Extreme Sports...?

ba

alright, how's it going? probably one of my favourite channels on the box is Extreme Sports on channel 419 of Sky. That and eurosport.

whatever is on it, is always pretty good to watch. but what constitutes an 'extreme sport'? is there a rule or principal that underlines them all... surfing, skate boarding, snow boarding, mountain biking, DH, BMX, Motocross, etc.

appreciate some insight

Mitch Buchannon

This might help ye:

http://extremesports.suite101.com/article.cfm/what_makes_an_extreme_sport_

http://www.copperwiki.org/index.php/Extreme_Sports

ba

thanks for those links.

i see that there are a lot of boxes a sport must fulfill before it can be elevated to an 'extreme sport'. but not all sports tick them...? i cant help but think that this is an exercise in guarding extreme sports 'extreme' crown.
like extreme sportsmen are afraid of competing or being active in a sport, rather than an extreme sport.

there are inherent dangers in nearly all sports, for this reason extreme sports should be regarded as just sports. simply sports. but the fact that they aren't suggests something else... and i am intrigued.

LD 50

You say there is an inherent danger in most sports. But was the last time you heard of someone dying as a direct result of playing, or injuries recieved while playing even full contact sports like rugby, hockey, American Football.....

And while I cant think of anyone who has died from Extreme Sports, there is more than an inherent danger in some of these acts, there is a major risk of death if it goes wrong. Thats why these guys and gals practic so much at it.

wideangle

Extreme sports are non team sports,they can also be known as action or free sports.

Groups of people can take part at the same time but not as a team like football,with a coach telling the members what to do.

ba

LD 50, why isn't track cycling an extreme sport? it's quite similar to bmx dirt track racing. or professional cycling, it has all the danger, speed, injuries and more to qualify as an extreme sport.

the only reason cycling wont be in the X-Games any time soon is that cyclists wear aerodynamic attire, and this is not easily marketed to young kids as jeans + t-shirts are, the attire x-games sportsmen wear while competing. imagine what would happen if all Downhill MTBers had to wear aerodynamic skinsuits, as worn by Gee Atherton?

the worst injury i've heard of so far, is that of Stephen Murrays, an injury common to rugby.

PeakOutput

the term extreme sports at this stage is a joke at this stage

there are heaps of actual 'extreme' sports that most 'extreme sports fans' have never even heard of or seen and the people who take part in those sports are generally pretty adverse to the mention of their sport in the same sentence as the word extreme because of the bull**** marketing

i like skateboarding and i used to bmx but vert is boring and motocross big air is way more exciting now than bmx dirt. street is still fun to watch though.

luge is good to watch(dont know if its still in the x games) but its not that ' extreme' really

what else is on the xgames now? rally? fun to watch extremely difficult but not that extreme in the 'traditional' sense

the term encompass's loads of fun sports alright none of them that i can think of is particularly extreme for the average participant and in some cases the top guys at the x games arent doing anything particularly dangerous

PeakOutput

LD 50 wrote: »

You say there is an inherent danger in most sports. But was the last time you heard of someone dying as a direct result of playing, or injuries recieved while playing even full contact sports like rugby, hockey, American Football.....

And while I cant think of anyone who has died from Extreme Sports, there is more than an inherent danger in some of these acts, there is a major risk of death if it goes wrong. Thats why these guys and gals practic so much at it.

you say first when was the last time you heard of someone dieing in 'normal' sports but then go on to say that you cant think of anyone who has died in 'extreme' sports either so whats your point?

a young lad died playing ice hockey about a month ago for the record but that has more to do with their fighting policy than the actual game

extreme sports can/are dangerous but the extent to which the participants play it up is way exaggerated

the winter olympic sport of luge is probably far far more dangerous than xgame luge but im pretty sure that ice luge is not at winter x?

snowboarding is super cool but besides a few elite off piste guys its not really that life threatening.

shagman

Gotta agree with peak output here. The term extreme sports is really just a marketing tool invented by marketing tools. I don't think I've ever met anyone into skateboarding surfing snowboarding or BMX that uses the term except in jest. I've only ever heard it being used by regular teds who think we all go around saying rad to the max dude and drink pepsi max.

"LD 50, why isn't track cycling an extreme sport? it's quite similar to bmx dirt track racing. or professional cycling, it has all the danger, speed, injuries and more to qualify as an extreme sport.

the only reason cycling wont be in the X-Games any time soon is that cyclists wear aerodynamic attire, and this is not easily marketed to young kids as jeans + t-shirts are, the attire x-games sportsmen wear while competing."

Yeah right, Ted.
Track cyclists are welcome to the term if they want it let snickers and red bull fatten and poison the nations kids on the back of there sport. Picture this, take the top 5 BMXers and enter them in a track race and take the top 5 track racers and enter them in a BMX race. Riders ready, pedals ready....carnage!