Paintball...

Paintball...

I never got to serious into this sport, but when I was was younger for Christmas one year me and my brother and dad all recieved paintball guns. So just like any new toy, you have to out it to use right away. So we all ventured out into the woods fully geared up and ready for battle. Shoots started flying, and it wasn't long before we realized something wasn't right. The paintballs had been left outside the night before and froze, therefore they weren't bursting on impact. HAHA my brother got hit on the top of the head, and me on the trigger finger. This pretty much put and end to our paintball experience for that day.


In 1976, three friends by the names of Hayes Noel, Bob Gurnsey, and Charles Gaines began to ponder over the thrill they got over a hunting trip in Africa, and how they could recreate that excitement for themselves. Thats when one of them inspired by the book "the most dangerous game" and there recent trip came up with the idea of using paint guns that were formerly used to mark tree and cattle as weapons to play among each other. Not long after that the first ever recorded game of paintball took place, it was twelve on twelve, and was capture the flag.

Nowadays paintball is a major sport of which anyone can particapate in. You jus have to be willing to deal with some pain. Better yet, just dont get shot.

Snowboarding...

Snowboarding...

Living in the mountains as a boy, snowboarding is something that was pretty popular where I'm from. I tinkered around with it some, but could never get into it to heavily due to wrestling. Snowboarding was inspired by a mixture of skateboarding, surfing, and skiing. It was developed in the U.S.A in the 1960's and 1970's and became a recognized Olympic sport in 1998.

Compotition for snowboarding consist of 8 main events:

Slopestyle
Competitors perform tricks while descending a course, moving around, over, across, or down terrain features. The course is full of obstacles including boxes, rails, jumps, jibs (includes anything the board or rider can slide across). Sounds tricky, and is very fast paced.

Big Air
Big Air competitions are contests where riders perform tricks after launching off a man made jump built specifically for the event. Competitors perform tricks in the air, aiming to attain sizable height and distance, all while securing a clean landing.

Halfpipe
The half-pipe is a semi-circular ditch or purpose built ramp (that is usually on a downward slope). Competitors perform tricks while going from one side to the other and while in the air above the sides of the pipe. This is my favorite event to watch

Boardercross
In Boardercross (also known as "Boarder X"), several riders (usually 4, but sometimes 6) race down a course similar to a motorcycle motocross track (with jumps, berms and other obstacles constructed out of snow on a downhill course).

Indycross
Much like Boardercross (above), but instead with single-competitor runs, so as to remove 'pole positioning' from competitive equation; the rider has to skid and turn down the course.

Rail Jam
A rail jam is a jib contest. Riders perform tricks on rails, boxes, pipes, wall rides, and several other creative features. Rail jams are done in a small area, usually with two or three choices of features for the rider to hit on a run. "Ive seen some pretty nasty falls on this event"

Racing
The racing events are slalom, giant slalom, and super G. In slalom, boarders race downhill through sets of gates that force extremely tight turns, requiring plenty of technical skill as well as speed.
Giant slalom uses a much longer course with gates set further apart, resulting in even higher speeds. Super G is the fastest of all, with speeds of up to 45 mph (72 km/h).

Slush Cup
The slush cup is an event held at some ski hills on the last day of the season, the point being to cross a man made lake at the bottom of the hill. Very few people make it across but there are often prizes for all that try. This event is more just for fun than other types of competition.

You see Snowboarding being included in many movies nowadays. That's shows me just how popular of an event it has come to be. which is why defiantly suggest everybody to at least give it a try sometime.

unicycling

Unicycle...

What an odd sport of sorts. What some would expect to see only on a circus side show, has become somewhat of a popular thrill seeking sport. It seems to date back all the way to the 19th century when people rode bikes called Penny-Farthings. These bikes had a problem with the cranks and so when riders would begin to pedal there weight would be shifted forward taking the weight off the rear wheel. So riders made modifications to these bikes by taking the rear wheel off and simply riding just what is now known as a Unicycle.

There are many different types of unicycles

Freestyle Unicycles: used for flatland skills and routines

Trial Unicycles: trials unicycles are stronger than standard unicycles in order to withstand the stresses caused by jumping, dropping, and supporting the weight of the unicycle and rider on components such as the pedals and cranks.

Offroad Unicycles: Used for the mountains and rugged trails. Built with much thicker and tougher components.

Touring Unicycles: Used for long distances, these unicycles are specially made to cover distances.

Along with the different types of Unicycles there are all different types of riding styles as well. Most of which branch off from the types of Unicycles. This is a sport I plan on trying out one of these days. Yet, I don't plan on doing it by taking the rear wheel off of my bike.

Surfing

Surfing...

This is one sport that has always appealed to me. It is an art and looks so beautiful when being done properly. Surfing stands for surface water sport, and is performed on waves on some sort or another. The waves do not always have to be salt water, in fact many waves are found in fresh water along meandering rivers. It seems as if the most known early accounts of surfing took place in Hawaii, when the Chief position in the tribe went to the person who was the most impressive on the waves. Also respect was giving to neighboring tribes that had impressive surfers as well, but the best boards made from the lightest/strongest boards was giving to the tribe that had the dominant riders. It seems as if surfing is a culture in its own. The followers of surfing live by a different lifestyle, and approach life from different angles. Not to mention they have there own lingo, "gnarly man" or "Snake". Either way it's an extreme sport I plan on participating in.

Ultimate Fighting

Fighting is a sport that has been around since the beginning of time. It is almost human nature to be enthralled by the challenge of two people going head to head pouring there heart into the fight. Thus people seen promise in this as a business proposition. Early 1990's an organization known as UFC or Ultimate Fighting Championships was developed. In the early days the sport received a bad rap for the negative image that it put off. Critics compared it to modern day gladiators, or said it was far to savage. When UFC began rules were very limited, no biting, no eye gouging, and no groin shots. In the beginning there were no rules pertaining to weight class, and time limit, and the contestants didn't wear gloves. So due to this negative image that UFC put off it seen an rapid decline in popularity and was even made illegal in many states. Yet, partial owner Dana White would not go down without a fight. He changed and added rules to make the fights at least a little more civilized. The rules added would help prevent serious injury among the fighters. Now UFC has surpassed professional boxing with its popularity, and continues it's rise fame.

Imagine waiting three years for the perfect weather to fullfill a life long dream. Jake Scrace and Lewis Crathern of West Sussex England did just that when the two kite surfers jumped the Worthington Pier.

"They took off from Goring to the west of Worthing in gusts of wind that were more than 40mph.

Mr Scrace described the build up to the jump as "terrifying".

Between them they have 16 years' experience in the sport.

The pair said the jump was quite hazardous and should not be attempted by amateurs.

"It was probably the most terrifying thing I've ever built up to," said Mr Scrace.

"We were practising down the road and we were pretty confident we were going to do it but as soon as we got nearer the pier it was quite hard."

Mr Crathern said the jump was "epic".

"It was everything I've lived for - amazing," he said." (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/sussex/8362671.stm)

We've had a few posts about jumping off stuff, what about climbing up it? Like Rock Climbing.

You can rock climb natural formations or manmade ones and the goal is to reach the summit or the end point. Although it sounds simple enough there various types of climbing and there is a lot that goes into rock climbing including the different techniques and specialized equipment.

Types of Climbing:

*Bouldering addicts climb short jumbles of rock, often only a couple of feet high. The key here is linking the moves: because of their short height bouldering problems tend to be fairly intense and technical.

*Free Climbing is the art of climbing a rock without using your equipment for upward motion. You can only use your arms, hands and other essential body parts to climb

*Indoor climbing or climbing on plastic is where most competitions are nowadays. Indoor gyms are excellent places to learn rope handling techniques and to work on the basic moves.

*Traditional Climbing, climbers use their own gear for protection whereas in free climbing pre-drilled bolts are clipped with carabiners. Trad climbers use friends, chocks, stoppers and other passive and active gear instead. This is for advanced climbers.

*Aid Climbing pulling on gear is the only way to get up. This kind of climbing involves staying on the rock for several days (Climbs called Big Walls.) and handling massive amounts of gear. It requires an extreme level of technical expertise and a certain sense for logistics.

*Solo Climbing is the most dangerous game and for the truly skilled only. You're climbing without any kind of protection, falling is simply not an option.

*Ice Climbers use ice axes to move up frozen waterfalls

* Mountain climbing involves living on ice covered slopes for several days at the mercy of the weather, avalanches and more.

Rope Techniques:

* Top-roping, an anchor is set up at the summit of a route prior to the start of a climb. Rope is run through the anchor; one end attaches to the climber and the other to the belayer, who keeps the rope taut during the climb and prevents long falls.

*Lead climbing, one person, called the "leader", will climb from the ground up with rope directly attached (and not through a top anchor) while the other, called the "second", belays the leader.

There is also special gear including shoes, helmets, rope, carabiners, harnesses etc. Boulder climbing and indoor climbing is the best for beginners and although it is not difficult to advance in your climbing, don't expect to be Tom Cruise from Mission Impossible anytime soon.

Bungeeeee!!!

So maybe you'd rather not leap from a building with a parachute, how does falling off then getting yanked back up sound? That would be Bungee Jumping.

According to legend in the village Bunlap a man called Tamalie had a quarrel with his wife and she ran away and climbed a Banyan tree where she wrapped her ankles with liana vines. When Tamalie came up to her, the woman jumped from the tree and so did her husband not knowing what had his wife done. So he died but the woman survived. haha typical.

Modern bungee jumping actually started on April 1st 1979 when group of people from the Oxford University Dangerous Sport Club, impressed by a film about "vine jumpers", jumped from 245-Clifton Suspension Bridge in Bristol, England. Using nylon braided, rubber shock cord instead of vines, and dressed in their customary top hat and tails, they performed a four man simultaneous jump. After the jump they were arrested however the news of this event went worldwide the next day and popularity grew since then.

Unlike Tamalies wife, we do not use vines today to jump we use cords. Most bungee clubs actually produce their own cords but all cords are mainly consist of many rubber strands, which are covered by protective sheaths protecting them from sunlight, wind and dirt. There is also a static-line, which is used as a back up.

Harnesses are also very important there are several types. Most common is the leg harness - it bounded to the ankles. Special covers are put over both of the ankles and are tightened with straps. Another type of harness is the body harness - a combination of chest and waistharness. It is tightened to the body and may be used with the leg harness for safety and comfort.

http://www.bungeezone.com/ and bungee.com have some great videos as well as places to go for an awesome bungee experience.

Skatebaording

Skateboarding has been around since the 1940's and actually was pretty popular in the 1960's, but it wasnt exactly the skateboards we are used to seeing today. They were more makeshift at first, crates and boxes with skate wheels. They were invented by surfers who needed something to do when the waves were bad.

Then in the 1970's Frank Nasworthy developed a polyurethane wheel for the skateboard which changed everything. The traction and overall performance was so much better that skateboarding gained back all its popularity and then some. Vert skating, at parks and in waterless pools was the big thing in skateboarding and new tricks were being developed. However improved safety techniques were not being invented and high accident rates forced a lot of the parks to close down and again for the activity to decline.

In the 1980's vert ramps were still popular but because of peoples lack of access to them, street skating became more popular and the board evolved to fit the needs of the street terrain.

Even though when many people think skateboarding they picture Tony Hawk on the vert ramp, street skating is actually more popular today.

There are 7 basic kinds of tricks we see today: *Freestyle tricks-which involve balancing on some part of the board beside all 4 wheels

*Aerials-floating in the air while using one of their hands to hold the board to their feet

*Flip tricks- all based on the Ollie manuever where the skater bending down and pushing the end of the board down then popping back up to give the illusion of the board defying gravity. Probably the most popular and well known tricks

*Boardsliders and Grinds- involve getting the board up on some type of ledge, rail, or coping and sliding or grinding along the board or trucks, respectively. When it is primarily the board which is contacting the edge, it's called a slide; when it's the truck, it is a grind

*Lip tricks- are done on the coping of a pool or skateboard ramp.

*Pressure tricks-that the board flips using pressure technique in areas of the tail/nose with the foot you pop with.

*Manual tricks-balancing the board while riding on either the two front or rear wheels, suspending the opposing wheels in the air.

B.A.S.E Jumping

Buildings, Antennas, Span (bridges), Earth (cliffs), what do you think of when reading those 4 categories? If you thought "things I want to jump off of" then you might want to try BASE jumping.

In 1978 the first filmed BASE jump was done by Carl Boenish. Carl, his wife Jean Boenish, Phil Smith, and Phil Mayfield were the 4 people to come up with the acronym BASE and really pioneer the activity.

At first it was performed with traditional parachuting equipment, a prepacked chute and a reserve. However over the years specialzed equipment has been developed. This is mainly because the jumps themselves are very different. BASE jumping happens at much much lower altitudes, whith different risks involved and therefore need different kinds of chutes and equipment.

If you do decide to BASE jump remember although the activity itself is not illegal, getting on top of these sites to jump from usually involves trespassing. So the jumps are usually done covertly.

Oh and if you don't get thrown in jail you might die. There are been 136 deaths from 1981-2009, and BASE jumping is considered one of the most dangerous recretational activities. The inventor himself, Carl Boenish died during a jump.

If you do decide to break the law and risk your life after you make one jump off each of the 4 categories you can apply for a BASE number, this means you'll be the "N"th person to complete all 4 jumps! Check out basejumper.com for more information and some cool video of other people doing it.

Free Running

We’ve all seen at least one commercial or music video where people are running and jumping from building to building, climbing up walls, and flipping all over the place and I can bet we have all said, “no way, that can’t be real”. But it is, it’s called FreeRunning and has gained quite a bit of popularity.

It’s origin is Parkour, a French movement where the persons goal is to get from A to B only using their skills of jumping, climbing and specific Parkour movements to negotiate the obstacles around them.

FreeRunning has evolved from that, there is no end goal and it is much for "free" so to speak and more about aesthics and being visually pleasing.

American Parkour, according to americanparkour.com is the leading parkour and freerunning community in the world. Mark Toorock is the founder and also the founder of The Tribe, one of the most talented Parkour perormance teams.

On the website you can find a ton of information about how to get started in parkour, the best places to practice, special diets etc.

If you dont think flying off buildings is for you though, just go and check out some of the awesome videos they have of the half human/ half monkeys that do it. http://www.americanparkour.com/