Wind or current may sometimes push you toward or away from the pier where you intend to dock. To find the direction and force of the wind or current, stop your boat someplace nearby and see which way it drifts—and how fast. Armed with that knowledge, you can plan your docking approach and avoid surprises. When wind and current come from opposite directions, they sometimes cancel each other out. Read the rest of this entry »
Pointing your skis downhill as fast as you can is something that millions of us do every year when taking in any one of several ski resorts or cross country touring centers around the globe. Each skier has sought out a bump or jump from time to time, and all can appreciate the rush that even a small launch into the air can provide. That thrill has driven skiers to seek jumps for as tong as there have been skis. Read the rest of this entry »
Parachutists have long experimented with different ways of using their bodies to steer them through the air during free fall. By stretching out in a horizontal fashion, sky divers found they could zoom about in different directions at remarkable speeds with quite a bit of directional control. It was, of course, simply a matter of time until someone tried free falling using a flat surface that could add to their speed, control, and push the limits of what had been done. Read the rest of this entry »
As off-road motorcycle riders have become more skilled, and as the equipment available from manufacturers has become consistently lighter and more powerful with an ever-increasing range of suspension travel, the physical boundaries of what can and can’t be done on a motocross (motoX) bike are expanding. In the early days of off-road motorcycling, the thought that riders would someday leap 40 or 50 feet (12-15m) in the air, regularly, would have seemed absurd. However that is precisely the state of extreme motoX today. Extreme riding is not as new as today’s riders would make it seem, though.
Extreme Riding is not as new as today’s riders would make it seem, though. Hill climbs, trials riding (riders negotiate through a broad range of obstacles, requiring low speed, highly technical, balanced handling), and motoX racing have been part of motorcycle sport for years. In their day, many other riders pushed the limits of what had been done to that date. Daredevil riderexample of an early extreme pioneer, who also had a pretty good grasp of self-promotion. Evel Knievel is a classic Read the rest of this entry »
Mountainboarding is a newcomer to the world of extreme sports, although I can track its lineage to a few other more “established” extreme sports like snowboarding and mountain biking.
Essentially, the mountain board creators developed a hybrid skateboard/snowboard that allows aspects of each sport to be used on terrain where neither can be practiced. Which isn’t to say that skateboarders have not tried using fat tires on their skateboards so that they can ride on loose sand and gravel—they have. Read the rest of this entry »
Mounted to every deck is a set of “trucks.” Trucks are the steering and axle assemblies on which two wheels are mounted. Trucks are available in a variety of widths. Skateboards all have four wheels, two on the front trucks, two on the rear trucks. Wheels are available in a wide array of widths and diameters, and also in different compounds. Compounds vary by their hardness and traction. Generally, harder wheels offer less traction than softer wheels. Each skater has their own preference when it comes to wheel size and compound.
There are two basic types of skateboards: stunt boards and cruiser boards. Stunt boards are designed to be agile and easy to throw around when performing tricks. Stunt boards are either “old school” or “new school” designs and are used to skate street and vert. Old school boards are wide with longer, wider tails than tips. New school boards are narrower and with symmetrically shaped tips and tails, however their tips are longer than their tails. Old school boards generally use wider trucks than new school boards. Cruiser boards are a lot longer than stunt boards, and tend to use wide trucks for added stability and tracking at speed. Read the rest of this entry »
Without question, skateboarding is the embodiment of the outlaw extreme image. Somehow, skateboarding’s unique style and underground culture have been difficult for older generations to understand or appreciate. Skateboarding is a sport that continues to redefine itself, pushing the limits of what can and can’t be done physically, mentally and yes, culturally.
No one is certain of the origins of skateboarding. Some have suggested the first skateboard was crafted by a bored California surfer seeking to polish his skills on a waveless afternoon. Others deny its West Coast origins, and state that the first skateboard was a simplified version of a child’s toy, the push- scooter. Push-scooters were popular toys in the Fifties, made from dismantled roller skates nailed to a board with a crate attached as a balance aid. Remove the crate, and you have a skateboard. Read the rest of this entry »
Once down at the bottom of the mountain, what do you do next? It wasn’t long before boarders realized that adding a windsurfing- style sailing rig to their board would allow them to sail back up the slopes, without needing a lift or hike. All they needed was wind direction from the side or directly up the slope of the terrain. Directly uphill is preferable, as it has the added advantage of making it easy to sail down again, but a side wind is good for speed.
Snowboarders who are boardsailors and boardsailors who are snowboarders, can easily find enough stuff to put together a wind snowboard. In fact, any long snowboard will do the trick. Snowboard sailing doesn‘t require sails as large as boardsailing, because small sails and short booms are the most controllable, particularly on hard- packed snow. Read the rest of this entry »
Snowboarding was reviled for years by skiers and the ski industry. Early on, most mountains would not allow snowboards on their lift systems or their slopes.
These confrontations were when snowboarders, who justly felt they had a right to be on the hill, responded strongly and aggressively in their own defense. More than a few verbal and physical brawls resulted, enhancing skiers‘ perception that all snowboarders were bad news.
These cultural boundaries are now breaking down as skiers begin to appreciate three things; snowboarding is here to stay, snowboarders ride to have fun, just like they do, and snowboarders have attained a level of skill performance that is equal to or higher than skiing in many ways. Read the rest of this entry »
All forms of sport need an element of revitalization or they risk becoming commonplace. Skiing has been a part of life for anyone living near snow-covered or mountainous regions of the globe. With the advent of cheap international air travel, skiing as a sport for the masses progressed until it reached saturation point—interest and participation waned.
And then the surfer-skateboarder axis saw snow glinting on distant hills… Read the rest of this entry »
Sports are about competition, but also about contact. Sports which involve the thrill of speed invariably require specialized equipment to undertake them, but for the sportsman, the nearer to the elements you can get, the greater the sense of accomplishment. So for water skiiers, what could make more sense than dispensing with the skis?
Barefoot Water Skiing began in Winter Haven, Florida in 1947. Water skiing pioneer Chuck Sligh theorized that water skiing without skis might be possible if the ski boat went fast enough. A 17-year-old boy named AG Hancock proved him right, becoming the first water skier to drop a ski and continue barefoot successfully. Hancock left on a family vacation before he could show the trick to Cypress Garden’s Dick Pope Sr.. A few days later, Pope’s son Dick Jr. successfully dropped a ski and got all the glory— photographs, newspaper stories, newsreels, the works. Barefoot skiers soon adapted many of the freestyle moves of traditional waterskiers. Spins, backward maneuvers, body drags, and other tricks made barefooting an exciting new discipline. Due to the speeds required to barefoot, the tricks are especially difficult, and dangerous, since the water becomes very hard in a high-speed impact. Read the rest of this entry »
Wakeboarding is a relatively new extreme sport. Its heritage can be linked to waterskiing, surfing, windsurfing, skateboarding, and snowboarding, and it is quickly redefining how we look at boat-towed sports.
Towing a surfboard behind either a boat in the water or a car on the beach on waveless days is as old as modern surfing. The need to ride on a board drives many “sideways” sports enthusiasts to try whatever they need to get out and ride on their boards. That’s how skateboarding began, and later windsurfing and snowboarding. For decades, if there was no surf, surfers were known to grab a line and get pulled by a boat or even by a truck running onshore. This was no easy trick, since this was not the intended purpose of a surfboard. Strong surfers could pull it off and get some turns in on a flat day. Read the rest of this entry »
When you get really cold, the body transfers warmth from the skin surfaces to the body centre in order to maintain core heat. This causes shivering as the skin tries to generate heat and can lead to frostbite. Frostbite is a term which means an actual freezing of the flesh, until ice actually forms in the tissues. A less serious, but still painful form is frostnip, where the skin becomes burnt and blistered by the effects of exposure to winds and low temperatures, but swift action in covering the affected parts and re-warming the flesh can quickly prevent this, or reduce the effects.
Slight frostbite is usually indicated by a whiteness of the skin and a loss of sensation. The ears, toes, fingers, nose, cheeks and chin, are particularly vulnerable. If such signs are noticed and the areas concerned covered and re-warmed at once, then no further damage need result. Read the rest of this entry »
Because of the effect of chill on the body and the need to work hard in order to stay warm, dehydration becomes a possibility at below-zero temperatures. It is important to drink lots of liquids in winter and up to a litre a day may be needed just to keep the body fluids in balance. Tea and hot chocolate may be found to be more refreshing than coffee, but neither tea nor coffee by itself, without the addition of milk and/or sugar, offers any calorific support at all.
Both are possible in the winter and must therefore be guarded against.
Getting a peg to hold in snow or soft ground can be a real problem, especially in high winds. Hammering a peg into frozen ground can be very difficult. In winter carry some thin steel pegs to cope with the latter difficulty and take a selection of long wooden, serrated plastic, or aluminium pegs for better holding insoft ground.
If they still fail to provide sufficient grip, you can use a `deadman’. These are flat metal plates which you can bury in the soft ground or snow, and their shape offers good holding properties. You can, however, use your initiative and construct your `deadman’ from your normal pegs, or whatever aids come to hand. Read the rest of this entry »
A full set of ’shell’ clothing, giving protection against wind and water, is essential in winter. People maintain that with the waterproof protection of shell clothing, you can wear down garments and thus keep them dry, and in theory to a certain extent you can. However, I have tried this out in prolonged bad weather, and in practice you still get wet, if not from rain, then from condensation. Condensation is the real enemy of the winter camper.
Porous materials like GORE-TEX may well provide part of the answer to the condensation problem, for they permit body heat to evaporate and yet prevent rain droplets from beating through. Read the rest of this entry »
Many outdoor enthusiasts avoid the winter entirely, put away all their gear, and go into hibernation until well into the spring. This is quite unnecessary and rather a shame because in spite of generally inclement weather, winter has a great deal to offer. It is a challenge to your skills and the crowds have either departed or are much reduced. When the snow and cold weather set in, a whole new range of knowledge and technique is necessary to ensure your comfort and survival.
As a personal choice, I prefer the winter season, and would urge all outdoor people to extend their season beyond the autumn and see what the cold-weather camping has to offer.
If you live in temperate latitudes with few extremes in the weather, then the winter is less of a problem, except where, as in the U.K., the weather is always unpredictable. Where winter sets in with a vengeance, in such northern latitudes as the Eastern U.S.A. or Canada, or in the high mountains, then your complete range of equipment, clothing and technique must be extended. All must be capable of coping with whatever weather can hurl at you. Read the rest of this entry »
The best way to deal with trouble is stay out of trouble in the first place. This is not quite as obvious as it may appear. A pure accident is quite rare, and in nearly every survival situation, those involved have made a considerable contribution to their own predicament.
Survival techniques depend very much on the actions you take before the situation becomes critical. Once you are in trouble you are largely at the mercy of circumstances, despite your ability to cope. How much choice you have among solutions will depend very largely on your equipment, your experience, and what basic precautions you have taken before you set out.
Can you, the leader, honestly answer ‘yes’ to the following questions? Is the party equipped and experienced enough for what is proposes to do? Is everybody fit and well? Does there exist among the party members all the necessary skills? Have you noted down the location of mountain huts, rescue services and doctors? Has a route card been prepared and checked and a copy left with a responsible person? Have you obtained a weather report, and up-to-date maps? Are you all quite happy? Read the rest of this entry »
