – weighing up to 30 pounds and reaching 26 inches in height – that roams forests of the northern United States and Canada. And take it from a Canadian – downhiller Manuel Osborne-Paradis – the lynx is no cuddly outdoor friend when you’re speeding down an icy slope at 70 mph.
“Get out of the way,” he said. “Oh, wow. You do not want to get close to that.”
The downhill session was already on hold because of fog, and no skiers linked with lynx. Still, officials issued a warning over the race radio in case someone was on the course. The lynx had its own agenda and hopped over the barriers lining the perimeter to retreat to the forest.
(image credit: AP/Gero Breloer)
At the opening ceremonies for the Vancouver Olympics Friday, Robel Teklemariam will carry the flag for Ethiopia. Teklemariam is a cross-country skier from a country that has no snow. He came to the United States at age 9 while his mother worked for the UN in New York City, and attended the University of New Hampshire on a full scholarship. This will be his second Olympic competition. Link
This is Nissan’s prototype for a personal mobility device. Just step on to the footpads and lean in the direction that you want to go:
The device has two foot boards, both of which are balanced on two wheels. The device’s tilt sensors detect when you shift your weight to turn, traveling at a maximum rate of about 5kph. The foot boards have handle bars attached to help you maintain balance, and can be connected in a variety of positions or separated.
When separated, the device only moves forwards and backwards. To turn, you simply lift and turn your leg as if you were wearing stilts. The overall effect is one of ski-less skis.
A skier gets buried in an avalanche, but is rescued only four and a half minutes later. Everything gets caught on film with the video camera attached on the victim’s helmet.
This was a decent sized avalanche. 1,500 feet the dude fell in a little over 20 seconds. The crown was about 1 – 1.5m. The chute that he got sucked through to the skier’s right was flanked on either side by cliff bands that were about 30m tall. He luckily didn’t break any bones and obviously didn’t hit anything on the run out.
Link – via kottke.org
