Social leagues flock to Patterson Park to play games, but now there's a new sport in a league of its own.
“BubbleBall is a game where you wear these bubbles over your body. It covers you from above your head to around your knees, so it's a full encasing bubble. You can roll, flip over, smash into people and you're completely safe,” said Jon Millhausen, co-owner of BubbleBall MD.
Aside from rolling around in the bubble, BubbleBall MD also offers traditional sports with a spin.
“We do games like bubble soccer, bubble football, sharks and minnows, kind of anything you can come up with,” said Millhausen.
Millhausen and his co-owner Ryan Schuman started BubbleBall MD after Schuman returned from Singapore.
“While I was there I saw people knocking around in these and I went to my Asian friends and was like ‘What is that?’ And they said ‘you've never seen that before?’ And I hadn't and I thought we've got to bring this back to America,” said Schuman
They started their company in 2014, and since then interest in the activity has ballooned.
“It’s different. I mean how many times do you walk by a park and see someone throwing a football? All the time. How many times do you walk by a park and see giant inflatable bubbles and people knocking each other around? You kind of want to try it because you don't get to do it that often,” Schuman said.
And for anyone with a competitive side, BubbleBall MD offers drop-in games as well as tournaments.
“I wouldn't say that anyone's crazy good because it's kind of an equalizer when you have a giant bubble on you,” Schuman said.
About 100 people are expected to attend the BubbleBall game Thursday night in Patterson Park. Drop-in games cost $20 and are held almost every week. Private group sessions start at around $200.
For more information on BubbleBall MD and upcoming events click here.
