DARRYL'S EXTREME SPORTS PAGE
Many people know and love the classic sports like football, baseball, and soccer but over the past two decades a different kind of sport has evolved for a different kind of generation. Extreme sports have become very popular in the United States in the past two decades. Though most of these sports are very different from each




 		other the one thing that all of them have in commom is that the athletes are always searching for the ultimite rush. There are many different sports that are developing in this category but the ones that have been skyrocketing in popularity seem to be the major ones that are most recognized in events like the X-games and other smaller attractions.


Many people know and love the classic sports like football, baseball, and soccer but over the past two decades a different kind of sport has evolved for a different kind of generation. Extreme sports have become very popular in the United States in the past two decades. Though most of these sports are very different from each other one thing that all of them have in common is that the athletes are always searching for the ultimite rush. There are many different sports that are developing that can be in this category but the ones that have been skyrocketing in popularity seem to be the major ones that are most recognized in events like the X-games and other smaller attractions.
Next to surfing, skateboarding is the second oldest of the extreme sports. The sport was created somewhere in southern California during the early 1960�s. Many say the idea came from someone who was riding a scooter with the steering handle broken off. As kids got better at skating vert skateboarding was created. Kids would drain their in ground swimming pools in their yards and start skating in them. As this developed kids started attempting carves on the deep end of pool walls. Carving is when you take a wide turn in the pool, normally at the curve of the deep end, keeping all four wheels on the wall of the pool. When kids gradually got better they started carving higher and faster until some would hit tile, which is when the wheels on the board would role up on the tiles lining the edge of the pool. With improvements of skate products vert riding changed as well (skateboarding.com).
In the 1970�s when skate parks came around people started ridding straight up the pool wall, turning in mid air and ridding back down. That skill today is the basis of vert ridding. In the 80�s skateboarding suffered
Hartman page 2
a loss of popularity because many kids dint have access to skate parks. Because of this street skating developed because many kids dint have access to skate parks. They created an aerial trick called the �ollie� which enables kids to jump their boards in the air without using their hands. Street skating and vert skating are both still very popular and still thriving and growing due to the creation of the ollie. New tricks were created and every one is just a variation of the �ollie� (skateboarding.com).
Skateboarding has its superstars like any other sport. Steve Cabbellero and Andy McDonald are both world renown for their achievements and competitions they won. Even though these guys are world champions, they are not nearly as popular as 30 year old Superstar Tony Hawk (espn.sportszone.com). Tony has been skating in tournaments and competitions for 15 years (skateboarding.com). In that time he won many world titles and X-games championships. He's the only skater that uses a 720 in his vert routine. Even though he hasn't won any recent competitions, he is the oldest and still most respected and honored skater today (espn.sportzone.com).
Street luging is a lesser know extreme sport but not in the least bit more mellow than the others. Street luging is a mix between Olympic luging and skateboarding. Riders lie on there backs and race down large hills at speeds up to 60 mph. The origins of this sport are unknown but has been growing rapidly in popularity over the past 3 years. Sleds are usually eight and one half feet in length, 16 inches wide and 14 inches high. The sleds weigh about 25 to 30 pounds. The riders usually use skateboard trucks and wheels for wheels on the sled. Normally the
Hartman page 3
bigger the wheels the better. The riders turn by shifting their weight gradually like regular luging. The highest speed is held by Biker
Sherlock set on November 11, 1996 (members.aol.com). Street luging is fairly new and their aren't many athletes. Biker Sherlock and Rat Sult are probably the most known for their records and other speed times. These athletes are pioneering in a new sport and gathering fans and popularity and this sport is growing at extremely fast speed (espn.sportszone.com).
There has been a long history of skating but the actual working skate has only been around since the 1980�s. Inline skating developed in early 1700�s by a Dutchman that wanted to simulate ice skating by nailing wooden spools to strips of wood and then attaching them to shoes. In 1823 Robert John Tyers designed a skate called a �Rolito�. He used his own design by placing 5 wheels in a row on the bottom of a shoe. Then in 1863 American James Plimpton made the first workable skate that you could stop and skate back wards. It had four wheels on the sole set in a pair. This was called a roller skate and still is today. In 1980 Brothers from Minneapolis were looking in a pile of sporting goods and found one of the old experimental inline skates. They redesigned it with hockey boots, polyurethane wheels and adding a rubber heel brake. They began selling the new inlines called �rollerblades� and founded and began rollerblade inc. the most famous inline skate company today. There are many different tricks used in inline skating and vert skating today. Most of the tricks are used for both types of skating. Most tricks are known for their street skating names because like skate boarding ramps are hard to get access to. Rail slides are a trick where you slide
Hartman page 4
on a rail in various stances. There are many different kinds of rail slides like the acid grind, sole grind, frontside, and the backside. Crossovers are tricks when someone is skating along a curved path while still
stroking legs. To do this you have to cross one skate over the other. Skitching is a trick where you hang on to a moving vehicle and letting it pull you like a car or truck. This trick is very dangerous and many people can be hurt by doing it. A Fakie is just a prefix that is used for any trick done back wards. For example a regular 360 done one way then you spin the opposite way is a fakie 360. Stair bashing, also called stair ridding, is one of the most difficult tricks to do. Using you rollerblades simply keep your feet on the ground and skate down a set of stairs. Most people find it easier to do it backwards to start. If you want to learn how to do this trick you should wear all of your pad and make sure there are rails on both sides because if you mess up it will be painful. Then as you approach turn backwards keep your head looking at the stairs and skates, grab the rails and go down. There are many athletes that are in extreme skating but the superstars of today that are stealing the spot light and gathering fans of the sport are Cesar Mora, and Matt Salerno. Both these athletes have many titles and won many competitions. Matt Only started ridding professional 3 years ago winning the 1996 extreme games. This sport is growing so popular it has beaten skateboarding with people who ride and is still growing rapidly (skatefaq.com).
Sky surfing is probably the most exciting of the extreme sports. Skysurfers ride especially designed boards through the sky. They surf slide spin and twist doing various tricks to impress the audience on the ground below. Athletes normally jump at 13,000 feet above the ground
Hartman page 5
for the first 50 seconds of a 70 second freefall they surf the sky at 110 to 120 miles per vertically and up to 50 miles per hour horzontically. This sport is extremely expensive to do compared to the other ones. Many
people love the sport but cant do it because of the restrictions. With competitions fans stay on the ground routing for their favorite teams. Normally teams of two go, a skysurfer and a camera man to record the run. This sport has been around for a while and athletes are becoming better and better. Valery Rozov, and Oliver Furrer, are the most famous team winning many competitions and X game titles. Even though the sport has very little athletes the fans are loving their jumps and runs more than ever and has become one of the most popular sports today (members.aol.com).
Biking is my favorite of the extreme sports and is also the 3rd most popular. BMX riding was �created� in the early 70�s when kids start riding and jumping bicycles around trying to imitate their motorcycle stunt heroes. Bikes of the time were very heavy and some even had suspension. Tracks back then and had huge obstacles like water jumps, rocks, ruts, and huge chunks of dirt. Today their are two kinds of extreme biking, bmx and freestyle. Todays 20 inch bikes are more high-tech. Bikes made of aluminum, titanium, and carbon fiber makes bikes lighter, stiffer and faster. Today no suspension is being used at all. Todays tracks consist of many obstacles that are much smaller than the ones before. Double and triple jumps, table tops, rollers are a few obstacles used on a smooth fast dirt course. Freestyle basically evolved from BMX racing for kids n cities an towns that don't have access to dirt tracks. Many different styles are being used today. The riders do small
Hartman page 6
variations of tricks in the air. Just normally going through town hitting everything possible from handrails, ledges, curbs, dropoffs, walls and gaps. This can be quite dangerous but very fun and extremely popular.
Vert is the most hardcore and extreme kind of riding. learning how to ride half pipes well is very difficult. Athletes do crazy tricks at heights over 12 feet of the top of the ramp. There are two organizations that hold nation wide events ADA ( American Bicycle Association) which is west cost oriented and the NBL (National Bicycle league) which is east coast oriented. There are many athletes that are set apart from the rest Dave Mirra, Dennis McCoy, Jay Mirron, Matt Hoffman, and John Parker are the most famous winning astoundingly amounts of competitions and events and showing this sport is very popular (Geoff�s Bike Page).
All of these sports are fairly new and different from conventional sports. Kids around the world are enjoying these sports and their events. Popularity keeps rising and rising and maybe one day a few of these sports will be adapted into the Olympics.

Works Cited

http:\\www.espn.sportszone.com/xgames/summerx98.html

Geoff,Michael. Geoff�s Bike Page. Avalible.
http:\\www.geocities.com/colosseum/8527/enter.html November 27, 1998.

http:\\members.aol.com/raptordg/luge/intro.html

http:\\www.skateboarding.com/info/history101.html

http:\\www.skatefaq.com/skate.html

http:\\www.ssiprotour.com/fr.html
 
Favourite Links
 

Email me on:
[email protected]

This page has been visited times.