Adventure Sports Histroy
Many adventure sports are new versions of older sports, made possible by technological changes or improvements in equipment. For example, mountain biking is based on cycling, barefoot water skiing is an obvious derivative of traditional water skiing, and in-line skating is a form of roller skating.
Adventure sports generally contain an element of danger, and are epitomised by daredevil acrobatic stunts performed while travelling at high speed.
For the most part, adventure sports originated as recreational activities for individuals, but often in a group context, with individual athletes showing off skills for the rest of the group members to imitate or emulate.
As they have become competitive, adventure sports have been at least partly absorbed into the mainstream. Snowboarding was the first (and is still the only) adventure sport to become an Olympic event, but that could happen only after it was taken under the umbrella of the international governing body for skiing.
Similarly, BMX racing and mountain biking have been adopted as cycling disciplines and in-line skating falls under the jurisdiction of the international and national governing bodies for roller skating.
Some older, more traditional sports, such as freestyle skiing, parachuting, surfing, and water skiing, are considered adventure sports too. In fact, the surfing counter-culture of the 1960s was very similar to the modern counter-culture of many adventure sports enthusiasts.
Find out more about the history of adventure sports here
