What Is Blobbing? And Why It Is the Perfect Adrenaline Kick

What is Blobbing? It’s pure water fun and action! Just the right leisure activity for a hot summer’s day. Pack your swimming trunks, put on your helmet and catapult yourself into the cool water!

What could be better than jumping into the refreshing water of a lake on a hot summer day? That’s right: to be catapulted in a high arc through the air into the water of a lake on a hot summer day and that’s what is Blobbing!

That’s exactly what you do in blobbing, which has been a trend sport for a few years now, not only in the USA. The principle is actually quite simple: the blobber takes a seat on a huge inflatable cushion, the blob, which floats on the water. At the other end of the blob is a jumping tower, from which the jumper jumps with full force onto the blob. This catapults the blobber high into the air, where it can do a few somersaults or pirouettes, depending on its ability, before diving into the water with pleasure!

Blobbering is crazy fun and certainly one of the best summer leisure activities with friends. But the trendy sport is now also held as a competition. A jury judges how impressive the acrobatic jumps are that the blobbers perform. It is also important that the blobber flies as high as possible so that it has more time for somersaults and other figures before impact.

Precautions When Blobbing

When you hit the ground, you should be in a straight position again. After all, a belly flop or an unfortunate landing from a 1-metre diving board can be quite painful. Beginners should therefore first try blobbing without figures and can then gradually increase their skills.

In addition, for the safety of the blobber, a helmet and life jacket are always worn. A blob may only be set up in water places with a water depth of at least 2.5-3 m, as in water that is too shallow there is a risk of injury if you are thrown into the water from such a great height.

What Is Blobbing? The Origins

Blobbing comes from the us summer camps and was invented by Text Robertson at Camp Longhorn. He simply converted a pair of floating tubes in which the military transported fuel across the water. The fun sport of blobbing, which was invented in this way, was so much fun for the children and young people at the summer camp that blobbing soon spread all over America and became a standard recreational activity at summer camps across the country.

After blobbing was featured on the MTV show Rob Dyrdek’s Fantasy Factory in 2009, it became more and more popular. Adults all over the world are now enthusiastically jumping into the wet fun: Blobbing has become an international trend sport in the last 8 years!

Our neighbours from the Alps are particularly fond of blobbing. In Austria, the first national championship in blobbing, the Blobbing Battle, took place in 2011. In the same year, a Swiss team of enthusiastic blobbers set the current world record in blobbing. The record is measured by how high the blobber is catapulted into the air by the jumper. The Swiss team catapulted their blobber an incredible 17 metres into the air! Someone first has to copy that! But as I said – please wear a helmet… 😉

Information on where to find blob spots in Germany can be found on blob-tour.de. If you live in Austria or southern Germany, you can give a special gift to a friend and enjoy a short trip together in Graz find happiness in blobbing.

Take a look at our tips for other summer activities! Whatever the season, you’ll find plenty of ideas for activities with friends, kids or your partner on Greatime.

Sounds great and you don’t want to miss any of our tips? Great: with a Like on Facebook and Instagram you’ll make us happy and always stay up to date 😉

Image source Cover image: Double by midnightcomm under CC BY 2.0

Note: There are affiliate links in this article. This means that if you buy a product via one of these links, Greatime may receive a small commission – without the product becoming more expensive.