This week our article is provided by guest blogger and Super Fun Day Out fan, Anastasia Hadjivasiliou. She wins two tickets to the longest Zip Wire in the U.K. If you want to write for us check out our blog submission page. Remember, all blogs which are in fitting with Super Fun Days Out will be published, and all published bloggers win Zip Wire tickets. So get writing!
Anastasia’s Experience
In the past I have undertaken the sport of banana boating, which for those of you that don’t know involves sitting on a massive floating plastic banana shaped object in the sea which usually sits around eight to ten people and is pulled along by a high speed boat. The aim of the experience is to stay on for as long as you can whilst the person driving the boat tries his upmost to throw you all off. This may involve sudden stops or random changes in the direction you are going in. The ride eventually finishes when everyone has been thrown off into the sea and left to splash around and watch as the others fall one by one.
The whole experience was mainly on impulse as it was done when we had relatives visiting us in Cyprus and they were keen to participate in the experience that they had done in the past. As they advised us it is usually better to have less people on the banana to ensure it bounces on the waves as much as possible whilst at the same time having the heaviest member of the party sitting at the back to make sure you don’t overturn as easily. (in this case my brother!)
The highlight of the experience is definitely being catapulted into the deep blue sea which luckily for us was quite hot in the summer. Another couple of words of advice is that wearing googles is not the best of ideas as you end up not seeing much either due to them steaming up or due to the water spraying from the boat ahead obscuring your vision. Also be warned that once you fall off you are expected to be able to climb back on which sounds easier than it seems, given the banana boat is very wet and slippery, leading to you needing strong upper muscle power to use the ropes you hang on to during the ride as a way back on.
If I was given the chance I would gladly jump on the opportunity to take part in this activity again although preferably in a group of people I know as it is not for the faint hearted and I would need someone to pull me back on like last time.
I unfortunately have no pictures of myself taking part in this activity, so the image above is from the place I did it, and the video should give you a good idea of what it involves. Thanks to Fhelmortho for posting this!
