The balance board is used as a circus skill for recreation and performance. For many circus performers a balance board is called a rola bola. Skillful and dramatic balancing acts using the rola bola are performed by circus performers in traditional circus as well as by freelance circus skills artists. The performance can involve a single rola bola or a stack of multiple rola bolas on top of one another to increase the challenge and visual spectacle. Some circus performers also combine the use of the rola bola with other other circus skills to present a different visual spectacle.
Originally produced for skiers and then surfers to practice their skills in the off season and at night, a balance board is a device that has come to be used for training in all sports and martial arts, for physical fitness and for non-athletic purposes.