BASE JUMPING
BASE jumping is where a person packs a parachute and jumps from fixed objects. And I am not talking about the roof of their three-story apartment complex. “BASE” is an acronym for the four categories of fixed objects a person can jump from: Buildings, Antennae, Spans (aka, a bridge), and Earth (usually cliffs).
The acronym was made up by film-maker Carl Boenish and his wife Jean. In 1978, Carl filmed the first BASE jumps from El Capitan in Yosemite National Park. “BASE numbers” are awarded to those who have made at least one jump from each of the four categories (buildings, antennas, spans and earth). When Phil Smith and Phil Mayfield (friends of Carl and Jean) jumped together from a Houston skyscraper in January 1981, they became the first to attain the exclusive BASE numbers (BASE #1 and #2), having already jumped from an antenna, spans, and earthen objects. Jean and Carl qualified for BASE numbers 3 and 4 soon after. A separate award was enacted for BASE jumping in the dark of night when Mayfield completed each category at night, becoming Night BASE #1.
1912: French tailor Franz Reichelt decided he was going to test his “coat parachute” invention by jumping from the first deck of the Eiffel Tower. He died.
1913: Russian student Vladimir Ossovski jumped from the 53-meter high bridge over France’s Seine River, using the parachute RK-1, invented a year before that by Gleb Kotelnikov. Ossovski wanted to jump from the Eiffel Tower too, but the mayor of Paris didn’t allow it. Wonder why?
1975: Owen J. Quinn, a jobless man, parachuted from the south tower of the World Trade Center to publicize the plight of the unemployed.
1990: Brit Russell Powell and BASE #230 illegally jumped from the Whispering Gallery inside St. Paul’s Cathedral in London.
2008: Hervé Le Gallou and an unknown man, dressed as engineers, illegally infiltrated Burj Khalifa, the tallest man-made structure in the world (around 650m at the time), and jumped off a balcony a few feet below the 160th floor.
2009: Venezuelan Ana Isabel Dao (age 28), New Zealander Livia Dickie (age 29) and Norwegian Anniken Binz (age 32 and no relation to Skywalker) base jumped from Angel Falls, the highest waterfall in the world with a height 3,212 ft.
2010: Nasr Al Niyadi and Omar Al Hegelan broke the world record for the highest building BASE jump by leaping from a crane suspended platform attached to Burj Khalifa’s 160th floor. Take that Gallou and unknown man!
CANYONING
While this might not be the most extreme sounding sport, it is definitely the most tiring sounding. Canyoning is basically traveling in canyons. But do you remember City Slickers? Canyons have a lot of elements. “Traveling” through a canyon usually entails walking, scrambling, climbing, jumping, abseiling and/or swimming. Canyoning is frequently done in remote and rugged settings and often requires navigational, route-finding and other wilderness travel skills, too. So you have to be smart and physically fit!
SANDBOARDING
Sandboarding is similar to snowboarding, but the boarder is cruising sand dunes rather than snow-covered mountains. Developed in Brazil, it involves riding across or down a dune while standing with both feet strapped to a board, however, to heighten the “extremeness,” some people do not strap in.
It’s less popular than snowboarding, partly because it is very difficult to build a “ski lift” on a sand dune. Let’s face it, most of us are lazy. Participants must walk back to the top of the dune after every run or ride a dune buggy or 4 wheel drive back to the top. It’s a lot of physical activity to even start…well…extreme physical activity.
Here’s who you are up against: Josh Tenge, professional sandboarding champion, holds the Guinness Book of World Records entry for the longest-distance back flip at 44’ 10”. Tenge is also a four-time world sandboarding champion and holds three world records.
BOULDERING
Bouldering is more focused on the technique of rock climbing. Its focus is on individual moves or short sequences of moves, unlike traditional climbing where the sport is about endurance over longer stretches of rock. Boulder routes are commonly referred to as “problems” because the nature of the climb is often like problem solving. Sometimes these problems are “eliminates,” meaning certain artificial restrictions are imposed.
To reduce the risk of injury from a fall, climbers rarely go higher than 3–5 meters above the ground. Anything over 7 meters is generally considered to be “free-soloing.” For further protection, climbers typically put a “crash pad” on the ground to break their fall. Climbers often have one or more spotters, who work to direct the climber’s body toward the crash pad during a fall.
Bouldering is increasing in popularity; bouldering areas are common in indoor climbing gyms and some climbing gyms are dedicated solely to bouldering. A lot of people enjoy the sport because it doesn’t take a lot of expensive equipment to pull it off.
Equipment:
- Loose chalk to dry sweating, slippery hands while climbing
- A crash pad
- Climbing shoes made for better traction
- Brushes of differing sizes, typically with nylon bristles or coarse animal hair, to clean holds
- Sports tape is useful for covering cuts or blisters, as well as providing support for joints that may have been strained
