7 Extreme Sports You Can Try on Your

Own Terms
Fitness by Sarah Elizabeth Richards on 3/10/2016
Humans are natural thrill-seekers, but some increasingly popular sports are
redefining what it means to be extreme. Daredevil athletes are pushing
unimaginable boundaries as they propel their bodies against gravity and
through air, water and ice in ways nature never intended.

7 Extreme Sports You Can Try Without Regrets

Photo courtesy of Telluride Helitrax

1. Heli-Skiing
Sick of waiting in lift lines when you hit the slopes? Imagine being dropped
by a helicopter on untouched snow. “Heli-skiing is a powder lovers’ dream,”
explains Greg Malver of Telluride Helitrax in Colorado. “You’re skiing in
some of the most beautiful terrain in the backcountry where you don’t see
anyone else.” Yet skiing in remote areas that aren’t maintained by resort
workers or patrolled by rescue personnel is particularly risky. You could set
off an avalanche or be injured in an accident with little access to help.
Photo courtesy of All-Outdoors California Whitewater Rafting

2. Whitewater Rafting
Whitewater rafting is exhilarating, but there’s a lot that can go wrong when
you’re hurtling down rushing river rapids on a rubber boat. The raft can flip,
or you can fall out and hit a rock or get your foot trapped in debris and
drown.

But navigating even the wilder runs is a relatively safe sport, if you go with a
group led by experienced guides, says Scott Armstrong of All-Outdoors
California Whitewater Rafting. “It’s perceived as risky, but there aren’t a lot of
injuries or deaths. Even in fast-moving water, such as Class 4 or 5 rapids, we
have a lead boat with guides and a bunch of boats that work together to
rescue swimmers.” (Thankfully, it’s not likely that you’ll fall off the raft.)
Photo by  Enshahdi

3. BASE Jumping
BASE stands for Building, Antenna, Span and Earth — and it doesn’t get any
more extreme than jumping from one of the four options, equipped with
only a wingsuit and rapidly deploying parachutes. That’s because unlike
skydiving, there’s a much shorter window to experience the thrill of the fall
and hope your chute activates in time. The sport is so dangerous that the
National Park Service has outlawed BASE jumping in its parks.
Photo by  John Kotsifas

4. Cave Diving
If you loved to explore caves as a kid, cave diving gives you the chance to
admire fascinating geologic formations while swimming through crystal blue
waters. It’s riskier than regular scuba diving, though, because you can get
stuck in a cave and run out of air. “You can get lost if you don’t see the exit
or turned the wrong way,” explains Kurt Huber of Blue Grotto Diving Resorts
in Williston, Florida. “Or you panic and kick up silt and can’t see where you
are.”
Photo by  Paul Bratcher

5. Free Solo Rock Climbing

If you think rock climbing thousands of feet in the air supported by
harnesses and ropes sounds petrifying enough, it’s hard to understand why
certain enthusiasts feel the need to push the envelope by climbing without
any safety equipment at all — by themselves. Extreme sports correspondent
Michael Ybarra tried to explain the appeal in The Wall Street Journal. “Part of
the attraction (and no little of the terror) of climbing is problem solving,
figuring out what to do in a situation where there are no great options and
no little peril in making a wrong move,” he wrote. Sadly, he died a few years
ago on the 12,000-foot Matterhorn Peak in California’s Sierra Nevada
Mountains.
Photo by  Tom Walker

6. Big Wave Surfing

Wiping out in regular-sized surf can be terrifying. How about surfing down
the face of a humungous wave several stories high? (Or falling 40 feet from
the top of a giant wave, as this surfer did in Hawaii and likened to “jumping
off a cliff.”) There are just a few spots in the world where waves surface to 20
to 50 feet, and it takes incredible skill and talent to navigate them.
“Everything is magnified,” explains Thwen Chaloemtiarana of Mavericks Surf
Company, which is named for the famous big wave spot out of Half Moon
Bay in California. “When you’re hit by a 30-foot wave, it’s like being hit by
avalanche. You could be in 20 feet of foam, and you can’t get your head out
to breathe. And when you fall from that distance, you hit the water hard. You
could tear your arm out of its socket.”
Photo by Faith Dickey

7. High-Lining
If walking on a tethered line between two buildings, rocks or trees sounds
dangerous, that’s because it is. “You have to be able to catch the line if you
fall off and climb back up. If you set up the line incorrectly or don’t use a
harness, you can die,” explains Jerry Miszewski of slackline outfitter Balance
Community. (Check out this video of one harness-less high-liner recovering
from a fall near Lost Arrow Spire in Yosemite National Park.)

When done safely, the mental challenge is invigorating, claims Miszewski,

who’s high-lined all over the world. “You have to be completely focused, so
it forces you to have a clear mind. You also have a view from a unique
vantage point where no one else has been.”