"Extreme" Sports

It's hard, if not impossible to know when to stop.

steep is an amazing movie

Steep was the first skiing movie I ever saw

wow you brought up some really good points.....i dont really have any answers but im really glad i read that lol

I have wondered this also.

i love meeting other people who get excited about alternative sports (i like the word alternative rather an extreme, good call) its like someone clicks on a light bulb in your head and you just feel kinda tingly and wired??? like you both feed off each others energy and push it while having a great time?

fulltilts are EXTREME

"Life should not be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming, "Wow, what a Ride!"

Very well said. I never really thought about that way of the reward being nothing bad happening.

I would consider myself an action sport enthusiast, and as a result I've sort of been in a habitual state of injury since I was pretty young. I think it's fair to assume the same for a lot of us. But for most people, the adrenaline rush isn't worth the high risk getting hurt.

like the line from fight club

"i dont want to die without any scars...  that means my life was boring"

i dont know man. before getting serious about skiing i was a complete pussy at anything physical, and i feel like thats changed with my skiing progression

we've been doing acrobatic shit for ages gymnastics has been around for a long long time its just that we have gotten more creative with that same kind of athletic skill and turned it into an artform

Frankly, I think the word extreme skiing is stupid.   As glen plake says, its all skiing to me.  And I feel that even the biggest booters or the most technical booters aren't really extreme.  I kind of think that it portrays skiing in the wrong way, an outlet for sponsors to market the sport to the masses instead of a lifestyle that we choose to challenge ourselves or just because we love it.  The one exception I can think of is true life or death situations (not really no-fall zones), ongoing struggles to survive without a quick evacuation route.  Parts of ski mountaineering, when in isolation, could be considered as extreme to me, but any competition, no matter how high consequence, is still tame to the wilderness.  There's my 2 cents.  Any other ideas on this? 

I agree with the OP that a lot of the time what we do doesn't feel extreme, but to your average sofa dwelling macdonalds eater it's absoultly insane. I guess it's all a matter of your personal boundaries, what would feel extreme for me could be nothing to a pro big mountain skier, whereas just going down a double black may terrify someone who's only skied a few times it's no big deal for me.

I think that's kind of why I don't really like the term 'extreme sports', extreme is what you make it, and to be honest I don't push my limits as much as I could, most of the time I manage my risks pretty well (fingers crossed). I think 'alternative' sports or 'free' sports is a better way to put it.

Compared to Drew in the post above me I never feel the need to get into to fights or anything to get a buzz, in fact I'm almost kind of introverted (well, in comparison to some in ski towns). I still need to be active all the time though, I generally spend my time teaching or doing either skiing/snowboarding/windsurfing/sailing and when I am home I need to go to the gym or ride my bike around or I just feel depressed. Maybe there's kind of a scale for people who like freesports etc, at one end are the pros who almost have a need to push themselves that far to get their buzz and at the other is people who are quite happy keeping their skis on the ground.

What about big mountain comps? Did you see that Verbier comp on the Bec des Rosses, that could be described as extreme I think, even the pros sounded pretty scared of it. But yeah, I agree with you calling it extreme isn't right all the time.

Anyone read the interview with McConkey (RIP) where he talked about coining the term 'freeskiing' because 'extreme skiing' sounded a bit stupid?

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I'd be worried if you did do that daily, fighting with bouncers is more extreme than most sking! You sound like a few of my friends, they are always the ones who push it and will be the ones that people will be talking about the next morning, I'm a bit more low key. That said though, when it comes to skiing I probably push it as hard as them, partially because even though I don't have that crazier side to me, I am kind of competitive.

Yes, I watched that comp 3 years ago and skied a number of times at Verbier.  The terrain in that region is quite spectacular and I have a lot of respect for those skiers.  In fact, some day, I'd like to do the IFSA tour myself.  But that doesn't make it extreme.  For clarity, I generally call big mountain "freeride" and park "freestyle", but there is overlap as in BC jibbing. 
Also, I said booter in my other post when I meant to say technical line instead.
Damn, I miss McConkey.