Life is often referred to as a game of chance, and those who may understand this more than others are people who enjoy extreme sports. Extreme sport is anything that involves heights and speeds on a dangerous level. The higher the risk of fatal injuries, the better. Sounds insane right? Below are some examples of extreme sports that play with life.
- Free Climbing
Rock climbing on its own is terrifying for most people, but thanks to harnesses and safety gear, you are offered a certain degree of protection. Free climbing, on the other hand, involves scaling a high cliff, without any safety gear or harness. This means that there is literally nothing securing you to the side of that cliff, and should you fall, you may lose a couple of limbs, if not your very life.
- Creeking
This takes whitewater rafting to a whole other level. As though whitewater rafting isn’t extreme in itself, adrenaline junkies seek out a more dangerous version of kayaking. There are even more rocks and sharp corners, which all pose a potential danger should your canoe capsize. You stand the risk of literally being trapped between a rock and a hard place. If being knocked unconscious doesn’t scare you, then there’s the possibility of you hitting yourself on very hard rock, resulting in a fatal injury. Alternatively, you could also be trapped underwater which will surely drown you.
- Bull Riding
You may already be familiar with this sport. It involves a raging bull and being able to hold on for dear life. The longer you manage to stay on, the better. A bucking bull is not easy to stay on, and in the unfortunate event that you fall off, you have to run off to safety or risk being mauled by a very angry bull. An average bull weighs on average 600 to 800 kilograms. Now imagine all that weight bearing down on you. This doesn’t stop people from bull riding, though. There are even sporting events to the same effect. In fact, crowds come to watch and people can wager just how long a rider manages to stay on top of the bull. Talk about the most dangerous game.
- Base Jumping
We’re not talking about jumping off a couple of flights of stairs. Even regular skydiving is not as dangerous as base jumping, and this is because with base jumping, you jump off a high point, like a cliff, and do a free fall dive. You have a parachute and only deploy once you’re close to the ground. It is more dangerous because you are jumping at a much lower altitude, and should there be a problem with your parachute, you will literally have only a few seconds to figure it out. Another risk is that your body may fail you as you fall from such an extreme height. You can pass out, or go into shock, both of which will do you no good as you’re hurtling towards the ground.
- Street Lugging
This extreme sport came into existence after people realized that you could go faster on a skateboard while lying completely flat on it. Because you’re lying down, your body is streamlined, so you face little to no wind resistance. Boards used for street lugging do not have breaks, making them very dangerous to use. Any slight movement while you’re skating on the board can cause all sorts of nasty injuries. If you’re going roughly 75 miles per hour, and you grazed your elbow, you could end up skinning it to the bone. Not to mention the number of bones you’d break if you crashed into something at that speed.
The surprising thing about extreme sports that most people who enjoy it understand that they play with their lives, almost as if it was roulette, and each time they wonder whether that day would be their last. If you are interested to test your luck game but are not willing to stake something as high as your life, you can opt to play much safer games here. There are so many options to choose from, and the stakes involve money, as is the norm in almost any game of luck.
Now, some may argue that the adrenaline rush is exhilarating to experience. Believe it or not, there may be some benefits to cruising on the precipice between danger and excitement. For one, you get to push your limits beyond anything you would have done normally. Another thing you get to do is face your fears. If you have a fear of heights and decide to go bungee jumping from a tall building, then you’d be able to face and possibly overcome your fear of heights. But is it worth it? There have been cases of people dying during extreme sports. You may be thinking that this is a little extreme, however, consider the risks you’d be taking if, for example, you were skydiving and your parachute malfunctioned? Or if you were bungee jumping and the rope accidentally got cut? It is always a gamble of whether or not you’ll come out on the other side unscathed.
If you feel like today is your lucky day when it comes to escaping death, and you’d like to try out extreme sports, there is a list of them with information on what they entail and where you can go to participate.
