The year was 1975. The man was Evel Knievel, an American stunt performer. The feat? Jumping 14 Greyhound buses stacked side-to-side. Knievel took to the ramp at the King’s Island theme park near Cincinnati, Ohio, in front of a crowd of 25,000 — not including television viewers — revved the engine of his Harley-Davidson XR-750 motorcycle, and took off.
That jump record was held for many years by Knievel, until 2018, when Travis Pastrana jumped 16 buses. Still, Knievel makes it into the record book; he currently holds the Guinness World Record for “Most Bones Broken in a Lifetime,” at 433.
Knievel’s commercial success reflects a nation and era interested in adrenaline rushes and pushing the boundaries of human abilities. Though he may have exemplified extreme sports — a genre of activity defined by their high stakes and occasionally uncontrollable elements — at a commercial level, many have since found personal joy in similar sports.
“It is definitely a sport that courage helps,” comments Alex D’Anna, a competitive mountain biker who has been in the sport for eight years. “And it’s probably changed my whole life.”
Extreme sports — perhaps more than conventional ones — require intense, in-depth knowledge to compete or practice them. “Mistakes are inevitable and desirable in [a] field of expertise. The trick is to be so disciplined as to make the mistake inconsequential, so one has the ability to learn from the mistake,” explains John Matylonek, a hang gliding instructor at the Oregon Hang Gliding School. Hang gliding is a sport in which a lightweight, non-motorized aircraft — a hang glider — is piloted by a single rider. Pilots stay aloft at the whim of the wind and must be well-trained to understand the environment. With serious injury or even death on the line, action activities such as hang gliding require an extra level of dedication and a thorough knowledge of each aspect of the activity.
Training for an extreme sport lends itself to a steep learning curve; getting past initial fears, the first bumps and scratches, and, Matylonek adds, tedium. “First, you will have the willingness and desire to play those boring scales or nursery songs. This takes emotional resilience,” says Matylonek, comparing action sports to learning the piano. “Things do get boring because we want [them] now — Carnegie Hall and all. You will add complexity only after you learned the previous simple songs.”
This dedication is a necessity. “If you don’t do [something] the way you’re supposed to, it can be the last thing you ever do,” warns Karl Anderson, a certified scuba diving instructor who’s been diving since the 1970s.
Even with proper training, an experienced athlete can find themself in a wayward situation. During a dive of a wreck a mile off the Los Angeles harbor, Anderson — a zoologist — became preoccupied with a fish and neglected to check his pressure gauge. Suddenly, he found himself 100 feet underwater without air. “I didn’t think I was going to survive,” he says. “In my mind, I was already dying.” Anderson now looks back, saying, “I believe I survived that day to become a diving instructor, and stress to people that [nothing] is worth neglecting [to watch] your air supply. No treasure, no fish, nothing.”
D’Anna has experienced injury, too, in his sport of mountain biking. Earlier this year, he shattered his tibia and knee in an accident. “My coach was able to save my leg alongside the road,” he says, “but I almost lost my leg.”
Pushing limits can be risky, and peril — to some extent — is inherent to extreme sports. Though danger might seem like the obvious attraction to extreme sports, especially considering such athletes are often labeled “adrenaline junkies,” that’s not always the case. “An introductory hang gliding experience is not adrenaline-inducing. It’s just exciting enough because it involves gradual escalation,” says Matylonek.
D’Anna says his interest may have started after seeing something on the internet.“I have a lot of friends around that keep me doing it,” he states of his continued participation, additionally noting adrenaline as a factor. “It’s not like your typical sport. It doesn’t matter where you place. Everybody’s cheering for you. It’s so much fun. … [There are] some sections of trails at certain races where there [are] 400 people lining the trail and cheering you on … people are screaming their head[s] off telling you to go faster. And I don’t know [any other sport] that has that.”
For some, the allure of extreme sports is defiance, a chance to go outside the confines of conventional sports. “Flying, like mind-reading, … is a super-power. So why wouldn’t someone want to do it?” asks Matylonek. The physical experience of high-risk sports — often solo ventures — creates a close connection between an athlete and their environment. Anderson says the experience of scuba diving “is like being in outer space,” adding, “For me, it’s a total feeling of freedom.”
Many have fallen into these sports by chance, not because they possess some kind of death–wish. Anderson’s interest in zoology created his passion for scuba diving, a sport in which he could see “all the different amazing creatures underwater.” Similarly, Matylonek’s childhood-developed interest in planes and NASA, coupled with media attention on hang gliding, guided him to try the sport.
Sarah Vitak found her way to rallycross — a kind of motorsport — through a friend. “She signed up and she went one time. And then after she was like, ‘it was awesome. You have to try it.’” Hesitantly, Vitak agreed. “As soon as I got on the course, it was so much fun,” says Vitak.
Not only can extreme sports offer physical freedom outside of mainstream sports, but they can also provide a different mental landscape to conquer. For example, the psychological challenges of fear that may arise in thrill sports or the logistical thinking the sports require, create both an appeal and a barrier.
“You have to stop and realize that your mind is your biggest enemy. … Your mind can really defeat you,” explains Anderson. He says that in his introductory classes, he stresses the importance of believing in oneself just as much as reading the material. It’s not only beginning athletes who encounter nerves; more experienced athletes, who are often competing in higher-stakes situations, must deal with their anxiety efficiently and effectively. “If you panic and you don’t get rid of the panic, 99% of the time [it] turns to death,” describes Anderson.
D’Anna explains his mental preparation as happening on the go, saying he prepares for challenging elements on the trail as he approaches them. The mental challenge doesn’t disappear with practice, but it becomes part of the process. “Fear arises from the unknown. Once you study it, prepare for it, [and] gradually master its parts, the fear is replaced by ‘flow,’ where the skills you have match the challenge,” narrates Matylonek. Vitak adds to this sentiment, saying, “Sometimes there can be a mental disconnect because it’s scary but not really that dangerous … [You just have to] trust yourself, trust the car, and trust that you know what you’re doing.”
The people who love extreme sports truly love their sport. The energy from teammates and spectators is contagious, and the communities are welcoming. Though they may be mostly single-participant activities, the larger groups and environments around extreme sports foster personal and athletic growth. “They don’t care who you are, what you are, [it] doesn’t matter. You ride bikes. I ride bikes,” says D’Anna of the mountain biking community. He describes the encouragement and support of his team as a highlight of his mountain biking experience.
Rallycross, Vitak says, is a male-dominated field. “That was a[n] intimidating situation, and it didn’t feel very welcoming,” she describes. When she began training for a women’s off-road navigation event called Rebelle Rally, she found a different, “inspirational” environment. “It was just so cool to be taught by other women. … People are competitive, they want to do their best, and they want to win, but they also want everyone else to do their best. That’s just the culture.”
Accessibility varies by sport due to price, location, and other factors. However, many remain approachable. Vitak says that the barrier to entry is lower for rallycross than some other motorsports. “You can just take whatever car you have, go out, and [compete],” explains Vitak. For her, this was a Subaru named Baby Eagle.
Oregon not only has a thriving extreme sports community but also has many opportunities to engage with a variety of sports. Geographically, a wealth of landscapes makes it an environment fitted exceptionally well for many extreme sports. “We have all the types of weather and terrain [while] other … locations in the [U.S.] enjoy only one or two. Our weather and terrain [are] so variable that we can fly all year round if one is willing to be adaptable,” comments Matylonek. If you, or any other Oregonian, happens to get the urge to go extreme, you’ve lucked out. Oregon is a good place to be for extreme sports. “We have a very, very good base to help support them. We have a lot of beginner and intermediate terrain to help them build their skills,” says D’Anna.
Moreover, D’Anna, Matylonek, Vitak, and Anderson all emphasize that participating in extreme sports isn’t always so extreme from the get-go. D’Anna says that social media can create false images of what mountain biking actually looks like: “[You see] these people that are jumping off 40-foot cliffs, and riding down hills that are incredibly steep, and doing 100-foot jumps. Not everybody’s doing that. Yes, those crazy things are fun, but not everybody does them.”
With such detailed training processes for action sports, getting started means learning the very basics. Anderson’s scuba diving courses start in a pool rather than the ocean, where students learn their gear and safety measures thoroughly. One of the skills mastered in the pool is breathing in scuba gear, a safety precaution to avoid lung ruptures upon ascent; Anderson calls the normal and steady breathing one should maintain in scuba gear “the law.”
The wide world of extreme sports sees some of the biggest celebrations and most fulfilling personal achievements. Looking back on almost 50 years of diving, Anderson remarks on how it has brought him “awesome experiences” of the natural world. Riding a Manta Ray in the Sea of Cortez in Mexico is one of Anderson’s stand-out moments: “I was able to steer this manta ray left and steer right, I was riding this giant bird of the deep.” Another moment was when a grey whale swam over him, of which Anderson says, “It turned daylight to night … I could have reached up and touched [its] belly.”
Anderson’s scuba diving career is one marked by the opening of new doors, as is the case for many extreme sports athletes. In the process of participating in an extreme sport, they open doors to the unknown. The constantly expanding frontier of human capability makes participating in an extreme sport a type of exploration. Athletes who define their sports are redefining limits, and in the process, themselves.
