What
do you do on the weekend? Lazy breakfasts with friends? Glam brunches? Lavish
dinners? Pah. It’s time to up your game and add a bit of adrenaline to the mix.
Dubai is fast becoming a hotbed of extreme sports, with risk-takers
Instagramming their adventures every step of the way. After all, what better
way is there to make full use of the mega tall buildings that surround us or
year round sunshine than by jumping out of, or off of, things? Here’s how you
can join in – if you dare.

Skydiving

This
is an experience that has become something of a Dubai rite-of-passage. If you’re
yet to have a profile picture showing you mouth stretched wide, hair splayed
and helmet-clad, suspended in the air with a stranger strapped to your back
above The Palm Jumeirah then how else will anyone know you live in the UAE?
Jumping out of a plane anywhere else in the world would be something of a big
deal, here in Dubai, however, it’s an average weekend. For just Dhs1,999 at
Skydive Dubai you can get a tandem jump with digital video and stills of the
experience to splash all over social media. Just make sure to read the health
and safety info before booking and remember that it’s weather dependent.

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Swimming
with sharks

Over
the pool? Then how about a dip with a difference? On shopping trips to Dubai
Mall you may have notice the odd diver in amongst the sharks and shoals of fish
having a merry old time in the Dubai Aquarium– and you could be one of them
too. There are a range of shark diving experiences on offer – and don’t worry
you won’t lose a limb. For certified divers, the dive is Dhs675, but they also
offer comprehensive course to enable non-certified divers their time in the
‘deep blue’ for Dhs1050. For the latter option, all the training is done at
Dubai Aquarium, before you’re submerged with the sharks. If you’d still rather
have something between you and those jaws, then you can opt for the 30 minute
Cage experience, for which tickets are priced at Dhs290 per person and are
suitable for uncertified divers. We’re going to need a bigger tank.

Flyboard

Yes,
it’s the shot du jour on Instagram right now. Flyboarding is currently one of
the hottest things to be doing in the Persian Gulf. Make like James Bond and
strap a crazy gravity defying water jet propeller to your feet and prepare to
shoot up to 10-metres into the sky. For just Dhs300 per person for 20 minutes
of ‘flying’, this is one hell of a way to spend a weekend. Just make sure you
have someone on hand to capture it all on your phone. As with most things,
practice makes perfect – and once you get the hang of it you too could be doing
impressive tricks mid-air. The minimum age to try it out is 18 and you must
know how to swim. Safety first y’all.

Fly
gyro

Is it
a bird? Is it a plane? No, it’s a gyrocopter. This nippy little aircraft may
look like something out of The Jetsons, but it’s a real life experience that
you can take advantage of today. Forget your run-of-the-mill helicopters,
really feel the air under your propellors with this intimate sky cruise over
some of the most iconic parts of Dubai. It’s just you and a pilot up there, so
not one for couples to do together, but the novelty and sheer madness of it is
exhilarating. The experience costs Dhs999 for a 20 minute one-on-one ride over
The Palm Jumeirah, Atlantis, the Burj Al Arab and then back to JBR where
Skydive Dubai is located. Maybe not one for nervous flyers.

Zip
Wire

If
you fancy whizzing along a 558-metre long zip line over the fountains at The
Dubai Mall, in front of the world’s tallest building – the Burj Khalifa, then
read on. Tried out first by noted extreme sports aficionado, The Crown Prince
of Dubai, the X Line has garnered its fair share of press since launching in
October 2014. But, you can’t buy a ticket. Still an exclusive (40 second long)
Dubai experience, you have to be invited to try the X Line for yourself by
posting about it on social media, 30 people each week are then chosen as the
lucky few to fly high. Those taking part must be 10 years old or more, weighing
between 50kg and 110kg, and between 1.4metres and 2.1metres tall. You know what
they say, you’ve got to be in it to win it.

Wake
Boarding

If
you thought The Palm’s Riva Beach Club as just about bronzing and Balearic
beats – think again. They now offer extreme sports alongside their topnotch sun
lounging facilities. Wake Evolution – which operates out of Riva – offer daily
lessons in everything from wake boarding to water skiing with prices of Dhs600
for an hour, or just Dhs250 for 20 minutes. However, if you’re really feeling
the urge to hang ten, you can book an eight-hour, all-day session for Dhs3,800.
So perhaps its time to give the horizontal weekends a miss, and grab a board of
some kind instead…they do say you get a better tan in the sea, after all.