Quad Biking & Indoor Skydiving

All-terrain vehicle racing has become a pretty popular sport and pastime over the past 20 years - with the proliferation of lightweight, high-powered 2-wheel drive quads the days of their usage solely as utility vehicles are long over. Quad biking enthusiasts, like most motorheads these days, can engage in many different types of competitive biking, including motocross, cross country, desert or ice racing, hill climbing, speedway, flat track, drag racing, and many other disciplines. The variety is owed to the quad bike being an all-terrain vehicle, most of the utility models having 4-wheel drive and allowing you to drive relatively carefree on almost any surface, incline and weather.

If you've ever wanted to try the all-terrain driving experience, many outdoor recreation centres will have a dirt track and a collection of quad bikes ranging from childrens' models (90cc or below) to faster stock. Two-stroke quad bikes can range in power all the way to 1000cc models. Sports models can reach speeds of up to 90mph (145km/h), whereas the slightly bigger utility models can generally reach around 70mph (100km/h) - these aren't toys, ladies and gentlemen: these are serious all-terrain vehicles, and they're cracking fun.

For those of you who'd rather not keep your feet on the ground, perhaps you should consider going airborne. Thanks to the wonders of technology, you don't even need to climb into a plane to go skydiving any more - perfect for those of you who'd like to try something new, or those who are terrified of heights. With a vertical wind tunnel, you can actually engage in indoor skydiving, or "bodyflight" as it's known by the sport's aficionados ('tunnel rats'). By putting a wind tunnel upside down and moving into the air flow, for all intents and purposes, you're virtually skydiving. Professional ski jumpers use indoor skydiving as an opportunity to practice making their bodies more aerodynamic and sharpening up their ability to increase or decrease the body's drag.