Word: rollers
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...Awir desert, 40 km from downtown Dubai, I'm hanging on Chris Perera's every word. "The secret to good dune-bashing is to jump onto the dune, not off it," he yells into my helmet as I swing on the padded roller bars into the buggy. "Build up your speed slowly, then accelerate up the dune, taking your foot off the gas at the top, then accelerate back down the dune." He gives me a thumbs-up, and backs away. Until today, sitting in the desert heat, feeling the soar and stutter of engine revs rattle through my spine...
Those trendy backpacks with wheels let you pull the weight along the ground. But they have problems too. Many are larger than the average shoulder bag, so students are tempted to carry more than they would in a conventional pack. Also, roller bags often don't fit into a locker and, more important, in crowded halls they can lead to tripping and falls...
...features springs in the heels, providing runners and hoopsters with what the company calls "responsive cushioning." This summer the company also released Air Hyperflights, above right, an extra-light basketball shoe combining a new synthetic material with snazzy, Ferrari-like styling. Sneakers like Skidz and Street Flyers are incorporating roller-skating wheels. And one new brand, Heelys, top, features a single removable "stealth skate" in each heel that lets users walk or, with wheels engaged, zoom up to 32 m.p.h. They're not a far cry from the old wheeled shoes that were briefly popular in the '70s, bottom...
...consumer-safety report issued last week says a record 10,580 people landed in the ER with amusement park- and carnival-ride injuries in 2000. That's the kind of stat that roller-coaster freaks take as a challenge. As they flood amusement parks this Labor Day weekend for a final dose of stomach-turning fun (or a shot at the record), we give you a handy guide to the summer's greatest thrills...
...idea here is big scale. In olden times you gave Charlie Chaplin a pair of roller skates, or Laurel and Hardy a decrepit flivver, and they would make some kind of magic with these severely limited means. In the new century, it doesn't take a village to make us laugh, but it does sometimes require overturning a bus (piloted by Cuba Gooding Jr. as a disgraced football official and jammed with Lucy impersonators on their way to a convention), crashing a helicopter or accidentally setting a land speed record in a rocket car driven by Whoopi Goldberg and Lanai...