Five High Risk Sports for Brave People

Extreme or risky sports are those that entail some kind of hazard for the ones who practice them. But they offer a great dose of adrenaline!

High-risk sports, also known as extreme sports, are those that involve some kind of danger while practicing them. In this article, we’ll talk about some examples and let you decide if you’re brave enough to try them.

The characteristics of high risk sports

As a first measure, it’s important to know what we’re referring to when talking about high risk sports. This popular terms includes disciplines with a high level of danger during their execution. There are many sports inside this group, and they require large amounts of physical exigency, preparation (both mental and physical) and self-control from the athlete.

The main characteristic of high risk sports is that they put the lives of those who practice them in danger. On top of that, in most cases, they don’t usually have any fixed rules or schedules.

They’re original and creative disciplines that seek personal satisfaction and have the ability to release certain hormones (such as adrenaline) that cause different emotions while practicing them.

Which sports are actually high risk?

Now that we know what the term ‘high risk sports’ means, it’s time to learn about some of the most famous or practiced sports in this category.

1. Skydiving

Skydiving is a discipline in which a person jumps from a certain height using a parachute that lessens the impact when landing. You can do it from a moving vehicle (helicopter, plane, hot air balloon) or from a fixed place (for example, a mountain).

The history of skydiving goes back farther than we imagine. The first attempt at jumping with a parachute, that we know of, dates back to the year 852 in Spain.

2. Paragliding

Paragliding is an extreme sport that surfaced during the end of the last century. It owes its origin to mountain climbers that wanted to come down from the top of the mountain much faster than how they had come up. The paraglider is a light and flexible glider with a set of strings that hold the participant.

In many cases, riding a paraglider involves a pilot and a passenger. Both of them must wear safety equipment, helmet, emergency parachute, radio, GPS and variometer. Depending on the weather conditions, a paragliding descent can reach up to 37 mph ( roughly 60 km/h).

3. Climbing

This term is used for any sport that involves ascending on almost vertical walls. It’s another activity that derives from hiking, which originated during the XIX century, both in East Germany and the Lake District in England.

There are different types of climbing. Indoors we can find those practiced in climbing walls and boulder rooms. On the other hand, outdoors we can find rock climbing, alpine climbing, ice climbing, sea cliffs, big walls, mixed climbing (ice and rock), urban climbing (buildings) or adherence climbing (in walls that aren’t completely vertical).

4. Rafting

Descending rivers or rafting is another one of the most popular high-risk sports, although you can also practice it just for fun. It all depends on the surge or how rough the waters are where you intend to practice rafting.

This sport is about going down a river on a boat; it can be a canoe, kayak or raft. There’s a river classification based on their difficulty: flat waters (for beginners), class I (very easy), class II (easy), class III (intermediate), class IV (hard), class V (expert) and class VI (extremely difficult).

5. BASE jumping: the riskiest of high-risk sports

The word BASE is actually the acronym for the four scenarios in which you can practice this type of jumping: buildings, antennas (or electric towers), span (or bridges) and earth (cliffs and crags).

BASE jumping is actually the riskiest of adventure sports. To practice it, you must have experience and pay a lot of attention to the proper technique. Jumpers use a special parachute or a wingsuit to glide down.

Other high-risk sports that are worth mentioning are surf, bodyboarding, snowboarding, alpinism, diving, lung dives, canyoning, kayaking, open water swimming, sailing, downhill mountain biking, downhill skateboarding, and speed skateboarding. Do you dare to try any of them?