STYLISH
Some people try the strangest things
FENCING Not the sort that involves going to B&Q, but a fine pastime for those who want to look like Errol Flynn without being turned into chopped liver. Ancient Egyptians, circa 1200BC, practiced a form of it (but presumably didn't shout 'en garde'). By the 17th Century, fencing involved a code called the 'Right of Way'. Like the Highway Code, this demonstrated how not to get cut up. Today, fencing is an Olympic sport. Unlike Bungee Jumping.
PARCOUR Or free-running, as in leaping over, under and round everything from street furniture to large buildings. Created by Frenchman Sebastien Foucan and friend David Belle, from techniques used by French soldiers in Vietnam. The idea is to be fluid and elegant as you leap between tower blocks, dance over railings, and in Foucan's case, appear in a Madonna video.
PARAGLIDING Developed from parachutes, paragliders resemble giant high-tech handkerchiefs attached to which people fling themselves from windward hillsides or get towed into the air. They can stay there for a long time - the longest UK paragliding flight was 150km, although that's not as long as hang gliders can stay airborne. One travelled 250km and reached 16,000 feet. Gulp.
SKATEBOARDING Britain's first board boom came in the 1970s, but early versions were around in America twenty years before that. Then, as now, many skateboarders also surfed and snow boarded, proving that flinging yourself around on a fast-moving lump of wood or fiberglass has mass appeal. People capable of 'inverts', 'ollies' and 'kickturns' tend to be street-wise and sickeningly young.
TIDDLYWINKS A less energetic pastime, around since 1889, Tiddlywinks involves using a larger, usually plastic disc to ping smaller discs into a pot, and has a language all its own. The little discs are called 'winks,' but in some circles the big ones once known as 'tiddleys' have been re-christened 'squidgers'. There are conventions and competitions for a legion of fans who take it very seriously indeed - and thanks to the wink-receiving pot's shape would probably giggle at a version called 'Widdly Tinks'.
WING WALKING Some people find it a hoot to be strapped to the upper wing of a biplane, and even to clamber about in flight, the latter a twist presumably eschewed by a 91-year-old British woman who tried it recently. Professional wing walker Lucy Foster, on the other hand, of the Utterly Butterly wing walking team, says 'it's better than a rollercoaster. You don't get bashed around as much, and there's lots of fresh air'. Well there would be. The practice was started in the 1920s by 'barn storming' ex-World War I airmen - the first stunt pilots, who ran 'flying circuses.'
ZORBING What could be more fun than rolling down a steep hill at 20 or 30mph in a three-metre plastic ball, containing a smaller plastic ball, containing you? What indeed. The balls (called Zorbes, and no other word will do) are separated by up to 800 webbing straps and a lot of air. You can either be strapped in, or share your downhill run with some water, on which you can slide about. The idea originated, again, from New Zealand, allegedly because there was nothing else to do there.