Extreme sports are often thought of to only be for adrenaline junkies and hardcore athletes looking for a thrill, and in some cases, that may be true. While some extreme sports such as skydiving and abseiling have become more common in recent years, there’s always something new and exciting activities popping up.
Whether you do them in the mountains, in the ocean or within the concrete jungle of a city, modern extreme sports really are testing the boundaries in ways they never have before.
Here are 5 of the most unusual extreme sports of the 21st century.
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BASE Jumping
BASE Jumping, put crudely, is the act of jumping from high objects using a parachute to land safely on the ground. These objects may be a variety of different things and the term BASE is actually an acronym for the different categories – that is, buildings, antenna (like radio masts), spans (meaning bridges) and earth (cliffs).
While BASE jumping is normally done from far lower altitudes than something like skydiving, it’s actually considered more dangerous for a few reasons. First, the points from where they jump often have hazardous terrain below that is not particularly easy to land on. Second, BASE jumpers carry only one parachute, meaning that if it fails, they have no back up.
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Mountain Boarding
Often thought of as a mix between snowboarding and skateboarding, mountain boarding allows participants to get onto the mountains and enjoy fresh air while cruising down daunting slopes and doing a few tricks here and there.
The boards utilise more heavy-duty wheels and other parts to make them more durable and to allow for more movement on rough terrain.
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Parkour
Often considered the epitome of modern “sport” due to its landscape being cities, large buildings and other solid, man-made structures, parkour has taken the world by storm over the last 20 or so years.
The sport involves incredible athleticism, requiring participants to get from one point to another using the most fluid actions possible and without utilising anything to assist them.
Parkour is often thought of as jumping around from building to building, landing on strange surfaces and making risky moves.
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Volcano Boarding
Volcano boarding is just as extreme as it sounds. It’s basically snowboarding down the slopes of an active volcano – you can either stand up or sit down and ride your board like a sled.
The sport involves not only soaring down the side of a volcano, but you have to hike to the top of it first – talk about extreme! If you like your thrills a little less demanding on the knees, NZ slots provide action aplenty instead.
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Street Luge
One of the most popular extreme sports on this list, street luge is basically like skateboarding – or longboarding – down really steep hills on tarred roads. You generally sit on your board, lean back and allow gravity to do its thing. Street luge generally involves racing.
As you can imagine, this is an incredibly dangerous sport since wiping out at such high speeds isn’t going to be fun – even if you’re kitted up with a helmet and protective gear.