Extreme adventures and sports in Dubai

Dubai has earned the epithet of being the best place to enjoy extreme sports in the Middle East

By: Kelly Brown

Dubai is an interesting place, full of history and heritage, beautiful nature, vast culture and lot of things for adventure. It has the world’s highest building (the Burj Khalifa), the world’s tallest hotel (JW Marriott Marquis Dubai), the world’s largest artificial island (the Palm Jumeirah) and the world’s biggest mall (The Dubai Mall). What used to be a fishing village has now transformed into one of the most visited places on earth. However, Dubai is also known as a destination for adventure with activities ranging from flyboarding to sandboarding and even skiing is becoming quite popular. So plan your next trip accordingly.

Bungee jumping
If doing a bungee jump has long been languishing on your bucket list, Dubai’s Gravity Zone won’t disappoint you. The zone boasts of trained and experienced staff to guide you for the 50-metre jump. All equipment is of excellent quality and meets high safety standards. However, jumpers must be between the ages of 14-50 with a maximum wight of 120 kg. They don’t push anyone, if you’re not comfortable doing it, you go down.

Sandboarding
Sandboarding or sand surfing is quite a popular sport throughout the world, and it is very popular in desert regions like Dubai and Abu Dhabi in the UAE. The sand dunes of Dubai desert is about 30 minutes drive from the city. However, it is recommended that visitors go for sandboarding early morning or before sunset as day temperature can be quite high. Remember to carry your own water bottle for the trip.

Skiing
While many think that skiing is the last thing one can experience in Dubai, the emirate is actually a haven for indoor skiing. Opened few years back in the Mall of Emirates, Ski Dubai is the first indoor ski resort in the Middle East, offering an amazing snow setting to enjoy skiing, snowboarding and tobogganing. Covering a total area of about 22,500 square metres, the space is covered with snow all year round with five runs that vary in difficulty, height and steepness. The longest run is 400 metres with a fall of over 60 metres. New skiers also get private lessons by trained instructors.

Flyboarding
While skydiving with an exotic view of The Palm has been a popular activity in Dubai for quite some time now, the latest on the grid is flyboarding. A fun water sport, flyboarding uses a Jet Ski turbine with a wakeboard, enabling you to fly above the ocean or dive under like a dolphin. An easy to learn activity, a coach and a jet ski will be tailing you throughout your journey making it extremely easy. The best part of this sport: it is favourable on all days, so you don’t have to worry about the climate.

Skydiving
A tandem skydive is the quickest and easiest way to experience the thrill of freefall at over 120 miles per hour. Skydive Dubai offers skydives at its premium location the Palm dropzone, and at its standard location, the Desert Campus dropzone. On the day of the skydive, the experienced instructors will guide you through the entire process before you dive. The camera crew flyers will capture every second of your dive so that you can re-live the experience again and again! Anyone can skydive, as long as they fulfill the medical requirements, with the assistance of a professional.

Racing
To get the real feel of a Formula 1 track and the race, head to Motor City in Dubai, which reportedly has the world’s longest straight circuit. In a BHO single-seater you can hit a speed of 100km per hour in four seconds. It’s not available to those under 21 years old though. You need to carry a valid driving licence and your weight should not be more than 118kg.