As for extreme skiers a bad day in the office can turn out really, really bad.
Luckily for 40 of the country's top extreme skiers and snowboarders at the Nokia sponsored Xtreme Ski and Snowboard Championships at Mt Ruapehu a day in the office went according to plan.
Heats were held this week under the Policeman's, with skiers descending a near-vertical line opposite the Waterfall chairlift. Contestants did their best to pick the quickest, though not the safest, route to the bottom. Finals will be held this weekend further up the valley under the Pinnacles, where the descent is steeper.
The four-day event has attracted $50,000 in prizes for contestants from the United States and Australia as well as New Zealand.
Extreme, or free skiing, is becoming more popular, event co- ordinator Ruapehu Alpine lift assistant marketing co-ordinator Shannon Clement says, as more skiers and snowboarders are looking to test themselves.
Geoff Small, of Ohakune, has been freeskiing for the past 12 years semi-professionally. Small, the New Zealand Freeski Association president, is past national and North American freeski champion.
Mt Ruapehu is ideal for extreme skiing competitions, he says. The snow conditions and terrain are challenging and change from day to day.
And unlike many ski areas overseas spectators have a good view of the contestants.
"It's getting more popular because there is the freedom to express yourself. Extreme skiing brings together all the best elements of skiing and combines it into one. It's the ultimate, it's skiing in its purest form."
Injuries happened, but no more than in contact sports, he said.
On Wednesday Ruapehu-based extreme skier Tim Hegarty broke his leg and pelvis practising for this weekend's event. Former national champion Hamish Acland will also not compete because of injury.
In 12 years of competing Small said he had only suffered from torn knee ligaments. "But when you have a bad day at the office, it can go really, really bad."
Skiers and snowboarders are awarded points by judges on difficulty of line, control, fluidity, technique and aggression.
Extreme skier and and Ruapehu Alpine Lifts ski instructor Lyall Crump said points were earned by skiers who chose the steepest and hardest way down the slope.
Tuesday, September 25, 2007
Tuesday, September 18, 2007
Extreme Sports taking off in Cuba
Great rejoicing, applauses, whistles and screams led the driver the exact place of the competition: Havana’s Metro Park. Despite the unrelenting summer sun, and the less than top-quality grandstands, hundreds of young people surround a trail on which a variety of obstacles are scattered.
Though the contest should have begun earlier, participants eagerly awaited several pieces of audio equipment – that never arrived. Nonetheless, they decided to start. At 12:20 p.m., young Miguel Domínguez Mesa, one of the organizers, began to read the lists of competitors and rules for each discipline.
“Skaters will compete first; then will come skateboarders, and bikers will compete at the end. Those who classify today will move on to the final round, which will be held tomorrow, when we will select the winner of each speciality,” shouts Domínguez. Then, he calls the first competitor.
For more than four hours, dozens of young people show off their most well-honed skills and techniques in the practice of extreme sports. They perform unimaginable acrobatics with their inline skates, skating boards and bicycles.
Using their skates and skateboards, they went from one side to the other in a tube, went up and down of a little ramp and performed pirouettes in the air, showing the wheels of their skates and bicycles to the public.
This last discipline was the most liked by the spectators. There were “suicidal” competitors such as Dani Daniel Hernández, who on three different occasions tried to perform a death threatening spin on his bike, and ended up on the ground three times.
Other young athletes made the public gaze with open mouths and with their hands on their head due to the complexity of their tricks. The contestants proved that to practice this sport one needs a high dose of courage and creativity – but especially lots of adrenaline.
We could see that the practice of extreme sports is trying once again to gain a place among fans, of whom there are many and are grateful for the exhibition
The first examples of extreme sports appeared in the United States in the 20th century. At least, that’s the case of extremes sports with bicycles, skates, skateboards and boards.
In 1963, an American, Al Fritz, the director of a bicycle factory, was told that there was not a single bike left in stores in Los Angeles. Young people had bought them all out. They modernized them with long banana seats and cruised the streets trying to perform the same pirouettes as their motocross idols. They made the most of open ground, construction areas, or whatever place was available to perform abrupt jumps and manoeuvres.
The boom of this type of bicycle induced the Fritz’ factory modernize its production, which resulted in increased profits. The fad crossed the ocean going from the United States to Europe and then to Latin America in the 1980s.
In Cuba, the first practices of those sports began in the end of the 1980s, according to publications of that time. In 1988 some young people in the capital began to practice extreme sports with skateboards, rollerblades and BMX bikes.
“Skateboarding is a recreational sport barely known in Cuba, but already has a number of followers among young people,” published the Cuban magazine Somos Jovenes in 1988. From that time up to five years ago, the practices were not largely developed until the national management of Cuba’s National Institute of Sports and Recreation (INDER by its abbreviation in Spanish) began to organize and assist the practice of these disciplines, although support is still lacking.
What is missing...
Young Che Alejandro has been skateboarding for almost 25 years. He began when he was 10. Now, due to all his injuries and the condition of his knees, he cannot do it as often as he used to. Therefore, he ahs become one of the most passionate promoters of this sport in Cuba.
“There are difficulties that prevent us for developing these sports. The support of the INDER is still insufficient and buying the means to practice it is very difficult,” he says.
The limited availability of places to practice is another problem faced by the young people interested in extreme sports.
Will vs. the Way
“The practice of these sports is very expensive worldwide. The equipment and the places to practice are very expensive. Cuba has been trying in the last few years to develop this activity, but we have to prioritize the development of sports and activities on which we are already a power,” explains Fidel Bonilla, head of the National Direction of Recreation in INDER.
“We’ve achieved some advances, but we acknowledge that the economic support given to these activities is not enough. This situation will change when we have more financial possibilities. Right now, what we have on our side is tons of will and disposition to assist those young people with everything we can,” Bonilla says.
But there have been some moves towards the practice of these sports. A number of national competitions have been organized and there are more than 3,000 people practicing it systematically.
“We are getting some equipment through donations, but the idea is that they can be manufactured but the Cuban sport industry in the future. A plan has also been approved to build an open area in the capital following the international standards,” Bonilla said.
What cannot be denied, however, is the great reception of these sports by thousands of amateurs and sportspeople in Cuba, as well as the institutional disposition to develop them – despite economic difficulties. With both ingredients, we should not be amazed if in the next five years Cuba will see international champions in extreme sports.
Though the contest should have begun earlier, participants eagerly awaited several pieces of audio equipment – that never arrived. Nonetheless, they decided to start. At 12:20 p.m., young Miguel Domínguez Mesa, one of the organizers, began to read the lists of competitors and rules for each discipline.
“Skaters will compete first; then will come skateboarders, and bikers will compete at the end. Those who classify today will move on to the final round, which will be held tomorrow, when we will select the winner of each speciality,” shouts Domínguez. Then, he calls the first competitor.
For more than four hours, dozens of young people show off their most well-honed skills and techniques in the practice of extreme sports. They perform unimaginable acrobatics with their inline skates, skating boards and bicycles.
Using their skates and skateboards, they went from one side to the other in a tube, went up and down of a little ramp and performed pirouettes in the air, showing the wheels of their skates and bicycles to the public.
This last discipline was the most liked by the spectators. There were “suicidal” competitors such as Dani Daniel Hernández, who on three different occasions tried to perform a death threatening spin on his bike, and ended up on the ground three times.
Other young athletes made the public gaze with open mouths and with their hands on their head due to the complexity of their tricks. The contestants proved that to practice this sport one needs a high dose of courage and creativity – but especially lots of adrenaline.
We could see that the practice of extreme sports is trying once again to gain a place among fans, of whom there are many and are grateful for the exhibition
The first examples of extreme sports appeared in the United States in the 20th century. At least, that’s the case of extremes sports with bicycles, skates, skateboards and boards.
In 1963, an American, Al Fritz, the director of a bicycle factory, was told that there was not a single bike left in stores in Los Angeles. Young people had bought them all out. They modernized them with long banana seats and cruised the streets trying to perform the same pirouettes as their motocross idols. They made the most of open ground, construction areas, or whatever place was available to perform abrupt jumps and manoeuvres.
The boom of this type of bicycle induced the Fritz’ factory modernize its production, which resulted in increased profits. The fad crossed the ocean going from the United States to Europe and then to Latin America in the 1980s.
In Cuba, the first practices of those sports began in the end of the 1980s, according to publications of that time. In 1988 some young people in the capital began to practice extreme sports with skateboards, rollerblades and BMX bikes.
“Skateboarding is a recreational sport barely known in Cuba, but already has a number of followers among young people,” published the Cuban magazine Somos Jovenes in 1988. From that time up to five years ago, the practices were not largely developed until the national management of Cuba’s National Institute of Sports and Recreation (INDER by its abbreviation in Spanish) began to organize and assist the practice of these disciplines, although support is still lacking.
What is missing...
Young Che Alejandro has been skateboarding for almost 25 years. He began when he was 10. Now, due to all his injuries and the condition of his knees, he cannot do it as often as he used to. Therefore, he ahs become one of the most passionate promoters of this sport in Cuba.
“There are difficulties that prevent us for developing these sports. The support of the INDER is still insufficient and buying the means to practice it is very difficult,” he says.
The limited availability of places to practice is another problem faced by the young people interested in extreme sports.
Will vs. the Way
“The practice of these sports is very expensive worldwide. The equipment and the places to practice are very expensive. Cuba has been trying in the last few years to develop this activity, but we have to prioritize the development of sports and activities on which we are already a power,” explains Fidel Bonilla, head of the National Direction of Recreation in INDER.
“We’ve achieved some advances, but we acknowledge that the economic support given to these activities is not enough. This situation will change when we have more financial possibilities. Right now, what we have on our side is tons of will and disposition to assist those young people with everything we can,” Bonilla says.
But there have been some moves towards the practice of these sports. A number of national competitions have been organized and there are more than 3,000 people practicing it systematically.
“We are getting some equipment through donations, but the idea is that they can be manufactured but the Cuban sport industry in the future. A plan has also been approved to build an open area in the capital following the international standards,” Bonilla said.
What cannot be denied, however, is the great reception of these sports by thousands of amateurs and sportspeople in Cuba, as well as the institutional disposition to develop them – despite economic difficulties. With both ingredients, we should not be amazed if in the next five years Cuba will see international champions in extreme sports.
Sunday, September 16, 2007
Top Extreme athletes of the world train with concept2
(PRLEAP.COM) September 12, 2007, Burlington, VT - Some of the world’s top extreme athletes have a secret weapon: their Concept2 Indoor Rowers.
Travis Pastrana, the first freestyle Motocross athlete to perform a double back-flip in competition, has offered his friends and fellow riders $1,000 if they can beat him in a 500-meter indoor rowing race. So far, no one has.
Ricky Carmichael, the most celebrated and successful Motocross racer in the sport’s history, has used the Concept2 rower for years to stay in optimal shape. Carmichael recently capped off his storied career with a MotoX Gold at this year’s X Games in Los Angeles, CA.
Top Motocross training facilities, such as Millsaps Training Facility in Cairo, GA and Xtreme Team Green in Pilot Point, TX, include the Concept2 rower in the training room.
But Motocross champs aren�t the only ones using Concept2 to get a leg up on the competition. Chuck "Iceman" Liddell, the Ultimate Fighting Championship contestant, admits that his Concept2 rower is the one thing in the world he fears. A major portion of Liddell’s training regimen is an exercise he calls R+R: he rows on his Concept2, then wrestles with his opponents�after that he gets back on the rower for more. It�s the perfect way for Liddell to prepare for the intensity of the fighting ring.
While Motocross and Ultimate Fighting are vastly different sports, they both require strength and agility. That�s why rowing is the perfect training solution. It builds strength rather than bulk, allowing you to stay limber and ready for any challenge. Athletes are calling this fitness trend "weight-based progressive workouts," and Concept2 is at the center of the action.
"Indoor rowing is a true full-body workout that pushes your strength and cardio endurance with every stroke," says the company�s co-founder, Dick Dreissigacker. "Our state-of-the-art Performance Monitor tells you exactly how hard and fast you�re rowing that very second."
To gain an extreme athlete’s fitness edge, get started with Concept2. The company offers two indoor rowers - the Model D and the Model E - available through its web site, www.concept2.com, and at most health clubs around the world.
Travis Pastrana, the first freestyle Motocross athlete to perform a double back-flip in competition, has offered his friends and fellow riders $1,000 if they can beat him in a 500-meter indoor rowing race. So far, no one has.
Ricky Carmichael, the most celebrated and successful Motocross racer in the sport’s history, has used the Concept2 rower for years to stay in optimal shape. Carmichael recently capped off his storied career with a MotoX Gold at this year’s X Games in Los Angeles, CA.
Top Motocross training facilities, such as Millsaps Training Facility in Cairo, GA and Xtreme Team Green in Pilot Point, TX, include the Concept2 rower in the training room.
But Motocross champs aren�t the only ones using Concept2 to get a leg up on the competition. Chuck "Iceman" Liddell, the Ultimate Fighting Championship contestant, admits that his Concept2 rower is the one thing in the world he fears. A major portion of Liddell’s training regimen is an exercise he calls R+R: he rows on his Concept2, then wrestles with his opponents�after that he gets back on the rower for more. It�s the perfect way for Liddell to prepare for the intensity of the fighting ring.
While Motocross and Ultimate Fighting are vastly different sports, they both require strength and agility. That�s why rowing is the perfect training solution. It builds strength rather than bulk, allowing you to stay limber and ready for any challenge. Athletes are calling this fitness trend "weight-based progressive workouts," and Concept2 is at the center of the action.
"Indoor rowing is a true full-body workout that pushes your strength and cardio endurance with every stroke," says the company�s co-founder, Dick Dreissigacker. "Our state-of-the-art Performance Monitor tells you exactly how hard and fast you�re rowing that very second."
To gain an extreme athlete’s fitness edge, get started with Concept2. The company offers two indoor rowers - the Model D and the Model E - available through its web site, www.concept2.com, and at most health clubs around the world.
Sunday, September 9, 2007
Extreme play
Team Girl On Girl, above, from Fremont battles team Dark Image from Tulare, in a move called "off the break" at the start of a seven-minute paintball competition.
The Xtreme Paintball Sports League tournament takes place over three days at the Regional Sports Complex in southwest Fresno with more than 100 seven-person teams competing from across the nation.
A Dark Image team member, left, positions himself behind a bunker and returns fire with his marker, while he is being fired at. In paintball, the gun is called a marker. The paintball must break and leave a mark for the hit to count.
A referee, below, crawls on the ground to keep a close eye on the match between the two teams. Team Dark Image won this preliminary match. Dark Image team members are photographed behind the bunkers.
The tournament features four divisions. The object of each team is to eliminate the opposing team and capture its flag in just seven minutes.
The Xtreme Paintball Sports League tournament takes place over three days at the Regional Sports Complex in southwest Fresno with more than 100 seven-person teams competing from across the nation.
A Dark Image team member, left, positions himself behind a bunker and returns fire with his marker, while he is being fired at. In paintball, the gun is called a marker. The paintball must break and leave a mark for the hit to count.
A referee, below, crawls on the ground to keep a close eye on the match between the two teams. Team Dark Image won this preliminary match. Dark Image team members are photographed behind the bunkers.
The tournament features four divisions. The object of each team is to eliminate the opposing team and capture its flag in just seven minutes.
Monday, September 3, 2007
Paragliding: On a wing and a prayer
Duncan Graham, Contributor, Malang, East Java
For Malang lawyer Sunu Setyonugroho, who has a deep and irrational fear of heights, there's only one cure.
He goes halfway up Mount Banyak at Songgoriti, Batu, East Java. He stands 1,300 meters above sea level, quivering on the edge of a sheer drop, far above a lovely patchwork landscape of tilled fields and ocher-roofed hamlets.
Then he runs and jumps.
Don't try this unless you're attached to a filigree of hair-thin cables connected to an airfoil, a long billowing pillow of polyester called a wing. It's also useful to have a good understanding of air currents, weather patterns, thermals and cold fronts.
Useful? Wrong word. Essential? Absolutely.
Then you can just sit back in your harness on Cloud Nine for an hour or more, salivate over the view and contemplate the majesty of the universe as you pity the ant-people busy hundreds of meters below.
The only noise is the air slipping through the wing that you can steer with a gentle tug on the cables.
Eventually we all have to come down to earth. If you're really skilled and don't get caught by a sudden gust, you can glide precisely into the center of a 10-meter diameter circle at the landing field.
If you're not then you can vanish into a patch of high-stalk corn or tumble into an irrigation ditch.
Only a couple of contestants at the Batu Open Paragliding international event staged in late July came a cropper. These mishaps garnered giggles, though no one sought the farmers' opinions.
Most pilots, like the Malaysian team of five -- including two women, for this is a unisex sport -- managed to get impressively close to the target.
They neatly dodged the onlookers who cluttered the field, indifferent to the possibility of getting a head kicking by a pilot coming in too fast.
Although the paragliders seem serious about safety, wearing all the right protective gear so they look like First World War bi-plane fighter pilots, it's the adrenalin rush that keeps the contestants coming.
Retired Malaysian commando Basit Bin Abdul Rahman, 56, can no longer get his kicks from a Kalashnikov so he wanders the world looking for the best launch spots.
"Peninsular Malaysia is too flat and there are too many trees in Sarawak," he said. "I've paraglided in South Korea and Taiwan and at Lake Toba in Sumatra, but this site in Batu is very good.
"If not careful, paragliding can be dangerous. But if you're mentally and physically fit and know what you're doing, then it gives great peace of mind. You can forget your problems up there."
Individualists, brought together
At 13 Nur S B Sahar seemed too young to have problems, but being a teenager has its own traumas. She also said paragliding helped her to get a better perspective on the world, both literally and metaphorically.
"I crashed once coming in to land and bruised my leg," she said. "My parents support me, but worry and urge me to be careful. This is my third competition."
Paragliding looks elite because you can spend around Rp 20 million (US$2,200) or more on the gear. Then come the training expenses, for this activity is well regulated; you can't just fling yourself into the yonder unless you intend making an exit statement.
Radio contact with the support staff who control the field has to be maintained. It costs around Rp 200,000 a session to fly tandem with an instructor. Allow 10 days for training to a basic proficiency level.
In Batu, the local government has been smart enough to realize the tourist potential of their topography. The 3,000 square meter landing field, the paved road to the jump site and a shelter have all been paid for by the city administration.
Like nature and a vacuum, bureaucrats abhor silence. This led them to install a huge sound system at the event, blasting totally forgettable "music" across the landscape. They couldn't understand that paragliders are nature lovers seeking to be at one with the environment.
On the positive side, a dozen little lads had been trained to expertly fold the wings for Rp 1,000 each, leaving contestants free to unzip, unwind and find their feet.
Although the winged ones from across the world who come to Mount Banyak are high-fliers, that doesn't mean they're big-spenders. At night they prefer to bunk down in low-budget hotels where they can swap yarns about up-draughts and down winds.
There's a camaraderie about paragliding that brings disparate folk together. Like serious surfers, they tend to be individualists, mostly professionals, in search of a special and exhilarating experience.
They travel with a purpose and like to test themselves. When they're really in their element, their souls also soar.
In the air they are all grace; on the ground with a 15-kilogram wing packed on their back they look like biped turtles. With a GPS (global positioning system) in their pocket they know where they are by latitude and longitude, rather than through political geography. Add a passport and credit card and the quest for freedom is under way.
Dwi Rubingi discovered paragliding in 1999 when he worked in New Zealand where extreme sports are popular. When he returned to East Java he had enough money to build a motel close to Mount Banyak, hoping paragliders would drop in.
"This is a great site because you can go out almost every day," he said. "In NZ we could fly on only three months every year.
"Wind speeds are checked before taking off. If it gets stronger than 20 kilometers an hour you could find yourself going backwards.
"The best paragliders tend to be the French, though the Chinese are also very good. In places without high mountains paragliders add lightweight motor-driven propellers to their gear to the distress of the purists.
"The world record of covering 426 kilometers was achieved in South Africa. (The Indonesian straight distance record is 44.5 kilometers, set in Wonogiri, Central Java.)
"The sport is probably most developed in South Korea where much of the gear is now made using new high-tech materials."
The 30-square meter crescent-shaped wings aren't parachutes. On the leading edge is a honeycomb of cells that fill with air and provide the lift.
Anything less than 20 kilometers an hour and you could stall, anything more than 60 and you're really moving. The safest maximum height is 3,000 meters, though going higher and faster is part of the game.
Finally, what about our vertigo-challenged lawyer who introduced this story? Sunu says he has no problems paragliding but still doesn't like standing on the edge of high buildings.
Well, not without his wing.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
