Adventure Racing
7 insane extreme sports for you to tackle this year
Meet the next generation of trouser-staining tomfoolery.
Ever since Oxford’s ‘Dangerous Sports Club’ dished up the planet its maiden bungy jump in 1979, the world has endured a steady, and often unfathomable intensification of adrenaline-fuelled feats. Sky diving, base jumping, ordinary bungy – that’s yesterday’s news, folks.
The new year is a fresh era, one where the parameters of lunacy have been pushed to the brink. It seems there’s no end to the lengths that humans will go to to get their rocks off.
Here’s an expose on some of the wildest and weirdest currently destroying better senses and gripping the world by the adrenals.
1. Volcano boarding
For the bulk of the free world, a volcano – whether active or not – is a natural wonder best admired from afar. Yet for the extreme among us, it’s is a chance to engage in one of the planet’s fastest growing passtimes: volcano boarding, aka sliding on a board at a righteous pace down the interior incline of an active volcano (the larger, the more active, and more likely of expelling its red hot magma into the atmosphere, presumably, the better). Boards tend to be of the turn of the 19th century toboggan mould, bolstered with a layer of metal at the front end, and a rope hold. High winds in the drop zone can be a hazard, as can rock burn. Though a onesie, goggles and gloves ought to mitigate any serious tearing of the flesh.
Where to do it: Nicaragua
2. Crocodile bungee
Nothing too ambiguous in the descriptor here, crocodile bungee is a refreshingly straightforward endeavour: simply add yesterday’s run of the mill bungy setup with a potentially fatal encounter with living, breathing, snap-happy crocs. If the structural integrity of your bungy rope wasn’t already playing on your mind, there’s nothing like being launched like a yo-yo over a predator-infested pond to induce primal fear. Consider Erin Langworthy’s perilous dipinto the murky Zambezi in 2012, somehow miraculously avoiding death from the jaws of our prehistoric brethren. (For those who like to rein it in a little, Biscuit Bungeeis a salient alternative).
Where (not) to do it: Zambezi River, Africa
3. Limbo skating
Say what you want about extreme sports, they’re a stickler for catchy, graspable semantic hybrids. Limbo skating is, as you’ve probably already put together in your own head, the fusion of skating and limbo, together at last in one crotch-splittingly spectacular event. Word of warning for undexterous Johnny-come-latelys: the competition’s stiff: six-year-old Indian boy, Gagan Satish took out the world record this year, roller skating beneath 39 SUVs just 18cm from the ground. How low can you go!
Where to do it: anywhere you can find rollerskates and a limbo pole
4. Wing-walking
Aero-phobics would do well to shy away from this one. Wing-walking involves being strapped to the roof of a bi-plane as it hurtles you 300km/h through the open skies, with enough dips, dives and twirls to give you that funny feeling down south for life. At 3Gs, this is a rollercoaster to top them all – certainly not for the faint of heart or stomach.
Where to do it: Somerset, England
5. Air-Kicking
Pioneered in the early ‘80s by Van Halen frontman David Lee Roth (not really), Air-Kicking is the brainchild of German daredevil and stuntman Jochen Schwiezer, an activity that supplants the inherent risk of peril associated with most other extreme sports with good old fashioned fun. Schwiezer’s special fusion of ‘air pressure and water recoil technology’ prompts a catapult to launch your flailing body more than 25 feet into the air via a pre-calculated parabolic trajectory, collecting you in a body of water or foam pit. Say hello to this summer’s must-have poolside accessory.
Where to do it: Ettingen, Germany
6. Mountain unicyling
You thought normal unicycling was a trip – try doing it up the side of a highland massif. Mountain unicyling (aka Rough Terrain Unicyling, or ‘MUni’) is essentially mountain biking with one half of your bike gone: an acute feat of endurance and concentration for some, a special kind of madness for others. This sort of terrain is a long way from the circus.
Where to do it: Spanish Banks, Vancouver
7. Powerbocking
While in some parts of the world this has to do with turbocharging a mechanised wild goat, today’s common take on Powerbocking describes the act of running, jumping and performing limber manoeuvres with spring stilts strapped to your feet for maximum propulsion and heroic air-time. Not to be confused with ‘jumping shoes’, or circa-1970s Russian ‘rocket boots,’ these elastic, spring-loaded stilts are made of aluminium with a fiberglass leaf spring, and allow the budding powerbocker to take close to 3-metre strides, leap 1.5m off the ground, and run over 30km/h.
Where to do it: Normany, France
8. Extreme dinghy racing
There’s something delightfully trashy about extreme dinghy: the swampy, budget-end redneck half-uncle of extreme jet boating. A suitably South Australian invention, extreme dinghy began in ‘81 after a wager between two Murray River locals about who owned a faster vessel. Today, the small town of Renmark, SA is home to the annual Red Bull Dinghy Derby, where over 60 teams from around the country soup up 10-foot aluminium skiffs with <30 horsepower outboards for a 90km burst through the crocodile-infested waters of the Murray River Basin (bungee anyone?). Add poisonous snakes, jagged driftwood and 80km/h speeds to the mix, and you’ve got yourself a bona fide day of bush madness.
Where to do it: Renmark, South Australia
9. High-lining
Also called slack-lining, high-lining involves balancing along a suspended length of flat webbing between two objects or anchors – say, two sides of a mountain gorge, or a deuce of urban skyscrapers. The ultimate test of poise, agility and sanity, pundits often go a step further in this game of high stakes ropewalking by performing a range of tricks mid-line, including ‘the Buddha’, Michael Jackson-esque moonwalks, throwing and/or catching frisbees, and the Macarena.
Where to do it: Dolomites, Italy
