This is exactly what happened to Australian professional diver Rhiannan Iffland when she visited a water park in Austria and saw there was a slide which was prohibited to women.
A high-diver, Rhiannan was no stranger to extreme water sports, having successfully dived from heights as high as 20 metres (66 feet).
However this adventure would be completely different to any of her previous accomplishments.
During a visit to the Area 47 adventure park in Austria, the 33-year-old discovered one of the park’s most daunting slides had a stern ‘no women’ warning.
Ever the rebel, Rhiannan decided to see what she and others were missing out on and jumped on the slide.
Diver tries ‘male-only’ water slide
The diver’s friend counts her in and then Rhiannan can be seen flying down the slide – which boasts speeds of up to 50 mph – while screaming from either adrenaline or terror.
Sharing the footage on Instagram, she captioned the video: “Here for a good time not a long time! Another YOLO moment.”
Why are women advised against using the slide at Austria’s Area 47 adventure park?
The video went viral, leaving many people to question why a slide which excluded around half of the adult population existed.
Was it sexism? An elaborate prank?
No, turns out the reason is due to health and safety.
The diver was keen to see what women were missing out on (Instagram/@rhiannan_iffland)
In recent years, there have been reports of women having their insides ‘ripped apart’ by high-speed water slides.
Which sounds absolutely awful, if I’m being completely honest.
According to the National Library of Medicine in the US, women can sustain horrific injuries if high pressured water enters their body, while there is also a risk of infections due to the foreign bodies found in the water.
When you put it like that, the safety warning sounds completely reasonable.
Rhiannan would later clarify her decision to go on the slide, explaining in an interview with news.com.au that it was ‘never my intent to mock the safety regulations’.
“A person’s safety is paramount and I am constantly weighing up any danger with my job,” she added. “To suggest otherwise, is wrong.”
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She would soon learn why women aren’t advised to use the slide (Instagram/@rhiannan_iffland)
Area 47 adventure park has since responded to the viral video, telling LADbible Group the slide was originally open to both men and women, but guidelines had since been updated after a ‘a significant increase in accidents on this slide’.
“This led to a difficult decision: either disassemble the water slide or restrict its use to men only, as it stands now,” a spokesperson said.
Featured Image Credit: Instagram/@rhiannan_iffland
Topics: Community, World News
Travelling alone or being seated separately from friends can be pretty daunting for travellers, especially when you arrive at your seat to find that you’ll be spending several hours sat in-between two complete strangers.
However travelling alone as a woman can also offer up a unique set of circumstances – which is why one airline in India has chosen to offer female travellers the option to be seated away from men should they wish.
Set to be introduced this August, budget carrier IndiGo will give female travellers the ability to see where other women are seated in the cabin (with their seats being displayed in pink) which allows them the option to sit away from men.
Meanwhile men will not being able to see the gender of a passenger seated next to them and will only be able to view which spots are available.
A statement confirming the move by a spokesperson at IndiGo airlines explained that the change would allow travelling to become ‘more comfortable’ for female passengers.
“IndiGo is proud to announce the introduction of a new feature that aims to make the travel experience more comfortable for our female passengers.
“This has been introduced basis market research and is currently in pilot mode aligning with our #GirlPower ethos,” a representative said in a statement.
“The feature offers visibility of seats booked by female passengers, only during web check-in. It is specifically tailored to PNRs with women travellers – solo as well as part of family bookings.”
The carrier will become the first in the world to offer the option. (IDREES MOHAMMED/AFP via Getty Images)
They continued : “We are committed to providing an unparalleled travel experience for all our passengers, and this new feature is just one of the many steps we are taking towards achieving that goal.”
The change will be initially introduced on a trial basis before being rolled out further across the airline.
The move is well intentioned on IndiGo’s part – with research conducted by the FBI in 2022 pointing out that the majority of perpetrators behind sexual assault or harassment on flights are male – the decision has divided people online.
“How will the computer know the gender.. they trick,” one person wrote on social media, while a second commented: “What if male use the feature to sit next to female. Instead of that auto assign seat next to female if she is travelling solo.”
However the move has divided people online. (Getty Stock Images)
However Redditors were more receptive towards the move, with many users sharing how they’ve felt uncomfortable travelling as a woman.
“Yup it’s basically an acknowledgment of how widespread it is for men to be creepy everywhere. Embarrassing,” one person commented.
“God, this is such good news. I always travel alone and my experience was terrible last time,” a second added.
Featured Image Credit: IDREES MOHAMMED/AFP via Getty Images / Getty stock
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Thanks to the increasing demand to live in cities – coupled with a crushing rise in the cost of living – many of us are having to get used to making concessions when it comes to our living situations, whether this be converting a downstairs room into a bedroom or forfeiting the luxury of a garden.
But have you ever wondered what it would be like to live in a house which is just 3ft wide at its slimmest point?
Can you spot the house in this picture? (Omar Marques/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images)
The history of the ‘world’s thinnest house’
Located in the Polish capital of Warsaw, Keret House has earned the title of the ‘skinniest free-standing’ house, even earning a spot in the Guinness World Records.
The house is named after writer Etgar Keret, who was involved in the house’s creation and went on to be the first person to stay there. Keret would later refer to the dwelling as a ‘memorial to my family’ as members from both of his parents’ families were killed during the Holocaust.
Spread over three floors, the house features a single bed squeezed under a window, as well as a kitchen, bathroom and tiny dining area, as well as a ‘living area’ which is comprised of a single beanbag. The house is raised off the ground, with the entrance being a ladder up to the first floor.
Cosy or claustrophobic? You decide.
Keret House was designated as an art installation to get around local building codes (Omar Marques/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images)
Cosy or claustrophobic? (Omar Marques/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images)
Keret house is so tiny that Szczesny officially registered the place as an ‘art installation’ in order to get around building codes in the city. Which likely means that no one can live there for an extended period of time.
Reflecting on how the house came to be during an interview with Dezeen back in 2012, Szczesny explained that he conceived the idea after seeing the gap between the two buildings and wondering ‘who could live there’.
“It started with the space,” Szczesny explained.
“I started to think who could live there,” he continued. “It had to be a person that would like to be a hermit, someone who would like to spend time alone doing something, but doing what?”
However anyone looking to visit the house in person or even stay the night should prepare to be disappointed as it doesn’t appear to be open to the pubic at the moment.
Featured Image Credit: Omar Marques/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images
as supposed to go on a two-day fishing trip with his friend spent 438 days lost at sea without food or water.
José Salvador Alvarenga and his young companion Ezequiel Córdoba planned to spend a couple days out from the coast of Mexico to return with their best catch in November 2012.
Instead, they were forced to navigate a severe weather storm, which took out their engine and left them adrift in the Pacific Ocean.
To keep afloat, the duo had to tip about 500kg of fish overboard, along with much of their other equipment.
Fisherman Salvador Alvarenga was stranded out at sea for 438 days (HILARY HOSIA/AFP via Getty Images)
All they were left with was an icebox which had been used to store the fish.
Córdoba was busy using the icebox to bail the water out, while the Alvarenga attempted to sail to safer waters.
Without GPS signal, the pair were all of a sudden left out at sea for what would be 438 days.
The only way they could eat was by using the icebox, as the fisherman would lean over the side of the boat to catch the fish swimming through.
Córdoba was tasked with gutting the fish and cutting off strips of the flesh to be dried out by the sun.
They were basically living off rain water and raw fish until Córdoba became seriously ill from eating a bird.
Alvarenga told The Guardian that his friend said one morning: “I am dying, I am dying, I am almost gone.
“Don’t think about that. Let’s take a nap,” Alvarenga replied, as his friend took a sip from a water bottle and died moments later.
Alvarenga blamed himself for Córdoba’s death (JOSE CABEZAS/AFP via Getty Images)
“I propped him up to keep him out of the water. I was afraid a wave might wash him out of the boat,” Alvarenga said.
“I cried for hours.”
The next morning, the fisherman said he would talk to the corpse, as a way of keeping sane.
He would ask: “How do you feel? How was your sleep? I slept good, and you? Have you had breakfast?
“First I washed his feet. His clothes were useful, so I stripped off a pair of shorts and a sweatshirt.
“I put that on – it was red, with little skull-and-crossbones – and then I dumped him in. And as I slid him into the water, I fainted.
“What could I do alone? Without anyone to speak with? “Why had he died and not me? I had invited him to fish. I blamed myself for his death.”
Having drifted around for roughly 6,700 miles, Alvarenga finally touched land on Ebon Atoll in the Marshall Islands in January 2014.
Locals helped him to recover and eventually return home.
Featured Image Credit: HILARY HOSIA/AFP via Getty Images/JOSE CABEZAS/AFP via Getty Images
33-year-old Rohan Dennis – who retired from the sport this year – has reportedly been charged with ‘death by dangerous driving’ after mother-of-two Melissa Hoskins, 32, was ‘hit by a car’.
The incident took place in the inner northern suburb of Medindie, Adelaide, at around 8pm on Saturday (30 December).
Instagram/@rohandennis
Major Crash officers attended the scene along with detectives from Eastern District CIB before Melissa was taken to the Royal Adelaide Hospital for treatment.
She passed away overnight.
Without naming anyone, South Australia Police said ‘the driver is known to the woman’.
SA Police told LADbible they are unable to confirm the names of those involved due to privacy laws in South Australia, though it has been widely reported in Australian media that the man and woman are Rohan and his wife Melissa.
“A woman has died and a man has been arrested following a crash at Medindie last night,” SA Police said in a statement on 31 December.
“Just after 8pm on Saturday 30 December, police and emergency services were called to Avenel Gardens Road after reports that a woman had been hit by a car.
Instagram/@rohandennis
“A 32-year-old Medindie woman suffered serious injuries and was taken to the Royal Adelaide Hospital for treatment.
“Sadly, she died in hospital overnight.
“Major Crash officers attended the scene along with Detectives from Eastern District CIB to examine the circumstances surrounding the incident.
“The driver is known to the woman.
“Following an investigation, a 33-year-old Medindie man has been arrested and charged with causing death by dangerous driving, driving without due care and endangering life.
“He was bailed to appear in the Adelaide Magistrates Court on 13 March.”
Instagram/@rohandennis
The woman’s death is the 114th life lost on SA roads this year, compared to 71 at the same time last year, police said.
Rohan and Melissa got married in 2018 and had two children together.
She was a world champion cyclist in the team pursuit in 2015 and competed at the London 2012 and Rio 2016 Olympic games.
Following the Rohan’s retirement at the end of the 2023 season, he paid tribute to his wife in a heartfelt Instagram post.
“Thank you Melissa Dennis for supporting me throughout my entire professional career, all while raising two of the best kids I could ever ask for,” the post read.
Just days before the incident, the family posed for a photo shown on Rohan’s Instagram in front of a Christmas tree.
The caption read: “Merry Christmas from our family to yours.”
Featured Image Credit: Alex Livesy/Getty/@rohandennis/Instagram