tag:theconversation.com,2011:/ca/topics/extreme-sports-2589/articlesExtreme sports – The Conversation2023-04-25T20:01:08Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2033992023-04-25T20:01:08Z2023-04-25T20:01:08ZWhat Alone Australia tells us about fear, and why we need it<p><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt27371519/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0_tt_4_nm_1_q_Alone%2520Austr">Alone Australia</a> follows individuals having an extreme adventure in wild Tasmania. From one perspective this seems like a foolish thing to do – participants must be crazy or fearless. Why else would anyone choose to be uncomfortable, alone and without a supermarket for weeks? </p>
<p>Based on the <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt4803766/">US reality TV show</a> of the same name, participants are dropped off in remote Tasmania where they need to survive alone. The contestants film themselves throughout the ordeal with the person who remains the longest in the wilderness winning A$250,000.</p>
<p>The contestants have to overcome many obstacles: basic survival, isolation and loneliness and extreme fear. The <a href="https://www.nationalgeographic.com/adventure/article/extreme-athletes-risk-taking">traditional notion</a> is that people who look for extreme opportunities in nature either feel “no fear” or have an inappropriate relationship to it. Participants doing <a href="http://theconversation.com/finke-film-review-riders-daring-to-fly-in-a-crazy-desert-race-126597">similar extreme activities</a> in nature have been most commonly explored from a negative perspective – for example, focusing on the “need to take unnecessary risks”, or the desire to prove themselves by battling against nature. </p>
<p>While participants in Alone Australia do have a “get out” plan, it is very easy for a serious accident to happen and for participants to be gripped by the fear of that likelihood. For example, contestants in the show voiced concerns about embedding an axe in a limb or being trapped by a large falling branch or being stuck in a deep muddy bog. </p>
<p>Supposedly, adventurers are driven by a <a href="https://www.routledge.com/Phenomenology-and-the-Extreme-Sport-Experience/Brymer-Schweitzer/p/book/9780367374501">pathological relationship with fear</a> resulting from a personality disorder, yet these conjectures have never been scientifically substantiated. </p>
<p>Fear is seen as something that should be avoided, yet should this be so? Perhaps as the late president Roosevelt noted – paraphrasing the French philosopher Montaigne – we “have nothing to fear but fear itself”. </p>
<p><a href="https://thepsychologist.bps.org.uk/volume-2018/january-2018/adventure-important-part-being-human">Research</a> with people who actively search out extreme activities suggests other motives. Alone Australia shows us fear is more nuanced, and positive than assumed. </p>
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<h2>Fear as a messenger and guide</h2>
<p>Like other emotions, fear tends to ebb and flow. Rather than remaining at the same level of intensity at all times, it depends on both internal and external factors and relates to fluctuating levels of danger.</p>
<p>Essentially, knowing when a venture would be too dangerous to attempt or continue, requires deep self knowledge about one’s strengths and limitations as well as extensive experiential knowledge of the environment. This does not come from a mindset whereby one is in competition with nature, but from being attuned to nature. </p>
<p>An important function of intuition is to <a href="https://www.routledge.com/Adventure-Psychology-Going-Knowingly-into-the-Unknown/Reid-Brymer/p/book/9781032003047">detect danger</a>. This can be felt through the body, where a response and systematic preparation for action originate before the intellect has a chance to ascertain the source of the danger and its various attributes such as immediacy, degree or complexity.</p>
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<span class="caption">Gina, an Alone Australia contestant.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">SBS</span></span>
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<p>Intuition, like any other sense, triggers bodily responses to fear before clear factual data is brought into cognitive awareness. The intuitive bodily movements that occur in response to danger are partly what affords an extraordinarily rapid response when there is perhaps only a fraction of a second available to mitigate or avoid catastrophic danger. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/adrenaline-zen-what-normal-people-can-learn-from-extreme-sports-72944">Adrenaline zen: what 'normal people' can learn from extreme sports</a>
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<h2>Fear is pragmatic</h2>
<p>Aside from being a source of rapid information relay, fear has the <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3595162/">pragmatic function</a> of integrating senses, thoughts and actions, so that dangers can be addressed immediately.</p>
<p>Fear is a force which demands a sharpened focus of attention toward the source of danger in preparation for action, such as escaping.</p>
<p>Fear is a reliable messenger between the senses and the cognitive faculties. The realisation of danger, such as tree branches falling on an Alone Australia contestant’s head, hypothermia, the need for food and effective shelter, or even the onset of severe illness, require a rapid shift in focus toward the danger, with all other concerns immediately falling by the wayside.</p>
<p>If the environmental information contained in fear were forced to “queue up and wait its turn”, before it could finally arrive into cognitive awareness, the window of opportunity in which the danger could have otherwise been effectively evaluated and addressed could have already passed. </p>
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<h2>Fear as a guide</h2>
<p>Fear is a benevolent force or guide which is often felt in the context of <a href="https://www.nationalgeographic.com/adventure/article/extreme-athletes-risk-taking">high adventure</a>. </p>
<p>The information contained in fear is information used to make wise decisions under extremely dangerous and uncertain conditions. An intimate and harmonious relationship with fear brings vital information relating to danger into conscious awareness more quickly than any other means. The nature of fear is to instantly ignite the power of the body and the mind simultaneously, so that there is no delay in executing responses to danger. </p>
<p>In adventurism, fear is a friend, an essential companion, not something to fear. In Alone Australia, accepting fear as something useful and necessary is essential for survival.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/203399/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Eric Brymer does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>In Alone Australia accepting fear as something useful and necessary is essential for survival.Eric Brymer, Chartered Psychologist, Southern Cross UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1848072022-10-12T16:46:20Z2022-10-12T16:46:20ZBase jumping: what we can learn from some of the world’s most extreme athletes about overcoming doubt<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/489344/original/file-20221012-18-imwfm8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=5%2C0%2C3749%2C2184&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">David Gallagher</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span></figcaption></figure><blockquote>
<p>You can be on that exit point for five minutes, battling all these voices in the head, and all of a sudden, a calmness comes over you, and you realise … it’s good, let’s do it. We used to call that <a href="https://www.mountainmanbase.com/themoment">“the moment”</a>. <strong>Andy Guest, UK base jumper</strong>.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Is there something us mere mortals can learn from “the moment”? I believe so. As an adventure psychologist and neuroscientist my work explores this question. Research has shown simple techniques can help people access this meditative state. </p>
<p>In extreme sports, the consequences of athletes’ decisions can be life threatening. Scientists have described base jumping as the <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/11745398.2010.9686845">most extreme of extreme
sports</a>. It involves parachuting from fixed structures including buildings, antennae, bridges and cliffs. </p>
<p>By one calculation, there’s a 50 times increased risk of dying <a href="http://www.bandolier.org.uk/booth/Risk/sports.html">compared to skydiving</a>. Having said that, there has only been one fatality <a href="https://www.leicestermercury.co.uk/news/local-news/man-killed-suspected-base-jumping-6369472">in the UK</a> in the last 30 years.</p>
<p>But base jumpers aren’t all big <a href="https://theconversation.com/adrenaline-zen-what-normal-people-can-learn-from-extreme-sports-72944">impulsive personalities</a>. They are just as prone to self-doubt as the rest of us.</p>
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<h2>A cool balance</h2>
<p><a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/26304203/">Stress hampers performance</a>. In the face of threat, parts of the <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/330682464_Acute_stress_alters_the_&#39;default&#39;_">brain involved in reasoned decision-making</a> shut down. This can impair judgement. </p>
<p>But this physiological response can change. Research shows experienced skydivers have <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0208521617304060">increased control</a> over their <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK539845/#:%7E:text=The%20autonomic%20nervous%20system%20is,sympathetic%2C%20parasympathetic%2C%20and%20enteric">autonomic nervous system</a> response to stress, which governs vital functions such as blood pressure, heart rate and breathing.</p>
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<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/489346/original/file-20221012-18-29kn95.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/489346/original/file-20221012-18-29kn95.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=267&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/489346/original/file-20221012-18-29kn95.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=267&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/489346/original/file-20221012-18-29kn95.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=267&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/489346/original/file-20221012-18-29kn95.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=336&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/489346/original/file-20221012-18-29kn95.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=336&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/489346/original/file-20221012-18-29kn95.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=336&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Base jumpers chase a feeling of calm, not adrenaline.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">David Gallagher</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
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<p>Ordinarily, the stress response is associated with activity in the <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK539845/">sympathetic branch</a> of the autonomic nervous system. This division regulates the fight-or-flight response. The sympathetic system also relaxes the bladder, speeds up heart rate and dilates eye pupils. </p>
<p>Yet, <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/246894917_Fight_flight_or_fall_Autonomic_nervous_system_reactivity_during_skydiving">some people</a> show increased activity in another branch as well: the parasympathetic nervous system, normally associated with restorative functioning after exposure to stress as well as life-sustaining processes such as digestion. Activation of the parasympathetic branch helps people stay calm even when highly stimulated.</p>
<h2>A different view</h2>
<p>There are tactics anybody can use to restore balance in the nervous system. For example, slower <a href="https://doi.org/10.3389/fncir.2016.00115">breathing</a> increases parasympathetic activity. This goes hand-in-hand with being mindful of <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/19451642/">unwanted thoughts</a>. </p>
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<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/489347/original/file-20221012-13-xijl6w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/489347/original/file-20221012-13-xijl6w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=498&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/489347/original/file-20221012-13-xijl6w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=498&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/489347/original/file-20221012-13-xijl6w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=498&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/489347/original/file-20221012-13-xijl6w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=626&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/489347/original/file-20221012-13-xijl6w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=626&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/489347/original/file-20221012-13-xijl6w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=626&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Waiting for the Moment.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">David Gallagher</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
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<p>Adopting a “<a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/28080968/">challenge mindset</a>” can also enhance people’s ability to perform under pressure. This involves seeing a situation for the opportunities it presents instead of seeing it as <a href="https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2019.01255/full">threatening</a>.
<a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/27580154/">Motivational self-talk</a> can help too: saying things like: “I can do this.”</p>
<p>This approach won’t transform you into a cool-headed master of your fears overnight. But practising these techniques for <a href="https://www.pnas.org/doi/abs/10.1073/pnas.0707678104">even a few days</a> can result in beneficial effects on nervous system activity. </p>
<h2>Harder than it sounds</h2>
<p>This is not to say severe anxiety can be cured with breathing techniques.</p>
<p>The inner voice of self-doubt can make it difficult to activate the parasympathetic branch. This is because your mental resource is being diverted to a set of brain regions known as the <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/330682464_Acute_stress_alters_the_&#39;default&#39;_brain_processing">default mode network</a>. The default mode network is where mental processes involving reflection happen. This is the source of that inner voice which can turn into self-critical chatter, focusing on negative events from your past. </p>
<p>When areas of the brain involved in thinking and emotional processing become over active, this can result in <a href="https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0066500">rumination and anxiety</a>. Rumination is excessive, repetitive thinking about the same event that focuses on the negative and results in emotional distress. It’s difficult to switch off. </p>
<p>Learning to manage the default mode can help us develop <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-020-74283-7#:%7E:text=Resilience%20is%20a%20dynamic%20process,default%20mode%20network%20(DMN)">resilience</a>.</p>
<p>Research shows that high performers tend to be people who can stay focused even when under <a href="https://psycnet.apa.org/record/2007-09453-001">extreme cognitive demands</a>. In one study participants performed memory based tasks intended to stretch mental processing capacity to the limit. Those who struggled with the demands showed increased brain activation in task-focused zones, putting in extra effort to compensate. Those who consistently performed at a high level showed lower levels of activation, as if taking it in their stride. So high performers kept a cool head.</p>
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<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/489349/original/file-20221012-22-bj7ql1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/489349/original/file-20221012-22-bj7ql1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=402&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/489349/original/file-20221012-22-bj7ql1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=402&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/489349/original/file-20221012-22-bj7ql1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=402&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/489349/original/file-20221012-22-bj7ql1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=505&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/489349/original/file-20221012-22-bj7ql1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=505&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/489349/original/file-20221012-22-bj7ql1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=505&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">This is not the moment to panic.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">David Gallagher</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
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<p>My research is looking at ways to study people’s performance in extreme situations, using <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/348771950_HRV_and_Stress_A_Mixed-Methods_Approach_for_Comparison_of_Wearable_Heart_Rate_Sensors_for_Biofeedback">wearable heart rate monitors</a> as a proxy for measuring brain processes. This aims to identify how the brain responds in the <a href="https://www.mountainmanbase.com/themoment">“moment”</a> described by base jumpers. Measuring physiological levels of stress can help us identify the optimal states needed to act under pressure. </p>
<p>Whether it’s driving through a new city at rush hour, or accepting a life-changing opportunity, we must overcome those voices battling in our heads or they will prevent us from moving forward. In order to access that special <a href="https://www.mountainmanbase.com/themoment">moment</a> for ourselves, we need to tune our internal radio to filter out the noise of self-distrust.</p>
<p>Instilling some balance to our <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/28080968/">brain-body responses</a> using techniques such as mindfulness and breathing, can help us stay in control. Without the calming influence of a balanced nervous system, people’s minds have a tendency to see threat all around, rather than viewing life in terms of <a href="https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2019.01255/full">chances for growth</a>. </p>
<p>So, stop. Breathe out slowly, reassure yourself it’s OK, you’ve got this. This is a challenge, something to get stuck into. Overcoming this insecurity is like realising that you’ve been trying to drive with the hand brake on. So, let’s release it and drive off.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/184807/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>David Gallagher does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>People associate mindfulness with yoga and tai chi but meditation is actually closely connected with the most dangerous extreme sports.David Gallagher, Visiting researcher specialising in Experimental Psychology and Cognitive Neuroscience, Liverpool John Moores UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1651472021-09-14T21:51:28Z2021-09-14T21:51:28ZWhy surfing is an antidote to the relentless march of capitalism<p>Surfing is as cool as it ever was. More people are competing in more contests and seeking higher waves, supported by a booming <a href="https://www.theinertia.com/surf/how-the-surfing-industry-has-experienced-both-boom-and-bust-during-the-pandemic/">industry</a>, even amid a pandemic.</p>
<p>Dramas and documentaries about surfing have bloomed since the 1960s, and companies such as Quicksilver, Billabong and Roxy have developed entire markets around the surf lifestyle. The recent decision to include surfing in the Tokyo Olympic Games marked the zenith of the global popularity of this sport.</p>
<p>Even though surfing is an extreme sport, most of it consists of the gentle art of waiting. Ask any passionate surfer, and they will probably tell you that surfing is, first and foremost, a contemplative practice.</p>
<p>“Surfing is a kind of stoic philosophy – it means accepting that we don’t have power over things,” writes novelist <a href="https://www.franceculture.fr/emissions/lecriture-est-un-sport-comme-les-autres/sigolene-vinson-et-le-surf">Sigolène Vinson</a>.</p>
<p>To understand why, we must go back in history. Surfing was originally a spiritual activity rooted in the religion and culture of different islands in the Pacific Ocean, especially Hawaii. It represented the celebration of Lonos, the god of fertility. At the time, only the tribe’s high-ranking figures could undertake it.</p>
<p>Today, some surfers still follow this original mindset of communion with nature. “We call them soul surfers,” writes Lodewijk Allaert in <a href="http://www.transboreal.fr/librairie.php?code=TRAPPGLI">his ode to surfing</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>“They explore the imperceptible side of the discipline, dreaming of the precious balance between man and the elements, which pushed the Hawaiian pioneer of surfing, Duke Kahanamoku, to throw himself into colossal walls of water equipped with an antique acacia board. For them, surfing wasn’t a way to show off or a series of spectacular moves, but a lifestyle, a philosophy.”</p>
</blockquote>
<p>These few utopian surfers base their entire lives around surfing, going against the flow of our society where capitalism is relentlessly expanding toward new areas, the alienation caused by technology always intensifying and freedom increasingly compromised.</p>
<h2>Soul surfers vs capitalists sharks</h2>
<p>The feeling of being fully present in what we are actually doing has become rare – except perhaps in the case of those who practice extreme sports (it’s difficult to think about work when you have to focus on not being crushed by a two-metre wave).</p>
<p>Surfing is an escape; an act of freedom. This is why it can be linked to the ideal of <a href="https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/F/bo3773600.html">the American counterculture of the 1960s</a> based on the “freewheeling spirit of the hippies” and modern forms of Bohemianism, largely inspired by the Beat Generation.</p>
<p>Like many other <a href="http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0001839221993475">countercultures</a>, from skateboarding and yoga to meditation and hip-hop, surf has to an extent been absorbed by capitalism. Look at the proliferation of surf schools, magazines, competitions, films, music, and surf wear, each representing an attempt by businesses to make money out of the sport. Like a prey splashing in the water, surfing has attracted the attention of capitalist sharks, and became a victim of its own success.</p>
<p>Yet, with surfing, unlike some of these other countercultures, something still resists. Capitalism cannot seem to capture the unique and solitary moment when the surfer must put aside everything he or she knows to avoid getting swept away, to ride the wave and feel a sense of communion with the powerful and untameable elements.</p>
<p>Surfing is the ultimate in unpredictability. Even the best weather apps cannot predict whether or not it will be possible to surf a particular swell.</p>
<p>The ocean puts human beings in their rightful place – not above nature but inside of it. I dare even René Descartes to try to become a “master and possessor of nature” in the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2020/aug/02/nazare-in-portugal-is-the-home-to-the-worlds-biggest-waves-and-bravest-surfers">building-sized waves</a> of Nazaré in Portugal, the largest in the world.</p>
<h2>The ocean as the last frontier</h2>
<p>In a world where transhumanists seek to use technology to save humanity, and even to even <a href="https://time.com/574/google-vs-death/">to defeat death</a>, surfing reminds humans of our staggering insignificance before the irresistible force of the ocean – and nature in general.</p>
<p>In the context of an increasingly tech-based and dehumanized approach to <a href="https://www.college-de-france.fr/site/anne-fagot-largeault/inaugural-lecture-2001-03-01.htm">medicine</a>, surfing can appear as a particularly efficient cure for the soul. While some hospitals have introduced secular meditation programmes to alleviate the pain of patients suffering from chronic illnesses or depression, others have used surfing for therapeutic purposes to help cure people like <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l8W1yvrPA-U">veterans suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder</a>.</p>
<p>Now, a pandemic has caused many to question their lifestyles – moving, changing jobs or getting divorced. New rules implemented by the government to limit the spread of the virus have also had a major impact on individual freedoms. Not only directly when being mandated to wear masks, respecting curfews, and in some regions, forbidding access to the beach, but also in a more diffuse manner with the proliferation of applications intended to control citizens’ movements. Some have even gone so far as to place such measures within the realm of <a href="https://www.franceculture.fr/oeuvre/lage-du-capitalisme-de-surveillance">surveillance capitalism</a>.</p>
<p>While <a href="https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/F/bo3773600.html">American counterculture</a> originally conceived technology as a way to free individuals from the establishment, they are increasingly criticized today. Surfing may be able to make this dream of pure freedom come true even for a short time by providing its practitioners with moments off the radar.</p>
<p>“Surfers are often portrayed as conquerors who travel on a whim, with new waves to discover, fleeing the trials and tribulations of modern life,” writes sociologist <a href="https://www.arkhe-editions.com/livre/histoire-du-surf/">Jérémy Lemarié</a>. “Today, the ocean is their only escape in the overpopulation and compartmentalisation of modern life. The ocean is their last frontier.”</p>
<p>In a 1945 presentation to the US government, Vannevar Bush presented science as <a href="https://www.nsf.gov/od/lpa/nsf50/vbush1945.htm">the new frontier to be conquered</a>. It would now seem that his wish has been fulfilled. Today, technology promises to take over both time, for <a href="https://www.calicolabs.com/">those who dream of killing death</a>, and space, with the billionaire race to conquer new planets. And yet, grab a board and head to the sea and you will soon realise that nature is still far from conquered. In this context, the ocean be seen as the last frontier likely to comfort mankind when facing disenchantment with modern life.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/165147/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Yaëlle Amsallem a reçu des financements de ESCP Business School. </span></em></p>In a world where transhumanists seek to use technology to save humanity, and even to defeat death, surfing reminds humans of our staggering insignificance.Yaëlle Amsallem, Doctorante en sciences de gestion, ESCP Business SchoolLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1265972019-12-11T04:13:34Z2019-12-11T04:13:34ZFinke film review: riders daring to fly in a crazy desert race<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/305113/original/file-20191204-70133-1m0l3n5.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=18%2C21%2C2011%2C1106&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Finke desert racers travel at more than 160 kilometres an hour, risking life and limb. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Madman Films</span></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>Review: Finke: There & Back, directed by Dylan River</em></p>
<p>The <a href="https://finkedesertrace.com.au/index.php">Finke Desert Race</a> takes place in the harsh desert environment near Alice Springs. Scores of motorbikes and cars are raced over two days along an off-road track that stretches approximately 229 kilometres each way. </p>
<p>The race was first envisioned as a motorbike race to test the skills of a small group of local enthusiasts in 1976. Cars were introduced 1988, and the race has developed into a heavily sponsored and lucrative international spectacle. Narrated by actor Eric Bana, <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt8286136/?ref_=ttawd_awd_tt">Finke: There & Back</a> follows the high-speed journey of those in a quest to be named King of the Desert. </p>
<p>As we watch the highs and lows of the competitors featured in this film – directed by 25-year-old Finke racer <a href="https://www.theaustralian.com.au/arts/film/dylan-rivers-film-finke-there-and-back-is-about-the-offroad-motorsport-event/news-story/a90f53597f81003a6b292f6c903344e9">Dylan River</a> – we learn about competition, risks and rewards.</p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">Eric Bana narrates the action, which was shot by 16 cinematographers.</span></figcaption>
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<h2>Thrill of the chase</h2>
<p>For the racers and supporters, “Finke fever” – the energy that surrounds the event including all the accompanying celebrations – comes in hot every year on the Queen’s birthday long weekend, when it takes place. </p>
<p>Winning is determined by completion time, so speed (over 160 kilometres per hour) is the focus. Many of the race vehicles are specifically designed for the event and cost around $500,000 to produce. </p>
<p>The Finke race is dangerous. As such, it seems similar to extreme sports such as Proximity Flying and Big Wave surfing. But extreme sports are mostly undertaken in unconstrained environments, are non-competitive, and free from competition rules and external regulations. </p>
<p>Participation in extreme sports is also not determined by preset time limits. Effective participation is about surviving to participate another day. </p>
<p>More akin to endurance competitions, the modern Finke Desert Race is tightly planned with organisers working in crack teams to prepare and set out the track, manage risk, keep track of competitors and plan for disasters such as injury or death. In a sense, the goal of winning on competition day – rather than surviving – might make Finke more dangerous. </p>
<p>The desert environment adds uncertainty and excitement. Accordingly, the film’s imagery takes in the grand aerial scale reminiscent of <a href="https://www.warrenmiller.com.au/">Warren Miller</a>’s jaw dropping snow sport and skating blockbusters, but also gets up-close and dusty as we get to know the personalities taking part. It was nominated for Best Cinematography in a Documentary in the recent AACTA film awards. </p>
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<span class="caption">First-time director Dylan River, 25, has completed the Finke track three times.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Madman Films</span></span>
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<h2>Need for speed</h2>
<p>The film introduces us to a group of athletes and briefly explores their motivations and experiences. </p>
<p>“Once in your veins,” narrator Bana tells us, “the race is an incomprehensible addiction.” </p>
<p>Initially, the classic reasons for such endeavours – a “search for adrenaline” and adventure, a lifelong love of speed – are given. But we soon realise there is more to the impulses that drive these racers. One competitor calls it “escapism in its purest form”. </p>
<p>Isaac Elliot, now in a wheelchair having suffered a traumatic accident ten years earlier, is keen to describe the event as an “adrenaline rush”, but he has a bigger point to prove. His personal quest to finish what he started. </p>
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<span class="caption">Isaac Elliott wants to finish what he started a decade ago.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Madman Films</span></span>
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<p>Not all competitors consider winning the main reason to race. Though a five-time winner, Randall Gregory calls the Finke challenge “just a race”. It affords him personal growth and opportunities to test his physical and mental capacities. </p>
<p>Even though the Finke race is more akin to a sporting competition, these experiences are reflected in what <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5699196/">we know</a> about extreme sports athletes. Participation facilitates a deeper understanding of personal limits, values and beliefs about what is possible. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/adrenaline-zen-what-normal-people-can-learn-from-extreme-sports-72944">Adrenaline zen: what 'normal people' can learn from extreme sports</a>
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<h2>Highs and tragic lows</h2>
<p>Extreme sports participants <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/1359105307082459">recognise</a> the need to assess the challenges ahead and also accept the seriousness of the activity they are about to undertake. This can lead to a decision to walk away if the assessment is unfavourable. Bound by time, the Finke race does not allow those risk assessments to take place. </p>
<p>The film tells us that just over 70 motorbike riders out of a field of over 500 bikes fail to finish. The impact on the riders’ body is reported by the racers themselves. “I’ve fractured six vertebrae, fractured my sternum and my collar bone,” says one, adding that with a new family he’ll “touch wood” in the hope of avoiding further injury. We also see competitors dig deep for the mental strength required to stay in the race. </p>
<p>In a sad post-script, rider Daymon Stokie, who is featured in the film, died in another race six months after production. </p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">Finke competitor Daymon Stokie died after filming.</span></figcaption>
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<p>The film is an incredible insight into what it takes to prepare and compete as well as the implications of the competition for personal development and the riders’ families. </p>
<p>Finke: There & Back is a must-see for those interested in motorbikes and especially those interested in off-road motorbiking. Viewers who’ve never been exposed to this world will likely be struck by the intensity of the race and the interaction between the riders’ skill, daring and the harshness of the environment. </p>
<p><em>Special event <a href="https://www.madmanfilms.com.au/finke/">screenings</a> across Australia from December 5</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/126597/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Eric Brymer does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>A documentary about a high adrenaline outback adventure race, Finke: There & Back, provides spectacular aerial imagery and personal insights.Eric Brymer, Reader, Psychology with Outdoor and Adventure studies, Leeds Beckett UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1219052019-08-15T12:32:48Z2019-08-15T12:32:48ZFlat-Earther ‘Mad’ Mike Hughes prepares to launch himself to space – here’s how far he’s likely to get<p>The self-declared daredevil and <a href="https://theconversation.com/i-watched-an-entire-flat-earth-convention-for-my-research-heres-what-i-learnt-95887">Flat Earther</a> <a href="https://madmikehughes.com">“Mad” Mike Hughes</a> is preparing for another launch in his homemade, steam-powered rocket in the Californian desert. His final goal is to reach the edge of space, but how likely is he to succeed and see that the Earth is actually spherical?</p>
<p>Hughes’ first rocket launch was in 2014, and since then he has taken off several times in his homemade machines – reaching an altitude of 572 metres at most. His adventures have <a href="https://metro.co.uk/2018/03/25/man-injured-immediately-after-launching-himself-1875ft-into-the-air-to-prove-earth-is-flat-7415293/">led to a number of injuries</a>, yet he is still determined to keep going. His latest attempt was scheduled for August 11, but was <a href="https://www.theregister.co.uk/2018/02/05/flat_earther_rocketeer_failure/">once again</a> aborted after a fault with the rocket was discovered. He will retry <a href="https://www.space.com/craigslist-water-heater-mad-rocket-launch.html">on August 17</a>.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-science-of-superstition-and-why-people-believe-in-the-unbelievable-97043">The science of superstition – and why people believe in the unbelievable</a>
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<p>Hughes believes that the <a href="https://theconversation.com/you-dont-need-to-build-a-rocket-to-prove-the-earth-isnt-flat-heres-the-simple-science-88106">Earth is flat</a> and that he can prove that with his rocket travels (he has been <a href="https://the-infinite-plane-society.myshopify.com/blogs/infinite-plane-society-blog/about-the-infinite-plane-society">given money by the Infinity Plane Society</a>). He is willing to go out and literally risk his life to prove what he believes. </p>
<p>But whether he will get anywhere is a different matter. So let’s take a look at his rocket to see what potential pitfalls or successes he could have.</p>
<h2>Rocket launch basics</h2>
<p>The mathematics behind the speed a rocket launch can achieve was developed in the 1890s by a Russian schoolteacher called <a href="http://blogs.esa.int/rocketscience/2012/10/14/a-man-and-an-equation/">Konstantin Tsiolkovsky</a>. <a href="https://www.grc.nasa.gov/WWW/K-12/rocket/rktpow.html">His equation</a> calculates a speed or velocity change based on how much of the rocket’s total mass is fuel – the more fuel you have the faster you can go – and how fast it can burn this fuel. In fact, the equation is still used to this day. </p>
<p>Orbital flight <a href="https://www.grc.nasa.gov/WWW/K-12/rocket/rktrflght.html">is a combination</a> of altitude (vertical height) and horizontal velocity. To reach an orbit around the Earth you need two things. The first is to be travelling <a href="https://www.physicsclassroom.com/mmedia/vectors/sat.cfm">fast enough horizontally</a> that you reach the curvature of the Earth before gravity pulls you to the ground. You also want as little atmosphere as possible, otherwise the enormous drag force from the air will both <a href="https://www.khanacademy.org/computing/computer-programming/programming-natural-simulations/programming-forces/a/air-and-fluid-resistance">reduce your speed</a> and <a href="https://www.space.com/3113-meteors-meteor-showers-science.html">heat your object up</a>.</p>
<p>In the 1950s, the aerospace engineer <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theodore_von_K%C3%A1rm%C3%A1n">Theodore Von Karman</a> decided that the point where the atmosphere thins so much that normal aeronautical flight (requiring atmosphere) is impossible is at 100 kilometres up (62 miles). He dubbed this line, the edge of space, the Karman line. And to orbit at this height would require a horizontal speed of 7.8 kilometres per second, which is about 17,500 miles per hour. </p>
<p>To reach these speeds, you have to use very <a href="http://www.braeunig.us/space/propel.htm">specific fuels</a> and engine shapes, relying on the combustion of solids or liquids. As the fuel is heated and turned to gas it takes up a <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/engineering/ideal-gas-law">larger volume</a>, and as such is pushed out the back of the engine, generating thrust. The more gas you can produce at higher temperatures, the faster your rocket goes. </p>
<h2>Limitations and challenges</h2>
<p>Hughes intends to use water as the fuel itself. The problem with water is that it does not boil quickly – it has a <a href="https://bio.libretexts.org/Bookshelves/Introductory_and_General_Biology/Book%3A_General_Biology_(Boundless)/2%3A_The_Chemical_Foundation_of_Life/2.2%3A_Water/2.2C%3A_Water%E2%80%99s_High_Heat_Capacity">high specific heat capacity</a>. This means it essentially takes too much energy to turn it into steam quickly enough to be able to generate a high thrust.</p>
<p>While we don’t know the specific dimensions for Hughes’ rocket, we can use <a href="https://www.newsweek.com/flat-earther-mike-hughes-homemade-rocket-1453535">his description</a> of “95-100 gallons of water (360-379 litres), superheated”, “leaving the rocket at the speed of sound” and weighing “around 1,800 pounds” to calculate his potential maximum altitude using Tsiolkovsky’s rocket equation.</p>
<p>This requires us to know initial velocity (which is 330 metres per second), initial mass (which is 816 kilograms) and a final mass as all the water and steam are gone (this is 437 kilograms). The equation then gives a speed change of 206 metres per second. This means the maximum height he can reach is just over 2 kilometres, assuming he launches straight up (this is based on basic equations of motion, ignoring air resistance).</p>
<p>This is a very respectable height to reach on a homemade engine. But <a href="https://www.nps.gov/seki/planyourvisit/whitney.htm">Mount Whitney</a>, which is close to Hughes’ launch site in California, has a peak of almost 4.5 kilometres (2.8 miles). Neither altitude is anywhere close to the edge of space. It is not even high enough to see the curvature of the Earth, which requires a <a href="https://www.howitworksdaily.com/how-high-do-you-have-to-go-to-see-the-curvature-of-the-earth/">minimum height of about 10 kilometres (6.2 miles)</a>.</p>
<p>Despite this, Hughes has stated he wants funding to enable him to <a href="https://www.phillyvoice.com/flat-earth-movements-rocket-man-will-share-details-antarctica-launch-vegas-conference/">reach the Karman line</a> in his next flight. Reversing our calculations, we can estimate that he would need a minimum velocity change of 1.4 kilometres per second (0.9 miles per second) to do that, and this would require his rocket to hold at least 29,000 litres of water (7,500 US gallons). </p>
<p>This is no easy feat as it would require a fuel tank with a volume of 30 cubic metres, which is roughly the carrying capacity of two <a href="https://www.parkers.co.uk/vans-pickups/ford/transit/2014-dimensions/">long wheel base vans</a>. The increased size of the fuel tank and supporting structure would then increase the final weight, which in turn would require even more fuel. The engineering required to contain the internal pressure of this water and turn it instantly into steam may be very difficult. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/flat-earthers-vs-climate-change-sceptics-why-conspiracy-theorists-keep-contradicting-each-other-96060">Flat Earthers vs climate change sceptics: why conspiracy theorists keep contradicting each other</a>
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<p>While Hughes’ current launch attempt may well succeed, the chances of a rocket with a 30 cubic metre fuel tank full of water taking off is close to impossible. At least he would avoid the catastrophe of the fuel <a href="https://www.theverge.com/2016/9/1/12748752/spacex-launch-site-explosion-cape-canaveral-florida">exploding on the launch pad</a>, which is a concern for more serious rocket launches. Commercial ventures such the <a href="https://theconversation.com/falcon-heavy-spacex-stages-an-amazing-launch-but-what-about-the-environmental-impact-91423">Falcon rockets</a>, and <a href="https://www.blueorigin.com/">Blue Origin</a> have put a lot of money into research and if they could use something as cheap as water to launch then they would do so. </p>
<p>Ultimately, Hughes will not make it anywhere near high enough to see the curvature of the Earth, but I suspect the adrenaline rush will more than make up for it. Personally, I wish him all the best for his next flight. I may not agree with his beliefs, his politics or his distrust of science, but I do applaud his spirit and attitude.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/121905/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Ian Whittaker does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>An equation from the 1890s can help us work out how high Hughes can actually reach with his homemade rocket.Ian Whittaker, Lecturer in Physics, Nottingham Trent UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1184272019-07-08T10:41:46Z2019-07-08T10:41:46ZEverest: I interviewed people risking their lives in the ‘death zone’ during one of the deadliest seasons yet<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/282833/original/file-20190705-51288-zpbias.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C1776%2C1183&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Climbers begin the long ascent.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Jase Wilson</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Climbing some of the world’s tallest mountains, you enter the “death zone” when you are 8,000 metres from sea level – where oxygen is <a href="http://tss.awf.poznan.pl/files/2_Trends_Vol21_2014__no1_14.pdf">34% the concentration it is on the ground below</a>. Climbing here is one of the most dangerous forms of tourism there is. For mountaineers, the most tantalising goal is to climb the world’s 14 highest peaks, all of which stretch into the death zone.</p>
<p>They’re all in Central Asia and are indeed the deadliest. The biggest, Mount Everest, is 8,848 metres tall and straddles Nepal and China. K2 in Pakistan and China is the second tallest at 8,611 metres, while Kangchenjunga (8,586 metres) and Lhotse (8,516 metres) in Nepal, aren’t far behind. Some seasons on mountains like K2 can see <a href="https://www.theactivetimes.com/killer-climbs-10-deadliest-mountains-world-slideshow/slide-3">death rates of 32%</a> for those attempting the summit.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/everest-11-climbers-dead-in-16-days-how-should-we-deal-with-the-bodies-on-the-mountain-118374">Everest: 11 climbers dead in 16 days – how should we deal with the bodies on the mountain?</a>
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<p>We usually think of holidays as a chance to enjoy life, but with the bodies of fallen climbers clearly visible on Mount Everest, death is always present in the tourism industry here. In this way, high-altitude mountaineering can be considered <a href="https://theconversation.com/death-on-everest-the-boom-in-climbing-tourism-is-dangerous-and-unsustainable-114033">a form of dark tourism</a> – when people pay to travel to sites of death, disaster or atrocity. </p>
<p>I’m a doctoral researcher in tourism studies who was stationed for six weeks between April and May 2019 at the Everest Base Camp. There, I interviewed tourists, high-altitude workers and all the people who kept the death zone economy moving and all those who were poised for the summit.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/282829/original/file-20190705-51278-pndelo.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/282829/original/file-20190705-51278-pndelo.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/282829/original/file-20190705-51278-pndelo.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/282829/original/file-20190705-51278-pndelo.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/282829/original/file-20190705-51278-pndelo.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/282829/original/file-20190705-51278-pndelo.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/282829/original/file-20190705-51278-pndelo.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The Everest Base Camp at 5300 metres. The site of much anxious waiting.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Jase Wilson</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Encounters in the death zone</h2>
<p>On May 14 2019, the first climbers of the season reached the summit of Mount Everest. Below at 5300 metres, many more were waiting to acclimatise to the thin air in base camp. I arrived there in mid-April, just as climbers were beginning to acclimatise – exposing their bodies to an altitude which causes the body to produce extra red blood cells so they can carry more oxygen. </p>
<p>By mid-May, climbers at the base camp had been anxiously waiting for over five weeks for the weather to abate, allowing Nepali workers to go to the summit in advance to fix ropes to the side of the mountain so that other climbers can follow safely. In 2018, the window period – when 70-80mph jet stream winds suddenly lull – lasted 11 days, allowing climbers to spread out over many days. In 2019, there had been only five days of low winds by May 23. This meant most climbers had to crowd into climbing the summit in fewer days.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/282832/original/file-20190705-51258-b7axtf.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/282832/original/file-20190705-51258-b7axtf.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/282832/original/file-20190705-51258-b7axtf.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/282832/original/file-20190705-51258-b7axtf.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/282832/original/file-20190705-51258-b7axtf.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/282832/original/file-20190705-51258-b7axtf.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/282832/original/file-20190705-51258-b7axtf.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Climbers scale a cliff while the weather closes in.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Jase Wilson</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>I spoke with two climbers hoping to become the first Greek women to complete the “Seven Summits” – climbing the highest mountain on each continent, one of the most popular challenges in mountaineering. I also met the first Lebanese woman aiming to complete the same challenge. I interviewed the first Romanian woman to try Everest in 2017, but she had to turn around due to tragic complications. In 2019, however, she became the first Romanian woman to climb Lhotse – the world’s fourth highest peak.</p>
<p>Many of the climbers had mementos from those they loved – the ashes of a friend, or the mountaineering axe of a fallen comrade. The moments of waiting and anticipating the summit were the most tense. Each contemplated how years spent saving, training and dreaming would soon be put to the test. The people in base camp anxiously chewed their nails and fidgeted while waiting for their “weather window” to open.</p>
<p>Some had their trips cut short before they could realise their dreams. Altitude sickness, a fall into a crevasse, even fatal accidents from some unpredictable error. All of this played out during the 2019 season even before the summit push, which is always the most dangerous period as this is when climbers enter the death zone. Most climb without serious incident, but every year there are those who don’t make it home.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/282831/original/file-20190705-51312-1t4j7dj.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/282831/original/file-20190705-51312-1t4j7dj.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/282831/original/file-20190705-51312-1t4j7dj.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/282831/original/file-20190705-51312-1t4j7dj.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/282831/original/file-20190705-51312-1t4j7dj.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/282831/original/file-20190705-51312-1t4j7dj.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/282831/original/file-20190705-51312-1t4j7dj.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Climbing Everest is an experience like no other. It helps foster camaraderie between those attempting it.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Jase Wilson</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>I came here to understand why people travel from all over the world to risk their lives in the death zone. A tourism authority granted them permission to climb and they paid a tourism agency to assist them, but to them, it doesn’t feel like tourism. It feels like something much more – an obsession, a passion, a reason to continue going on in the world. </p>
<p>Who and what they desire to be is all bundled up in this “tourist experience”. Some find the word to be an insult – that one of the most important moments of their lives could be boiled down to something so frivolous. Tourism certainly does fall short in describing the complex emotions and ambitions of those who explore the highest mountains in the world.</p>
<p>Maybe it’s the view of the enormous triangular projection of Everest’s shadow drowning the landscape below as the sun rises over the Tibetan Plateau that is so compelling. The sense of being small on something so enormous, the sensation of being as close to the nothingness of space as one can be on Earth. Maybe it’s to prove to oneself that “I can”, or that “I as a Lebanese woman can”, or that an amputee “can”. </p>
<p>More than 65 years after the feat was first accomplished, climbing Everest remains perhaps the greatest challenge a person can attempt. Since tourism has opened the experience up to more and more people, the promise of personal and public achievement on the roof of the world has proved hard to resist for many. For some, it’s worth risking everything.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/118427/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Dorina-Maria Buda receives funding from the Dutch Organisation for Scientific Research. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Elisa Burrai and Jase Wilson do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The 2019 season has been one of Mount Everest’s deadliest for climbers.Jase Wilson, PhD Researcher in Tourism Studies, Leeds Beckett UniversityDorina-Maria Buda, Professor of Tourism Management, Leeds Beckett UniversityElisa Burrai, Senior Lecturer in Tourism and International Development, Leeds Beckett UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1082192018-12-26T10:30:56Z2018-12-26T10:30:56ZWinter skiing holidays: how to get ski fit and avoid an injury<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/250017/original/file-20181211-76959-1e3w0w8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Pexels</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>From Vail in the US to Val d’Isere in France, winter sports holidays are all the rage. And with <a href="https://denver.cbslocal.com/2013/11/19/ski-slopes-demographics-change-as-more-senior-skiers-suit-up/">more older people</a> now hitting the slopes, there has been an inevitable rise in <a href="http://www.thetravelmagazine.net/post-office-survey-says-half-of-holidaymakers-injured-while-skiing-were-not-covered-by-travel-insurance.html">snow sport-related injuries</a>. </p>
<p>The knee joint is especially vulnerable – accounting for <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/0363546512472045">30% of all skiing injuries</a>. The most common knee injury is to the anterior cruciate ligament – known as the “ACL”. Skiing injury is the <a href="https://bradscholars.brad.ac.uk/bitstream/handle/10454/14627/FULL%2520FINAL%2520SUBMISSION%2520ELECTRONIC%2520VERSION.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y">third most common cause</a> of an ACL injury in Britain, after football and rugby. Most skiers suffering an ACL injury will require surgery followed by many months of rehabilitation. So the impact of an ACL injury should not be underestimated. </p>
<p><a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs40279-015-0334-7">The majority of injuries in the novice skier</a> occur as a result of a fall. In the more experienced skier, it’s most likely to happen when landing from a jump. But the good news is there are steps you can take to condition your body in readiness for your winter sports holiday – which will help to reduce your risk of knee injury. </p>
<p>Here’s our guide to getting ski ready. And although strength and conditioning feature heavily, it’s also important to think about cardiovascular fitness before you hit the slopes – as <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/17457300500480955?needAccess=true&redirect=1">many injuries occur as a result of fatigue</a>.</p>
<h2>Things to do before you go</h2>
<p>You should aim to start these exercises before the trip – ideally at least six weeks prior to skiing. All of the below exercises should be attempted for a minute initially with the aim to increase as you improve. </p>
<p><strong><em>Balance</em></strong></p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/251266/original/file-20181218-27770-172p3o.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/251266/original/file-20181218-27770-172p3o.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/251266/original/file-20181218-27770-172p3o.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=499&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/251266/original/file-20181218-27770-172p3o.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=499&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/251266/original/file-20181218-27770-172p3o.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=499&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/251266/original/file-20181218-27770-172p3o.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=627&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/251266/original/file-20181218-27770-172p3o.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=627&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/251266/original/file-20181218-27770-172p3o.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=627&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">This will help work on your balance.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>With any snow sport good balance is essential with particular focus on dynamic balance so the ability to stay upright while on the move. Standing on one leg, reach for the points of an imaginary clock face. Swap legs and do it again. </p>
<p><strong><em>Lateral jumps</em></strong></p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/251268/original/file-20181218-27773-1e20nqr.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/251268/original/file-20181218-27773-1e20nqr.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/251268/original/file-20181218-27773-1e20nqr.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=598&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/251268/original/file-20181218-27773-1e20nqr.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=598&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/251268/original/file-20181218-27773-1e20nqr.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=598&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/251268/original/file-20181218-27773-1e20nqr.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=751&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/251268/original/file-20181218-27773-1e20nqr.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=751&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/251268/original/file-20181218-27773-1e20nqr.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=751&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Bend your knees as you land to support your joints and aim to land on the balls of your feet.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>This exercise conditions the body to absorb shock, particularly useful in landing with an emphasis on a lateral direction weight shift. You should bend your knees to lower yourself into a squatting position. Keep your weight evenly distributed through both of your feet. Maintain a straight spine and a flat back. Avoid arching or curving your back and losing form while you jump to the side and then back again.</p>
<p><strong><em>Parallel rotation jumps</em></strong></p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/251270/original/file-20181218-27755-1nnp0ns.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/251270/original/file-20181218-27755-1nnp0ns.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/251270/original/file-20181218-27755-1nnp0ns.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=602&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/251270/original/file-20181218-27755-1nnp0ns.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=602&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/251270/original/file-20181218-27755-1nnp0ns.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=602&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/251270/original/file-20181218-27755-1nnp0ns.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=757&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/251270/original/file-20181218-27755-1nnp0ns.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=757&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/251270/original/file-20181218-27755-1nnp0ns.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=757&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Aim to keep your torso straight and use your arms.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>This promotes greater trunk strength and control while keeping the lower limb in a position conducive to parallel turns. Start from a squatting position and jump turn from side to side landing on the balls of your feet. Let your knees bend to absorb the shock and ensure that you keep your chest facing forwards throughout. </p>
<p><strong><em>Lunges with rotation</em></strong></p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/251523/original/file-20181219-45413-r62560.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/251523/original/file-20181219-45413-r62560.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/251523/original/file-20181219-45413-r62560.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=577&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/251523/original/file-20181219-45413-r62560.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=577&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/251523/original/file-20181219-45413-r62560.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=577&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/251523/original/file-20181219-45413-r62560.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=725&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/251523/original/file-20181219-45413-r62560.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=725&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/251523/original/file-20181219-45413-r62560.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=725&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Keep your front foot flat and bend into your knee.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>This exercise for quadriceps with trunk rotation allows the body to fix in one area while being able to move in another. Starting from standing step straight forwards on one leg letting your knees bend. Once complete twist your upper body to the side and back again before returning to the start position. Repeat on the other leg. </p>
<p><strong><em>Calf stretches</em></strong></p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/251518/original/file-20181219-45400-1txfccx.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/251518/original/file-20181219-45400-1txfccx.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/251518/original/file-20181219-45400-1txfccx.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=602&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/251518/original/file-20181219-45400-1txfccx.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=602&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/251518/original/file-20181219-45400-1txfccx.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=602&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/251518/original/file-20181219-45400-1txfccx.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=757&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/251518/original/file-20181219-45400-1txfccx.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=757&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/251518/original/file-20181219-45400-1txfccx.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=757&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Use a wall for support and alternate these two stretches.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Flexibility in the calves is important when skiing as it to enables you to lean forward into your boots to keep a downward force on the front of your skis. Lack of flexibility means the ankle’s range of movement is more limited and may lead to excessive weight bearing through the heel – which can lead to a leaning back posture. <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/51783269_Events_leading_to_anterior_cruciate_ligament_injury_in_World_Cup_Alpine_Skiing_A_systematic_video_analysis_of_20_cases">Leaning backwards is one the main contributors</a> to falls leading to knee ligament injuries. </p>
<p><strong><em>Cardiovascular</em></strong></p>
<p>You should also aim to boost your cardiovascular fitness before you hit the slopes, to help your body deal with all the extra activity. You could use a cross trainer, attend a spinning class or even just start running. Interval training would also prepare you for the slopes as skiing involves bursts of activity over a longer duration of time. </p>
<h2>Things to do on the trip</h2>
<p>Warm up properly every day and wear appropriate clothing to keep you warm. Studies have shown that <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21477163">you are more likely to get injured on colder days</a>. It’s also sensible to try and limit your alcohol intake, as <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/17457300500480955?needAccess=true&redirect=1">studies have shown</a> alcohol increases risk taking behaviour and reduces coordination increasing the likelihood of injury in skiers. And if you do drink, remember you may still be vulnerable the morning after. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/250022/original/file-20181211-76971-m6nz6p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/250022/original/file-20181211-76971-m6nz6p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/250022/original/file-20181211-76971-m6nz6p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/250022/original/file-20181211-76971-m6nz6p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/250022/original/file-20181211-76971-m6nz6p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/250022/original/file-20181211-76971-m6nz6p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/250022/original/file-20181211-76971-m6nz6p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Skiing can be exhilarating, but can also easily cause injury.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Pexels</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>It’s also important to take regular breaks during the day. Take a rest day and make sure you get some sleep. Fatigue is not perceived to be a significant risk factor amongst skiers yet has been <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/17457300500480955?needAccess=true&redirect=1">linked to increased injury risk</a>. </p>
<p>Helmets are also a must. <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/0363546512472045">Head injury is significant risk</a> with any snow sport and is the third most common injury occurring in both skiers and snowboarders – and the consequences can be life changing. </p>
<p>It’s also important to make sure all your gear is fitting properly. Make sure your bindings (which connect your boot to your skis) are set right and regularly checked – and are appropriate for you proficiency level. People with <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5733917/">incorrectly bound skis</a> are more likely to incur a knee injury, so this is a point worth remembering.</p>
<p>Yes, you might be on holidays and yes, skiing is fun, but accidents can and do happen quickly – so it’s worth spending a bit of time before you go getting your body ready for all the different movements it will need to make. This will help you to enjoy your time on the slopes, feel less tired and hopefully come home without any injuries.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/108219/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>A few visits to the gym or a short jog around the block in the week before departure isn’t enough preparation.Paul Millington, Lecturer in Physiotherapy, University of BradfordColin Ayre, Lecturer in Physiotherapy, University of BradfordJamie Moseley, Lecturer in Sport Rehabilitation, University of BradfordLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/768942017-05-09T17:03:18Z2017-05-09T17:03:18ZWhy daredevil skyscraper climbing videos give you sweaty palms<p>Have you ever watched a video of someone dangling far above the ground and found that your own hands started sweating? If not, watch this:</p>
<p><div data-react-class="InstagramEmbed" data-react-props="{"url":"https://www.instagram.com/p/BCBRbtEBlA2","accessToken":"127105130696839|b4b75090c9688d81dfd245afe6052f20"}"></div></p>
<p>That’s an infamous Ukrainian urban climber known as “Mustang Wanted”. He’s part of a global “<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2017/feb/26/rooftopping-do-you-have-to-be-crazy-to-hand-off-a-skyscraper">rooftopping</a>” craze that has seen daredevils scale everything from The Shard in London, to Shanghai’s tallest building or an <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lg706TvkcyQ">abandoned skyscraper-sized radio tower</a> in a Russian forest. </p>
<p>The climbers never use safety ropes, and often dangle themselves off tiny ledges or bars. The videos and selfies they produce regularly go viral, and leading climbers have gathered <a href="https://www.instagram.com/angela_nikolau/?hl=en">huge social media followings</a>. </p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"516996923409330179"}"></div></p>
<p>If your palms are already sweating, you’re not alone. There’s even a reddit forum dedicated to these sorts of videos: <a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/SweatyPalms/">r/sweatypalms</a>. </p>
<p>People often have a physical response to watching others in peril, even though they themselves are in no physical danger. There are various reasons why your body responds like this in the absence of any real threat.</p>
<h2>The brain empathy network</h2>
<p>Do you <a href="https://www.wired.com/2014/09/cinema-science-empathizing-with-characters/">wince</a> when someone is punched in a movie or <a href="http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0018675">squirm</a> when someone is shamed or humiliated on screen? These reactions are triggered by empathy: feeling the same thing we believe someone else is feeling. Empathy allows us to put ourselves in someone else’s shoes.</p>
<p>When someone says “I feel for you” they might be talking quite literally. Brain imaging <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17900903">studies</a> have shown that there is a great deal of crossover in brain networks when we experience pain ourselves and when we observe others in pain. For instance, people shown videos of patients being injected in the mouth showed activation in many of the same parts of the brain as if they themselves were being injected in the mouth.</p>
<p>So when we watch videos of people cycling down incredibly steep precipices or dangling from precarious overhangs, part of our physical nervousness on their behalf is because we are imagining ourselves in their situation and how scared we would be.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"835180692074033153"}"></div></p>
<h2>Aliefs versus beliefs</h2>
<p>Another contributing factor might be the fact that the <a href="https://www.sciencedaily.com/terms/sympathetic_nervous_system.htm">sympathetic nervous system</a>, which co-ordinates your “fight or flight” response, may not differentiate a great deal between real and not-real. Visual information that conveys a threat might be translated directly into feelings of anxiety or urgency, which in turn trigger responses such as muscle contractions or increased heart-rate.</p>
<p>This has often been my experience after watching a horror film. Even when the movie itself has been laughable, with poor special effects and unconvincing acting, I often find myself double checking that the doors and windows are locked before going to bed.</p>
<p>Tamar Gendler, a <a href="http://fas.yale.edu/people/tamar-szab-gendler">Yale University psychologist</a>, has proposed that we have two cognitive states for reacting to events in the world. The first is our beliefs – those things that we explicitly believe to be true. I believe with considerable confidence that the protagonist of the movie will be okay in the end and that zombies will not subsequently come into my house and eat me.</p>
<p>Gendler suggests however that there is also a second cognitive state: our “<a href="http://www.pgrim.org/philosophersannual/pa28articles/gendleraliefbelief.pdf">aliefs</a>”. These states are triggered by associations, rather than consideration, and can be either conscious or unconscious. We feel uneasy even though there is no direct threat to us.</p>
<p>Although our aliefs may differ from our beliefs, they trigger many of the same physical responses as a real threat such as trembling, sweating and anxiety. This is why I sit rigid on the edge of my seat while watching the climber dangling precariously from the top of the skyscraper with no apparent support. I <em>believe</em> he will be fine and that this video signals no threat to myself, but I <em>alieve</em> that some threat is occurring and my sympathetic nervous system responds accordingly.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="InstagramEmbed" data-react-props="{"url":"https://www.instagram.com/p/BRntJnbDeTT","accessToken":"127105130696839|b4b75090c9688d81dfd245afe6052f20"}"></div></p>
<h2>Eccrine glands</h2>
<p>Some observers have noted that their palms seem to sweat most specifically when watching climbing videos but not other scary videos where people are equally in danger. There is no real research into this but one possibility, if true, is that our palms sweat when watching climbing videos because of our evolutionary past.</p>
<p>Eccrine glands are the major human sweat glands, distributed all over the body but found in highest concentration on the hands and feet (an average of 370 sweat glands per square centimetre on the palm). They provide cooling from evaporation during thermoregulation but also produce “emotional sweating” in response to stress, anxiety, pain and fear, independently of ambient temperature.</p>
<p>Sweating in the palms is thought to have evolved as a <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2FBF01049065?LI=true">fleeing reaction</a> in mammals. Surprisingly, it has been shown to increase friction and prevent slipping when running or climbing in stressful conditions.</p>
<p>These different theories converge to help explain why your palms might sweat when watching videos of others in perilous situations, particularly if those situations involve climbing or fleeing. The empathy network of the brain allows you to put yourself in someone else’s shoes, imaging how you would feel if you were in their situation. The alief network senses the supposed threat and activates the sympathetic nervous system. This in turn triggers physical threat responses such as nervousness and sweating. </p>
<p>Where the video shows someone climbing, for instance, this sweating may be especially evident on your palms and the soles of your feet, as eccrine glands that evolved to provide extra grip for climbing under stressful conditions are triggered by the alief that some climbing-related threat is afoot.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/76894/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Nathalia Gjersoe does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Chances are you won’t make it through this article without wiping your hands.Nathalia Gjersoe, Senior Lecturer in Developmental Psychology, University of BathLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/729442017-03-24T16:28:13Z2017-03-24T16:28:13ZAdrenaline zen: what ‘normal people’ can learn from extreme sports<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/161842/original/image-20170321-24884-tbwwkm.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Pexels.</span></span></figcaption></figure><p><a href="http://www.basejumper.com/">BASE jumping</a>, <a href="http://www.wingsuitfly.com/">wingsuit flying</a>, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/sport/gallery/2016/dec/21/surfers-face-monster-waves-as-big-wave-tour-hits-nazare-in-pictures">big wave surfing</a>, extreme skiing and <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2015/11/the-cliffhanger/407824/">solo rope-free climbing</a>, when we think of someone who takes part in these extreme activities, we think of a risk-taker. The type of person you might describe as a “deviant hedonist” or a “sensation-seeker”, who is looking for an “adrenaline rush”. And they are most likely to be young and male.</p>
<p>The problem with this stereotype of extreme sport participants, is that not only <a href="http://aplus.com/a/female-athletes-break-stereotypes-extreme-sports?no_monetization=true">does it not always ring true</a>, but it also means that extreme sports then become viewed in a way that <a href="https://www.routledge.com/Phenomenology-and-the-Extreme-Sport-Experience/Brymer-Schweitzer/p/book/9781138957619">makes them inaccessible</a> to “normal people”. </p>
<p>This view can be extremely damaging, especially given <a href="https://www.routledge.com/Phenomenology-and-the-Extreme-Sport-Experience/Brymer-Schweitzer/p/book/9781138957619">evidence</a> – which emerged when I was researching a book on the subject – shows that extreme sports might actually be more accessible and have more of a <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22689592">positive impact than traditional</a>, competitive sports.</p>
<p>Interviews I conducted with people between the ages of 30 and 70 who participate in extreme sports suggested they can help to create profound and positive life changes – both in the short term and longer term. So instead of just the fast-paced experiences often portrayed in <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PF0L3gvSVcg">short videos of extreme sports</a>, in reality, participants describe a feeling of peace and tranquillity during the experience that reflects something similar to mindfulness. </p>
<p>Over the long term, these experiences support sustained well-being benefits including the realisation that emotions, such as fear, that are traditionally considered negative, do not have to constrain one’s potential. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/161843/original/image-20170321-5377-1vmqif6.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/161843/original/image-20170321-5377-1vmqif6.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/161843/original/image-20170321-5377-1vmqif6.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/161843/original/image-20170321-5377-1vmqif6.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/161843/original/image-20170321-5377-1vmqif6.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/161843/original/image-20170321-5377-1vmqif6.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/161843/original/image-20170321-5377-1vmqif6.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Do extreme sport lovers have something in common with meditation masters?</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Pexels.</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>These reflections can often change people’s everyday lives – they described no longer “being bored with life” and talked of having a “passion” for their sport. They also reported seeing other people and the planet in a much more positive way after taking up extreme sports.</p>
<h2>Human potential</h2>
<p>Participants from all sorts of extreme sports often describe <a href="https://ericbrymer.wordpress.com/2017/01/30/evoking-the-ineffable/">extraordinary sensory experiences</a> of the sort not usually available in everyday life. This is because during participation in an extreme sport, a person’s ability to see, hear, and feel are <a href="http://eprints.leedsbeckett.ac.uk/3360/3/Evoking%20the%20Ineffable%20-%20The%20Phenomenology%20of%20Extreme%20Sports.pdf">all enhanced</a>. </p>
<p>BASE jumpers, for example, talk about an enhanced capacity to see every nook and cranny, shade and colour of the rock even though they are travelling at 200 mph. Participants also describe an experience that feels like they are merging with the environment which invariably turns into a feeling of being profoundly part of nature. </p>
<p>This may be one reason why so many extreme sports athletes spend a great deal of energy and time working hard to <a href="http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/14775080902965223?journalCode=rjto20">educate and protect the natural environment</a> – this glimpse into human potential acts as a learning opportunity for psychological health and well-being more generally. </p>
<h2>The death risk</h2>
<p>But of course when taking part in these types of activities a mismanaged mistake or accident can result in death. Perhaps this is why nonparticipants find it hard to understand why anyone would willingly undertake extreme sports – unless there is something “not normal” about “those types of people”. </p>
<p>But this death risk is a large part of why participation in extreme sports requires considerable commitment, along with a great deal of hard work. Extreme sports are not for those interested in the quick rush, thrills or hedonism. In fact, people interested in the short-term hedonistic outcomes might be better finding another outlet. Participants in extreme sport have to have an incredible understanding of the environment that they participate in and if the conditions are not right – such as the wind in the wrong direction for BASE jumping – then they will walk away. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/161844/original/image-20170321-5386-1d54mh3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/161844/original/image-20170321-5386-1d54mh3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=331&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/161844/original/image-20170321-5386-1d54mh3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=331&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/161844/original/image-20170321-5386-1d54mh3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=331&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/161844/original/image-20170321-5386-1d54mh3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=415&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/161844/original/image-20170321-5386-1d54mh3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=415&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/161844/original/image-20170321-5386-1d54mh3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=415&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">How extreme sports can invoke meditative states.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Pexels.</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Extreme sports participants also possess a well-tuned knowledge of their own <a href="https://www.routledge.com/Phenomenology-and-the-Extreme-Sport-Experience/Brymer-Schweitzer/p/book/9781138957619">physical and psychological capacities and limitations</a>. This is vitally important, because extreme sports are not the place to find out if you can or can’t undertake an activity. </p>
<p>BASE jumpers do not start as BASE jumpers, just the same as big wave surfers slowly develop the skills. And solo rope-free climbers start with ropes on less difficult terrain. In most cases, the journey to extreme sports is often one of deliberate skill and knowledge development.</p>
<h2>Sporting heroes</h2>
<p>It is clear from my own research, that extreme sports have the capacity to shine a light on what it means to be human – and what human beings are capable of. But to realise this, as a society we need a cultural shift that accepts extreme sports as beneficial. Along with a change in view that recognises extreme sports participants as examples of what is possible in human performance. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/161846/original/image-20170321-5405-113jyvu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/161846/original/image-20170321-5405-113jyvu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/161846/original/image-20170321-5405-113jyvu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/161846/original/image-20170321-5405-113jyvu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/161846/original/image-20170321-5405-113jyvu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/161846/original/image-20170321-5405-113jyvu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/161846/original/image-20170321-5405-113jyvu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Good for your body and mind.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>But before you go out and find your latest BASE jumping club, the good news is that many of these <a href="http://ro.uow.edu.au/hbspapers/1672/">benefits can be touched on through adventure sports</a> more generally. This includes activities such as climbing, kayaking and mountaineering. Adventure sports do not have the downside of being constrained by tightly controlled fields as in football or cricket. And they are not focused on competition, winning and losing. </p>
<p>These sports are open to all and, like extreme sports, could help to encourage participation in physical activity – along with a great sense of well-being, and a <a href="http://ro.uow.edu.au/edupapers/767/">deeper relationship with the natural environment</a>. And if all of this can be achieved at the same time as having fun on the water, a rock-face or up a mountain, what’s not to like?</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/72944/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Eric Brymer does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Why extreme sports can change your life for the better.Eric Brymer, Reader, Psychology with Outdoor and Adventure studies, Leeds Beckett UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/688752016-11-25T16:31:08Z2016-11-25T16:31:08ZSwimming the Atlantic is an extreme act of human endurance – here’s what the body will go through<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/147421/original/image-20161124-15325-1wqygy5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C239%2C1262%2C865&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Land!</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/lexrex/207565342/in/photolist-jkPWN-gJwwZE-fcxyck-9qErKM-8jPcBa-gJwswu-7ut2TC-5DC6UF-do9AAr-c1NbD7-re5b-sbafyW-bPZeFZ-gJwZ92-582wSW-bUAWvU-8WvLXo-7n1oeJ-d9QYc7-qzx8h-4ZDZtJ-r74NWx-oSU4ye-6xZHpf-d9QXDN-qNQVyR-ePDc9f-2WHrQE-bUByNL-oT7Y89-nEsev8-5DGpcW-d2h32Y-bUBWk3-7RAP79-anSEMD-7QhGSi-q6WZ7F-q4SfPf-bUBQMs-nYciFB-bUBULy-dwHn6u-oTaQcX-d2h66Y-9mbAvQ-fEqXNG-6d3MGc-nWWSaK-71wkFN">Bashar Al-Ba'noon/Flickr</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Ben Hooper is not your average person. The former policeman has spent years competing in triathlons and open-water swims, sometimes <a href="http://www.swimthebigblue.com/about-ben">up to 40km</a> in one day. But there are some challenges that will test any super-fit athlete. Hooper has embarked on a five-month journey from Senegal to Brazil that will see him strive to swim a total of 1,900 miles for up to ten hours a day. </p>
<p>What are the challenges his body and mind will be facing? And does he have anything in common with other performers of extreme feats? </p>
<h2>Taking it to extremes</h2>
<p>In 1953, Jason Zirganos, the <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/dying-while-trying-to-swim-english-channel/2014/07/14/ef6d770e-06a4-11e4-8a6a-19355c7e870a_story.html">greatest open-water swimmer of his generation</a>, swam in the Bosphorus (8°C) for four hours; he was removed from the water semiconscious, regaining full consciousness three hours after that. Unaware of hypothermia at the time, it was concluded that he had been poisoned. The following year, at the age of 46, he attempted to swim the 22-mile north channel of the Irish Sea, where temperatures range between 9°C and 11°C. After six hours – and only three miles from the Scottish Coast – he became unconscious and blue – and was hauled from the water. Using a penknife, a doctor exposed his heart to reveal <a href="http://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/ventricular-fibrillation/basics/definition/con-20034473">ventricular fibrillation</a>, where the heart beats rapidly and erratically. Direct cardiac massage failed to revive Zirganos and he was pronounced dead at the scene.</p>
<h2>Fighting cold</h2>
<p>As Zirganos’ fate reveals, the first big challenge is maintaining body temperature. In the cold oceanic waters, skin cooling occurs very rapidly. The next affected tissue will be muscle, particularly in the upper limbs. Research <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/labs/articles/3178622/">has shown</a> that the contractile force of muscle is significantly decreased when its temperature falls below 27°C. Deep muscles of the forearm can reach this temperature after about 40 minutes in water of 20°C. This is very likely to happen, even if Hooper is wearing a thick wetsuit to cope with the long hours he will spend submerged. As a consequence of these changes, Hooper’s maximum power output may fall by as much as 20% and reduce his swimming speed accordingly. </p>
<p>There will also be a fall in limb blood flow. This occurs when core body temperature drops from 37°C to 36°C – likely after a couple of hours of swimming. When this happens oxygen delivery to the muscle, and its subsequent use for energy production, is greatly reduced. </p>
<p>Muscles’ ability to remove the end products of metabolism also reduce <a href="https://extremephysiolmed.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/2046-7648-3-12">in cold conditions</a>. The decrease in blood flow and the impaired removal of metabolic waste lead the body to switch to anaerobic metabolism, where the body tries to exercise without using oxygen to sustain the effort required to swim. This can result in lactic acid forming earlier – which produces the pain you feel after intense exercise – and more rapid depletion of carbohydrate stores. The consequence is the earlier onset of fatigue.</p>
<h2>One step forward, two steps back</h2>
<p>Another factor is the movement of heat through the body during exercise. In simple <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/6725090">cold water immersion studies</a>, resting peripheral limbs and tissues are at a significantly lower temperature than that of the core body. </p>
<p>When the body becomes cold, the major arteries to limbs constrict to maintain a steady core body temperature, making it harder for body heat to be transferred to the surrounding water. But during swimming this constriction of the blood vessels cannot happen to the same extent because blood needs to flow properly to maintain movement. This means more heat is lost during swimming, which results in a greater reduction in core temperature. </p>
<p>Tissues also have a uniform temperature from the core to the periphery and muscles are able to maintain their function and continue to exercise to a deep temperature of about 27°C. This means that swimmers can potentially swim to the point of unconsciousness, which typically occurs at a core temperature of 30°C-33°C. This process recalls what the Himalayan climbers report as the “sweet death”, the feeling of wanting to lie down and sleep while experiencing a certain feeling of wellness – but then you die. </p>
<h2>Fuel your performance</h2>
<p>Another consideration for Hooper’s swim across the ocean is nutrition. Clearly, he will need a huge amount of food to sustain his effort, estimated to be around 12,000Kcal a day – the daily kcal requirement of five men combined. What is less obvious is what and how he will be eating. There is little research on this, but <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24667305">some evidence</a> suggests that for swimmers covering 25km or more, carbohydrate intakes close to about 90 grams per hour from multiple transportable carbohydrate sources are required. </p>
<p>With the greater likelihood of encountering extreme temperature variations in open swimming events (<a href="http://www.seatemperature.org/">as much as</a> 16–31°C), swimmers may benefit from matching beverage temperatures to specific environmental conditions. For example, warm beverages or food sources, such as warmed sports drinks or soup, are used by open-water swimmers in cold water events. However, there is currently no evidence that suggests that these practices can reduce the effects caused by a fall in core temperature. </p>
<h2>Recovery</h2>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/147451/original/image-20161124-15362-1jbt8co.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/147451/original/image-20161124-15362-1jbt8co.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=767&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/147451/original/image-20161124-15362-1jbt8co.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=767&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/147451/original/image-20161124-15362-1jbt8co.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=767&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/147451/original/image-20161124-15362-1jbt8co.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=964&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/147451/original/image-20161124-15362-1jbt8co.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=964&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/147451/original/image-20161124-15362-1jbt8co.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=964&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Izzard post-recovery.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/download/confirm/81205954?src=pqIJz7oiAt7TI26FGqN4Tg-2-32&id=81205954&size=medium_jpg">Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Hooper’s performance could be potentially compared to <a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/8256589.stm">the 43 marathons in 51 days</a> that comedian Eddie Izzard ran in 2009. The suggested recovery time after a single marathon <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21311349">is two or three weeks</a>, something Izzard clearly didn’t do, instead waking up and running marathons day after day with much less rest time. Hooper will do exactly the same – the only difference is that he will be spending at least ten hours in the ocean every day for five months. Without <a href="http://www.humankinetics.com/products/all-products/recovery-for-performance-in-sport">adequate recovery time</a> there will be an earlier onset of fatigue with detrimental <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2656292/">effects on performance</a> and possibly injuries.</p>
<p>Even if swimming has less impact on the body because it is non-weight bearing compared to running, Hooper will have just 14 hours for recovery between sessions. This could be the difference between success and failure. Recovery strategies from swimmers competing in multiple events suggests considerable challenges when it comes to nutrition. </p>
<p>Glycogen is a stored form of glucose – which is how we save carbohydrates that we then use to generate energy. A short turnaround between glycogen-depleting events – one to two days – can place significant strain on swimmers aiming to start each race with optimal fuel stores. But outstanding swimmers may compete in 5km, 10km, and potentially 25km events, all within the space of five days. </p>
<p>In Hooper’s case, this challenge is multiplied exponentially. Aggressive attention to the amount of carbohydrate intakes between races (more than ten grams per kilogramme of weight) and timing (starting soon after each swimming session) is required to ensure that adequate glycogen replacement is achieved between races. Otherwise you just burn out and stop. Hooper may benefit from consuming small, well-planned servings (three to four a day) of high biological value protein sources with carbohydrate to optimise muscle tissue recovery but also support glycogen replacement.</p>
<p>Considering all the factors that might influence these extreme feats it’s clear that the challenge will be immensely tough. But with right preparation, motivation and expertise your body might surprise you with what it is able to do.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/68875/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Extreme feats of human endurance require extreme measures to stay aliveAlberto Dolci, Lecturer in Exercise and Environmental Physiology and Exercise Immunology, University of WestminsterYvoni Kyriakidou, Doctoral researcher, University of WestminsterLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/646802016-09-05T16:39:39Z2016-09-05T16:39:39ZWhy danger is exciting – but only to some people<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/136394/original/image-20160902-20235-107somw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Spine-tingling or simply scary?</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BASE_jumping#/media/File:BASE_Jumping_from_Sapphire_Tower_in_Istanbul.jpg">Kontizas Dimitrios/wikimedia</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>It has been the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2016/sep/02/wingsuit-flyings-most-deadly-summer-leads-to-soul-searching">most deadly summer</a> for wingsuit flying to date. But what makes some people want to base jump off a cliff, binge drink to oblivion or hitchhike with strangers while others don’t even enjoy a rollercoaster ride? Is there such a thing as scaredy-cat gene or a daredevil brain structure? Or is our level of attraction to danger down to how protective our parents were?</p>
<p>Whether our weakness is <a href="https://theconversation.com/extreme-athletes-gain-control-through-fear-and-sometimes-pay-the-price-42197">extreme sports</a>, speeding, drugs or other dangerous behaviours, it is typically a mix of risk and novelty that draw us in. What psychologists call “novelty seeking” is the <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/14/science/novelty-seeking-neophilia-can-be-a-predictor-of-well-being.html?_r=0">preference for the unexpected or new</a>. People with this trait are often impulsive and easily bored – but new experiences release a surge of pleasure chemicals in their brains. A rat or human with preferences for novelty will be <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3055686/">more likely to do drugs</a> and <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4486207/">binge drink</a>. </p>
<p>The concepts of risk and novelty are to some extent linked: a new stimulus is inherently more risky in that any associated consequence is unknown. However, we can dissociate these two in the laboratory.</p>
<h2>It’s (always) about dopamine</h2>
<p>Dopamine, used by neurons to transmit messages to other neurons, is often described as <a href="https://theconversation.com/explainer-what-is-dopamine-and-is-it-to-blame-for-our-addictions-51268">the brain’s “pleasure chemical</a>”. Dopamine cells lie in the mid-brain, deep in the base of the brain, and send “projections” to brain regions where the dopamine molecule is released – such as those involved in the control of action, cognition and reward. Studies have shown that the dopamine system can be activated by rewarding experiences, such as eating, having sex or taking drugs.</p>
<p>In a study of patients with Parkinson’s disease, who were on drugs that stimulated dopamine receptors used to treat their movement symptoms, <a href="http://archneur.jamanetwork.com/article.aspx?articleid=800232">17% developed highly unexpected behavioural addictions</a> to gambling or compulsive sexual, shopping or eating behaviours. These patients <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3097893/">also sought out risks more</a>, and showed a preference for novelty on lab tests. So it seems that an active dopamine system can make us take more risks.</p>
<p>A study on anticipating risk showed that expecting a win is associated with an increase in brain activity in dopamine regions, whereas expecting a loss is associated with a decrease in such activity. Both drive us to take risk. Wingsuit flying or roller coaster riding are motivated by our expectation of reward – a thrill – but wingsuit flying may also driven by an urge to avoid loss (in this case death). The likelihood of a thrill from base jumping or a roller coaster is close to 100%. But while the likelihood of death from a rollercoaster ride is close to 0%, the chances of dying from basejumping are considerably higher. The closer to the extremes, 0% or 100%, the more certain, whereas the closer to 50%, the more uncertain. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/136411/original/image-20160902-20253-o0nt6p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/136411/original/image-20160902-20253-o0nt6p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=509&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/136411/original/image-20160902-20253-o0nt6p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=509&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/136411/original/image-20160902-20253-o0nt6p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=509&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/136411/original/image-20160902-20253-o0nt6p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=639&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/136411/original/image-20160902-20253-o0nt6p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=639&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/136411/original/image-20160902-20253-o0nt6p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=639&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Dopamine reward pathways in the human brain.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Oscar Arias-Carrión1, Maria Stamelou, Eric Murillo-Rodríguez, Manuel Menéndez-González and Ernst Pöppel. - Oscar Arias-Carrión1, Maria Stamelou, Eric Murillo-Rodríguez, Manuel Menéndez-González and Ernst Pöppel.</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Many, but not all, studies <a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23252368">have found</a> that people with a certain dopamine receptor are more likely to be thrill seeking. This gene variant is also associated with greater responses to unexpected rewards in the brain, making the unexpected thrill more thrilling. Genetic hardwiring might therefore explain the tendency towards base jumping, linking the preference for novelty and also possibly for risk and reward. But how we are brought up also has an impact. And adolescents are <a href="https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/the-wide-wide-world-psychology/201506/why-are-teen-brains-designed-risk-taking">known to be more risk taking</a>, partly because their brains are still developing and they are more susceptible to peer pressure.</p>
<p>And, of course, there may be other reasons why we enjoy bungee jumping or binge drinking than an attraction to risk and novelty. For example, this can happen in social situations where there’s peer pressure for us to conform, or if we are feeling down or stressed.</p>
<h2>Why are we inconsistent?</h2>
<p>But if our genes can influence whether we’re brave or fearful, how come we are so inconsistent in our behaviour? For example, we may sky dive on holiday yet buy travel insurance. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/136412/original/image-20160902-20255-1h5cxyy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/136412/original/image-20160902-20255-1h5cxyy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=485&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/136412/original/image-20160902-20255-1h5cxyy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=485&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/136412/original/image-20160902-20255-1h5cxyy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=485&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/136412/original/image-20160902-20255-1h5cxyy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=609&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/136412/original/image-20160902-20255-1h5cxyy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=609&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/136412/original/image-20160902-20255-1h5cxyy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=609&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Have we all got an inner piglet?</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">wikimedia</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>We act differently based on whether the risk is perceived to gain reward or avoid loss – an effect known as framing. Most of us tend to avoid risky rewards – we’d rather not go sky diving – but in the case of an unlikely event with a high payout such as a lottery ticket, we’re happy to take a risk. We also normally seek risk in order to avoid huge losses. This is affected by how likely it is that the outcome might occur. In the case of an unlikely but possibly very bad outcome, such as the risk of incurring massive debt while hospitalised in a foreign country, <a href="http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0016838">we become risk averse</a> and buy travel insurance. </p>
<p>People who enjoy danger or suffer from disorders of addiction have different risk tendencies. Pathological users of illegal drugs, alcohol or food all seek risk in the face of rewards – by going after the high. But those who use illegal drugs are driven by more risky high rewards whereas those that pathologically use alcohol or food are driven <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4305336">by less risky lower rewards</a>. </p>
<p>How likely we are to take risks can also be manipulated. A <a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27007845">study in rats</a> showed that risk taking can be reduced by mimicking the dopamine signal providing information about the negative outcomes from previous risky choices – such as a shock to the foot or not receiving food. Risk taking in binge drinkers <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4192134/">can also be reduced</a> when they are explicitly exposed to a loss outcome – such as experiencing a loss of money rather than just expecting it. A night in an emergency room may therefore be enough to change their behaviour.</p>
<p>Also, a new and unexpected context can increase risk-taking behaviours, which could explain why we are more likely to take risks on holiday. In <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4948764/">a recent study</a>, my colleagues and I showed participants a series of faces – familiar or unknown ones – and asked them to choose between a risky gamble or a safe choice. When shown a new face, subjects were more likely to take the risky gamble. The study showed that those with greater brain activity in the striatum, a region involved in dopamine release, to the new face made greater risky choices. These findings suggest that novelty increases dopamine release in this area of the brain, which then possibly enhances the expectation of reward.</p>
<p>But being drawn to danger isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Our society needs both risk takers and risk avoiders to function. We need those that push boundaries – to set up camp on Mars or rescue people from fires – and we need those that write the rules and enforce regulations to keep society functioning.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/64680/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Valerie Voon has received funding from the Wellcome Trust. </span></em></p>Are you impulsive and easily bored? You may be a thrill seeker.Valerie Voon, Honorary Consultant Neuropsychiatrist and Senior Clinical Research Associate, Department of Psychiatry, University of CambridgeLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/635662016-08-22T00:20:58Z2016-08-22T00:20:58ZWith skateboarding’s inclusion in Tokyo 2020, a once-marginalized subculture enters the spotlight<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/134241/original/image-20160816-13003-18dhxci.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Brazilian pro skateboarder Luan Olivera performs a switch 360 flip at the Maloof Cup, a skateboarding competition in South Africa.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.neftalie.com/the-maloof-cup/y6k5716381lecgjs3bz64e9q2ct8qj">Neftalie Williams</a>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>On Aug. 6, skateboarding was added to the <a href="https://www.olympic.org/news/ioc-approves-five-new-sports-for-olympic-games-tokyo-2020">list of new sports for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics</a>. </p>
<p>Now, <a href="http://publicskateparkguide.org/vision/who-are-skateboarders/">six million skateboarders</a> in the United States – plus millions abroad – will have a global platform to promote skateboarding as a cross-cultural community that possesses a set of shared values.</p>
<p>Though skateboarding culture has often been thought of as the home of unruly, unlawful, anti-establishment youth, the sport may actually communicate the Olympic ideal to millions of millennials <a href="https://newrepublic.com/article/136096/olympics-lost-millennials">who haven’t been tuning into the Olympic Games</a>.</p>
<p>As someone with 20 years of experience in the skateboarding industry – and as the teacher of <a href="https://sports.vice.com/en_au/article/meet-the-usc-professor-who-wants-to-solve-the-worlds-problems-with-skateboardin">a course on skateboarding culture</a> at the University of Southern California – I’ve seen how the sport can promote diversity, identity, youth empowerment and global citizenship.</p>
<h2>Diversity in its DNA</h2>
<p>In the International Olympic Committee’s (IOC) <a href="https://www.olympic.org/the-ioc/promote-olympism">own words</a>, “The mission of the IOC is to not only ensure the celebration of the Olympic Games, but to also encourage the regular practice of sport by all people in society, regardless of sex, age, social background or economic status.”</p>
<p>Since its earliest days, skateboarding has advanced these ideals in myriad ways, and a range of ethnicities and experiences make up the DNA of skateboarding culture.</p>
<p>In the 1970s, a group of surfers dedicated to the Zeypher surf-shop in Santa Monica, California – who came to be known as the <a href="http://www.laweekly.com/news/the-ghosts-of-dogtown-2133722">Z-boys family</a> – developed an aggressive style that was necessary to surf the dilapidated, defunct Pacific Ocean Park in Santa Monica. </p>
<p>In between waves, the group would explore and experiment with their skateboards. Soon, the motley crew completely transformed skateboarding from a toy plank with wheels to a vehicle of athletic and artistic expression. </p>
<p>During the drought-plagued summers of 1970s California, many swimming pools – a symbol of both commercial success and excess – were drained to save water. Where some might see blight and abandonment, the Z-boys and their peers saw opportunity: The emptied swimming pool became the first unofficial skate park, a concrete canvas to hone one’s skills and experiment with daring new tricks.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/134851/original/image-20160820-30406-acn3np.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/134851/original/image-20160820-30406-acn3np.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=394&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/134851/original/image-20160820-30406-acn3np.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=394&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/134851/original/image-20160820-30406-acn3np.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=394&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/134851/original/image-20160820-30406-acn3np.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=495&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/134851/original/image-20160820-30406-acn3np.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=495&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/134851/original/image-20160820-30406-acn3np.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=495&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Emptied, abandoned pools became the domain of skaters.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/mallix/2241056021/in/photolist-4q2ZSV-5rXNxu-5k9t4N-5rXNEo-5rXNqm-4q316k-4q74Rb-4q74K3-4q74ML-4q74LQ-6uHYwQ-4YT9sS-5rTt48-5rXP5d-otiQaz-7tvrKZ-4q2ZK6-fpKW9X-5rTtp8-4q74Hj-5rTttx-4YNSQa-5rXQ4Y-fq1cjJ-4q74xQ-5rTt5V-5rTt1M-fpKWeR-4hru5-5rXPLw-Egq6R-2ETX29-xSbYES-xC1rXB-xSbF8Y-xBTPWj-wXCFMg-xTDbhs-xSbBrE-wXuav1-xTD9jE-xSbAdN-xBZVfV-xBTcX7-wXCJQF-5rXNkA-5rXPw1-5rTsG4-5rTtxF-5rTsXZ">mallix/flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/">CC BY-NC-ND</a></span>
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<p>The Z-boys crew also represented the changing ethnic makeup of young Americans.</p>
<p>Early pioneers included <a href="http://www.skateboardingmagazine.com/whos-in-the-skateboarding-hall-of-fame/">Tony Alva</a>, a skater and surfer of Mexican and Dutch descent, and Japanese-American female skater <a href="http://business.transworld.net/features/2012-skateboarding-hall-of-fame-induction/#Pp85FFzLCsBGLbpK.97">Peggy Oki</a>. (Both have been inducted into the Skateboarding Hall of Fame.) </p>
<p>During the 1980s, legendary Z-boys skater <a href="http://www.espn.com/espn/hispanicheritage2009/columns/story?id=4516693&columnist=lapchick_richard">Stacy Peralta</a> promoted the careers of skateboarding luminaries <a href="http://juicemagazine.com/home/steve-caballero-2/">Steve Caballero</a>, who was Japanese and Mexican-American, <a href="http://www.vice.com/read/tommy-guerrero---unsung-hero-of-krooked-skateboards">Tommy Guererro</a> (Filipino-Chilean and Portuguese-American), <a href="http://www.ladowntownnews.com/news/skating-to-pizza-glory-at-pizzanista/article_1d6cc0f0-db3e-11e0-977c-001cc4c002e0.html">Salman Agah</a> (of Azerbaijani and Iranian descent) and African-American <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/how-skateboarding-became-more-than-a-white-dudes-sport_us_55fb8f4ee4b0fde8b0cdc827">Ray Barbee</a>. According to <a href="http://skateboarding.transworld.net/features/the-30-most-influential-skaters-of-all-time/#2wbfWuMXsqFQ6sjR.97">Transworld Skateboarding Magazine</a>, all are among the most influential skaters of all time.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, <a href="http://www.espn.com/espn/hispanicheritage2009/columns/story?id=4516693&columnist=lapchick_richard">Stacy Peralta</a>’s most well-known prodigy, Tony Hawk, continues this model of inclusion in his wildly popular video game franchise Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater, which has <a href="http://www.cnbc.com/2016/05/27/tony-hawk-tips-for-business-success.html">reached over US$1 billion in sales</a>. The game has featured female star <a href="http://www.espn.com/action/skateboarding/news/story?id=6804289">Elissa Steamer</a> and African-American pro skater and owner of Axion sneakers <a href="http://theridechannel.com/news/2015/09/kareem-campbell-interview">Kareem Campbell</a> as playable characters.</p>
<h2>Learning to make do</h2>
<p>Importantly, skateboarding remains affordable and accessible. A skateboard generally costs between $65 and $125, and within the community there’s an ethos of conserving equipment. For example, the skateboarding company Element’s <a href="https://us.elementbrand.com/page/no-board-left-behind">“No Board Left Behind”</a> project is a green initiative that repurposes used skateboards for kids in need. </p>
<p>There’s a similar commitment to repurposing urban spaces. In Sao Paulo, Brazil, Praca das Aguas was a public park that was rarely used. But in 2010, local skater <a href="http://www.espn.com/gallery/10298894/image/17/tulio-oliveira-skatenation-skatepark-do-profissional-tulio-oliveira-em-campinas-sp">Tulio de la Oliviera</a> took the initiative to build the first skateable structures in the park. </p>
<p>Over time, the entire Sao Paulo skate community contributed cement for ramps and ledges without the help of the government or a nongovernmental organization (NGO). Today, Pracas das Aquas remains a free public space for everyone. It’s also fertile ground for training the next generation of Brazilian skateboarding Olympians. </p>
<p>Contrast this with traditional sports, like swimming and tennis, which require expensive equipment, lessons and training facilities. Skateboarding also doesn’t require a formal coach, falling perfectly within the IOC’s desire to be inclusive, regardless of class or economic status.</p>
<h2>Bridging cultures</h2>
<p>Today, there are a number of skateboarding NGOs that seek to use skateboarding as a way to empower youth or promote gender equity.</p>
<p>The NGO <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/04/23/jessica-fulford-dobson-skater-girls-kabul_n_7121546.html">Skatistan</a> has brought skateboarding to war-torn Afghanistan, where the sport is used as a vehicle to educate and empower male and female youth. Meanwhile, pro skater <a href="https://ameliabrodka.com/">Amelia Brodka’s</a> annual skateboarding event <a href="http://exposureskate.org/">“Exposure”</a> seeks to bring together females skaters from around the world. </p>
<p><a href="http://uscpublicdiplomacy.org/blog/role-non-state-actors-sports-diplomacy">In my own research</a>, I’ve documented thriving skateboarding communities in Brazil, Cuba, Switzerland and South Africa. Some of this work was on display during the John F. Kennedy Center’s celebration of skateboarding culture, <a href="http://www.theatlantic.com/video/index/413209/cuba-skate">“Finding A Line,”</a> in May of 2015.</p>
<p>Most recently, via the U.S. State Department’s <a href="https://eca.state.gov/programs-initiatives/sports-diplomacy">SportsUnited program</a>, I became the first skateboarding U.S. Sports Envoy to the Netherlands. There I worked with Syrian refugee youths who had been granted asylum in the Netherlands and the Dutch and foreign children of the International School. Using skateboarding, we created shared experience between the two communities.</p>
<h2>Why it took so long</h2>
<p>Skateboarding’s unique culture isn’t based solely on competition. It’s also about the individual skater’s identity and his or her contributions to the skateboarding community. </p>
<p>Similar to jazz, skateboarders may play within an “ensemble” (i.e., their local crew). But they’re judged on the spirit and style in which they’ve inspired others to express themselves and become better skaters. In this, skateboarding represents the idealized dream of sport: to create a global community with a shared identity. </p>
<p>But skateboarding’s Olympic arrival has been slow, and there are two main reasons: initial apathy among the skateboarding community and the IOC requirement that the sport establishes formal governance.</p>
<p>In fact, there’s a contingent that doesn’t believe skateboarding should ever enter the Olympics: over 5,000 skateboarders signed <a href="http://www.latimes.com/sports/sportsnow/la-sp-sn-skateboarders-no-olympics-20151012-story.html">an online petition</a> denouncing the move. </p>
<p><a href="http://irs.sagepub.com/content/38/2/155.short">Because skateboarders see their sport as an opportunity for individual expression</a>, they believe governing bodies and rigid guidelines betray the ethos of the culture. As the <a href="http://www.thepetitionsite.com/takeaction/656/763/888/">petition</a> states, “Olympic recognition will not do justice to the purity, individuality and uniqueness of skateboarding culture … [and] viewers of the Olympic games will not be interested in skateboarding.”</p>
<p>There’s real anxiety over the idea that, by joining the Olympics, a subculture that has long been a conduit for self-expression could be “going mainstream” and, in the process, lose its authenticity. When snowboarding was first rolled out as an Olympic sport in 1998, it was <a href="https://newrepublic.com/article/136096/olympics-lost-millennials">bungled</a> on a number of fronts. Some snowboarders boycotted. Others became roiled in controversy after testing positive for marijuana. For these reasons, many skateboarders are wary of being brought into the Olympic fold. </p>
<p>For the IOC’s part, the decision could be strategic. Olympic TV viewers <a href="https://newrepublic.com/article/136096/olympics-lost-millennials">have become older and older</a> (the median age for London 2012 was 48; for Sochi 2014 it was 55), and the decision to include skateboarding was probably influenced by a desire to attract younger demographics.</p>
<p>When announcing the new sports for Tokyo 2020, which also include softball and karate, <a href="https://www.olympic.org/news/ioc-approves-five-new-sports-for-olympic-games-tokyo-2020">IOC President Thomas Bach said</a> in a statement, “We want to take sport to the youth. With the many options that young people have, we cannot expect any more that they will come automatically to us. We have to go to them.”</p>
<p>He added that skateboarding and the other sports are “an innovative combination of established and emerging, youth-focused events that … will add to the legacy of the Tokyo Games.”</p>
<p>Anxieties aside, as someone who has seen what skateboarding can mean to the children of Cuba, Brazil, South Africa, Switzerland, Spain and the Netherlands, I believe skateboarding can exist within the Olympic structure. The key, of course, is that any sort of governing bodies or guidelines doesn’t homogenize the community or the sport, and that revenue-sharing from the Olympics is directed back into skateboarding communities, so this healthy, supportive culture can thrive. </p>
<p>If all goes well, skateboarding culture will continue to flourish under the Olympics banner, helping the Olympic Games become more diverse, inclusive and accessible.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/63566/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Neftalie Williams is the Chairman for Cuba Skate and team manager for Citystars Skateboards.</span></em></p>Can skateboarding – with its anti-establishment ethos and emphasis on individuality – mesh with the corporatized Olympics?Neftalie Williams, Lecturer, Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism, Research Director Annenberg Institute of Sports, Media and Society, USC Annenberg School for Communication and JournalismLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/543612016-02-11T10:33:20Z2016-02-11T10:33:20ZExploding buses and plane crashes: why stuntmen are the unsung heroes of film<p>Had you been enjoying a peaceful wander along the Thames last Sunday things wouldn’t have remained calm for long. Because that morning a double decker bus <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/howaboutthat/12145080/Bus-explodes-on-Lambeth-Bridge-in-London-but-it-was-all-for-a-movie.html">exploded</a> on Lambeth Bridge. Many panicked. But the explosion turned out to have been a stunt for Jackie Chan’s latest movie, and the stunt was subsequently <a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/lambeth-bridge-bus-explosion-77-victims-father-labels-film-stunt-insensitive-a6860386.html">criticised</a> as insensitive, particularly by the father of a 7/7 victim. Many onlookers were <a href="http://metro.co.uk/2016/02/07/people-were-pretty-panicked-when-a-london-bus-was-blown-up-this-morning-5667328/">shocked</a> and upset, but at least no one was hurt. Many other film stunts have gone terribly wrong in the past.</p>
<p>Sadly there is a long history of serious accidents and fatalities on set. The silent years were particularly dangerous – not least because many of the spectacular visual stunts were done for “real”. Stunt pilot Dick Grace, for example, suffered a broken neck while deliberately crashing an aeroplane for the World War I aviation epic <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0018578/">Wings</a> (1927) – miraculously he recovered and was back performing stunts within a year. Others have not been so lucky. Three stunt pilots were killed during the filming of <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0020960/">Hell’s Angels</a> (1930), and <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0092099/">Top Gun</a> (1986) is dedicated to <a href="http://articles.latimes.com/1985-09-18/local/me-6135_1_stunt-pilot">Art Scholl</a>, who died while attempting to capture a pilot’s-eye view of a diving spin from his camera-plane.</p>
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<p>Movie fatalities are not confined to action-heavy aviation pictures. Brandon Lee died on the set of <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0109506/">The Crow</a> (1994) when a gun was accidentally loaded with a live round rather than a blank. Three actors – including two children – were killed on a night shoot for <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0086491/">Twilight Zone: The Movie</a> (1983) when a pyrotechnic effect detonated too close to a helicopter, which then spun out of control and crashed. And Roy Kinnear suffered a heart attack and died after falling off his horse on the set of <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0098194/">The Return of the Musketeers</a> (1989) – an accident that prompted director Richard Lester to give up making movies. </p>
<p>Then there are the indirect deaths. Silent film star Wallace Reid was injured while making <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0018531/">The Valley of the Giants</a> in 1919: he was given morphine to ease the pain and later died from addiction to the drug. And it was filming close to the US atomic bomb test sites in Nevada for <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0049092/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1">The Conqueror</a> (1955) that has been <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/film/the-conqueror/making-of-movie-that-killed-john-wayne/">blamed</a> for John Wayne, Susan Hayward, and director Dick Powell, all contracting cancer.</p>
<p>Given this roll-call, it’s legitimate to question whether the art of motion picture stunts is worth the risk. But where would the movies be without stunts and stuntmen (and women)? Film would be indelibly poorer without the gravity-defying acrobatics of silent film comedians such as Harold Lloyd and Buster Keaton, who performed many of their own stunts for real. And in the days before CGI, the epic battle scenes for films such as <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0004972/">Birth of a Nation</a> (1915), <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0054331/?ref_=fn_al_tt_2">Spartacus</a> (1960) and <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0056197/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1">The Longest Day</a> (1962) had to be re-enacted by hundreds of extras. CGI-enhanced effects of modern blockbusters can often seem less realistic than doing it the old-fashioned way.</p>
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<h2>Top stunts</h2>
<p>We all have our favourite movie stunts. By common consent one of the greatest stunt performers of all time was Yakima Canutt, an extraordinary horseman whose work can be seen in countless Westerns and adventure movies. Canutt’s most famous stunt was in <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0031971/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1">Stagecoach</a> (1939), where he plays one of the Commanche horsemen chasing John Wayne and his fellow travellers across the salt flats. Canutt jumps onto the leading horse, is shot by Wayne, and then falls to the ground. The horses and stagecoach then pass over him. He can just be seen, in long shot, getting to his feet after the coach has passed. He repeated and improved on the stunt for <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0032164/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1">Zorro’s Fighting Legion</a> (1940) where, doubling for Zorro, he not only let the stagecoach pass over him but then flipped around to climb onto it from the back.</p>
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<p>Canutt is just edged out for my favourite stunt by Rick Sylvester, who doubled as Roger Moore’s James Bond in the pre-title sequence of <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0076752/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1">The Spy Who Loved Me</a> (1977) for the scene where Bond, pursued by KGB assassins, skis off the top of a mountain and free-falls into space before opening the parachute that we didn’t know he had. The story goes that Bond producer Cubby Broccoli had seen a picture of Sylvester parachuting off a mountain in an advert – only to be told that it had been faked. Sylvester, unfazed, agreed to do it for real. It’s often been claimed as the greatest movie stunt of them all – though Sylvester, with the charming modesty of his breed, <a href="https://www.sundaypost.com/in10/health/james-bond-the-honest-truth/">maintains</a> that he had little to do and that gravity deserves much of the credit.</p>
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<p>There have been some positive outcomes from film tragedies. It was following the mistreatment of horses on films like <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0027438/">The Charge of the Light Brigade</a> (1936) and Jesse James (1939) that the American Humane Association set up a Hollywood office and began to monitor the treatment of animals on set. And the Twilight Zone tragedy led to important changes in the too often derided health and safety regulations applied to the film industry.</p>
<p>Thankfully not all accidents end in tragedy. Some can even be quite funny. The outtakes of <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0070328/?ref_=nv_sr_1">Live and Let Die</a> (1973) show Ross Kananga, again doubling for Roger Moore, skipping over the backs of crocodiles. The take we see in the film was the fifth: on each of the first four it doesn’t quite go right, and on one take the last crocodile nips his foot.</p>
<p>Today’s movie stuntmen are a hardy breed of professionals who accept there is always a risk. The stunt business is more regulated than it was in the everything-goes silent days – but it’s also more professionalised. So I, for one, hope we don’t see an end to the tradition of doing stunts for real – it looks so much better than CGI.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/54361/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>James Chapman does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Many onlookers were shocked when a bus blew up on a London bridge for a film stunt, but at least no one was hurt. There is a long history of serious accidents and fatalities on set.James Chapman, Professor of Film Studies, University of LeicesterLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/421972015-05-22T10:17:45Z2015-05-22T10:17:45ZExtreme athletes gain control through fear – and sometimes pay the price<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/82610/original/image-20150521-995-jg0c8f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Just enjoying a sense of agency.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:04KJER0243.jpg">Xof711</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/">CC BY-NC-SA</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The <a href="http://edition.cnn.com/2015/05/18/us/yosemite-base-jumpers-dean-potter-graham-hunt-deaths/">death</a> of famed “daredevil” climber and base jumper Dean Potter has once again raised the idea that all high-risk sportspeople are hedonistic thrill seekers. Our research into extreme athletes shows this view is simplistic and wrong.</p>
<p>It’s about attitudes to risk. In his famous Moon speech in 1962, John F Kennedy said:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Many years ago the great British explorer George Mallory, who was to die on Mount Everest, was asked [by a New York Times journalist] why did he want to climb it. He said, ‘Because it is there.’ Well, space is there, and we’re going to climb it, and the moon and the planets are there, and new hopes for knowledge and peace are there …</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Humans have evolved through taking risks. In fact, most human actions can be conceptualised as containing an element of risk: as we take our first step, we risk falling down; as we try a new food, we risk being disgusted; as we ride a bicycle, we risk falling over; as we go on a date, we risk being rejected; and as we travel to the moon, we risk not coming back.</p>
<p>Human endeavour and risk are intertwined. So it is not surprising that despite the increasingly risk-averse society that we live in, many people crave danger and risk – a life less sanitised. </p>
<p>Dean Potter exemplified that craving. He was a pioneering climber and base jumper, well known for scaling huge vertical rock faces without ropes and with only a parachute for protection. On May 16 Potter and fellow climber <a href="http://www.outsideonline.com/1982461/remembering-graham-hunt">Graham Hunt</a> died in Yosemite National Park after attempting a dangerous wingsuit flight, where base jumpers wear a special suit that enables them to “fly” forwards and control their fall.</p>
<figure> <img src="http://i.imgur.com/Y46SPPu.gif"><figcaption>Don’t try this at home.</figcaption></figure>
<p>Potter’s endeavours and those of George Mallory seem motivated by something very different from hedonistic thrill. Over the past ten years we have interviewed dozens of high-risk sports people and studied their profiles in detail with a view to trying to find out what that “something different” is. Our findings are surprising.</p>
<p>For example, it is now clear that sensation-seeking explains very little about the motive for many of these people. Many high-risk sportspeople do not crave excitement at all – yes they seek out risky environments, but only with a view to minimising any additional risk so that they can remain in control despite the apparent danger of dangling off cliffs or jumping out of planes.</p>
<p>But there are two more striking features of our recent risk-taking research.</p>
<h2>From pawns to players</h2>
<p>The first is something we call “<a href="http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1469029210000324">agentic emotion regulation</a>”. Feeling agency is similar to feeling in control, but more akin to the feeling “I want to be the person who decides how my life pans out”. Some high-risk sportspeople purposefully seek out danger in order to make some sense of their feelings of lack of agency. In other words, in everyday life they do not feel like the chess player of their life but more like the pawn on the chessboard – they feel emotionally constrained and passive. </p>
<p>Legendary climber Patrick Berhault, who later died traversing a steep face of Switzerland’s highest mountain <a href="http://www.climbing.com/climber/berhault-killed-in-the-alps/">without a safety rope</a>, once said he didn’t think he’d do it if there wasn’t the notion of risk. “Ordinary life lacks intensity and attraction for me”, <a href="http://cadarnskillscentre.ac.uk/documents/TWsession2.pdf">he said</a>, “I can’t stand it; I believe we should live!”</p>
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<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/82613/original/image-20150521-979-1yzdeid.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/82613/original/image-20150521-979-1yzdeid.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/82613/original/image-20150521-979-1yzdeid.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/82613/original/image-20150521-979-1yzdeid.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/82613/original/image-20150521-979-1yzdeid.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/82613/original/image-20150521-979-1yzdeid.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/82613/original/image-20150521-979-1yzdeid.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Berhault: at home in the mountains.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.camptocamp.org/images/21523/fr/patrick-berhault-que-l-on-croise-avec-philippe-magnin-peu-sous-le-sommet">Stéphane Sevino</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/">CC BY-NC-ND</a></span>
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<p>The fascinating feature of this finding is that the lowest sense of agency is in relationships that are the most emotional: with loving partners. This feeling of low agency is made worse by the difficulty with expressing their emotions.</p>
<p>In this way, the relationship with risk serves as a proxy for the relationship with a loving partner, except that the risk-taker is rewarded – rather than penalised – for not expressing emotion.</p>
<p>The primary emotion to overcome in risk-taking activities is fear. If a person has difficulty experiencing and expressing emotions then the risk-taking arena becomes a rewarding place. It is rewarding because they have moved from a feeling of inadequacy, “why can’t you tell me how you feel??” to a sense of achievement, “wow, that was amazing how you achieved that scary feat … ” In this way, the relationship with nature is more rewarding than their relationship with other humans.</p>
<h2>Fear – the purest emotion</h2>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">Potter was also an expert in slacklining – an extreme form of tightrope walking.</span></figcaption>
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<blockquote>
<p>My vision turns black and white except for the searing red line.
Sounds fade. I feel faint, face flushed with heat. My muscles tense, but I hold calmness in my centre and loosen my arms from the shoulders to my fingertips. The moment sickens me, and my mind tries to stop it, but I command myself to walk.</p>
<p><em>– Dean Potter on <a href="http://deanspotter.com">facing fear</a> and going ropeless.</em></p>
</blockquote>
<p>The second surprising thing we found in our research is that the difficulty with emotions leads people to take greater risks and to have more accidents in the high-risk environment – where accidents have serious consequences. The link between emotional expression and accidents is our <a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25730894">most recent finding</a> and one that was so intriguing that we ran three different studies on various high-risk sports to see if we found the same thing. Each time, we found a strong link between the difficulty in expressing emotions and the chances of being in an accident.</p>
<p>We now understand this link. People who have difficulty identifying and describing their emotions seek risky extreme sports because they provide the experience of a more easily identifiable emotion: fear, perhaps the purest emotion of them all. The continued search for fear (and overcoming that fear) leads people to take further risks, which in turn eventually leads to a greater likelihood of an accident.</p>
<p>This finding was novel because the <a href="http://psycnet.apa.org/psycinfo/2007-01392-001">established view in emotion research</a> is that people do not typically repeatedly approach situations that induce fear. However, extreme sportsmen and women are attracted to risk because it provides an opportunity to experience the negative emotion of fear and to turn that fear into a fantastically rewarding and positive experience (often in retrospect).</p>
<p>Extreme sportspeople learn something about themselves by taking risks and by embracing the full spectrum of their emotions. It is a construction of the self that is played out in nature with all its inherent dangers. </p>
<p>They expect <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23795909">more from life</a>. A craving for life in its purest, simplest, and sharpest form. Life in direct juxtaposition to death; to live fully or to die trying. In that respect, adventurers such as Dean Potter can teach us all how to embrace life and to turn directly to face our fears.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/42197/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Wingsuit flying might be dangerous but that doesn’t mean all base jumpers are hedonists with a death wish.Tim Woodman, Professor and Head of the School of Sport, Health and Exercise Sciences, Bangor UniversityLew Hardy, Emeritus Professor, Institute for the Psychology of Elite Performance, Bangor UniversityMatthew Barlow, Post-Doc Researcher in Sport Psychology, Bangor UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/306952014-08-20T17:13:09Z2014-08-20T17:13:09ZFirst direct evidence of microbial life under 1km of Antarctic ice<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/56927/original/w5jn7jjv-1408545273.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Keep digging. There is life in subglacial lakes.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Life is hardier than was thought only a few decades ago. With the help of new exploration technologies and new methods for finding and identifying organisms, our perceptions of what constitute the environmental limits for life on Earth have changed. </p>
<p>You can find life in <a href="https://theconversation.com/microbes-living-deep-under-the-sea-reveal-the-extremes-of-life-14946">extreme environments</a> be it acid or alkaline, or extremely hot or cold. It can be found under high pressure, without free water (in hot and cold deserts), in extremely salty environments (like the Dead Sea), and in areas that lack oxygen or experience high radiation levels. </p>
<p>We now recognise that microbial life can exist in most extreme environments on Earth. So it should not be a surprise that, in a study just published in <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/nature13667">Nature</a>, researchers report the first direct evidence of life in a lake located almost a kilometre below an ice sheet in Antarctica.</p>
<h2>Lakes under ice</h2>
<p>The presence of liquid water below the Antarctic ice sheet was recognised more than 40 years ago. The ice provides an effective “duvet”, trapping the heat naturally emitted through the Earth‘s crust. However, the presence of a sub-glacial lake, formed from extensive melting of ice at the base of the ice sheet, was only confirmed in the 1990s. </p>
<p>The subglacial Lake Vostok is among the top ten largest lakes in the world. But the difficulties of reaching it through kilometres of ice makes it one of the most isolated environments on Earth.</p>
<p>Since Vostok’s discovery, more than 350 smaller lakes have been located in Antarctica. The presence of subglacial lakes under the Greenland ice sheet have now also been detected. Vostok is not, therefore, a one-off example of an extreme environment. Instead, it is the largest example of a group of aquatic environments that can be potentially found wherever glaciers and ice sheets are present.</p>
<p>There is <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.3189/172756404781814401">growing evidence</a> that many of the Antarctic lakes are connected by a network of channels. These channels control the flow of overlying ice streams, and liquid water at the base of ice sheets lubricates the passage of ice. The lakes associated with ice streams are thought to act as reservoirs for this lubrication process, filling and partly emptying on a fairly regular basis so the water in the lake is replaced every few years. Other subglacial lakes, including Lake Vostok, appear to be much more static – the water in these lakes may only be replaced over tens of thousands of years, leaving them very stable environments.</p>
<h2>Eating metal</h2>
<p>Subglacial Lake Whillans, described in the study, is an example of a dynamic subglacial lake. It receives no light to support photosynthesis, has constantly low temperatures (just a little below zero) and is under pressure eighty times atmospheric pressure due to the 800m of overlying ice. </p>
<p>With relatively frequent changing of the lake water the availability of organic matter, which humans and many other life forms – collectively termed heterotrophs – use for energy and growth will be limited. The only things that can support the heterotrophs in this ecosystem are the underlying ancient seabed geology, which can provide small amounts of organic carbon from the rock material and the recycling of carbon from dead microbes. Thus, what a dynamic subglacial ecosystem such as this needs to really succeed is to also use the much more plentiful non-organic energy sources. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/56942/original/txpy3g5x-1408555020.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/56942/original/txpy3g5x-1408555020.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/56942/original/txpy3g5x-1408555020.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/56942/original/txpy3g5x-1408555020.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/56942/original/txpy3g5x-1408555020.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/56942/original/txpy3g5x-1408555020.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/56942/original/txpy3g5x-1408555020.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Colonies of bacteria cultured from samples of the water column from subglacial Lake Whillans.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Brent Christner</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>But to get there the researchers first needed to drill. For that, they created a 30cm wide borehole through the ice using a hot water drill and then deployed custom-built probes to make measurements and obtain water and sediment samples. Contamination was prevented by preparing the samplers and instruments in ultra-clean rooms, cycling the hot water through a customised multistage filtration system and preventing drill water from getting into the lake. Avoiding contamination is essential to ensure that only microbes from the lake are recovered and that modern contaminants do not get into the subglacial network of lakes and channels.</p>
<p>When the samples were analysed, they found that the lake contained organisms from of both bacteria and archaea trees of life. While some of the organisms could be identified from gene databases as also occurring elsewhere, particularly in cold environments, many of the lakes microbes appear to be completely new. Along with a range of heterotrophic microbes, the most prevalent organisms were those that can consume inorganic chemicals, such as iron, manganese, sulphur and especially, nitrogen (or, more precisely, nitrogen in the form of ammonium ions). These organisms are called chemoautotrophs.</p>
<p>The “chemoautotrophic” lifestyle is representative of the earliest life on Earth. This existed long before photosynthesis created an oxygen-rich world and powered the explosion of biological diversity and organic carbon biomass to support the heterotrophic lifestyle dominating the modern Earth. </p>
<p>Some of these microbes may well have enzymes and novel chemicals that can be exploited for commercial purposes. But, more importantly, these lakes give us an opportunity to study and understand how life existed at various times on the early Earth and dealt with the challenges of environmental extremes. They also provide insights to how life could exist on other planetary bodies, including Mars and the moons of Saturn and Jupiter. </p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/30695/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Cynan Ellis-Evans does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Life is hardier than was thought only a few decades ago. With the help of new exploration technologies and new methods for finding and identifying organisms, our perceptions of what constitute the environmental…Cynan Ellis-Evans, Microbiologist, British Antarctic SurveyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/206602013-11-22T14:08:58Z2013-11-22T14:08:58ZTough Mudder: a modern-day cheese rolling competition<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/35907/original/vb4kq4zt-1385122096.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=1%2C0%2C1022%2C676&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">One tough mudder.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">The 621st Contingency Response Wing</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Tough Mudder is an endurance foot race over 12 miles that belongs to a class of obstacle courses known as MOB, or mud, obstacles and beer, that have seen an explosion in popularity since 2010. They include Warrior Dash, a three-mile race over 12 obstacles to Tough Guy, an eight-mile cross country run followed by an obstacle course, of which the boast is that only a third of people finish.</p>
<p>What makes these professionally organised events really “tough”, is the series of race obstacles that competitors face. The aptly named “Mudder” course includes barriers and challenges akin to a Royal Marines assault course (the courses claim <a href="http://toughmudder.co.uk/">to be designed</a> by special forces), with no shortage of barbed wire, flames, water tunnels and scramble nets. Tough Mudder promises a unique experience in the form of the “Electroshock Therapy”, an electrified obstacle that delivers “10,000 volts” from dangling live wires as participants sprint through.</p>
<figure>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">Rather you than me.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>But rather than a regiment of HRH’s finest navigating their way skilfully across the hazard-filled course, the competitors are drawn from the broadest demography you are likely to see at a sporting event. From highly-trained enduro junkies to sedentary charity fundraisers, your average Tough Mudder competitor would be hard to pick out on the local high street. And there’s no shortage of them – Tough Mudder alone boasts more than 700,000 participants in 35 locations worldwide, from <a href="http://abcnews.go.com/Travel/tough-mudder-toughest-race-planet/story?id=15451677&page=2#.UVHr9Ff5T1U">50,000 people</a> and three locations in its first year.</p>
<h2>Pain and injury</h2>
<p>It’s unsurprising then that there may be a few injuries. A <a href="http://bit.ly/1dnJu6w">recent US study</a>, published in the Annals of Emergency Medicine, detailed the severity of some of the injuries sustained during the Tough Mudder that resulted in admissions to hospital. These ranged from electric shocks to concussion and enlarged heart muscle. One obstacle called “Walk the Plank”, a 5m-high jump into cold, muddy water, led to the <a href="http://www.runnersworld.com/general-interest/witnesses-report-slow-response-in-tough-mudder-death">first death linked</a> to the event. By comparison, <a href="http://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/news/media/releases/death_risk_for_marathoners_remains_low_during_or_soon_after_race">studies suggest</a> marathons have a death rate (still low) of around one per 100,000.</p>
<p>So what makes people take part in such an event that could inflict such pain? The simple answer is fun. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/35908/original/pff36tn5-1385122494.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/35908/original/pff36tn5-1385122494.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/35908/original/pff36tn5-1385122494.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/35908/original/pff36tn5-1385122494.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/35908/original/pff36tn5-1385122494.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/35908/original/pff36tn5-1385122494.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/35908/original/pff36tn5-1385122494.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Geronimooooo!</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">The 621st Contingency Response Wing</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Most who enter do it for the intrinsic enjoyment gained from the thrills and spills of a unique experience. Most aren’t racing to win, many do it with friends or for charity, and for the majority the pace is pedestrian as “mudders” wait for their turn on the next daring obstacle.</p>
<p>Extreme events such as Tough Mudder typically command entry fees around £100. The events organisers provide some basic advice on “training” – though this doesn’t involve giving yourself a daily 10,000 volts – for the event and highlight the sort of hazards that competitors will encounter. However, as Marna Greenberg and other authors of the <a href="http://bit.ly/1dnJu6w">event injuries study</a> said, can you really prepare for such an activity?</p>
<h2>A bit like cheese rolling</h2>
<p>These events rely on the appetite we have to do something crazy, to escape once in a while. In that sense, they aren’t too different to the <a href="http://www.cheese-rolling.co.uk/the_event.htm">Cheese Rolling</a>, Bull Running, <a href="http://www.otterytarbarrels.co.uk/">Tar Barrel Burning</a>, a race through Ottery St Mary in Devon, carrying flaming barrels of tar, and Beer & Straw Bale racing – just a modern-day equivalent notched up a few volts.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/35905/original/zp2dvm2r-1385118001.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/35905/original/zp2dvm2r-1385118001.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=413&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/35905/original/zp2dvm2r-1385118001.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=413&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/35905/original/zp2dvm2r-1385118001.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=413&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/35905/original/zp2dvm2r-1385118001.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=519&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/35905/original/zp2dvm2r-1385118001.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=519&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/35905/original/zp2dvm2r-1385118001.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=519&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Chasing a cheese - any excuse to roll down a hill.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Brizzle Born and Bred.</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>I once took part in the <a href="http://www.haworth-village.org.uk/walks/straw-race/straw-race.asp">Oxenhope Straw Bale Race</a> in Yorkshire. I practiced running, beer drinking – most fastidiously – and lugging a heavy load or two, but what I hadn’t prepared for was the Fuzzy-Felt elf costume I had to wear which left me dehydrated and with a terrible rash by the finish. I’m sure more serious injuries do occur, being skewered by an irritated bull <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/spain/10177563/Several-injured-in-stampede-at-Pamplona-bull-run.html">in Pamplona</a> must be pretty unpleasant. </p>
<p>But I’m not sure if being fitter necessarily helps either. The more protected we feel by rules, equipment or fitness, the more likely it is that we take more risks, run faster, jump from higher points and land on more precarious sites. We often increase the likelihood of injury by misplaced feelings of security, a phenomenon know as <a href="http://injuryprevention.bmj.com/content/4/2/89.full">risk homeostasis</a>. The cases in the Greenberg study were generally cited as previously healthy individuals, and it’s quite often that injury befalls the fit and the fast, not the group at the back in fancy dress waiting their turn to laugh their way over a scramble net.</p>
<p>Maybe Greenberg is right, that you can’t prepare for this sort of thing. But does that mean we shouldn’t do it? Or not allow it?</p>
<p>In recent years, the Cheese Rolling races at Coopers’ Hill in Gloucester – where competitors chased an 8lb Double Gloucester cheese down a 1:2 steep hill this year – have been blighted by health and safety concerns for participants and spectators. Also this year, Diana Smart, the traditional supplier of the cheese, withdrew supply after local police suggested she <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/howaboutthat/10082729/Cheese-Rolling-competition-goes-ahead-despite-health-and-safety-fears.html">could be liable</a> for injury claims from people who chased the cheese but ended up with a fracture or two.</p>
<h2>A fuzzy line</h2>
<p>There’s a fuzzy line between personal responsibility and duty of care in any hazardous sport, but although there are similarities between more contemporary events and traditional madcap races I suppose the difference may lie in the motives or origins of the event.</p>
<p>Pagan traditions and the heritage of celebrating May Day or Midsomer are often the backdrop to many an “extreme” sport and have been part of the local village culture for hundreds of years. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/35910/original/gjp2s89x-1385123110.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/35910/original/gjp2s89x-1385123110.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/35910/original/gjp2s89x-1385123110.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/35910/original/gjp2s89x-1385123110.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/35910/original/gjp2s89x-1385123110.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/35910/original/gjp2s89x-1385123110.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/35910/original/gjp2s89x-1385123110.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Mapole dancing in Bournville.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Pete Ashton</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>By contrast, the motivations behind their contemporary counterparts of mudder or warrior events are for commercial gain – Tough Mudder <a href="http://abcnews.go.com/Travel/tough-mudder-toughest-race-planet/story?id=15451677&page=2#.UVHr9Ff5T1U">was the brainchild</a> of Will Dean, who came up with the idea at Harvard Business School – and they may have more funds to provide necessary safeguards or legal insurance.</p>
<p>I’m not a health and safety expert, and the line between duty of care ends and personal responsibility is for another time. But what I do know is that it would be a shame if more traditional activities were to disappear altogether. </p>
<p>And as we face more rules and regulations, we still need to experience some risk in our lives – to push ourselves, learn from the experience and have fun. <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/19/science/19tierney.html?_r=0">Children too</a> could have more, according to some researchers. Though for most adults, this probably doesn’t involve going in for Tough Mudder. </p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/20660/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Craig Boyd PhD does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Tough Mudder is an endurance foot race over 12 miles that belongs to a class of obstacle courses known as MOB, or mud, obstacles and beer, that have seen an explosion in popularity since 2010. They include…Craig Boyd PhD, Senior Lecturer in Applied Sport Physiology, Sheffield Hallam UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/100572012-10-09T03:31:37Z2012-10-09T03:31:37ZFelix Baumgartner set to skydive through the sound barrier – how?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/16305/original/f6bwjwxx-1349746301.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=1%2C570%2C1065%2C755&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">All going well, Baumgartner will become the first person to break the speed of sound in free-fall.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">AAP Image/Red Bull</span></span></figcaption></figure><p><strong>UPDATE:</strong> <em>After adverse weather conditions delayed earlier launch attempts, Felix Baumgartner has finally made his historic skydive.</em></p>
<p><em><a href="http://www.redbullstratos.com/">Red Bull Stratos</a> reports that Baumgartner climbed to an altitude of over 39km before jumping out of his capsule. According to Red Bull, Baumgartner reached an estimated top speed of 1,342.8km/h – well above the local speed of sound at approximately 1,100km/h.</em></p>
<p><em>Once his top speed has been confirmed, Baumgartner will indeed go down in history as the first man to travel in supersonic free fall.</em></p>
<p><em>Baumgartner’s full descent can be seen <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MT1DhcQg0Os">here</a> and highlights from the mission can be seen in the video below.</em></p>
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<p></p><hr><p></p>
<p>Austrian skydiver <a href="http://www.felixbaumgartner.com/">Felix Baumgartner</a> will attempt to make history early tomorrow morning (AEST) when, weather permitting, he jumps from <a href="http://www.redbullstratos.com/technology/capsule/">a capsule</a> at an altitude of 120,000 feet (more than 36km).</p>
<p>All going well, Baumgartner will become the first person to break the speed of sound in free-fall. While not at the technical boundary between the Earth’s atmosphere and space, at 100km of altitude (known as the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/K%C3%A1rm%C3%A1n_line">Kármán Line</a>), Baumgartner’s remarkable feat will still take place in near vacuum.</p>
<p>At roughly 11.30pm tonight (AEST) Baumgartner will ascend in his capsule to the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stratosphere">stratosphere</a> pulled upward by a balloon filled with 850,000m<sup>3</sup> of helium. If laid flat, the fully inflated balloon would cover more than 40 acres (roughly 160,000m<sup>2</sup> ). </p>
<p>The balloon will provide the necessary buoyancy to lift Baumgartner above the previous world record of just under 35km, held by his mentor, retired US Air Force Colonel Joseph Kittinger.</p>
<p>Once at an altitude of 120,000 feet, Baumgartner will <a href="http://www.redbullstratos.com/the-mission/mission-timeline/">exit the ascent capsule</a> and free-fall back towards Earth.</p>
<p>The mission will be streamed live (<a href="http://www.salon.com/2012/10/08/what_youll_see_during_supersonic_skydive/singleton/">almost</a>) on various websites, including the <a href="http://www.redbullstratos.com/live/">Red Bull Stratos</a> site.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/16304/original/wn39wq9f-1349746301.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/16304/original/wn39wq9f-1349746301.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/16304/original/wn39wq9f-1349746301.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/16304/original/wn39wq9f-1349746301.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/16304/original/wn39wq9f-1349746301.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/16304/original/wn39wq9f-1349746301.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/16304/original/wn39wq9f-1349746301.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Baumgartner prepares to exit the capsule at an altitude of 22km in his March 16 test jump.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">AAP Image/Red Bull</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Breaking the speed of sound is a challenge for several reasons. As skydivers fall towards Earth, they are accelerated by gravity. But as they speed up, the drag from the surrounding air reduces their acceleration until they reach <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terminal_velocity">terminal velocity</a>.</p>
<p>At this point, the drag balances the gravitational (or weight) force, and they can accelerate no more. Due to this limitation, conventional skydivers jumping from altitudes of less than 5km can’t reach speeds greater than 200-300km/h.</p>
<p>But the amount of drag depends on the density of the surrounding air – the more air flowing over the skydiver, the higher the drag. Since Baumgartner will be jumping from much higher in the atmosphere, where the air density is less that 1% of that at ground level, his terminal velocity will be more than 1,000km/h.</p>
<p>In the stratosphere, the speed of sound is approximately 1,100km/h. Will Baumgartner reach this velocity and become supersonic?</p>
<p>Perhaps. The problem is that at such high speeds, more extreme effects will begin to take place.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/r-TCO2IdoTA?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">A test dive from an altitude of nearly 22km was a great success.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>As Baumgartner approaches the speed of sound, he will experience more and more drag. The air in front of his head will become more compressed as it is no longer able to move as quickly around his body. </p>
<p>At roughly 80% of the speed of sound (or Mach 0.8) shock waves will begin to form around his body as the flow becomes <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transonic">“transonic”</a>. That is, Baumgartner’s body will be surrounded by air currents travelling a range of speeds, from Mach 0.8 to the speed of sound and beyond.</p>
<p>This mixture of flow speeds can result in a loss of control and Baumgartner may be buffeted around due to dramatic changes in pressure.</p>
<p>If he reaches the speed of sound (Mach 1), a <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bow_shock_(aerodynamics)">bow shock</a> will form in front of his head and in a cone around him. At these speeds, the air in front of Baumgartner cannot avoid his body until it passes through the <a href="http://physics.info/shock/">shock</a>, an extremely thin layer where pressure, temperature and density increase dramatically. At this point, Baumgartner will have truly become supersonic.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/16308/original/j9mmff88-1349746310.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/16308/original/j9mmff88-1349746310.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/16308/original/j9mmff88-1349746310.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/16308/original/j9mmff88-1349746310.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/16308/original/j9mmff88-1349746310.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/16308/original/j9mmff88-1349746310.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/16308/original/j9mmff88-1349746310.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Baumgartner’s trip to the stratosphere will take just under three hours.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">EPA/Balazs Gardi</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Eventually, the drag will balance Baumgartner’s weight and he will reach terminal velocity. If he accelerates past Mach 1.2 Baumgartner will no longer be in transonic flow. The shock will be maintained constantly in the cone around Baumgartner, keeping fairly consistent pressures and no longer being as chaotic.</p>
<p>As long as he keeps all of his limbs within the shock cone, Baumgartner should not experience too much difficulty in continuing to fall supersonically. The increasing drag around Baumgartner – due to the thicker atmosphere closer to the surface – will eventually slow him below the speed of sound as he continues his descent, until eventually he deploys his parachute at subsonic speeds.</p>
<p>The question then becomes, why not jump from even higher? Why not jump from the true edge of space at 100km?</p>
<p>There are several limiting factors to this question. Primarily, it would be practically impossible to build a helium balloon to reach these altitudes.</p>
<p>Just as wood can float on water, so too does helium on air. But at an altitude of 100km the density of air is negligible and there is effectively a vacuum. With no air to hold up the balloon, it would most likely stop much lower in the atmosphere.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/16306/original/gzjghdcw-1349746301.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/16306/original/gzjghdcw-1349746301.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/16306/original/gzjghdcw-1349746301.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/16306/original/gzjghdcw-1349746301.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/16306/original/gzjghdcw-1349746301.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/16306/original/gzjghdcw-1349746301.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/16306/original/gzjghdcw-1349746301.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">EPA/Jorge Mitter</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>But even assuming you could reach an altitude of 100km safely and jump out, other safety factors would become important. A skydiver would require protection from <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cosmic_ray">cosmic</a> and solar radiation that the atmosphere protects us from on the surface.</p>
<p>Since the dive would occur from much further out, drag would be negligible for the majority of the fall. This would definitely lead to supersonic speeds upon entry into the denser layers of the atmosphere, probably around Mach 3 (three times the speed of sound). </p>
<p>As the drag builds up lower into the atmosphere, the pressure would increase dramatically and the skydiver’s suit would need strong support to take the high loads off his head and neck.</p>
<p>While these issues will still be felt during Baumgartner’s dive, they will not be as extreme. His suit will definitely need to support his neck and deal with the solar radiation, at least to a minor extent.</p>
<p>It’s probably obvious to say there are dangers with this type of jump. A torn suit would likely result in <a href="http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/177662/ebullism">ebullism</a>, the formation of gas bubbles in bodily fluid that would inflate Baumgartner’s body and render him unconscious within 15 seconds. </p>
<p>Even before this, on the way up, if the balloon ruptures at low altitude it could crash towards Earth before Baumgartner has time to open the escape hatch.</p>
<p>Hopefully everything goes smoothly and a pioneering man attached to a giant balloon will have achieved a new first: to break the sound barrier by jumping from the sky.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/10057/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Tristan Vanyai does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>UPDATE: After adverse weather conditions delayed earlier launch attempts, Felix Baumgartner has finally made his historic skydive. Red Bull Stratos reports that Baumgartner climbed to an altitude of over…Tristan Vanyai, PhD Candidate, Centre for Hypersonics, The University of QueenslandLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/58752012-03-19T03:46:55Z2012-03-19T03:46:55ZBASE jumping from the Rialto: plain stupid or something else entirely?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/8733/original/tdjc4zjr-1332122543.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">One does not simply jump from a building … extensive preparation is essential.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Channel 7/Colby Swandale</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Late last week four men entered a restaurant on the 55th floor of the Rialto tower in Melbourne, had a couple of quiet drinks then <a href="http://www.theage.com.au/entertainment/restaurants-and-bars/highend-surprise-as-highrise-jumpers-leap-from-rialto-20120314-1uzdm.html">leapt from the balcony</a>.</p>
<p>Much of the commentary of this event <a href="http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/more-news/daredevils-reveal-rialto-leap-plot/story-fn7x8me2-1226299815939">described the men as idiots</a>, daredevils and thrill-seekers. Sure, what they did was illegal, but then there are very few spots in the world where <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BASE_jumping">BASE jumping</a> is legal.</p>
<p>So does jumping from the Rialto really make someone an idiot? Or is there more to it than that? And what does BASE jumping involve, apart from jumping off buildings?</p>
<p>In a nutshell, BASE jumping is the world’s most extreme parachute sport. It involves leaping from solid structures such as cliffs, bridges or buildings before deploying a parachute and landing. BASE is an acronym for Building, Antenna, Span (bridges), Earth (cliffs) – the fixed objects that can be jumped from.</p>
<p>While BASE jumping is similar to skydiving in many ways – indeed it grew out of skydiving – there are some crucial differences. For a start, most BASE jumps are done from less than 600 metres while skydiving is usually done from altitudes of 1,000 metres or greater.</p>
<p>One of the most significant differences between BASE jumping and skydiving is in the use of safety equipment. While skydivers utilise safety devices such as altimeters, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Automatic_activation_device">automatic parachute-activation devices</a> and secondary parachutes, BASE jumpers do not have any such safety equipment, beyond their main parachute.</p>
<p>Why? In most cases, these devices simply won’t function for BASE jumpers, given jumps can be done from structures less than 100 metres from the ground. If something goes wrong with the main parachute at this height, there’s little chance a second parachute could deploy in time.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/NklUTXu_Dy4?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
</figure>
<p>Extreme sports such as BASE jumping, <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k2vkwy2vdP4">big-wave surfing</a>, <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hTSG2aSEF-E">extreme skiing</a>, <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Sd5MjhlF0A&feature=fvst">waterfall kayaking</a>, <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=leCAy1v1fnI">rope-free multi-pitch climbing</a> and their less-extreme cousins are <a href="http://eprints.qut.edu.au/41068/">fast becoming an activity of choice</a> for many young (and not so young) Australians.</p>
<p>Participating in extreme sports such as the above has traditionally been seen as a death wish, or the purview of the emotionally unstable and unhealthy followers of the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/No_Fear">“No Fear” movement</a>. Why else would someone willingly partake in an activity where the most likely outcome of a mistake or accident is death?</p>
<p>In the past, science has also <a href="http://puc-web01.calumet.purdue.edu/%7Eskozy/1000_webtext.htm">labelled extreme sport athletes as sensation-seekers or risk-takers</a>. But, in the past few years, <a href="http://hpq.sagepub.com/content/13/5/690.abstract">research has started to reveal</a> that extreme sport participants do not fit this traditional stereotype. In fact, participation in extreme sporting
events has been associated with positive health and psychological transformations. </p>
<p>BASE jumpers and other extreme sport participants are highly trained individuals who are very aware of the potential dangers of their sport. Events are meticulously planned and athletes undertake extensive preparation to make sure their chances of a mishap are minimised.</p>
<p>Even after extensive preparation, athletes will walk away without jumping if conditions prove unfavourable on the day.</p>
<p>For the four jumpers who leapt from the Rialto last week, the night of their jump wasn’t their first visit to the iconic Melbourne skyscraper. They had <a href="http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/more-news/daredevils-reveal-rialto-leap-plot/story-fn7x8me2-1226299815939">cased the building and 55th-floor restaurant</a> on several occasions preparing themselves for the jump.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/8731/original/kkmpmv4p-1332121597.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/8731/original/kkmpmv4p-1332121597.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/8731/original/kkmpmv4p-1332121597.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=407&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/8731/original/kkmpmv4p-1332121597.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=407&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/8731/original/kkmpmv4p-1332121597.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=407&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/8731/original/kkmpmv4p-1332121597.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=511&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/8731/original/kkmpmv4p-1332121597.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=511&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/8731/original/kkmpmv4p-1332121597.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=511&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">EPA/Shamsharin Shamsudin</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Far from experiencing an <em>absence</em> of fear, extreme sport participants report that <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Base-66-Story-Fear-Freefall/dp/0595335101">fear is a constant companion</a> in the lead-up to an event. But, rather than fighting that fear, or letting fear make the decisions for them, participants have learnt, through years of preparation, to make rational decisions based on a realistic assessment of their capabilities, their knowledge of the task and the environment.</p>
<p>Fear is considered a friend; an emotion that keeps them alive; a warning voice that needs to be listened to but that shouldn’t be a barrier to performance. Steering into the fear, when appropriate, opens the door to a range of extraordinary experiences. </p>
<p>These experiences are characterised by complete absorption and a feeling of “being in the moment”. <a href="http://ro.uow.edu.au/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1379&context=theses">Reports also indicate</a> that sensual awareness is enhanced and time seems to slow down. There is a sense of pure bliss, peace, calm and stillness. There is also a life-enhancing sense of connection to the natural world.</p>
<p>Immediately after reaching the ground, the BASE jumper’s body is awash with sensations. This phase of the experience might last hours or days and be accompanied by intense positive emotions and enhanced feelings of personal energy.</p>
<p>Extreme sports such as BASE jumping can have longer-term affects, including feelings of enhanced wellbeing. Participation has been shown to <a href="http://eprints.qut.edu.au/25916/">contribute to positive life changes</a> and an increased ability to cope with the twists and turns of life. </p>
<figure>
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<p>Extreme sports such as BASE jumping have attracted an enormous amount of bad publicity because of the assumptions about risk and needless thrills. But research indicates this is an inaccurate assumption.</p>
<p>A closer look at the statistics reveals that socially acceptable activities, such as motorbike riding, are <a href="http://eprints.qut.edu.au/41068/">far more dangerous than BASE jumping</a>. </p>
<p>Many unprepared individuals searching for thrills and excitement have been drawn to extreme sports’ exciting image. Unfortunately, there is little chance of surviving long as a BASE jumper or extreme skier if you aren’t appropriately skilled and prepared.</p>
<p>Extreme sports require an intense commitment, high levels of training and an accurate awareness of personal capabilities. Admittedly, these are not activities for everyone but neither are they the sole domain of reckless adrenaline junkies.</p>
<p>Perhaps it is time we stopped vilifying extreme athletes and worked together to find a way for qualified participants to pursue their passions legally.</p>
<p><strong>Further reading:</strong></p>
<ul>
<li><a href="http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/more-news/daredevil-reveals-why-he-base-jumps/story-fn7x8me2-1226299405901">Daredevil reveals why he BASE jumps</a> - Gary Cunningham, president of the Australian Base Association</li>
<li><a href="http://ro.uow.edu.au/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1379&context=theses">Extreme dude! A phenomenological perspective on the extreme sport experience</a> – George Eric Brymer, PhD thesis</li>
</ul><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/5875/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Eric Brymer does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Late last week four men entered a restaurant on the 55th floor of the Rialto tower in Melbourne, had a couple of quiet drinks then leapt from the balcony. Much of the commentary of this event described…Eric Brymer, Lecturer in the School of Exercise and Nutrition Sciences, Queensland University of TechnologyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.