Archive for the ‘Extreme Sport’ Category

This is Cut Across Shorty a VS 4c climb, courtesy of The Jersey Rock Climbing Club:

I was going to tackle the British Isles as a group, but Jersey has so much to offer – great climbing, surfing and scuba diving to name just a few of the recommended activities, that I am going to go no further than this jewel of an island where a weekend full of action is waiting for anyone looking for a variety of extreme sports in one small area.

Climbing is a great way to get a body workout, while at the same time challenging your mind, and Jersey has a wide selection for you. The island has some of the best climbing areas in Europe and the variety of rock and unspoilt scenery make it a spectacular experience for beginners and experienced climbers alike.

It’s an ideal place to visit: perfect days, un-crowded cliffs and great climbing, regular dips in the sea to cool off and great pubs to retire to at the end of the day.

From the impressive 50m tower of The Pinnacle to the extensive and confusing buttresses of Grosnes, through the delightful ‘mini-cliffs’ at Corbiere and out to the north coast, there really is plenty here to keep you busy.  Homesick Angle on The Pinnacle is one the the best HVS (hard very severe) routes you could possibly hope for.

All the routes on the island (there are 1100 listed in the book) are trad and most of them are on high quality granite. The island has long been a bolt-free zone – the local climbing club originally had just two rules for the members – abide by the Country Code, and no fixed protection!

If you want to arm yourself in advance with some useful information, ‘Jersey Climbs’ is the first guidebook to be produced for Jersey in twelve years. It has 188 pages with lists, grades, advice and details of the 1100 routes  to be found there.

And then there’s the surfing…

Jersey’s shores are bombarded by waves and not only are they some of the best waves in the British Isles but they are also some of the warmest… always worth bearing in mind.

And there are great scuba diving opportunities here too, whether you want to investigate an old wreck or float amongst black faced pennies, corals and luminous jewel anemones in pinks, blues, greens and oranges. The summer months are even more interesting when the warm waters bring in  exotic marine wildlife  such as sea horses, dolphins and basking sharks. Jersey’s coastal seawater is of award-winning cleanliness and this is reflected in the abundance of sea life to be found there.

Other things you can do in Jersey besides rock climbing, abseiling and surfing are BloKarting on the beach, Sea Kayaking, Caving, Coasteering, Clay Pigeon Shooting, Cycling, Golf, Powerboat Trips, Fishing Excursions, Horse Riding and Zorbing. I’ve probably missed some out.

Not just a banking paradise then…

One has preconceived notions of countries, witness my surprise yesterday at finding a tropical beach in China. Similarly today I’ve discovered skiing in Greece. Greece, the land of sunshine and islands, blue skies and turquoise seas, antiquity and tourism. But skiing? I’d never heard of it!

I am going to warn you immediately that although there are many places to ski, the resorts are small. However, the fun side of skiing in Greece is that one moment you can be snorkelling or scuba diving in the islands, or enjoying grilled octupus and a view of the Acropolis and the next flying down  a mountain with the quiet swoosh of snow in your ears. How extreme is that?

There’s a fantastic video of telemark skiing in Greece (turningtelemark) which goes to show that there’s some quality snow in the area. Greece is, after all, a land of mountains jsut as much as it is a land of islands, so why shouldn’t it have snow?

Skiers are addicted to the better-known resorts of Switzerland, France, and Italy, but Greece offers low prices and a good variety of slopes and ski centers. In fact, you can ski for just a few dollars a day in Greece. Recent prices at Mt. Parnassos, the best-developed resort run by EOT, include a 7-day pass for about $90. Other prices are just as good.

Mt. Parnassos is just 3 hours away from Athens and has good skiable snow from December to March. With a dozen lifts and a wide selection of slopes it is the skiing mecca of Greece (metallinsam). and just as exotic, Delphi is just around the corner offering great apres-ski life!

I don’t know why, but I never think of China and The Tropics in the same sentence. It doesn’t sound right does it, but one of our readers alerted us to the fantastic scuba diving in the warm tropical waters of Sanya and we decided it was well worth investigating.

To give you an idea of location and what it relates to, you might be interested to know that the island of Hainan is approximately the same latitude (20 Degrees North) as Punta Cana in the  Dominican Republic and its beaches are similar to those in Mexico.

Sanya is an important political, economic, cultural and foreign trade port in the southern part of Hainan, China. It is also a well-known coastal tourist city filled with tropical landscapes and local customs. It is situated in the southernmost part of China and has been called “the remotest cape of the earth” since ancient times.

It has a tropical coastal monsoon climate with very warm weather all year around. Its daily average temperature is 25.4C and annual rainfall is 1,279mm. It is famed for its clear fresh air and abundant sunshine.

Baifu Bay & Sun Bay are the best diving sites. You have to reach both with a speedboat from Yalong Bay. It takes about 10 min. The visibilitiy of the water is up to 8-16 meters with a lot of red coral and beautiful tropical fish.

They say that scuba diving at Yalong Bay and Dadonghai is as good as the diving in Bali, Indonesia or Thailand… although some reports say that Yalong is very expensive and all reports mention that language is a barrier.

Almost the entire peninsula is surrounded by coral reefs which come under the Hainan Sanya Natural Coral Reef Nature Reserve. The reserve also includes two other coral reef areas: Yalong Bay, a few miles East of Sanya; and, directly West of Sanya, Xi Mao and Dong Mao Islands, in Sanya Bay.

About 30kms due west of Sanya is the island of  Wuzhizhou. The west and north side of this island is relatively flat with soft white sandy beaches. The sea water there is extremely clear with a maximum visible depth of 27 meters (90 ft)and is rich in nightlight snails, sea cucumber, lobsters, sierra fish, urchins, pomfret and colorful tropical fish. The coral reefs, which are fantastic and of different shapes in the seabed of the southern sea area, are well-preserved. This is a great place for diving.

Wuzhizhou Island

There’s a bit of a surf culture growing too in this area…

It is all about winning at the Olympics, but never forget the enormous amount of dedication and training that has gone into getting an athlete there. And sometimes that gold medal just falls right into your lap….

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We have all experienced a winter of varying degrees of severity. Here in the south of France we have had so much rain over the past few months that the ground is just oozing water. Two days ago a socking great cyprus tree fell over and squashed our car – the ground so saturated with water that there was no support any more for the root system. The whole thing came up … roots and all.

But that’s nothing compared to some of the disasters happening around the world, and Mongolia is one of them. I will copy The Adventurists entire plea for help here. Please click on the links and they’ll take you through. Thank you.

The Adventurists visit every year, and now

Mongolia needs our help.

Thousands of animals have died in Mongolia since the cold set in. The Adventurists have launched an emergency appeal to raise funds for the purchasing and distribution of food to the herders for their horses and other livestock.

Please donate to AVSF through this AFD JustGiving page: our initial target is £5,000, we hope with your help we’ll smash this.

The Current Situation

Mongolia is experiencing extreme weather conditions, which is killing thousands of animals across the country. The herders need food for their animals, but there is very little stock available in Mongolia. Emergency measures are being taken by Agronomes et Veterinaires Sans Frontieres (AVSF) to import feed from China and Russia. Funds are desperately needed to pay for the food and its distribution to save the herders’ animals.

Goats, sheep and horses have been dying every single day of hunger and cold, and even the hardy yaks are suffering and numbers are dwindling, leaving their herders with no livelyhood and no means to feed or support their families.

What is being done

AVSF – an Official Charity for the Mongol Derby 2010 – are already working on the ground t o procure and distribute food to the herders. So far they have implemented the procurement and distribution of two food deliveries, each mission taking two weeks.

During that time they also checked the animals for disease and foot rot, and helped the herders with their own efforts to save the livestock. Locals are rallying round, donating a day’s salary as regularly as possible towards food purchases, and sewing coats and pelts together to shelter the animals from the cold.

AVSF have mobilised exceptional funds from current projects in an effort to help during this emergency and are already responding to the consequences they see occurring by restructuring their 2010/2011 programmes to meet the new needs the local people now face. The charity are realistic about this weather – this is not short term – it’s here until the summer months and the knock on effects will be seen for many more months to come.

How you can help

AVSF have the use of the trucks, access to sources of food and the means to distribute the food. They’re desperately in need of immediate funds to buy the food and the fuel to reach the herders in the Steppe. 100% of the funds you donate will go to help the herders and their livestock right now, and save the lives of hundreds of animals and contribute to the rebuilding of the herds.

Adventures for Development (AFD) is the UK registered charity collecting funds in the UK for AVSF. They will transfer your donation in full to AVSF. If you’re a French tax payer, please donate directly through AVSF’s website www.avsf.org.

Thank you, your donations will make a difference fast and be greatly appreciated.

The Adventurists
http://www.theadventurists.com

With all the hype over the Winter Olympics, other sporting contests out there tend to get overlooked and this is one that nearly passed us by: the 4th annual Burn River Bank Show … Italy’s best snowboard event of the year.

Burn River Jump is the only Swatch TTR World Snowboard Tour event in Europe ranked with 5 stars and its fourth edition will take place in Livigno from February the 24th to the 26th, sponsored by Burton Snowboards in collaboration with Mottolino, APT Livigno and Skipassion Livigno. After the success in the past years of River Jump, the slopestyle and big air format is back at this delightful and unusual site.

“With an amazing park, open terrain, accessible off-piste, a warm Italian reception, and prices far cheaper than most other resorts in western Europe, Livigno is one excellent Italian job”

Yesterday, the 24th, more than one hundred riders participated in a qualifying race for the final being held today. These racers will be competing for the podium with invited riders and wild cards in an extravaganza that has become known as ‘the Grand Finale’.

The show starts at sunset with an incredible night show in downtown Livigno  with the jump over the river Spoel. It is a unique showdown, where the 10 classified riders of the 5Star Slopestyle Contest will compete against the 8 invited riders and the 4 wild card riders.

Swatch Mottolino Snowpark, one of Europe’s best snowparks, has prepared special courses on the Livigno area of over 120 thousand square meters and it is also giving, to all riders and week-end bombers, a brand new jibbing area,  the METRO.

Terrain Park on Carosello
Photo: Steve, WSG

The Friday event will be broadcast live on web page www.riverjump.it thanks to the support of Keepod.