IRODUCTION hat makes a sport extreme It's a tricky question Most sports even those that call for simple running and swimming skills entail certain risks At the same time not all dangerous forms of recreation qualify as sports Bungee jumping for instance requires lots of nerves a but no particular skill Most extreme sports involve practiced skills and competitions with compara tively high risks of injury In many of these alternative sports as they're sometimes called high speed accounts for the risks Examples include freestyle skiing street luge skateboarding snowboarding in line roller skating BMX and motocross Racing and acrobatic competitions for motorcy cles and snowmobiles usually are classified as extreme The definition can also include such pursuits as rock climbing and skydiving Many of today s extreme sports were on the fringe of serious athletic competition
INTRODUCTION Christi Brown seen here smiling at about 10 000 feet 3 000 m above Gardiner N on July 26 2014 has been skydiving since 2012 Her arms are positioned in a way she says helps stabilise her sitfly After leaving the aircraft she free falls for about sixty seconds then parachutes We until the 1990s Surfers skateboarders par achutists and rock climbers were admired and respected for their skills However their activities were considered recreation not sport To many people the term extreme sports is associated with the X Games This festival of high risk alternative com petitions was introduced in 1995 by the cable network ESPN Televised X Games
ExTREME SPORTS AND THEIR GREATEST COMPETITORS have become enormously popular Some of the sports featured in the early X Games have been added to the Summer and Winter Olympic Games But neither the X Games nor the Olympics encompass all of the sports that are considered extreme Most everyone would agree that skydiving from a height of 24 miles 39 kilometers is also extreme So is spending a week exploring a pitch black cave 5 000 feet 1 500 meters beneath the surface of the earth The definition of extreme sports is changing and expanding year by year Adventurous athletes constantly push the envelope They look for riskier challenges to conquer and more clever ways to conquer them Once they conquer them and their rivals copy and then exceed what the origi nators have done those feats become less extraordinary In time what once was push ing the envelope produces only yawns Waterskiing for example was viewed as a daredevil phenomenon when it was invented in 1922 Today the greatest hazard posed by waterskiing may be the fact that so many people are doing it congesting lakes Along with profiles of notable competi tors this book breaks down extreme sports
INTRODUCTION according to where they take place from the sky and cliffs to snowy slopes on streets ramps racetracks and in arenas and in caves cragged canyons and the deep blue Sea Many of the extreme sports described here share a unique subculture that sepa rates them from traditional team sports It is a youth oriented culture that has embraced new music and fashion and emphasizes indi vidual creativity Energetic young people are drawn to these sports because they offer individual freedom At their own pace aspir ing athletes can learn practice progress and ultimately excel They can practice and per form alone or when they want with friends Discipline and training are demanded but they are self imposed and self paced However readers who are interested in taking up these sports must not under estimate the danger Loss of balance on a skateboard or skis can result in a life changing injury for a novice Failure to heed the weather can leave a caver or canyon explorer trapped at the mercy of swiftly flooding waters Read on and learn more about the excitement and the perils of extreme sports 9
