SJ Desk
dventure sports industries are booming with a compound annual growth rate of around 46%. Europe is currently dominating this industry with over 40% of the market share, but Asian countries like India and China are rapidly exploiting the opportunities in this sector as well. The common adventure sports like Bungee jumping, paragliding, diving, and rafting are just the tip of the iceberg. Today we bring you the list of adventure sports, that will make Bungee jumping look like a walk in the garden.
1. Highlining
Some consider highlining as an epitome of extreme sports because a small miscalculation can make you leap into certain death. Highlining is the modified version of Slacklining as it is done at a much higher elevation. It involves fixing of 1-inch thick rope between 2 mountains and then walking over the ropes to cover the gap. To make things even more dangerous, the ropes are not tied tightly but loosely, making the act of balancing even harder. Some people take it one step further by not using any safety harness. The only good thing about Highlining is that there are no injuries it this form of sports, only quick and sudden death.
2. Cliff Camping
Not exactly sports, even though the risk involved in it is equal, if not greater than any other extreme sport. In cliff camping, you do a routine camp except for the fact that the base of the camp is not on the ground but is suspended thousands of feet in the air with the help of a platform called portal edge. The good thing is that you don’t need any experience of doing cliff camping, only courage to try something different. Though safety is properly supervised in cliff camping, it has all the elements to satiate your adrenaline hunger.
3. The Cage Of Death (Australia)
Have you ever imagined swimming with a 20 feet long saltwater crocodile (the largest breed of Crocs) and NO I don’t mean in a proverb. I mean it literally. If you want to spend 30 minutes under the water with a crocodile with only a thin layer of transparent plastic called perspex between you and the vicious beast, then head straight towards Darwin Australia. It is called known as the cage of death for obvious reasons. The crocodiles have been named Chopper, Kate and William, etc.. The cage gives you a 360 degrees view of breathtaking, once in a lifetime experience that you can surely brag about in your friend circle.
4. Base Jumping
It is referred to a wingsuit flying from a fixed object. Though it is done usually from a cliff, it can also be performed from buildings or bridges for that matter. This form of adventure sports is so dangerous that it is banned in most of the American states along with many parts of the world. Accidental rates are quite high in base jumping. One of the most deranged sites of Base jumping is the Himalayas. Experts in this field, who find the Base jump from skyscraper and hills mundane, attempt this blood-curdling stunts from the cliffs of the Everest.
5. Bungee Jumping (Peucon, Chile)
Wait! you might be thinking that we promised not to include bungee jumping on the list. We wouldn’t if this would have been a regular bungee jumping. This one has a lot more to offer. In Peucon, Chile you do the jumping from a helicopter and not from a cliff or a fixed object. Doesn’t sounds crazy enough? Wait there’s more to it. Instead of jumping in the open atmosphere with the help of safety harness, you jump straight inside the mouth of an active volcano.
6. Wing Walking
Why fly in the air? when you can walk on it. Buckle your seat belts as this one can give you tremors. Wing walking is all about walking on the wings of a plane while it is flying high up in the sky. Well, then who’s flying it? Good question.
7. Free Solo Climbing
It is a form of adventure sports, where one climbs the cliff just like during a mountain climbing. The only difference is that you won’t have any safety equipment with you. Just a minor mistake would result in irrecoverable damage if not death. Paul Preuss, Derek Hersey, George Gardner are the names of some legends of this sports, who lost their lives trying to set up a new benchmark in this sport. Some of the notable venues of free solo climbings are Donegal (Ireland), Dolomites (Italy), Yosemite (USA).
8. Cave Diving
We, humans, know more about the space above earth compared to the deep and dark ocean beneath us. Plunging yourself into it without strict protocol could have serious repercussions. Exploring the natural caves formed beneath the water is very enthralling, given the fact that some of them are millions of years old. But on the other hand, it is not very uncommon to jump in the mystic ocean to traverse a cave and never to return back, due to low visibility in the gloomy waters or fluctuation in the level of water currents or maybe because something that lurked on you out of nowhere.
9. Bull Running, Spain
Every year in the second week of July Pamplona, an event called Encierro is organized in the memory of San Fermin. This event which is commonly known as bull-running starts at 8 in the morning. The participants run and are chased by usually 6 feral bulls in the race that usually ends within 5 minutes. More than a dozen people have been killed in this dangerous race by being trampled or hit by the enraged bulls. In order to participate in this race, you need to be agile, quick-witted with a high level of endurance.