How much will playa dust scratch clear vinyl (a zorb)?

[sparr]

Someone put the idea in my head to bring my zorb to BM. I'm worried that rolling around on playa dust will scratch the surface enough to turn it opaque pretty quickly. I've sent emails and messages to a few people who have posted about bringing them before. Anyone here have any feedback on this situation?

[Meat Hunter]

Yummy.

Anyone for sun roasted sparr for dinner?

[maladroit]

Hey everyone, come look! This guy cares about the condition of his stuff!

[Molotov]

I think if you put a couple of buckets of playa dust inside the zorb, it would have a polishing effect as you rolled around and counteract any exterior hazing.

[Joeln]

it will be even more fun when you can't see where you're going*



*which should happen no later than the first few minutes.

[Ratty]

So I had to google zorb. The first thing I saw was 'A fatal zorb video'. When it was over, (and the guy could have very well died from his stupid stunt, it was followed by 10 other fatalities on video. Very European. Get in touch with your morbid side.

[Popeye]

I've never done this and never seen it done so I have a question:
If you get to rolling with the wind, how do you stop?
Trash Fence?

[Eric]

I'll answer the original post - yes, your zorb will most likely end up scratched & scuffed, and there's a possibility that some of it may not buff out afterwards. The basic rule with bringing anything to the playa is Don't Bring Anything You Can't Afford To Lose - that includes everything from your car to your body, your shoes to your tent. It could be a blissfully perfect and white-out free year, but someone could still crash into it with an art-car. It could also be a blasted hell-scape with dust so thick you can't see 10 feet, in which you wouldn't want to bring it out since there would be a very good chance of endangering someone else (no, I'm not exaggerating - see image below)

My gut answer would be to leave it at home.

This is during the brightest part of the day in 2007, during a white-out:

BRC2007 144.jpg

[Ratty]

Now. Imagine being blown all over the playa with no control. "Hey! Somebody pop that fool".

[Meat Hunter]

Sun roasted sparr for dinner still sounds good to me.

What type of sauce do you suppose we should use with it?

[ygmir]

Sun roasted sparr for dinner still sounds good to me.

What type of sauce do you suppose we should use with it?

bread crumbs!! it'll be like "shake and bake"

[Meat Hunter]

ygmir,

What a great idea, crumb coated and sun baked sparr for dinner. Great for elegant dining. Make mine medium rare.

sparr,

When you bound over the trash fence, not to worry. Those mountains 20 miles away should stop you quite nicely. It will be a pleasant walk back across the dry desert in 100 degs -- if the buzzards and crows don't get you first, then ygmir and I would be denied the pleasure of your presence at the dinner table.

All jesting and poking at you aside. With a potential for 60+ mph wind sweeping across the playa unexpectedly and at anytime, no one would be able to help you. Bringing your zorb is not a good idea a'tall.

[Savannah]

Hey everyone, come look! This guy cares about the condition of his stuff!

Sparr, you may have asked a question that has never been asked on ePlaya. That's hard to do.

Unfortunately, I'm not sure we have zorb-owners among the regulars here. If you receive advice from zorb-owning Burners among your friends, I hope you share it here.

If you take your zorb and it goes really well--OR really badly--share some video.

[Drawingablank]

I have no experience with a Zorb - but I can't see using one on the playa having a happy ending.

[maladroit]

I have no experience with a Zorb - but I can't see using one on the playa having a happy ending.

I could....

[ygmir]

I have no experience with a Zorb - but I can't see using one on the playa having a happy ending.

I could....

[media]

[FIGJAM]

I picture you and Elliot playing soccer with it in your trucks once it clears the trash fence!!!

[Simon of the Playa]

i saw these on the TV the other day and immediately thought "wow, there are going to be a few stupid fucks who actually bring this idiocy to the playa" and i was right...

[EspressoDude]

The scariest part of this: A wind blown ZORB with a human inside. Neither can be controlled, neither can speed and direction.
ZORB and human get rolling along 8 - 10 mph and LEO starts chasing. looking for a speeding citation.
ZORB and human roll into a 'pyrotechnic' spewing 'art' car.
POOF puncture, ignition. dead bodies, moop.
BM and BLM presidential interest......

next thing the Feds will want is a Black Rock White House and a Willard Hotel to back it up

[FIGJAM]

Call it ART when it goes to court.

[EspressoDude]

.....now a ZORB on a leash, filled with all of the confiscated lasers, might look pretty good for a while!

until...

the human inside was blinded....

the lasers melted thru the scuffed vinyl..and escaped....into the hands of the clueless

[sparr]

So many comments to reply to...

First, regarding wind. Yes, a zorb can get pushed around by the wind. However, most of the videos you'll find of people losing control of a zorb due to momentum or wind involve a *balanced* zorb, with two humans strapped to the walls inside, so it's free to roll around with minimal resistance. Most of them also include a hill, so the zorb already has a lot of momentum by the time anyone has thoughts of stopping it. My zorb does not have straps on the inside. It is meant for hamster-ball style travel, with humans walking around inside it. Also the playa is flat, so riders shouldn't ever find themselves in a high-kinetic-energy situation that they need to escape from without planning for that to happen. Simply sitting down "on the floor" inside the zorb will severely retard any momentum that it has or efforts to further move it from the outside, as will rotating it so that the opening points downwards, making a slight flat spot. That includes resisting wind and rolling down slopes and being pushed by other humans. With two medium size adult humans inside, 25mph wind gusts cause it to rock a little. I suspect that a 60mph gust would cause us to tumble (remember, spheres have a low coefficient of drag!), but there would have to be sustained 60mph winds to actually keep a non-consenting human moving across the playa in the zorb, and even then they could just slide out and abandon the zorb to the wind in favor of saving themselves. I would be very very sad to moop a zorb, both from cost and LNT perspectives, but that's better than actually endangering a rider.

Second, heat. I took a lot of advice from another zorb owner who travels to regional burns when I bought mine. Most of it was good. Having just a single opening was not One opening means little air flow, so it's a greenhouse in the sun. Having it out on an 80F sunny day at a park in Chicago, it's too warm inside for people to enjoy for more than a few minutes at a time. The good news is that low air flow might mean a little less dust getting tossed around inside. I'm sure some crazy people would still be willing to use it during the day. Conversely, at night it's still fun, and at least slightly insulating, and I've got some ideas for attaching lights to it. And, best of both worlds, it should be quite comfortable to use around dawn and late twilight, when it's still bright enough outside to be safe without lighting, but there's no direct sunlight to bake the riders.

Third, my original concern, scratches. I do vaguely care about the condition of my zorb. However, I think that some time with polishing compound afterwards will remove the scratches, since I hear playa dust is very very fine to begin with, so I'm not too worried about it being damaged by dust so that I can't use it after the burn. What I'm more worried about is how long it will be useful at the burn. If I bring it out and it becomes unusable in an hour, that will be a sad waste of effort. If it lasts for 2-3 days, that will be great. I'll also bring some patches, so that I can repair it when someone rolls it over an uncapped tent stake and pops it. That's quite expected wear and tear.

Fourth, visibility. Until it gets a lot more scratched up, the zorb isn't much more visibility-impacting than a costume with a weird helmet. It's clear enough that you can recognize people through it, and read big text on shirts and signs. At night I plan to illuminate the environment and/or the interior of the zorb.

Thanks for all of your feedback so far!

[maladroit]

The dust sticking to the outside will be more vision obscuring than any scratches you might pick up. Seriously go blow up your zorb right now and rub a box of cornstarch over the entire surface, inside and out, this is exactly what will happen.

And wind loading is no joke, it's a lot more force than most people realize. Keep in mind that playa winds rolled trailers and RVs over last year during early entry and everyone still thought this was another pretty easy year for weather.

[Drawingablank]

Do what you want, but you are severely underestimating what the wind can do out there. And it can happen without any warning too.

Last year a few days before opening it rolled a mobile home (not a camper but and actual mobile home).

Just last weekend it wreaked havoc http://www.burn.life/blog/the-playa-strikes-back

[sparr]

I'm asking about the vinyl windows on a cloth top for a jeep or similar vehicle. The flexible rubber-y kind, not hard plastic or glass windows. Does it adhere well enough that you have to wipe it off, or does it get blown off when the wind gusts?

[Meat Hunter]

sparr.

This will be your first Burn and you know absolutely nothing about the conditions that you are going to face or the personal and property damage that you might do to others.

Most of the comments that you have received in this thread are from burners with years of surviving all that the worse that the playa can throw at them.

Ask yourself, how many of the comments from these veteran burners were supportive of what you are proposing?

I am out of here. Let him bring it on because he is not listening and get what he deserves; hopefully he will not hurt or kill someone else.

[Sham]

This dust is talcum powder fine and very alkaline. It will get in every crack and crevice of both your Jeep and you. It will wash off of both you and the vehicle with a strong power wash. It's important to note that it will take several showers and a few weeks before you stop finding this dust on your body. I hope this info helps.

[maladroit]

I'm imagining a completely brown zorb barrelling into the city, with laser guided precision slamming into his own beveled edge, 10 times the work and 1/10th the strength, hexayurt.

[Drawingablank]

Funny, but I have an image of a big brown ball moving at warp speed right over the trash fence and ending up 200 miles away.

[ygmir]

Funny, but I have an image of a big brown ball moving at warp speed right over the trash fence and ending up 200 miles away.

or impaled on one of the fence posts........