Events
Here are some of the extreme sports events taking place around the globe this year.
Via Ferrata
Via ferrata (which means ‘iron way’ in Italian) is a mountain sport that involves climbing across rock faces and through gorges, using fixed cables, ladders and bridges. The views and, more importantly, the adrenaline surges are often just as thrilling as those experienced by mountaineers and big-wall climbers.
Mountain Biking
Modern bike technology means that almost any terrain can be taken on by a mountain bike these days. Thanks to full suspension, disc brakes and reinforced wheels, you can ride every gradient of trail from lung-busting uphill sections, all the way to perilously steep white-knuckle descents. It’s all a question of fitness and courage.
Paragliding
Tucked into a tiny harness, with a huge fabric wing to keep you airborne, paragliding allows you to soar like an eagle using thermals as your propulsion. Granted, if you don’t know what you’re doing and your wing collapses, or you get sucked into a thunderstorm, it could be curtains. But the thrill of gliding high above the mountains makes the risks worthwhile.
White - Water Rafting
Surge down torrential rivers, trying your best to steer clear of rocks and avoid capsizing. You may have an inflatable raft, a paddle and a helmet, but this won’t make the thrills and spills any less daunting. By the end your knuckles will be as white as the water you’re negotiating.
Velodrome cycling
Britain’s domination in the velodrome at the Beijing Olympics, especially Chris Hoy’s three gold medals, has given this sport a massive boost. Although there are only a few indoor velodromes in the UK, there are now plans to build several more, including one in east London for the 2012 Olympic Games.
Catamaran sailing
Thanks to modern catamaran designs that see yachts sailing at speeds in excess of 50mph, this sport has enjoyed a recent revival among adrenaline junkies. Lighter and more stable than normal mono-hull boats, catamarans can also carry larger sails which add to the speed.
Parkour/Freerunning
If you’ve seen the acrobatic chase scene from Casino Royale, you’ve witnessed elements of these gravity-defying disciplines. Both are used as a means of travelling through urban environments, but while parkour focuses on moving as quickly as possible, freerunning puts the onus on the freedom and artistry of the movements.
Kayaking
There are numerous disciplines within kayaking but two of the most popular are white-water and freestyle kayaking. In the first you paddle along a moving body of water and tackle rapids. When you freestyle kayak you perform moves such as cartwheels, flips and blunts at turbulent river features.
Indoor Skydiving
Indoor skydiving involves floating up and down a vertical tunnel through which machine-generated wind blows at around 190km/h – the terminal velocity of a human body during a skydive. To control your flight you use your arms and legs as rudders. Once you’ve got the basics down you can move on to learning dizzying flips and spins.
Tow-surfing
Sometimes waves are so huge that even the strongest surfers can’t paddle into them. This is where tow-surfing comes in. Big-wave junkies strap themselves to a surfboard and get towed into monster faces by a jet ski to get the extra speed and acceleration they need.
Coasteering
Cliffs are for seagulls, right? Wrong. Cliffs are now the stomping ground for Britain’s latest adrenaline sport: coasteering. Essentially it’s a combination of scaling cliffs, jumping into the sea and swimming through rocks, caves and whirlpools.
Kiteboarding
Grab hold of a kite and then, either seated or standing on a landboard, use the power of the wind to perform crazy stunts. Landboarding is like kitesurfing except that it’s done on sand, grass or tarmac, so if you balls it up it hurts a hell of a lot more.
