Look up “extreme sports”, and you’ll find a list of anywhere from 50 to 100 entries. But for the purposes of this article, I’m going to concentrate on some of the most insane, high-profile extreme sports in existence. You’re all encouraged to add sports as you wish, and to vote for the most extreme sport of all. I am also omitting motor sports from my list.
Rock Climbing
I mentioned Alex Honnold’s solo climb of El Capitán in 2017 in a previous article. I was happy to see the documentary on that climb, “Free Solo”, win the Oscar for Best Documentary Feature. That climb, in my opinion, is the granddaddy of all rock climbing feats. See a video clip from ABC News below:
Big Wave Surfing
Finding and surfing the biggest waves out there is another extreme sport. A video clip from CBS News shows the current world record being set by Rodrigo Koxa, of Brazil, when he surfed an 80-foot wave in Nazaré, Portugal:
Wingsuit Flying
Parachute jumping is extreme enough. But now there is an extreme sport called wingsuit flying, in which the person jumps into the void at a very high altitude, and then proceeds to glide at high speeds using only the aerodynamic properties of his/her suit. The attached video, published by Wingsuit Officiel, explains much better:
These are all mind-boggling, unbelievably extreme sports. But if I had to put them in order of degree of difficulty and “extreme-ness”, I’d have to say:
- Rock climbing – I’m sorry but I still can’t believe some of the footage from Alex Honnold’s free solo climb of El Capitán. That was 4 hours of climbing, without ropes or any other equipment, up a sheer wall of granite 3,000 feet high. Four hours of intense concentration and of tiny toe holds and finger holds. That to me is the champion right there.
- Wingsuit Flying – That’s just borderline crazy. Jumping off cliffs and flying at high speed close to rock faces and trees… that is beyond extreme, in my opinion. Very little margin for error. The parachute landing is mild in comparison.
- Big Wave Surfing – This is by no means a slight toward the surfers. Anyone who can surf big waves, not to mention an 80-foot wave, has my respect and admiration. Maybe the difference being that you can wipe out on a monster wave and still survive. One slip while soloing El Capitán, or a slight miscalculation while wingsuit flying across cliff faces, and there’s no second chance.
Again, you’re all welcome to comment on these, or what you feel are the most extreme of extreme sports.
So if go by chances of getting killed I definitely have to agree with you, surfing has progressed a lot in terms of safety. Jet Ski rescue teams, CO2 floating devices and smart boards and suits with GPS locators. Probably early days surfing charging waves one-fourth of today’s waves are crazier! They did it without a leash, no flotation device and heavy boards!
But the most extreme guy of all
to me is Felix Baumgartner jumping from the stratosphere!!
You make a good point, danitwain. Today they’re surfing bigger waves, but there’s a lot of safety advances which surround the surfer. Technology that wasn’t available before. Still… an 80-foot wave is pretty scary stuff. I’m going to disagree with you on Felix Baumgartner, though. Felix had a parachute. To me the most extreme guy is Luke Aikins, who jumped from 25,000 feet without a parachute into a net! Still, for sustained effort and not being able to slip even once… Honnold is the king for me.
I haven’t yet seen the Oscar winning documentary Free Solo and, though I often try to watch highly rated films, I think I never will simply because I just don’t “get” these types of extreme sports. While I do like other sports, I find no enjoyment in watching people obstinately try to defy gravity for whatever reason. It is precisely this “whatever reason” that I find more fascinating than the amazing feats themselves. In terms of human evolution and the preservation of our species this behavior makes no sense unless it’s to somehow make up for all the advances in medicine, technology, and nutrition that have more people living longer. Some time ago, I read a book about how parasites can affect the human brain and was especially struck by the chapter that explained the link between Toxoplasma gondii (a parasite found in cat feces) and risky behaviors. My guess is that these guys had a lot of cats while they were growing up.
Getting back to the point of your article, if I had to rank the extreme sports you listed (on a scale of 1-10 kitty litters) Alex Honnold’s free climbing is a definite 10.
Angela, thank you for your comment which I found very enjoyable to read. In fact, it brought to mind the movie “Bucket List”, in which Jack Nicholson’s character swears by the Kopi Luwak coffee, only to be told by Morgan Freeman’s character that the beans are defecated by cats as part of the process. Coincidentally, Nicholson and Freeman go off on an adventure-laden trip which at some point includes racing cars on a track. So maybe there’s something to that Toxoplasma gondii parasite after all. Well, I can’t blame you for not finding any enjoyment in watching these extreme sports. Personally, I’d never even dream of attempting anything like that. I don’t mind at all watching them, but would rather not see anyone die attempting an extreme sport. In a response to another reader, I mentioned the guy who in 2016 jumped from a plane at 25,000 feet (without a parachute) and landed on a 100×100-foot net in California. I imagine that guy must own several cat farms.