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You may not remember it, but there was a time when
sport had a purpose greater than entertainment and advertising. Early
fencing, wrestling, archery, and pentathlon competitions trained troops
in the practical arts of war. Later, sport refocused to improve physical
fitness and impress women. But the following list shows places where
modern sport has devolved into novel death wishes.
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Heli-Skiing
Heli-skiing is off-trail, downhill skiing that is accessed by a
helicopter, as opposed to a ski lift. Heli-skiing is essentially about
skiing in a natural, albeit highly-selected environment, without the
effort required for hiking into these areas as in ski touring or ski
mountaineering.
Heli-skiing has become an increasingly popular activity since its
inception in the 1960s, with operators established in Canada, the
continental USA, Alaska, Iceland, Greenland, New Zealand, Indian
Himalayas, Nepal, Russia, Turkey, Norway(Voss), Sweden, Finland,
Argentina, Georgia, Chile and Switzerland. The Canadian province of
British Columbia is the most popular area for heli-skiing with over 90%
global market share.
The mountain terrain that heli-skiing takes place in is diverse. Runs
vary from high alpine glaciers, to alpine bowls, to steep chutes, to
gladed trees. Rarely, operations have runs nearing 10,000 feet or 3,000
meters in vertical relief. Average runs are more likely 2,000 feet or
700 meters. |
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Bull Riding
Bull riding refers to rodeo sports that involve a rider getting on a
large bull and attempting to stay mounted while the animal attempts to
buck off the rider.
In the American tradition the rider must stay atop the bucking bull for
eight seconds. The rider tightly fastens one hand to the bull with a
long braided rope. It is a risky sport and has been called “the most
dangerous eight seconds in sports.”
Outside of the USA, bull riding traditions with varying rules and
histories also exist in Canada, Mexico, Brazil, Argentina, New Zealand
and Australia, with the majority of them following similar rules,
especially with the Professional Bull Riders organization. |
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BASE Jumping
BASE jumping, also sometimes written as B.A.S.E. jumping, is an activity
where participants jump from fixed objects and use a parachute to break
their fall. “BASE” is an acronym that stands for four categories of
fixed objects from which one can jump: buildings, antennas, spans
(bridges), and earth (cliffs).
The acronym “B.A.S.E.” (now more commonly “BASE”) was coined by
filmmaker Carl Boenish, his wife Jean Boenish, Phil Smith, and Phil
Mayfield. Carl Boenish was the catalyst behind modern BASE jumping, and
in 1978, he filmed the first BASE jumps to be made using ram-air
parachutes and the freefall tracking technique (from El Capitan, in
Yosemite National Park). While BASE jumps had been made prior to that
time, the El Capitan activity was the effective birth of what is now
called BASE jumping. BASE jumping is significantly more dangerous than
similar sports such as skydiving from aircraft, and is currently
regarded by many as a fringe extreme sport or stunt. |
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Big-Wave Surfing
Big wave surfing is a discipline within surfing in which experienced
surfers paddle into or are towed onto waves which are at least 20 feet
(6.2 m) high, on surf boards known as “guns” or towboards. Sizes of the
board needed to successfully surf these waves vary by the size of the
wave as well as the technique the surfer uses to reach the wave. A
larger, longer board allows a rider to paddle fast enough to catch the
wave and has the advantage of being more stable, but it also limits
maneuverability and surfing speed.
In 1992, big wave surfers such as Laird Hamilton and Darrick Doerner
introduced a cross over sport called tow in surfing. While many riders
still participate in both sports, they remain very distinct activities.
This type of surfing involves being towed into massive waves by jet ski,
allowing for the speed needed to successfully ride. Tow in surfing also
revolutionized board size, allowing surfers to trade in their unwieldy
12 ft. boards in favor of light, 7 ft boards that allowed for more speed
and easier maneuverability in waves over 30 ft. By the end of the 1990s,
tow in surfing allowed surfers to ride waves exceeding 50 ft. |
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Motorcycle Racing
Motorcycle racing, the recreational and competitive use of motorcycles,
a sport practiced by both professionals and amateurs on roads, tracks,
closed circuits, and natural terrain.
The development of motorcycling largely paralleled and often coincided
with the development of automobile sports. There was a class for
motorcycles in many of the old town-to-town automobile road races, the
Paris-Vienna race, for example. The de Dion tricycle dominated the sport
in 1897, but two-wheelers like the Werner soon set the stage for an
entirely different form of racing. |
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