siiiiiiiick

as i delve deeper and deeper into so-called fringe sports, i'm learning a few things. last month, she and i saw a film on a swedish base jumper. the point was made that as the once-terrifying becomes mundane, the base jumper takes bigger and bigger risks. to this end, the "career" of a base jumper lasts 6 years. three reasons, the jumper dies, the jumper gets seriously hurt, or the jumper walks away. no exceptions.

same deal with snowboarders i'm told. at some point, the double black diamonds stop being terrifying. enter the terrain park. jumps, flips, tricks. the adrenaline rush returns with each new challenge. on a different track, enter free riding of big mountains. you know shaun white's name. he won a few gold medals in the olympics. owns the x-games. this documentary i recently saw called first descent showed this very talented freestyle terrain park wiz kid's first forays into free riding. i'm talking alaskan mountains. fresh powder, but damn near vertical faces and 30 foot drops on some runs. just feeding that adrenaline addiction.

climbers seem to take a more natural progression. boulderer to sport climber to traddie with tangents off into free soloing or deep water soloing, as the skill or mental deficiencies of the climber allow. i thought in comparison to the aforementioned sports that climbers were sane. nope. not even close. thanks for sharing this one with me clowe. check it out. dean potter proves that climbers aren't immune to the desensitizing nature of adrenaline sports.