If you’ve got the time, the desire and the money, you could be flying high…

Wingsuit flying is a new(ish) extreme sport that, according to its proponents, is the closest man is ever going to get to actually flying. It has been adapted from skydiving and was once considered to be the most dangerous activity going around. Wingsuits have been in development since the 1930s, but with precious little success. Indeed, 72 of the 75 original ‘birdmen’ are said to have died testing their suits between 1930 and 1961.

Even in the last 15 years, deaths have been commonplace. However, the standardisation of suit design and material, plus training, have meant that, recently, the risk factor has greatly …

Fancy playing something a little different this season? Full On World has just the things…

With the Winter Olympics out of the way, we could cast our bleary eyes to the predictable future of Australian sport over the next few months – union, AFL and league. Or we could cast off the shackles of tradition and just go crazy! The following represents the results of our exhaustive research into the coolest and wackiest sports known to man. But if there are any others you think we’ve missed, just let us know…

Bossaball
According to the world’s top bossaball players, this is a combination of volleyball, capoeira (a form of martial arts/dance), soccer and gymnastics. There’s an element of ego-boosting in …

Are the Winter Olympics a waste of precious TV time?

Australia is not exactly internationally renowned for its snow. In fact, given the impression many people overseas (Americans, anyway) have of kangaroos hopping down the city streets, it’s probably fair to say that we are recognised for our lack of the white stuff.

And with all due respect to the likes of Perisher, Thredbo and Falls Creek, it’s hardly an unfair assessment. So why on earth would anyone expect us Aussies to get excited about the Winter Olympic Games taking place in Vancouver, Canada, from 12-28 February? After all, events like curling (think bowls on ice) and the biathlon (think shooting on ice) are hardly enough …

Whip out the Dunlop Volleys, polish the racket, get the strawberries and cream ready and prepare to turn on the TV, because the Australian Open is here again…

Widely regarded as the Grand Slam of the Asia-Pacific, the Australian Open (18-31 January) is one of the most popular sporting events in Australia. Even though we don’t have the tennis muscle that we used to in the days of Leyton Hewitt or Pat Rafter (not to mention the glory years of the ’60s and ’70s when Aussies ruled the tennis world), Australia is home to one of the largest clusters of tennis addicts in the world.

At its simplest, tennis is just two players hitting a ball …

James Brandon gets something off his chest…

I hate the term ‘soccer’. It’s so patronising. It’s like we’re saying: ‘This is Straya, mate. Aussie rules is football. Rugby league is football. Even rugby union can be football. But you can’t call the most popular sport in the world by its proper name here. That’d be un-Australian, mate.’

What a load of crap. For starters, football is the only one of those codes to actually be played almost exclusively with its feet (Thierry Henry excepted). And for another thing, if Australia is ever to fully shake off the last vestiges of cultural cringe, isn’t it time we embraced the name for the only truly international sport? Hell, …