Orienteering, wakeboarding, climbing, bouldering and rigorous day hiking are among the extreme sports that are growing in popularity in the Ozarks.
It seems that every generation improves upon inventions and skills of the last generation. This is also true in the world of outdoor sports.
Water skiing spawned wakeboarding. Skateboarding produced wakeskating.
Hiking got notched up a level with extreme hiking and running cross-country became more of a mind game with the advent of orienteering.
Rock climbing produced a side sport — bouldering — and also moved inside, providing a training challenge to those who love the sport.
Just because the sport is labeled extreme — or Xtreme — it doesn't mean it's meant only for the young and fearless, though. Here's a look at some of the extreme sports and where you can do them in the area.
Wakeboarding
Wakeboarding is the fastest-growing surface water sport in the country. In fact, Missouri hosts the largest wakeboarding competition in the Midwest every June at the Lake of the Ozarks.
Wakeboarders rely on a boat to pull them through the water, but combine elements from water skiing, snowboarding and surfing techniques in their performance. Towlines are made of non-stretchy rope materials. Boards contain stationary non-release bindings for each foot and also have fins underneath that allow wakeboarders to jump and perform tricks. Wakeboards differ from snowboards because a wakeboard's edges are widest in the middle, whereas a snowboard's edges taper in toward the center. A wakeboard sports a concave shape, known as its rocker. Rocker designs vary, and affect the pop off the wake, landings and maneuvers.
Rich Crum, retail manager at the Ski Shack in Springfield, has been wakeboarding for 12 years. He says the Ski Shack locations near Table Rock Lake — at Kimberling City and Indian Point — offer private lessons at $50 per hour if you use your own boat, and $120 per hour for rental of one of their boats.
"We teach edging techniques that teach the rider to turn and cut. Once they get comfortable with that, we'll teach a one-wake jump, or as you're cutting outside of the wake, pop off the inside and land outside of the wake," Crum says.
"Really, the basis of doing all wakeboard tricks is being able to take your jump wake-to-wake. Once we get people comfortable with either a heel-side cut or toe-side cut or opposite, we'll start teaching them tricks."
Ski Shack also offers a demo program that allows wakeboarder wannabes to try out boards before they buy them.
Crum recommends Cow Creek, Mill Creek and Indian Point Cove for wakeboarding at Table Rock Lake.
The Summerfest Wakeboard Competition will be held July 14-15 at Lake of the Ozarks State Park Public Beach No. 1. This competition will attract several of the nation's top wakeboarding competitors.
For those who prefer to stay unattached from their boards, wakeskating on the water is gaining popularity, too.
"It's a similar design to a wakeboard but has either a foam top or grip top like a skateboard," Crum says. "You can take your kick flips, body burials or shove its out there on the lake."
Day hiking
For those who prefer dry land, there's always extreme hiking. The definition of an extreme day hike is generally that it is a grueling hike that lasts at least eight hours.
Although most extreme hikes take a traveler to an elevation of at least 4,000 feet and on a course of at least 14 miles, hikers in the Ozarks will never reach those heights. One of Missouri's most extreme hiking trails, Taum Sauk Mountain, is now mostly destroyed, thanks to this year's ice storm and a flood in December 2005. Much of the park is closed for redevelopment.
Janet Price, a naturalist at Johnson's Shut-Ins, recommends the Bell Mountain Wilderness as an alternative hike in the St. Francois Mountain area for those who like rugged terrain.
"It's a pretty good climb. It's steep, it's rugged — and similar to rhyolite rock that runs through the Shut-Ins here," Price says.
The Bell Mountain Wilderness is part of the Mark Twain National Forest and contains a portion of the Ozark Trail, which has 550 miles completed. The trail will stretch from St. Louis to Arkansas and eventually connect to the Ozark Highlands Trail.
With more than 9,000 acres of wilderness filled with granite glades, creeks, steep slopes, a vertical rise to 1,700 feet and rocks, rocks and more rocks, this area is for experienced hikers who pack in their own water. The hike is 14 miles long, and primitive camping is allowed. Groups are limited to 10 people per party.
The trail is located near Potosi.
Orienteering
So you want to be an extreme hiker in fast motion for time? Try orienteering, a running sport that necessitates using a map and a compass. Runners hoof it through the countryside using a magnetic compass to navigate through wooded terrain and visit control points on a topographic map, which is not distributed until the start of the race.
The Ozarks MultiSport Club offers orienteering races and seminars throughout the year, including fall and spring races in the woods and a winter urban orienteering race in the city.
Eric Johnson, health and fitness supervisor at the Springfield-Greene County Parks and Recreation Department, recommends attending a seminar for those wanting to learn how to orienteer.
Johnson says urban orienteering is "an easier version" of orienteering, and takes place in city limits, as opposed to in the wooded countryside.
Ozark Greenways holds an annual Mark Twain Forest Adventure Race to raise funds to build and preserve trails. The eight to 12 hour event tasks competitors in several activities, including running, canoeing, biking and orienteering. This year's race, held in May, attracted 54 teams.
Bouldering
What's an extreme outdoor activity that is like rock climbing, but done without a rope? It's bouldering, and although you can find a few boulders in Missouri, bouldering really rocks in Arkansas.
Whereas traditional rock climbing focuses on endurance, bouldering requires power and strength in short move sequences.
Called "problems," boulder routes usually range from eight to 20 feet and require the boulderer to constantly assess his moves.
"Bouldering is taking an 80-foot climb and condensing it down to 15-20 feet," says Tom Lampe, who works at Petra Rock Climbing Gym in Springfield.
One reason that bouldering appeals to extremists is that it requires few accessories. You need chalk and a chalk bag, climbing shoes, a small brush to clean crevices and surfaces of the rock, and a crash pad — a thick pad that lies on the ground near the boulder you're climbing. Lampe also recommends taking a partner with you to act as a spotter.
Lampe says the bouldering is good at Elephant Rocks State Park in Missouri, but that's it. No permits are required.
Fellow climber Matt Lyons agrees with Lampe.
"The rock here is a fragmented limestone due to our karst topography. It is flaky and dangerous. Breaking holds is very common," Lyons says.
Lampe and Lyons recommend heading to northern Arkansas to boulder.
"I would go to Northern Arkansas in the Boston Mountains or Ouachita Mountains. There you can find very solid Atoka sandstone," Lyons says. "Two hours south near Jasper, Ark., there is a great place for beginners and experienced climbers alike called Horseshoe Canyon Ranch."
Lyons recommends a book, "Horseshoe Guidebook," written by Springfield native Tom Hancock.
Rock climbing
An oldie, but goodie of the extreme sports, rock climbing looms as one of the country's most popular gutsy sports.
It is also one of the most popular sports featured in television advertisements — hawking everything from sports drinks to SUVs — and touting a lifestyle that is adventurous and free.
Lyons recommends starting indoors, called recreational rock climbing, before heading outdoors to climb rocks — aka sport rock climbing.
"It is a controlled environment in which a person can learn the climbing fundamentals," Lyons says. "(Indoors) is also a great place to train locally since we have no great rock in town."
Local climber Clay Frisbee, owner of Petra Rock Climbing Gym in Springfield, agrees with Lyons about learning the basics indoors. Frisbee has been climbing for more than 20 years.
He says Petra will not only get interested climbers ready to go, they arrange for trips to northern Arkansas for organized climbing events — usually involving a weekend and including a clean-up-the-environment event, too.
When heading outside, be sure to check for permission to climb wherever you go.
Lyons also recommends northern Arkansas for climbing — either Sam's Throne, on public land, or privately owned Horseshoe Canyon Ranch, where it costs $5 per day.
