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This is a commercial for Sector watches,
cobranded with No Limits, the italian brand
for extreme sports gear. Featured are action
scenes from some of the most extreme
sportsmen of the world, gathered in the No
Limits Team. Among current and past members
of the team are Mike Horn (hydrospeed), Hans
Kammerlander (extreme alpinism), Gerard
D'Aboville (solo ocean rowing), Shaun Baker
(kayaking), Manolo (free climbing), Umberto
Pellizzari (deep apnea), Viviane Wegrath
(skysurfing), and Dominique Perret (freeride
skiing).
ABOUT THE EXTREME SPORT
Extreme sport (also called action sport ,
adventure sport, and adventurous sport) is a
general term for sports featuring speed,
height, danger, a high level of physical
exertion, highly specialized gear, or
spectacular stunts. A feature of such
activities in the view of some is their
alleged capacity to induce a so-called
adrenaline rush in participants (a misnomer,
since often the rush or high obtained is a
product of increased levels of dopamine
endorphins and serotonin). Another
characteristic of activities so labeled is
they tend to be individual rather than team
sports. Extreme sports can include both
competitive and non-competitive activities.
MARKETING AND CHANGING DEFINITIONS OF THE
TERM
Some contend that the distinction between an
extreme sport and a conventional one is as
much to do with marketing as it is to do with
perceptions about levels of danger involved
or the amount of adrenaline generated.
Snowboarding thus has a more extreme image
than skiing due to differing marketing
strategies and the fact of being a newer
sport, even though skiing is a faster and at
least equally dangerous activity. Furthermore
a sport like Rugby Union, though dangerous
and adrenaline-inducing, would not fall into
the category of extreme sports due to its
traditional image. Scuba diving is not often
categorized as an extreme sport these days,
despite the level of danger and physical
exertion, because of its primarily adult
demographic. Another example: compare the
perception of demolition derby, not usually
thought of as an extreme sport, to that of
BMX racing, which is. Demolition derby has an
adult demographic, BMX is a youth sport.
The definition of extreme sports may have
shifted over the years due to marketing
trends. When the term first surfaced circa
the late 1980s/early 1990s, it was used for
adult sports such as skydiving, scuba diving,
surfing, rock climbing, mountaineering, storm
chasing, hang gliding, and bungee jumping,
many of which were undergoing an
unprecedented growth in popularity at the
time. Outside magazine, not the X Games,
epitomized the meaning of the term, and if
there was a clothing style associated with
extreme sports it was an "ourdoorsy" look
favoring brand names associated with
mountaineering or backpacking such as The
North Face and Patagonia, Teva sandals or
hiking boots for footwear, etc. The term
nowadays applies more to youth sports like
skateboarding, snowboarding, and BMX and is
closely associated with marketing efforts
aimed at youth (e.g. the ad campaigns of
Mountain Dew), and with their favored styles
of clothing, fashion and music, especially
the kind of urban baggy look associated with
skateboarders, and loud, fast alternative
rock. This shift in styles may also be partly
a generational shift, as Baby Boomers and
Generation X have aged and marketing efforts
associated with extreme sports shifted toward
the younger Generation Y demographic sometime
in the mid to late 1990s.
Some of the sports have existed for decades
and their proponents span generations. Rock
climbing and ice climbing have spawned
publicly recognisable names such as Edmund
Hillary, Chris Bonington and more recently
Joe Simpson. Another example is surfing,
which was originally invented centuries ago
by the native inhabitants of Hawaii.
Several so-called extreme sports, including
snowboarding, were included in the 2002
Winter Olympic Games and 2006 Winter Olympic
Games, but many contend that these activities
are not even sports, and lose much on their
essential elements in the mainstream.
LIST OF SOME EXTREME SPORTS
The following are sometimes classified as
extreme sports:
Airsoft
Aggressive skating
BASE jumping
BMX freestyle
Bodyboarding
Bouldering
Brutal Woods
Buildering
Bungee jumping
Caving
Cave diving
Climbing
Drag racing
Extreme skiing
Freebording
Free-diving
Hang gliding
Ice climbing
Whitewater kayaking
Kitesurfing/Kiteboarding
Kite Landboarding
Kneeboarding
Mountain biking
Mountain boarding
Mountaineering
Noodling
Paintball
Paragliding
Paramotoring
Parkour
Pogo sticking
Poweriser
Whitewater rafting
Rock climbing
Roller derby
Scuba diving
Skateboarding
Skiboarding
Skydiving
Skysurfing
Slamball
Snakeboarding
Snowboarding
Snowskating
Storm chasing
Street luge
Stunt pogo
Surfing
Tricking
Unicycling
Urban kayaking
Wakeboarding
Water skiing
Windsports
Windsurfing
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