Why go Extreme?

Some people say that life is complicated enough.

Some people say that there is enough danger and risk around in the world without adding to it.

Such is the attitude that infects the casual observer of an Extreme Sport. It does not matter if this sport is popular or regarded as the in thing, the attitude of the casual observer is the same.

The casual observer tends to feel that any Extreme Sport is a waste of effort and a confusing and pointless exercise. To the untrained observer looking in to an Extreme Sport, there seems little in the way of risk and even less in the way of near fatal danger that could claim a competitor's life.

To the untrained observer Extreme Escapology are little more than people playing at being Harry Houdini in the same way as a person doing tricks on a skateboard is simply someone playing at being Tony Hawks.

These people say that there is nothing Extreme in what these sportsmen and women do.

Should anyone read the above and agree, allow me provide you with an education.

There is a statistic for Performance Escapology that states Worldwide every year two escape artists die performing an escape. I have not seen the data behind that figure but I can honestly say I am surprised that the number it is that small.

This is a sport that requires a human being to put him or herself into a dangerous position, whilst being restrained by devices that are not designed to be removed easily.

Use your imagination for a second and try to imagine what it must be like knowing that you have one minute to remove a restraint before something bad happens. It is a worrying thought that the only thing between yourself and freedom is a mechanical device designed by someone you have never met and your ability to overcome it.

The Escape Artist could be hanging upside down in a Strait Jacket, trying to get free before gravity causes them to suffer a red out where the blood rushes to your head and your brain shuts down or sinking under water, with their hands restrained, trying to pull themselves free from their watery, airless tomb. Yet there is nothing unique about Escapology when it comes to risks.

Freerunners often have to take their lives into their hands as they try and prove that the cities of the world do not restrain the human spirit. Their leaps across the roves of France and mainland Europe have become the stuff of urban legend, yet all around them exists the risk of failure combined with the almost inevitable fall and critical injury.

Snowboarders and Extreme Skiers are also putting their lives in their hands, their own survival in a battle of skill against the elements and the limits of equipment. Even the humble Skate Boarder is taking chances every time he goes to the park and tries a trick.

So why take the risks?

If it was not for the risk takers at the dawn of the Automobile age there would not be an Indy 500, no F1 and no Motorsport Industry at all. Someone took the risk to drive those cars fast, someone took the risk to develop and advance the technology, the understanding and the acceptance of the sport.

If it were not for the risk takers out there the Land Speed record would be 20 MPH and held by a horse. No one could ever have foreseen the benefits of doing it but they did.

To the casual observer Extreme Sports are pointless.

To the enlightened, they are the future.

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