I’ve never been one to let “being sensible” get in the way of an adventure. After all, I went snorkeling in the Arctic Circle in winter and got myself declared missing after going hiking in bad weather on New Zealand’s West Coast. So, when I received an email offering an opportunity to learn how to surf, I immediately replied with, “Yes, count me in!” I just conveniently ignored the fact that I was in Helsinki in winter.
Luckily, the experience wasn’t quite as crazy as it sounds, given it was actually indoors on a FlowRider surf machine (which you may have seen in your local waterpark). In fact, it wasn’t even the craziest thing I could do at the Sirius Sport Resort. That award goes to wind tunnel flying.
What exactly is wind tunnel flying? Think of jumping out of an airplane…but without the fear of your parachute not opening when you get to 5,000ft, and without the time limitation imposed by rushing towards the earth.
Instead, all of the flying takes place inside a giant tube, stories tall and multiple body lengths wide. Wind pumps from the floor to the ceiling of this tube, creating almost the exact same effect as the rush of air you feel when jumping out of an airplane.
We weren’t allowed to just jump into the wind tunnel though. Instead, we were introduced to our instructor, Kimmo Vaahteranoksa, who ensured we had all the right gear for the tunnel — which included shoes, a brilliant red jumpsuit, goggles, and a helmet. It was a very attractive getup, but one that offered significantly less wind resistance than normal clothes — and less items to go flying and possibly injure people as well.
Our training involved lying on a mat and correctly responding to Kimmo’s sign language instructions — the only instructions we would have in the tunnel, since it was way too loud for our ears to be of any use at all. Curled fingers meant bending our knees, which would cause us to immediately drop towards the floor. Straight fingers meant slowly straightening our legs and lifting ourselves higher above the ground.
My first experience in the tunnel was only for a minute — the length of time I would have spent skydiving from 15,000ft. That minute felt like a lifetime. As I tumbled forward into the tunnel, with Kimmo standing next to me (yes, he could stand in the tunnel) holding me in place, the first sensation was having my breath taken away…literally. With the air rushing straight into my face, every breath felt like a gasp.
That’s really all I remember from the first minute in the tunnel. I know Kimmo walked me through some of the basics and I worked on controlling my height, but I also know that I had to ask to leave the tunnel a bit early because I simply couldn’t catch my breath.
My second attempt at flying, this time for two minutes, was much more successful. I must have been more used to the rushing of air because my breathing was more regular and I enjoyed myself significantly more.
I spun around, went up and down, and even did a flip. That last one was completely by accident. Unlike Katja, who was flying with us, I was nowhere near the level where I could attempt flips on my own. Instead, I accidentally made too sudden a movement. One minute, I was facing down with my arms out, the next minute I was facing upwards in Kimmo’s arms as he tried to control my crazy flying.
By the time I got out of the tunnel, I felt like I was just getting the hang of it — and my instant reaction was that I wanted to go again, and soon. In that respect, it was very like skydiving. The adrenaline rush was addictive.
That said, I felt like the wind tunnel was more interesting than the tandem skydive I had done a few months before. Sure, there wasn’t the scenery, and there wasn’t the feeling of jumping out of a perfectly good airplane, but at the same time, there was a lot more technicality to it. I had more control in the tunnel than I ever had during either of my skydives, and that was a cool feeling.
In ten minutes flat, we’d exchanged our flying suits for thick neoprene wetsuits and had met Henri Haapala, our FlowRider instructor. He was the winner of the Finnish flow riding championships in 2014, which I was incredibly impressed with since I had no idea that flow riding was a championship sport.
Bodyboarding was very up my alley, meaning that there weren’t a lot of ways to screw it up. Henri gave a quick demonstration of correct riding technique and then pushed my board into the waves. I was surprised at the sheer amount of force in the waves, yet how easy it was to manoeuvre the board around. I only needed a few instructions from Henri before I was moving backwards and forwards and side to side with ease.
Kneeboarding was a bit more difficult, since it required a bit of balance to be able to sit up and shift the board without falling off. After a number of entertaining tries, I eventually got up and was able to weave around a bit.
Cocky from my success, I agreed to try surfing. This involved slowly moving back into the surf with Henri’s foot on the board and a rope clutched tightly in my hands. I managed about ten seconds before I completely lost control of the board and slammed into the ground. The fact that the ground is a lot harder than water is one of the downsides of flowriding compared to surfing.
I was convinced I could do better, and I knew that if I fell over once and walked away that I would be incredibly upset with myself. So I tried again. Henri slowly pushed me back into the surf, and while I wasn’t particularly stable, I managed to stay standing (while still gripping onto the rope for dear life). I managed about 15 seconds before my foot fell off the back of the board.
I had no idea where to go from there. Should I throw myself into the water and give up? Should I attempt to put my foot back on the board?
Unfortunately I didn’t have enough time to consider either of these options, since my balance shifted and the board suddenly went shooting forward. Since my back foot was completely planted, it didn’t end well. I did the splits and heard a massive POP as the water took me away.
I was terrified of standing up afterwards, knowing that the pop had been dangerously close to my already bad knee. It was tender when I stood up, but not so bad that I didn’t have another few attempts at bodyboarding (this time, jumping in from the top). Surfing though? Not a chance I was doing that again…and if I ever come across another FlowRider, I think I’ll be sticking to bodyboarding and kneeboarding, thank you.
Despite the injury (which turned out to be a partially torn hamstring and a bone bruise to my knee — both much more fixable than previous injuries), I thoroughly enjoyed my visit to Sirius. Not only did it provide me with some indoor activities on a snowy, dreary winter’s day, but I got to tick two items off my “crazy things to do” list.
Have you ever tried wind tunnel flying or surfing on a FlowRider? What did you think?
My visit was sponsored by Sirius Sport Resort, but all opinions stated in this article are my own. Sirius is located about one hour (driving) from Helsinki on the E18, near the city of Kotka. The three-minute flying package that I did costs €90, and surfing costs €25 for a group of up to 8 people for an hour. A number of other packages are available as well.
Thanks to Eugene Kostylev for the great video work on the GoPro while I bodyboarded & surfed!