UWRT 1102

Jonathan Woodlief

The Extreme Sports Mindset

The mountain breeze seemed to flow right through all of my layers. I
hadn't noticed it while moving, but sitting down in the snow it was a strong
feeling. Despite the cold, I continued to sit. I was waiting, but I wasn't sure
what for. Suddenly, the breeze seemed to subside. I got up, and strapped
into my bindings. I started picking up speed, hitting a couple of the smaller
jumps on my way. My eyes were set at the bottom of the terrain park, where
the biggest jump stood. All day I had rode through the smaller ramps, just as
I was now, but by the end I always found myself on the edge of the park,
sizing up my opponent and swearing I would go for it next time. This time,
though, my sights were set. I launched myself into the air, higher than I had
expected. The wind, as always, tried to carry my board out from under me. I
fought it as long as I could, but with that much time in the air I couldn't
control it. It came out from under me, and I landed hard on my side. As I
tumbled and then slid down the icy landing, I had one question in my mind.
Why did I just try that?
That question has been asked multiple times, and there has actually
been a lot of scholarly research done on the topic. Its a difficult question to
really get an answer to though, and for multiple reasons. Eric Brymer, who
has authored multiple studies Ive read on the topic, tells us one of the
reasons for that uncertainty.
However, the exact nature of what constitutes an extreme sport is still
unclear. Activities requiring high level training, personal skills and
commitment such as BASE-jumping and rope-free climbing are assumed to
be in the same category as those requiring no participant skills or dedication
and little prior knowledge of the activity such as commercial rafting and
bungee jumping. (Risk taking in extreme sports)
Despite the ambiguous nature of the topic, researchers have still
composed many theories of what may be the primary motivation behind
extreme sports. Some people believe that extreme sports athletes are
motivated by rationalizing unacceptable behavior and feelings and
overestimating abilities and accomplishments (The Search for Freedom in
Extreme Sports, 3). Studies have actually shown that extreme sports athletes
dont behave in reckless manner, and show less of a propensity for risk than
those who dont participate in extreme sports. These athletes spend
considerable amounts of time judging risk and developing skills, so even
when they are attempting something dangerous they are often well prepared
for it. (The Search for Freedom in Extreme Sports, 4)
Just last weekend I was at Crowder Mountain. Naturally, I had skipped
the path and along with my friends found my own path up the mountain.
While on a journey to find a rocky, unmarked shelf somewhere near the peak,
we found several rock formations. I looked at one in particular, a tall

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Jonathan Woodlief

outcropping that jutted precariously out of the steepest face of the mountain
that we had climbed thus far. I was on another rock, and between me and
between my rock and this outcropping was a gap, probably 15 feet deep. I
climbed across a dead tree trunk that had fallen to bridge the gap. Although
there was a fairly easy way around that my friends took, I had for some
reason decided to use the tree instead. When I got to the base of the rock, I
immediately started to reach up in an effort to climb it. The side I was on was
smooth, and I couldnt find a way up. The rock was at the edge of a cliff
though, and the other side of the rock had a 30 foot drop beneath it. Despite
the drop, the fact that I had another 30 feet to climb before I reached the
top, and the fact that I couldnt even see what was on the other side of the
rock, I decided to give it a shot. I moved slow, keeping my chest against the
wall as I tried to maneuver through the cracks. Every time I looked down I
was overwhelmed with fear. Every fiber of my being was telling me to go
back to the safe ground. But I wouldnt allow that. The climbing started off
fairly easy, but there was a point where a crack was just out of my reach. My
only strong foothold was two low, by about six inches. Up to this point, it
would have been fairly easy to make it back down. If I reached for the crack
and missed, surely I couldnt have found that foothold again and still have
time to keep my balance. I looked down, the ground always further than the
last time I looked. Time seemed to come to a stop, but in reality I had only
been paused for a couple of seconds. I pushed upwards, leaving my left foot
to dangle in the air. My right foot, which I had squeezed into a corner, started
to slip as more of my weight transferred onto it. Right as my right foot ran
out of wall to hold onto, I found the crack with my hand. I was dangling, but
with two hands sturdy I could pull myself up and finish the climb.
As I sat on top of this rock, the tip of which was only 3 or 4 feet across,
I began to think about my inquiry project. Although I had plenty of anecdotes
in which I have faced injury, some more serious than others, I havent come
across too many situations in which my life felt legitimately threatened. That
20 foot tall rock was one of the few. I felt this overwhelming sense of
satisfaction, and relaxation. I didnt take a picture, but that wasnt necessary.
An experience like that sticks with you. The memory is as vivid as if it
happened yesterday. The rest of the trip, I wasnt intimidated at all by the
heights. When we finally found our destination, the front porch, I could
stand right on the edge and look straight down, past my feet, a couple of
hundred feet to where the cliff met mountainside. I wasnt scared of losing
my balance, not after what I had just accomplished. The destination was that
much greater, because I took a difficult journey.
Franklin D. Roosevelt once said There is nothing to fear but fear
itself. Fear is what kept me sitting in the snow at the top of the terrain park.
Fear is what kept me sitting on the edge of a rock formation, wearing myself

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out, waiting to make my next move. Inaction gets you nowhere. Part of why
extreme sports are so gratifying is that there is a definite and immediate
result. You either succeed or fail. In life, when you confront your fears, it
often takes months, years, or even decades to see results.
These accounts (experiences with extreme sports) "provide a critique
of fear" as it is usually understood in conventional psychology, as always
associated with dread. For the extreme sports enthusiast, fear is a useful
emotion that aids survival but which ultimately can be transcended leading
to personal growth and change (Jarrett, 1)
The research shows that although fear can be helpful, but conquering
fear in situations where it isnt helpful can lead to great personal
improvement. Getting over your fears leads to an ultimate freedom.
From a phenomenological perspective, freedom is more than being
free from sociocultural constraints and doing what one wants. Freedom
involves the exercise of choice based on a primordial freedom and the
acceptance of an ever present anxiety (The Search for Freedom in Extreme
Sports, 7)
This quote presents a unique definition of freedom. Brymer and
Schweitzer argue that the ability to act as you please isnt true freedom, its
superficial. True freedom is more than being free from social constraints.
They are saying that acting as you want to in spite of what you naturally feel
you are unable to do. If you truly believe that you can climb that rock, yet
fear keeps you from doing so, you arent even free from your own fear.
However, if you act in spite of fear, you are exhibiting freedom.
From a phenomenological point of view, extreme sports can only to be
considered in terms of freedom if they enable an experience of truth as
primordial freedom. In turn, this leads to a positive freedom as choice and a
release of anxiety and fear. (The Search for Freedom in Extreme Sports, 7)
Despite popular opinion, I have found that most experts agree that
extreme sports participants arent interested in the risk, but the elimination
of fear. It helps to break down the instinctual limits that dont always serve a
purpose in modern society. Repeated brushes with things you think are past
your limits start to make you more comfortable outside of your comfort zone,
which can be useful in all types of ways. Writing, for example, has never
been a strong subject of mine. Most of my life Ive just written what I thought
would get me an A and didnt put much thought into making it interesting, as
long as there wasnt much that a teacher could take points off of. But
whenever I deviate from the norm, and try something that Im not entirely
confident will work out, is when I experience the greatest growths.
When you are dangling off the side of a mountain with your life in the
balance, you learn what you are capable of. Extreme sports have been about
proving myself. I want to show that I can do it. Try things that other people

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are too scared to try, and you will succeed at things that they never will. The
only way I ever learn things is by throwing myself into a project which
requires skills I dont have yet. I learned to program because I didnt want to
have to edit every file in my music library to get my iTunes organized. I
downloaded everything you need to write code and googled some resources
to help. A few days later, I knew how to write simple computer programs. I
think that extreme sports helped to give me the confidence that I could do
that. The only way to learn extreme sports is by doing. You dont watch
YouTube videos on how to skateboard, you just hop on one until you stop
falling off. Extreme sports teaches a mindset, and the lessons learned when
your well-being is at stake are the ones you never forget.

Works Cited
Brymer, Eric. "Risk Taking in Extreme Sports: A Phenomenological Perspective." Annals of
Leisure Research 13.1-2 (2010): 218-38. Web.
Brymer, Eric, and Robert Schweitzer. "The Search for Freedom in Extreme Sports: A
Phenomenological Exploration." Psychology of Sport and Exercise 14.6 (2013): 86573. Web.
Brymer, E., and R. Schweitzer. "Extreme Sports Are Good for Your Health: A
Phenomenological Understanding of Fear and Anxiety in Extreme Sport." Journal of
Health Psychology 18.4 (2013): 477-87. Web.
Daley, Robert. The Dangerous Edge. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1983. Print.
Garrett, Christian. ""It's about Accepting That You're Mortal" - Extreme Sports Enthusiasts on
Overcoming Fear." BPS Research Digest. Bps Research Digest, 8 May 2013. Web. 24
Feb. 2015.
Vogt Isaksen, Joachim. "The Psychology of Extreme Sports: Addicts, Not Loonies." POPULAR
SOCIAL SCIENCE. Popular Social Science, 05 Nov. 2012. Web. 24 Feb. 2015.

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Jonathan Woodlief