Can you recall Ethun Hunt in Mission Impossible: II? Or James Bond in Golden Eye? There is a common between these two films. Ethun Hunt was found climbing a rocky mountain alone, with the help of nothing. James Bond was found jumping over the edge of a dam in Russia. All these two are considered as extreme sports. Perhaps these sports are only for heroes who can risk their life very easily. In reality, there are some real life heroes who engage themselves in Extreme sports denying the risks associated with them. They are extreme sportsman and our cover story is about ‘Extreme sports.”
What is Extreme sport?
Extreme sports are often involve with speed, height, a high level of physical exertion and highly spectacular stunts. Extreme sport is used for the activities perceived as high level of inherent danger. Many sports are considered as extreme but there is no particular definition because some sports considered to people as extreme is not extreme at all to the participants. The history of extreme sport is very old. In the ancient time, people used to engage in many dangerous activities due to their living. But with the advent of time, life becomes easier and people are engaging with those activities only for recreation risking their life.
Extreme sports are becoming popular with the help of print and electronic media. Some TV channels sponsored many of the extreme sports to attract the viewers. Thus extreme sports crossed the national boundary and becomes popular in other regions. In 2004, author Joe Tomlinson classified extreme sports into three categories depending on the place where they take place. There are nine air sports, eighteen land sports and fifteen water sports that are considered as extreme sports.
BASE jumping
Did you watch the movie “xXx” starred by Vin Diesel? Perhaps you can recall the scene, if the answer is yes, where Diesel jumps from a bridge. Its one kind of BASE jumping.
“We’re incredibly excited to bring SkyJump Las Vegas to the Stratosphere,” said Frank Riolo who is a CEO of a Casino in Las Vegas. The sky jump is opened last April and adrenaline junkies and daring tourists are experiencing an 855 foot jump in the Stratosphere Tower. The speed is 40 mph and it takes about 30 minutes from taking preparation to jumping. Thus BASE jumping becomes popular to some ‘dare-to-jump’ sportsmen around the world.
BASE stands for Buildings, Antennas, Spans of Bridges and Earth. People jumps from fixed objects with a parachute packed in the back. The term BASE was given by Carl Boenish who was a filmmaker and filmed the first BASE jumps in 1978. This is riskier compared to other games especially with skydiving. BASE jumps entail slower airspeed whereas skydiving entails higher. The higher the airspeed, the more control of the bodies, so if you are late, in case of BASE jumping, opening your parachute, you are dead.
Due to its dangerous nature, the owners of tall buildings with antennas are not willing to give permission and this decision enforces the jumpers jump covertly. Although BASE jumping is not illegal, covert jumping is illegal in the countries and the jumper along with the accompanying people may be charged with some violation of regular laws.
Sky Surfing
Sky surfing is another extreme sport, a type of skydiving. Similar to snowboarding or skateboarding, a sky surfer uses a board, smaller than skateboard, attached in the feet. Skysurfing is played in teams, each team consists of two members – one performs surfing style aerobatics while the other known as cameraflyer, records the performance. He also contributes to the performance.
All skysurfing performances take place in the sky, a four dimensional stadium called freefall, the only place to fly the body up/down, left/right, forward/backward. Obviously the fourth dimension is speed. Its not easy at all sky surfing and requires considerable practice. Standing upright , controlling the body during the freefall, sliding, spinning, twisting and surfing, and opening the parachute – all need to be done with great skill. This game was introduced by two French skydivers in the year 1986. However, due to its riskiness, few skydiving club permits sky surfing. Although many compares sky surfing with skateboarding, its not like that except the board, its more riskier, and thrilling !
Bungee Jumping
Bungee jumping, also spelled as Bungy, is also an extreme sport of air category but the jumper here is not free wholly like the above two’s. Its somewhat like BASE jumping because here the jumpers jumps from a high structure, usually building, crane or bridge, but they are connected to a large elastic cord, one end is tied with jumpers body, the other is at the jumping point. The elastic cord is designed to stretch during the jumper’s fall and snap back up repeatedly that causes to bounce up and down over the length of several hundred feet or meters high. It continues until the all the energy is dissipated.
The history of Bungee jumping is about a half century old. In the year 1950, some BBC film crew revealed that people in the Pentecost Island of Vanuatu jumps from tall wooden platforms with vines tied to their ankles to show their courage, a symbol of reaching manhood. In the year 1979, some danger loving members of Oxford University Dangerous Sports Club jumped first modern Bungee jump from a 250-foot from a bridge in Bristol. Although they were arrested, they continued jumping and their last jump was even sponsored and telecast worldwide by a Television program.
Any miscalculation causes accidents and often results in sever injury and death. Accidents happen due to the improper elastic cord that should be much shorter than the length. However, bungee jumping is popular in western and European countries and many cities have permanent Bungee jumping operations.
Surfing
Did you watch the animation film ‘Surfs Up’? If yes, then you are quite familiar with surfing. Its a surface water sport in which surfer rides breaking waves into shore on surfboard, a piece of specialized equipment. Long boarding and short boarding are two of its subdivisions reflecting differences in surfboard design and riding style. Surfing got some branches like wake boarding, skim boarding, skateboarding and wind surfing. Surfing is not that much risky as the others, anyone can practice this at any levels. California, Hawaii, and Australia are associated with surfing, but you can find skilled surfers in any country, even in Bangladesh.
The sport Surfing is more than 500 years old and its a part of Polynesian culture. With the travel throughout the Pacific, they introduce this sport to the missionaries and the Europeans. Even Captain Cook himself wrote about surfing during his voyages in Hawaii. Surfing can be dangerous like other sports. Due to the unpredictable waves and currents, surfers can be injured and killed.
Jet Ski
Usually the word Jet Ski or simply ski refers to water sport using a special motorbike like motorcycle, but it is actually a brand of personal water craft from the Kawasaki Motor Company. They designed the water craft, a water skiing device and a part speedboat, in 1973 and very soon it became a generic name among the water sports lover. The specialty of Jet ski is that it doesn’t use propeller or screw motor like the traditional ones, rather it uses an enclosed gas powered motor to push water out in a jet stream.
The higher speed of Jet Ski causes collisions with larger recreational water crafts and speedboats and this may results in explosion of the water crafts that may cause severe injury and death to the sports man. In many countries, using personal water craft is limited and regulated by helmet, age and flotation devices. Some personal water crafts can accommodate two or more riders and with the help of an experienced driver, it can provide hours of excitement.
Scuba Diving
Scuba is the acronym of Self Contained Underwater Breathing Apparatus, although its become a self word now. Its a form of underwater diving that provides the opportunity to explore the life under water in lakes and oceans. The diver uses a scuba set to breath underwater for a long period of time. Majority of scuba divers are recreation seekers, however there are also divers for the commercial, scientific and military purpose.
All scuba divers use the same equipments like fins, a mask, a tank, gauges, and a watch and it may include more depending on the coldness of the water. Recreational divers explore sharks, fish, whales, sea turtles etc under water. There are some scuba divers who love to explore caves under water. Scuba diving sometimes causes accidents like shark attacks, improper functioning of the devices etc. Scuba divers should never dive alone and they should always make certain their gauges, tanks and other equipments.
Wind Surfing
Surfing and sailing – both are included in the aquatic sport wind surfing. It consists of a windsurf board usually two to four meters long, powered by the effect of the wind on a sail. This sport emerged in California in the 1960s and now its popular in almost every country that contains a sea, even its been included in the Olympic events. The interesting thing is that, still the participants in wind surfing are called ‘sailors’ instead of ‘surfers’.
During the ‘sailing’, the surfer stands on the board, controlling the sail on a boom to catch the wind and maneuver. To become skilled at windsurfing, someone usually needs to understand the basics of both sailing and surfing. Much experience is needed to get the proper enjoyment of windsurfing.
Rock Climbing
In a rock climbing sport, the participants climb up or across natural rock formations or artificial rock walls. The goal is to reach the summit of the formation or the endpoint of a pre-defined route. Rock climbing is so popular that competitions are arranged at various corners around the world where the winner is one who finishes in the quickest possible time. Although rock climbing is not included in the Olympic events, the committee recognizes this as a sport.
Rock climbing needs both physical and mental strength, endurance, and balance along with the mental control. Knowledge of proper climbing techniques and uses of specialized climbing equipments is mandatory for rock climbing. Rock climbing can vary depending on the range and variety of rock formation. Rock climbing can be done in a very artificial environment known as indoor climbing. Its the practice session where the beginner can improve skill.
Caving
Caving is another interesting and thrilling but dangerous sport. Its also known as spelunking in United States and potholing in United Kingdom. Caving is exploring wild caving systems for recreation. However, caving can be done for scientific study also and its named as speleology. Some people make differences between caver and spelunkers and the term caver is fixed for the professionals only, not for the casual enthusiasts.
Caving is a very ancient activity for various reasons. The ancient people lived in the caves and the modern people are trying to find their fossils and activities through exploring caves. Renowned sci-fi writer Jules Verne wrote a famous story about caving named “The journey to the center of the Earth” representing the adventurous and thrilling sport of caving.
Spelunkers usually go in groups for safety, and conscientious spelunkers pay attention to warnings about areas which may be archaeologically or ecologically fragile, taking care to avoid these locations. If a cave has not been mapped before, spelunkers may also take mapping data and notes for the benefit of future explorers. Depending on the size and condition of a cave, spelunking can be quite dangerous, or very safe. It is usually a good idea to go out with someone more experienced, especially in the beginning, to ensure that safety hazards are identified and dealt with.
Skateboarding
Skateboarding is done with a skateboard and who does skateboarding is known as skateboarder or just skater. Skateboarding can be used for recreation, a job, an art form and obviously a mode of transportation. Skateboarding is relatively modern and various tricks are used in this sport and ‘Kickflip’ and ‘Ollie’ is two of them.
Like other extreme sports skateboarding is also dangerous and accidents happen very often. It requires much skill to enjoy the sport wholly. Lack of attention and skill may cause severe injuries to body.
Other sports
There are eighteen land sports that are titled as ‘extreme’ and we have explained only three of them. Among the others include racing using motorbike and bicycles in the desert, forest and hilly areas. Various types of skiing like extreme skiing that is performed on long, steep slopes; freestyle skiing that is a acrobatic form of aerial skiing are also included in the category. Different water extreme sports include powerboat racing, round the world yacht racing, whitewater kayaking etc. Whitewater kayaking is paddling a Kayak in a whitewater river that ranges from very simple river to very dangerous river. There are some other air sports also that are considered as extreme due to the riskiness involved in them.
Extreme sports in Bangladesh
Situation in Bangladesh is somewhat different than the rest of the world. Extreme sports are not recognized here although some extreme sports are much attractive to the tourists. The longest unbroken sea beach is situated in Bangladesh and Bangladesh has got some hills and mountains. This can be used for land and air sports and can be the source of earning much foreign currency. However, Bangladesh is doing well in surfing. Jafar Alam is the pioneer in surfing in Bangladesh. He is trying to make surfing popular in Bangladesh with the assistance of an organization Surfing the Nation that will attract tourists more in this area. He is dreaming of surfing becoming the next big sport of the country. The proper authority should come forward to support surfing and other sports using the resources of Bangladesh.