Archive for the ‘Extreme Sport’ Category

If you are anywhere near Sauble Beach on Lake Huron or are looking for something interesting to do the second weekend of September  – then Sauble Beach is the place for you.

Sauble Beach is the setting for a kite festival – the Sauble Beach Kite Jam Festival which starts on Friday, 10th September and finishes on Sunday the 12th. This is a new festival that celebrates all and everything to do with kitesurfing and kiting.  It will be a weekend filled with live music, kite and kitesurfing demonstrations along with a family flying area for these new to the sport.

Lake Huron in Ontario has kilometres of the softest beach sand and most pristine waters in the state. It was voted  “Number one Beach in Ontario” by both the Toronto Star and Maclean’s Magazine. The beautiful sand dunes of Sauble are part of an ecosystem that has evolved over thousands of years.

There was a time following the Second World War when Sauble Beach was among the dancehall capitals of Ontario. Located on the beach, it was a romantic place, just right for Saturday night strolls or cutting a rug to the sounds of many a great band. This festival aims to bring back the strain of big bands to this fabled area.

The roots of the spectacular sport of kite surfing go all the way back  to the 13th century, when Chinese people used kites to harness the energy of the wind to power their canoes across the ocean.

Centuries later, in the 1800’s George Pocock (a British teacher and inventor) took this technique to the next level, by designing bigger kites and using them to propel carts over land.

In the 1980’s, the first kites to be flown over water were designed and thus began the rapid growth in popularity of this exhilarating extreme  sport. Every October,  off the coast of Maui in Hawaii, the world’s most famous Kitesurfing competition, known as ”King of the Air” takes place. During this prestigious event, the most experienced competitors from around the world  represent their country in a sport that is destined to become the most spectacular of this new millennium.

Sauble Beach celebrates the evolvement of this sport and is keen that kite clubs come to the festival to fly demonstrations. For more information please go directly to their website.

They might be hosting the 100% Pure Winter Games in 2011 but there are other attractions (PureNewZealand) to keep those winter sportsmen on a high throughout their visit to New Zealand…

6,000 kms of coastline and easily accessible beaches, points, reefs and bar breaks – that’s impressive for two such  small islands! Wherever you are in the country there is bound to be a good break nearby and because New Zealand is such a long island, you can easily scoot across from one side to the other trying out the left and right hand breakers.  All you have to do is stay tuned in to the local weather station and you’ll be able to tell which coast has the right swell.

The main source of swell for both North and South Island is from the low pressure systems of the roaring forties but New Zealand is fortunate to pick up swell from just about anywhere. Waves can be generated from the south, the west from the Tasman Sea, north from cyclone systems and east from depressions.

It’s a surfers paradise (networxnz) and with that much coastline the waves and beaches are seldom crowded.

And the variety of surf breaks is simply awesome – from clean barrels rolling onto pure white sand beaches on the east coast, to gnarly freight train sets pounding rugged west coast beaches. Check out the ‘supertubes’ with one kilometre long joy rides at Ahipara and the consistently perfect peelers at the hottest surf spot ever, Raglan – a superb left hand point that seems to go on forever and can be found on North Island half way down the west coast. Experience giant steamrollers and Malibu-style wave sets at Murderer’s Bay in Dunedin, as well as velvet-smooth tunnels at Gisborne. If you don’t want to do much driving head for Taranaki Peninsular. Here you’ll find loads of great waves and you can find the ideal wind conditions just by driving around the coast road – Surf Highway 45.

The North Island is  a little warmer than South Island, both in and out of the water, and in the summer you might get away with just your boardshorts.

The South Island, on the other hand, is cold and can get bitter in the winter, but the quality empty surf more than makes up for the temperature. Christchurch and Dunedin on the east coast attracts most of the surfers so if you steer clear of these you’ll pretty much have the rest of the island to yourself!  Top spots on the South Island are the variety of breaks around Dunedin and the powerful reefs and points of Kaikoura.

If you’re already a keen surfer then you’ll love what New Zealand has to offer. If you’ve thought about learning to surf, but never found the time, a New Zealand holiday is your perfect opportunity.

And on top of that, it’s a beautiful country (PureNewZealand) and besides the surfing there’s tonnes of other extreme adventures for you to try out…

The 100% Pure New Zealand Winter Games have been confirmed for 13th – 28th August 2011.

This is the biggest winter sports event outside of the Winter Olympics.

As with the inaugural event in 2009, next year’s Winter Games will feature 16 days of snow and ice sports and is expected to attract over 1,000 elite athletes from all around the world including the homegrown ones.

Following sign-off from all key central and local government partners and speaking at the closing ceremony of the 2010 FIS Snowboard and Freestyle Junior World Championships, Winter Games NZ chairman, Sir Eion Edgar, said “We are delighted with the level of government support from the Major Events Development Fund, SPARC and Tourism New Zealand which has ensured the future of this highly regarded event. They recognise the success of the first Games and support the continued growth into 2011. Our planning is already well advanced and with the success of this year’s Junior World Championships we expect even bigger and more competitive fields next year.”

In 2009, Winter Games made global snow sports history by producing the first winter sports event of its kind outside of the Winter Olympics and by combining adaptive (disabled) and able-bodied athletes in an elite event. Its importance on the elite snow sports calendar was confirmed, not only by the significant field it attracted, but by the number of competitors who went on to win medals at the Winter Olympics and Paralympics in Vancouver. Seven Paralympic and 10 Olympic medallists had competed at Winter Games, including the entire men’s snowboard halfpipe podium (vision20media).

For all athletes participating there is NO entry fee and for the public this event represents fantastic value for money. All the snow sports are free to attend apart from the stadium events at Naseby and Dunedin – these will have an entry fee.

Snowfarm and Cardrona in Wanaka, Coronet Peak and the Remarkables in Queenstown (NZ), Maniototo Ice Rink in Naseby and Dunedin Ice Rink, Dunedin are the chosen venues. The 2011 provisional programme has expanded with the inclusion of two new sports and a new location outside of the Otago region. Mt Hutt near Christchurch, Canterbury will now host the Super G and Adaptive Super G alpine skiing events while the remaining alpine skiing events will stay at Coronet Peak in Queenstown.

And the other new addition will be the Winter Triathlon at Snow Farm, near Wanaka which was a demonstration event at the 2009 Winter Games. Snow Farm will also host the adaptive and able-bodied cross-country.

Cardrona Alpine Resort near Lake Wanaka will host the free ski and snowboard halfpipe and big air events together with the snowboard cross and ski cross racing. Freeski and snowboard slopestyle will take place cross the valley at Snow Park NZ.

Last year it was it was 18-year-old free skier Bobby Brown from the USA who struck gold with a double-cork 1080 mute, landing him an impressive 83.33 points.“The jump was just perfect for me, I really enjoyed it,” he said. “The landing was soft and slushy, which made it difficult for some of the guys but you just have to make the most of it and I had a lot of fun. I’ll be heading back to Colorado very happy to have won.”

Roll on August 2011.

WEDNESDAY: 1st September – entries open for THE MONGOL RALLY 2011 at 2p.m. British time.

10,000 miles in a tiny car all on behalf of charity

If you have read our articles on this mad and crazy and very extreme adventure, and if you have followed the links through to The Adventurists even madder, crazier and more extreme website – you will know that this is an escapade that you DO NOT want to miss.

But places sell out terrifyingly fast… don’t hesitate. Go to The Adventurists SIGN-UP now… or click on the above picture.

And then of course you get to tell your grandchildren about the time you were held at gun point by a member of the Russian maffia, got away by offering him a water melon, ended up best friends and married his daughter, their grandmother.

I have been naive enough to think that windsurfing, although wonderful, was not really extreme. Dream on baby…

It can obviously be as extreme as you want it to be! Direct2Dreams

18 international teams arrived in Costa Rica to compete on a 500km course starting 22nd August – a race which covers more than half the width of the country.

It was the attraction of Costa Rica’s incredibly varied terrain, equatorial climate and welcoming multisport culture which drew such an international field to this inaugural event, now part of the  nine Adventure Race World Series events that are held around the world.

The race covers a wide variety of landscapes, beaches, warm ocean, dry forests, rain forests, cloud forest, volcanoes, lakes, rivers, whitewater and a traditional local sport was to be  the surprise element in this fantastic race. The race course was carefully designed and scouted by de la Rosa and Baker: “We guarantee the racers to have a great time during the race. They won’t be bored with the same scenario, and the scenery changes constantly as you proceed the course,” they said.

Some of the most experienced racers in the world, like Bruno Rey and Jim Mandelli, have taken the chance to race in this new and exiting venue, adding to their list of racing destinations. Others, like Team Explore (Sweden) and Quechua (France), are perhaps looking for the win and a free place on the start line of the World Champs in Spain next month, but it’s a risk because with only a month to go to ARWC they are risking injury or fatigue. However, nothing ventured nothing gained, even the World Championship race director, Antonio de la Rosa, is there taking part!

The conditions have been difficult right from the start – rain, extreme humidity and heat. By the end of the first day the team from Finland (Finland Multisport.fi – team 2) had had to withdraw although two of the team members have carried on, now unranked.

Adventure racing is a really exciting sport which is as much determined by the elements as by the stamina and teeth gritting endurance of the athletes. And they are supreme athletes, adventure racers. To remind you as to what adventure racing is about, here’s a quick snyopsis from Wikipedia:

Adventure racing is a combination of two or more endurance disciplines, including orienteering (if an orienteering map is used) and/or navigation (when non-orienteering maps are used), cross-country running, mountain biking, paddling, climbing and related rope skills. An expedition event can span ten days or more while sprints can be completed in a matter of hours. There is typically no dark period during races, irrespective of length; competitors must choose if or when to rest.

This video is not Costa Rica – just a look at this supreme extreme sport (SilverBullet1999):

Part of the appeal of adventure racing is expecting the unexpected and race directors pride themselves at challenging racers with unexpected or unusual tasks.

What race directors cannot take into account is what nature is going to throw at the athletes and in Costa Rica the unexpected has been thrown at them in bucketloads.  The extremely high humidity and heat takes an early toll on competitors, but landslides caused by the heavy rains was definitely unexpected causing Team Quechua (France), currently running second to the Swedish team, to seek an alternative route which cost them precious time.

Torrential rains have persisted causing many teams to have to assemble their bikes for the 171 km ride in pouring water.

To the delight of the locals, team Costa Rica Coastal Challenge was lying 4th in the final stages. Sweden’s Explore, France’s Quechua, and Colombia’s Bossi were lying in 1st, 2nd and 3rd place. They are into the final stretch… The race ends today and first place is still up for grabs. It’s anyone’s race…

Whilst I’m on the subject of Adventure Racing please remember that entries for the 500 km Extreme Arctic Race in Greenland close AT THE END OF AUGUST. The race itself is scheduled for May 2011. If you want to take part jump around now and follow this link to the Greenland Ice Cap Challenge!