When it comes to extreme sports, it doesn’t get much more dangerous than these. Here sports are used to create that ultimate adrenaline high, despite being only one mistake away from being seriously injured or even death. See if these sports send a chill down your spine. You were warned!
1. Free solo climbing
Does rock climbing seem scary? What if we told you people go rock climbing without any gear? Where if you make one wrong move, there’s a good chance of serious injury or even death. How far they go up often depends, and can reach up to 2000 feet. Never does the phrase ‘don’t look down’ carry more meaning.
2. Volcano surfing
Is you saw a volcano erupt, you’d run for your life right? But volcano surfers seek active volcanoes and go surfing down slopes 2000 ft high going at a speed of 50 mph (80 kph). Special jumpsuits are worn by the surfers, with a special plywood board that is unaffected by extreme temperatures. We’ll stick to surfing in the sea, thanks!
3. Big wave surfing
On second thought, we meant surfing small waves and not the ones these maniacs try. Big wave surfers paddle into or are towed onto waves which are at least 20 feet (6.2 m) high, on boards known as “guns” or “towboards”. Once the surfer gets on the wave, he or she is pushed down 20 to 50 ft, and they have to quickly make their way back up before the next wave hits them. Strong currents can slam surfers onto the ocean floor, which could cause serious injury or even death.
4. Base jumping
Would you jump off a cliff? Because that’s what BASE Jumping involves. Much like skydiving, BASE jumpers take a base – usually a cliff or a building of enormous height- and jump off it in order to parachute towards the bottom. You probably have already heard of BASE jumping through Felix Baumgarter’s record breaking jump from 128,000 feet. Doesn’t get much scarier than that!
5. Heliskiing / Heliboarding
These skiers and snowboarders go so far away from the beaten track, they need a helicopter to get there. Choosing high up locations has its risks, the main one being avalanches. Experts are used to assess the risk of avalanches and occasionally blasting is used to double-check. Other risks include tree wells, crevasses, creeks and simply getting lost. Avalanche airbags are also are used as a safety precaution to prevent burial.
6. Deep-sea diving
While other extreme sports risk physical damages, deep-sea diving can affect the mind. Nitrogen narcosis is what happens to your brain the further down the water you go. It’s commonly referred to as ‘the Martini effect’, where every 10 metres (33 feet) is the equivalent of drinking a Martini, and even more Martinis as you go deeper down. This sounds great right? But the record is 305 meters( 1000 feet), which is 30 and a half Martinis, which doesn’t sound great at all!
7. Street luge
Remember falling off your roller blades or skateboard onto the road as a kid. Hurts doesn’t it? Street luge is about traveling on boards in a supine position, and riding down mountain roads at speeds up to 80 miles per hour. Courses can range in length from 0.5 to 3 miles (1 to 5 km) and vary in layout (number and severity of turns). At this speed, flipping over could cause some serious damage.
8. Motocross
Speeding on a motorcycle in itself is quite dangerous, but jumping between ramps and doing flips intermittently really says extreme. Robbie Madison broke the record to reach a 300 feet jump in the air, with Cam Sinclair getting the highest back-flip in the air at 129 feet. Double back-flips are regularly done, and we don’t want to think what would happen if you messed up doing one of those.
9. Wingsuit flying
Is it a bird? Is it a plane? No, it’s someone wingsuit flying. Wingsuit flying is the closest you’ll get to being Superman flying in the air. Your body glides through the air using a wingsuit which adds surface area to the human body to enable a significant increase in lift. The suits allow riders to descend vertically between about 65 and 110km/hr but allow forward motion at speeds of up to 160km/hr, before eventually parachuting to the ground.
10. Sky Diving
Sky diving’s a sport put on many people’s bucket list. As soon as you leave the aircraft, you’ll be falling between 90 and 110 miles an hour. Very similar to base jumping, but because it’s from an airplane it allows more time to do more acrobatics in the air. So experimental people have been with skydiving, that people have actually had sex in the air while skydiving. We don’t know about you, but we’d probably be more worried about falling to concentrate on anything else!