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Encyclopedia > Extreme sport

Extreme sport (also called action sport and adventure sport) is a media term for certain activities perceived as having a high level of inherent danger or difficulty and often involving speed, height, a high level of physical exertion, and highly specialized gear or spectacular stunts.[1] Image File history File links Broom_icon. ... The Extreme Sports Channel is a UK-owned, Netherlands-based extreme sports television channel available across Europe and the Middle East. ... Look up activity in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... For the Parker Brothers board game, see Risk (game) For other uses, see Risk (disambiguation). ...

Wave jumping wipeout. While attempting a forward loop in overpowered storm conditions off the coast of Cantabria, Spain, windsurfer Justin Wheeler gets catapulted into a high double flip.
Wave jumping wipeout. While attempting a forward loop in overpowered storm conditions off the coast of Cantabria, Spain, windsurfer Justin Wheeler gets catapulted into a high double flip.

Contents

Image File history File links No higher resolution available. ... Image File history File links No higher resolution available. ... For the Mesozoic island Cantabria, see Cantabria (Mesozoic island). ...

Overview

Ice climbing is considered an extreme sport.[attribution needed]
Ice climbing is considered an extreme sport.[attribution needed]

Extreme sports are often associated with various youth subcultures. Extreme sports are no more "extreme" than traditional activities played at a high level. The few generalizations that can be made about extreme sports is that they are almost always individual instead of team activities and that they often focus on performing tricks or stunts. Download high resolution version (1704x2272, 1406 KB) Wikipedia does not have an article with this exact name. ... Download high resolution version (1704x2272, 1406 KB) Wikipedia does not have an article with this exact name. ... Ice climbing is the recreational activity of climbing ice formations such as icefalls, and frozen waterfalls. ... In sociology, anthropology and cultural studies, a subculture is a set of people with a set of behaviors and beliefs, culture, which could be distinct or hidden, that differentiate them from the larger culture to which they belong. ...


In 2006, the Extremity Games was formed for people with physical disabilities, specifically limb loss (amputees) or limb difference, to be able to compete in extreme sports. The College Park Industries, a manufacturer of prosthetic feet, organized this event to give disabled athletes a venue to compete in this increasingly popular sports genere also referred to as action sports. This annual event held in the summer in Orlando, FL includes competitions in skateboarding, wakeboarding, rock climbing, mountain biking, surfing, moto-x and kayaking. The Extremity Games is a multi-sport, action sports competition, similar to the X Games, for athletes with physical disabilities, specifically people living with limb loss (amputees) and limb difference. ... Disabilities are limitations in activity and/or functioning that are attributable to permanent medical conditions in physical, mental, emotional, and/or sensory domains and, significantly, are also due to societal responses to those limitations. ... Amputation is the removal of a body extremity by trauma or surgery. ... A United States soldier demonstrates Foosball with two prosthetic limbs In medicine, a prosthesis is an artificial extension that replaces a missing part of the body. ...


Marketing

Some contend that the distinction between an extreme sport and a conventional one is as much to do with marketing as it is to do with perceptions about levels of danger involved or the amount of adrenaline generated. Furthermore a sport like rugby union, though dangerous and adrenaline-inducing, would not fall into the category of extreme sports due to its traditional image, and it does not have certain things that other extreme sports do, such as very high level of speed and an intention to perform stunts. Scuba diving is not seen as an extreme sport these days, despite the level of danger and physical exertion, because of its primarily adult demographic. Also the fact that it is not classed as a sport, as there is no objective to the activity. Another example: compare the perception of demolition derby, not usually thought of as an extreme sport, to that of BMX racing, which is. Demolition derby has an adult demographic, BMX is a youth sport. For the magazine, see Marketing (magazine). ... For other uses, see Rugby (disambiguation). ... Scuba diving is swimming underwater while using self-contained breathing equipment. ... A demolition derby under way at the Greenwich, Ohio Firemens Festival, 2005 Demolition derby is a motorsport usually presented at county fairs and festivals. ... A BMX race. ...

The definition of extreme sports may have shifted over the years due to marketing trends. When the term first surfaced circa the late 1980s/early 1990s, it was used for adult sports such as skydiving, scuba diving, surfing, rock climbing, snow skiing, water skiing snowboarding, mountain biking, mountaineering, cave exploration, storm chasing, hang gliding, and bungee jumping, many of which were undergoing an unprecedented growth in popularity at the time. Outside magazine, not the X Games, epitomized the meaning of the term, and if there was a clothing style associated with extreme sports it was an "outdoorsy" look favoring brand names associated with mountaineering or backpacking such as The North Face and Patagonia, Teva sandals or hiking boots for footwear, etc. The term nowadays applies more to youth sports like skateboarding, snowboarding, and BMX and is closely associated with marketing efforts aimed at youth (e.g. the ad campaigns of Mountain Dew), and with their favored styles of clothing and music, especially the kind of urban baggy look associated with skateboarders, and loud, fast alternative rock. This shift in styles may also be partly a generational shift, as Baby Boomers and Generation X have aged and marketing efforts associated with extreme sports shifted toward the younger Generation Y demographic sometime in the mid to late 1990s. Image File history File links Download high resolution version (2379x2274, 338 KB) Summary Photographed by and copyright of (c) David Corby (User:Miskatonic, uploader) 2006 Licensing File links The following pages link to this file: Hang gliding User:Miskatonic ... Image File history File links Download high resolution version (2379x2274, 338 KB) Summary Photographed by and copyright of (c) David Corby (User:Miskatonic, uploader) 2006 Licensing File links The following pages link to this file: Hang gliding User:Miskatonic ... Hang gliding is one of the windsports. ... Mount Tamalpais (Mount Tam) is a peak in Marin County, California, USA. It is a popular hiking destination for residents of the San Francisco Bay Area, home to the Edgewood Botanic Garden, and often considered symbolic of Marin County. ... Skydiver about to land Parachuting, or skydiving, is a recreational activity, competitive sport and method of deployment of military personnel (and occasionally, firefighters). ... Scuba diving is swimming underwater while using self-contained breathing equipment. ... For other uses, see Surfing (disambiguation). ... Climbers on Valkyrie at the Roaches. ... Members of the US Air Force skiing (and snowboarding) at Keystone Resorts 14th Annual SnoFest An alpine skier Deep powder skiing Skiing is the activity of gliding over snow using skis (originally wooden planks, now usually made from fiberglass or related composites) strapped to the feet with ski bindings. ... // Water skiing began in 1922 when Ralph Samuelson strapped two boards to his feet and rigged a clothesline up to his boat on Lake Pepin in Lake City, Minnesota. ... Snowboarder in a half-pipe Snowboarder riding off cornice Snowboarding contributes greatly to the economies of ski resorts Snowboarding is a sport that involves descending a snow-covered slope on a snowboard that is attached to ones feet using a boot/binding interface. ... Mountain biker riding in the Arizona desert. ... An open crevasse. ... Inside the cave at Cave Stream, New Zealand Caving is the recreational sport of exploring caves. ... NSSL vehicles on Project Vortex, equipped with surface measurement equipment. ... Hang gliding is one of the windsports. ... Bungee Jump in Normandy, France (Souleuvre Viaduct) Bungee jumping (or bungy jumping) is the sport that originated from New Zealand and was created by maverick daredevil A J Hackett, and his original jump from a bridge in Greenhithe, Auckland. ... Outside is a magazine focused on the outdoors. ... Mountain Dew is a caffeinated, sweet, citrus-flavored soft drink produced by PepsiCo, Inc. ... A baby boom is defined as a period of increased birth rates relative to surrounding generations. ... For other uses, see Generation X (disambiguation). ... Look up Generation Y in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ...


The term gained popularity with the advent of the X Games, a made-for-television collection of events. Advertisers were quick to recognize the appeal of the event to the public, as a consequence competitors and organizers are not wanting for sponsorship these days. The high profile of extreme sports and the culture surrounding them has also led people to invent parodies, such as Extreme ironing, urban housework, extreme croquet, and house gymnastics. For the computer game series named X, see X (computer game series). ... Generally speaking, advertising is the paid promotion of goods, services, companies and ideas by an identified sponsor. ... Extreme Ironing (or EI) is an extreme sport and a performance art in which people take an ironing board to a remote location and iron a few items of clothing. ... A household chore is a specific piece of work required to be done as a duty or for a specific fee, related to or used in the running of a household. ... eXtreme Croquet is a variation on croquet mainly distinguished by its lack of any requirement pertaining to out-of-bounds or field specifications. ...


The difference between the serious extreme sports and imitation or parody is not always obvious.


Adrenaline rush

A feature of such activities in the view of some is their alleged capacity to induce an adrenaline rush in participants. However, the medical view is that the rush or high associated with the activity is not due to adrenaline being released as a response to fear, but due to increased levels of dopamine, endorphins and serotonin because of the high level of physical exertion.[attribution needed] Furthermore, a recent study suggests that the link to adrenaline and 'true' extreme sports is tentative.[2] The study defined 'true' extreme sports as a leisure or recreation activity where the most likely outcome of a mismanaged accident or mistake was death. This definition was designed to separate the marketing hype from the activity. Another characteristic of activities so labeled is they tend to be individual rather than team sports. Extreme sports can include both competitive and non-competitive activities. Epinephrine (INN) or adrenaline (BAN) is a hormone and a neurotransmitter. ... For other uses, see Dopamine (disambiguation). ... For other uses, see Endorphin (disambiguation). ... Serotonin (pronounced ) (5-hydroxytryptamine, or 5-HT) is a monoamine neurotransmitter synthesized in serotonergic neurons in the central nervous system (CNS) and enterochromaffin cells in the gastrointestinal tract of animals including humans. ...


Reasons

Some who enjoy extreme sports repudiate the stereotypical "adrenaline junkie" tag. The practitioners would claim they enjoy developing their physical and/or mental skills, seek mastery of inhospitable environments, look to escape from the mundane rigors of day-to-day existence, or simply love the wilderness environment in which many of these sports take place. Bob Drury, a paraglider pilot says, "We do these things not to escape life, but to prevent life escaping us"—even though accidents in these sports could be fatal. Many participants also don't think of their activities as either extreme or sports at all. To the most passionate purists, the sport label doesn't fit because they aren't competing to win anything. Worse, the extreme label has frequently been blamed for stereotyping participants in these activities as stupid, reckless, and even suicidal. Eric Brymer PhD (2005) [3] also found that the potential of various extraordinary human experiences, many of which parallel those found in activities such as meditation, was an important part of the extreme sport experience. For other uses, see Stereotype (disambiguation). ... Adrenaline Rush redirects here. ... Paragliding is a recreational and competitive flying sport. ...


Some of the sports have existed for decades and their proponents span generations, some going on to become well known personalities. Rock climbing and ice climbing have spawned publicly recognizable names such as Edmund Hillary, Chris Bonington, Wolfgang Gullich and more recently Joe Simpson. Another example is surfing, which was originally invented centuries ago by the native inhabitants of Hawaii. Climbers on Valkyrie at the Roaches. ... Ice climbing is the recreational activity of climbing ice formations such as icefalls, and frozen waterfalls. ... Sir Edmund Percival Hillary, KG, ONZ, KBE (born 20 July 1919) is a New Zealand mountaineer and explorer. ... Sir Christian John Storey Bonington, CBE (born 6 August 1934 in Hampstead, London) is an English mountaineer. ... Wolfgang Gullich was born in Ludwigshafen, Germany, October 24th, 1960. ... Joe Simpson (born 13 August 1960) is a mountaineer and author. ... For other uses, see Surfing (disambiguation). ... This article is about the U.S. State. ...


See also

Look up extreme sport in
Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

Wikipedia does not have an article with this exact name. ... Wiktionary (a portmanteau of wiki and dictionary) is a multilingual, Web-based project to create a free content dictionary, available in over 150 languages. ... For the computer game series named X, see X (computer game series). ... The Extremity Games is a multi-sport, action sports competition, similar to the X Games, for athletes with physical disabilities, specifically people living with limb loss (amputees) and limb difference. ... Extreme tourism or shock tourism is a type of niche tourism involving travel to dangerous places (mountains, jungles, deserts, caves, etc. ... Gravity Games is a multi-sport competition, broken down into Winter and Summer versions, which feature a variety of extreme sports such as skateboarding and BMX freestyle (during the summer) and snowboarding (during the winter). ... An urban explorer stands near the outfall of a muffin shaped brick and concrete storm drain, under Saint Paul, Minnesota. ...

References

Wikimedia Commons has media related to:
Extreme sports
  1. ^ Houghton Mifflin Company (2004). The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition.. Dictionary.com. Retrieved on 2007-06-11. “5. Biology: c. Very dangerous or difficult: extreme rafting. 6. Sports: b. Participating or tending to participate in a very dangerous or difficult sport: an extreme skier.” 
  2. ^ Brymer, Eric and Gray, Tonia PhD, Extreme Sports: A Challenge to Phenomenology. University of Wollongong, Australia, 2004
  3. ^ Brymer, Eric PHD, Extreme Dude: A Phenomenological Perspective on the Extreme sports experience . University of Wollongong, Australia, 2005

  Results from FactBites:
 
Extreme sport - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia (852 words)
Extreme sport (also called action sport, adventure sport, and adventurous sport) is a general term for sports featuring speed, height, danger, a high level of physical exertion, highly specialized gear, or spectacular stunts.
Extreme sports are often associated with young adults wishing to push themselves to the limits of their physical ability and fear, in turn pushing the boundaries of a particular sport.
Some contend that the distinction between an extreme sport and a conventional one is as much to do with marketing as it is to do with perceptions about levels of danger involved or the amount of adrenaline generated.
Extreme sport - Facts, Information, and Encyclopedia Reference article (497 words)
An extreme sport (also known as an action sport) is a general, somewhat hazily-defined term for any of several newer sports involving adrenaline-inducing action.
Extreme sports are most often pursued by young adults who wish to push their own limits of fear and physical ability, and in doing so, also help to push the limits of their sport as a whole.
Indeed, the distinction between an extreme sport and a conventional sport is often as much due to marketing as the level of danger involved or the adrenaline generated.
  More results at FactBites »


 

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