Who needs Michelle Kwan or Nancy Kerrigan with you have the Flying Tomato?

If only the Winter Olympics had a polar bear swim event — then we could send Michael Phelps, and everyone from the Wheaties account managers to the “Got Milk?” ad reps could take a deep cleansing breath.

It’s too late for NBC, of course, where beleaguered executives have jettisoned the First Commandment of the entertainment industry — Thou Shalt Not Acknowledge Failure and Certainly Not Before It Has Cometh. For weeks, the network has been whining that it will lose $250 million by airing the games because host city Vancouver is struggling to produce enough snow, and the United States, lacking for the first time in years a high wattage figure skater, is struggling to produce a star.

It didn’t help matters much when downhill skier Lindsey Vonn on Wednesday informed the world via Matt Lauer that her shin hurt so much she couldn’t stand up in her ski boots. With her long blond hair and winter-white smile, Vonn was America’s best hope for that Wheaties box — she’s not only gorgeous enough to make the Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue, she is the reigning champion of the slopes, roundly predicted to bring home the gold.

If she can’t compete or does so hampered by injury, the network and pundits fear Americans will have only snowboarder Shaun White, speedskater Apolo Ono and figure skater Evan Lysacek as odds-on favorites, with perhaps freestyle skier Shannon Bahrke and her bubble-gum hued locks to provide a little snap.

All of whom are, athletic ability notwithstanding, a far cry from Michelle Kwan or Nancy Kerrigan in terms of name recognition.

It’s difficult to imagine a Winter Olympics narrative without its leading lady role filled by an American. When Peggy Fleming slid onto the ice at the 1968 Winter Olympics in Grenoble, France, she not only won the only U.S. gold medal that year, she created a new American icon. Dorothy Hamill followed in 1976 and the gold medal winner became the only skater to not only invent a move — the Hamill Camel — but also have her haircut go national.

And it’s even harder to envision a sports rivalry more brutally melodramatic, or well known, than that between Tonya Harding and Kerrigan. It was at the 1994 games in Lillehammer, Norway, that Harding, the first woman to land a triple axel in competition, conspired to have Kerrigan’s knee broken.

Even without the high drama, figure skating is an entry point for many viewers. It is to the Winter Olympics what gymnastics is to the summer. A figure skating routine has an essential narrative, not to mention a score, that allows the athletes to express more than just their prowess. Who else gets to wear sequins and tulle? Who else gets to show a little cleavage?

But this year, the United States’ top figure skater, Rachael Flatt, is ranked ninth in the world. So it fell to Vonn to embody the American spirit in the pre-game build up. More than 20 years after the break up of the Soviet Union, the East / West frenzy that fueled earlier Olympics is not just outdated, it’s unknown to younger viewers.

In these One World days, the Olympics have become less about establishing national dominance or making a political statement — two years ago the Summer Olympics were held in Beijing, for heaven’s sake — and more about the personal journey. Often times, we are more compelled by the back story than we are by the event, and like contestants on “American Idol,” Olympians are expected to have some bit of pathos in their personal history.

If Vonn competes, her injury will certainly be added value: Whatever she achieves will be even more extraordinary considering earlier this week she could not stand in her ski boot.

But if she’s out, we will have to look to White, an already vibrant and somewhat revolutionary figure. Snowboarding is still an outlaw’s sport and White represents a very different sort of Olympian, a disheveled redhead with many über dude qualities who is at the forefront of those who would launch extreme sports into the mainstream.

Perhaps it’s time for a new Olympic hero. Out with the lutz and the axel, in with the McTwist and the switch backside. And although White has publicly denounced his nickname — the Flying Tomato — it could do pretty big business as a haircut.
Sourced via latimes.com

Popularity: 4% [?]

Azerbaijan’s first scientific-athletic expedition to Andes mountain range (Argentina) under the leadership of Air and Extreme Sports Federation (FAIREX) President Huseyngulu Bagirov completed its mission successfully. The expedition carried out a scientific program to study the unique geology of the Andes, Aconcagua massif, the federation said.

The expedition also implemented the program to study the biodiversity of South America for example, the foothills and mountainous regions of Argentina, as well as filmed a unique, rich video and photographic material, which will serve as a basis for the popular science films and publications.

The expedition raised the Azerbaijani national flag on top of Aconcagua (6962 m) and a pennant with the words of national leader Heydar Aliyev, “I am proud that I am Azerbaijani”, as well as a pendant with the image of Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and the words “Azerbaijan – to new heights with Ilham. The expedition also deployed banners with the words “2010 – the year of ecology in Azerbaijan in the name of green world” in Azerbaijani and English languages. Director of the Federations’ Ekosport sport club representing the Natural Resources Ministry Mirhasanli implemented it on the management’s order.

Currently, the expedition is preparing to return.
Sourced via en.trend.az

Popularity: 2% [?]

Women ski jumpers sue for the right to compete in the Vancouver Olympics and stop men from jumping if women can’t.

Unless a Canadian court decides otherwise, the ski jumper with the longest flight on record at Vancouver’s Olympic facility will not attend the winter Games in February.

She is not allowed to compete.

Olympic ski jumping is a men’s-only domain. Since the first winter Games in 1924, men have been swooping down snowy ramps at 55 m.p.h. and springing into flight – human rockets hurtling chin-first, hands thrown behind, and skis angled forward. With nothing but speed and their skis to aid them, they fly the length of a football field or farther – a feat of technical genius disguised in balletic grace.

But women can do it, too – the best often flying as far as men.

With women now included in such formerly all-male Olympic events as boxing, wrestling, bobsleigh, and luge, the last Olympic door closed to women is ski jumping.

But American ski jumper Lindsey Van – who set the record on the 90-meter jump when the Olympic venue opened in Vancouver, British Columbia, last year and is the reigning world champion – hasn’t given up on prying that door open. It’s a logical step for the 24-year-old, who, since age 7, has been soaring over Earth’s mundane limits on what is possible.

She and more than a dozen other women jumpers from Slovenia to Norway hope to legally force the addition of women’s jumping before the Games open Feb. 12. Their lawsuit against the Vancouver Organizing Committee (VANOC) contends that not allowing women to jump for gold is a form of discrimination under Canadian laws that prohibit gender discrimination in government activities.

A Canadian judge, last summer, agreed: It is discrimination.

But her ruling concluded that while VANOC is subject to those antidiscrimination laws, it can’t control the events – that’s the domain of the International Olympic Committee (IOC). The IOC voted in 2006 against including women’s ski jumping in 2010 because it deemed there weren’t enough high-level women to create competition worthy of the Olympics. Because the IOC isn’t bound by Canadian law, the judge ruled, Canada is powerless to change the program.

So the jumpers’ appeal asks Canada to refuse to hold the men’s event unless both genders can compete.

When the appeal is heard Nov. 12 and 13, it will highlight not just women’s battle to wipe out the last vestige of an old-boys-club Olympic culture, but also competing demands on the Olympic ideal:

•Allowing athletes to pursue success on the most visible world stage.

•Broadening the appeal of the Games among Gen-Xers interested in more extreme sports while keeping costs manageable.

“IT’S A TEXTBOOK CASE OF DISCRIMINATION,” says Anita DeFrantz, chair of the IOC’s Women and Sports Commission. “This group of athletes is being told that they’re not good enough, that there aren’t enough women in the top level…. That’s never been an issue before.”

The IOC defends its position as preservation of the Olympic standard, saying the top women jumpers don’t deserve the same gold that is awarded to figure skaters and alpine skiers who have risen to the top of far larger fields.

But the IOC’s recent record of admitting both women’s events (see chart) and disciplines with weak fields – such as bobsleigh and ski cross – suggests the issue is not as clear-cut as either side asserts.

More than 80 years after men’s ski jumping debuted as one of six original Olympic sports, the International Ski Federation (FIS) – which stages ski events at the Olympics – voted in 2006 to recommend women’s jumping for inclusion in the 2010 Games. The federation endorsed women’s ski cross over ski jumping. Neither sport fully met the IOC criteria for inclusion. The IOC only approved ski cross, which had the required two world championships but less than half as many elite women as ski jumping. Men’s ski jumping doesn’t meet the criteria either, but was grandfathered in. Compounding suspicions of gender discrimination was the fact that FIS president Gian Franco Kasper told National Public Radio in 2005 that jumping was too dangerous for women, that it “seems to be not appropriate for the ladies from a medical point of view.”

But Walter Sieber, a Canadian member of the IOC division that recommended not to include women’s ski jumping in the 2010 Games, denies that the decision had anything to do with gender – pointing to the IOC’s decision this year to include women’s boxing as evidence of the IOC’s true colors.

While he admits that the top women jumpers are very competitive, he maintains that there aren’t enough competitors at that level to warrant an Olympic sport.

The 2009 World Championships results support that view: The women’s field of 36 had a 20-point gap between top competitors and weaker ones, while the men’s field of 50 competitors finished closer together.

THE BOTTOM LINE, claim both those alleging and denying sex discrimination, is the hard fact that the multibillion-dollar Olympic machine is subject to the rising pressure of commercialism.

“What matters to the IOC is: Will the event sell tickets, will it sell TV time, is it popular?” asserts Jacqueline Hansen, a runner who was a member of the lobby that won a place for the women’s marathon in the 1984 Olympics.

Since then, the sway of TV has become so great that Michael Phelps swam at 6 a.m. in Beijing – prime time in the US. TV may well have played into the IOC’s decision to approve women’s ski cross events for the 2010 games. A sort of motocross on snow, the sport is a variation on snowboard cross – an event introduced in the 2006 Torino Games that was a hit with NBC, which paid $1.5 billion for TV rights there and in Beijing.

Olympic officials do consider TV appeal in deciding on sports, confirms Mr. Sieber. In the era of IOC president Juan Antonio Samaranch, in the 1990s, he says, the emphasis was “to have many sports involved,” but the expanding Games became unwieldy for organizers. In the current era, the bar for new events is higher – they must be “good for TV” and “an addition that enhances the program.”

AMERICAN SKI JUMPER JESSICA JEROME, fresh from winning the US Nationals in Lake Placid, N.Y., last month, says she understands the commercial pressures on the IOC: “The Olympics for so long has been what Mom and Dad sit down to watch while the kids are out skateboarding or snowboarding – doing these things that are radical and rebellious.”

But while she acknowledges that X-Games sports will increase viewership and revenue – benefiting all Olympic sports, ski jumping is no less daring. “I think it’s one of the most ex-treme sports … it’s got that dangerous element, but it’s also got that beautiful, elegant thing to it,” she says.

BUT WHILE THE WOMEN jumpers recognize the need to grow the sport, they say they face discrimination at every level – a point supported by a 2009 book by Western European sports scholars, “Sport and Gender Matters in Western Countries.”

“Barred from serious competition for decades because jumping was not deemed appropriate for females, women ski jumpers have not been able to establish the appropriate experience in international level training and competition and to gain the type of ‘technical merit’ required….” concluded a chapter on ski jumping that also notes women were jumping as early as the 1920s.

“Jumping is a very traditional European old-men type of sport. They think that women will take away the extremeness of it,” says Ms. Jerome,

Women jumpers got their first international circuit in 2004, and were allowed to compete at world championships for the first time last year. But in a sport in which the best European men are treated like rock stars and pocket roughly $10,000 per win, the women are only allowed to compete on a secondary circuit that awards winners $500. And, says Ms. Jerome, women are treated very differently. She and her teammates have eaten meals with barn cats jumping on the table and slept above livestock stalls in lodging arranged by competition organizers.

Even after Ms. Van won world championships last year, the US Ski Team – facing an 18 percent budget cut – dropped all funding for women’s jumping, and men’s, too.

THE BRITISH COLUMBIA Court of Appeal must now decide whether VANOC should refuse to hold men’s ski jumping unless women are allowed to compete.

VANOC attorney George McIntosh argued before Judge Lauri Ann Fenlon that as host, VANOC implements, but can’t control, the Olympic program. And while she ultimately found in VANOC’s favor, she put his argument into stark relief when she asked Mr. McIntosh if VANOC would plead the same point if blacks weren’t allowed to compete in the Vancouver Olympics. His answer, after an awkward silence, was yes.

VANOC has encouraged the IOC to include women’s ski jumping, and if that happened, officials say, the Vancouver machine would be able to accommodate the women.

Without that action at the IOC level, however, no one is sure what to expect if the court upholds the women’s appeal.

“It’s unprecedented,” says McIntosh, who half jokes that to enforce such a ruling, “[The VANOC chief] would have to be standing at the top of the jump with a bayonet.”
Sourced via csmonitor.com

Popularity: 22% [?]

ADRENALINE junkies wowed the crowds at the coast this weekend during a festival of extreme sports and live music.

Rain and wind failed to put a dampener on people’s spirits at the Xperience Festival 2009, held at Tynemouth, where young and old got the chance to watch experts in action.

Thousands of extreme sport enthusiasts from across Europe entertained the crowds with BMX, in-line skating, surfing, snow sports, mountainboarding, extreme circus skills and more.

On Saturday, Longsands hosted the UKPSA North East Surf Open, where surfers from around the world tackled the North Sea and competed for pride, tour points, and prize money. The overall winner was Russell Winter, from Cornwall.

Visitors also had the opportunity to participate in events themselves, including surfing and circus skills. For the less sports-minded, urban art workshops ran throughout the weekend by New Line Graffiti, who gave spectators the chance to graffiti small boards and take them home.

Another highlight was beatboxing, featuring the finest and most established beatboxers in Britain. The UK’s leading female artist Bellatrix, the UK’s male current beatbox champion Reeps One and one of the world’s finest beatboxers THe PETEBOX all performed over the two-day event, while also giving youngsters a chance to try it for themselves.

Mum-of-two Joanne Farrier, 40, from Walker, said the whole weekend was a great family event.

She said: “We all had a great time. There was lots to watch and lots to do. It’s great having an event like this in the North East. It’s something a bit unusual with something for everyone.”

Coun Glynis Barrie, North Tyneside Cabinet Member for Community Services, said: “The event was a great success and it was wonderful to see so many people visit our wonderful coast for the event.

“This year’s action-packed programme offered world-class entertainment by the finest extreme sports performers including surfers, snowboarders, BMXers and beatboxers.

“With so much going on, there was something for everyone to enjoy – from young people who turned out with friends to the smaller children who brought the whole family along.”
Sourced via journallive.co.uk

Popularity: 5% [?]

The extreme sports lifestyle culture is developing. Time was when an old camper van would suffice for vert-ramp BMX rider, surfer or skateboard athlete through a career in the discipline they loved.
But like most other areas in entertainment, extreme sports have become part of a wider entertainment industry. Not quite in the mainstream, which suits its protagonists, but they are now on that sports/entertainment/music/fashion landscape, their silhouettes visible to a young generation to whom ‘extreme’ is synonymous with chic and hip. (like surfer Jayce Robinson, a Relentless-sponsored athlete, above)

Very often, and still in many cases on a shoestring budget, athletes are finding their way through their chosen path into better contracts, and into European and world tours where it was once simply impossible to fund.

Yet over 50 athletes and artists, in four countries, are now assisted with funding by Relentless, the drinks brand.

This is not the world of agents and endorsements. It is still a laidback, lifestyle led sports environment. It is still about sporting artistry, or should that be artistic sport ?

Through Relentless many athletes now have sponsorship tailored to their needs. Simple things which improve their seasonal campaigns: a travel budget; in many cases a photography and film budget; sports insurance; leased vehicles for tours and trips; their contest entry fees; healthcare, and even the assistance of tour managers.
Whereas most brands offer photographic incentives, Relentless offer case by case sponsorship packages to their team .

“It has helped so much to young people coming into their various sports. I’ve been an academy surfer, and now I’m travelling the European tour in my own van, on my own steam, and the results have reflected my independence. I’ve had a really good season,” said Jayce Robinson, a 19-year-old surfer from Cornwall who is sponsored by Relentless.

“Relentless started three and a half years ago, and is owned by Coca Cola. We are involved in action sport, motor sport and music,” explained Steve Ruhl, the brand’s senior manager. “We want to grow as our athletes and their sports grow on the sports landscape. We are on a journey with them.”

The involvement of Relentless now extends to 230 events. By supporting action sports, motor sports, and music communities, young athletes and artists across these disciplines are being nurtured in the UK, Ireland, NZ and Europe, with a £50 million investment on brand.
These events include British Super Bikes, the UK Pro Surf Tour, NASS (Skate), Wakestock (Wakeboarding). Boardmasters (surf), Freeze (snowsports in Battersea), with 2009 the first year as headline sponsor of the Newquay Boardmasters. There are novel ideas being played with and toyed with.

New features are being developed. They reflect the changing times.
Like the ‘Wheel of Fortune’ at the ‘Tow-At’ at this summer’s Relentless Boardmasters at Fistral Beach, Newquay. The moves the surfers had to show were dictated by a spin of the wheel.

Or like the cameraman and two surfers who set off to Ireland and made a stunning film. Relentless helped the three young protagonists with a grant to make their movie, which will open at a New York film festival this Friday Sept 25.

At London 2012, there will be a street demo at the opening ceremony for the Olympic Games. During the last summer, Relentless were involved with ‘ The Works’, a Skate Park in Leeds, in the middle of an industrial estate. It was open to teenagers to use the park for free. It drew in no less 1500 kids there over a few days.

“It reflects the changing nature of extreme/lifestyle sport, so much more air in the sport a new skill set,” added Ruhl.
Relentless want to help support athletes on their journey from unknown to the top. They want to be able to offer same support as Olympic athletes in terms of trainers and nutritionists.”
Extreme sports are also gaining a mainstream platform with their fusion alongside headline music events and acts. That was borne out again at the Relentless Boardmasters, where top bands blended with top athletes to create a seamless celebration of music and sport.

In other words, no more rusty Combi vans and eating out of tins. Although the athletes want to maintain their integrity in what are lifestyle sports, there is no escaping the fact that they are part of a paradigm shift which will see them become professional athletes. It’s inevitable.
Sourced via telegraph.co.uk

Popularity: 4% [?]

Young snowboarders spray snow into the air as they perform stunts during an extreme sports style competition at Ski Dubai.

The excitement is played out to the background of hip hop and rock music being pumped out through large speakers by a DJ working on a specially constructed turntable.
The event is part of the Mall of the Emirates attraction’s freestyle nights that are running during October and November and are open to anyone wanting to compete for points and prizes.

The competition is being sponsored by ski wear firm Oakley and takes place on October 19 and November 16 and 30.

Competitions will include “Big Air” which allows competitors to take off and perform airborne tricks after launching off a ramp and “Slope Style” where they show off their moves whilst skiing or snowboarding down the slope runs.

Tom Aitchison, 13, originally from the UK has been in Dubai for two-and-a-half years, said: “This is fantastic. I have been doing this for nine months and made a lot of friends.”

He said he first got involved after watching previous events with other friends.

He said: “It’s always a really good atmosphere when they run the events and I wish they did them more regularly.”
Om Jang, 30, from Nepal, has been in Dubai for a year and has been snowboarding at the mall for six months.
He said: “I really love doing it because it’s an unusual activity to do in a country like this.

“I particularly like doing the slide jumps and trying out new tricks and stunts.

“It takes a lot of practice but once you get the hang of it you can do all kinds of crazy stuff.”

The competitions are split into under 16 and over 17 categories and there is no extra fee to take part apart from the normal Ski Dubai entry charges.

Jackie Longworth, a spokeswoman for Oakley, said: “The Oakley Freestyle Nights are all about giving people interested in ski sports the chance to enjoy their passion in a safe and friendly environment.

“This year we are also introducing a points system and a final on November 30 where we will have some great prizes on offer.

“These events are open to everyone not just the hardcore snowboarders and it’s as much about introducing these activities to a wider audience as anything else.”

In general around 20 skiers take part in the sessions with registration taking place at 7pm and the contest lasting around 45 minutes.
Sourced via xpress4me.com

Popularity: 3% [?]

We are looking for your nominations for the best looking sport babes in the world. The nominations can include sport babes from around the globe, from any country, from any sporting code-the more the merrier.

Nominations close on 30 September 2009.

Send your nominations to to us by filling out the form below. You may nominate up to 3 athletes per time.

Popularity: 71% [?]

If extreme sports get your blood pumping and you want to spend a day pushing your self to the limit, visit Lee Valley Athletics Centre on Sunday, 21 June.

Sporting Futures, the biggest free sport and physical activity event in North London, is back for another year, providing physical activities for all ages and abilities to try.

Come and experience the ‘extreme’ zone and test your strength and agility on the climbing wall, try out your ‘flips’ whilst skateboarding, your stamina on the assault course and agility and movement in parkour.

The event is open to everyone from 11am – 5pm. Supported by national and London wide campaigns, Change4Life, Go London and Play Sport London, Sporting Futures aims to inspire and motivate people to get active and lead healthier lifestyles.

With over 40 different activities to try, the event also highlights career and education opportunities available in the sport and health and fitness sector. There will also be free health checks and advice from Enfield NHS on how everyone, of any age, can improve their health and fitness by getting active and having fun.
Sourced via enfieldindependent.co.uk

Popularity: 5% [?]

Officials from the East Baton Rouge Recreation and Park Commission will break ground today on a $4.8 million project to convert Perkins Road Park into an extreme sports park.

When completed, the new Perkins Road Community Park and Extreme Park Plaza, at 7122 Perkins Road, will feature a state-of-the-art skate park, a revamped off-road bicycle or BMX track, a freestyle bike course, walking, skating and biking trails, new parking areas and outdoor site lighting, new picnic shelters and a pre-manufactured concession/restroom building.

BREC spokeswoman Kristie Williams said the contract with Charles Carter Construction includes renovation of the park’s tennis courts and construction of new sand volleyball courts, a new rock climbing facility and a new community playground.

Construction is expected to take a little more than a year.

The 52-acre park at Kenilworth Parkway and Perkins Road already features the Velodrome, a cycling stadium that BREC officials intend to improve.

Williams said special donations were made to the BREC Foundation to buy a climbing boulder in memory of Van Wilson, a Baton Rouge native and graduate of Lee High School, the U.S. Naval Academy and the U.S. Navy SEALS program.

First Presbyterian Church coordinated the fundraising effort in honor of Wilson, the son of Stephen and Claire Wilson, Williams said.

Williams said many individual donors contributed a total of $7,525 to the Van Wilson Memorial Fund, and BREC matched those funds.

Planning for the makeover of Perkins Road Park began in 2006. The process took longer than other community parks because BREC took extra steps to get input from skateboarders, Williams said.

The proposed skate and BMX areas were designed by California-based Site Build Group Inc., a firm specializing in skate parks, bike parks, motocross parks and progressive action sport facilities, Williams said.

The Extreme Park Plaza was designed by Joseph Furr Design Studio Inc.

Daniel T. Calongne & Associates are the electrical engineers for the project, and Professional Engineering Consultants Corp. are the civil engineers.

Perkins Road Park is one of 12 community parks in development through funding from a 3.253-mill property tax approved by parish voters in 2004. In all, the tax will fund $70.5 million in park construction projects over its 20-year lifespan, along with an additional $45 million reserved for maintenance and operations of the parks.
Sourced via 2theadvocate.com

Popularity: 6% [?]

(Michel Ferrer)

This hybrid of paragliding and skiing whose pioneers include Antoine Montant is unregulated, dangerous and exhilarating

As the ski season draws to a close, there is one contest that is only just getting started. No, it is not between snow­boarders and skiers, but be­tween a new breed of ex­treme sportsmen and, well, everyone else on the piste.

The sport is called speed riding and it is a hybrid of paragliding and skiing. It needs, ideally, wide-open slopes with no crowds, so conditions now are some of the best. To take part you need a wing — it looks like a stunt parachute — and a pair of skis. Oh yes, and an almost total disregard for your own safety.

The wing is dragged behind you while you descend the slope. As you pick up speed, it catches the air and inflates. This allows you to “take off”, or at least gain lift, for a few metres as you bounce over rocks and other obstacles before touching down and continuing your descent. It’s fast, furious and fun, but after a number of crashes, some ski resorts are trying to ban the sport, while many have already banned people from doing it on the pistes.

“Speed riding is very dangerous,” says Gerhard Fischer, who runs an Austrian paragliding school and has been flying for 33 years. “You are flying a few metres over the ground at 70kmph [40mph]. These small wings are very dynamic so the steering is very aggressive, and yet they are very easy to start flying with, so you have people starting who have no basic understanding.”

Speed riding is so new, it is largely unregulated, and is at a point in its development where it frequently takes the lives of the young men who are pushing its boundaries. So can the thrill really be worth it? I decided to pack my rig and find out.

First, a bit of background. Unlike most extreme sports, which originate in North America, speed riding has its roots in Europe. It was started by a group of French paragliders roughly five years ago and remained a niche sport until recently, when more adventurous members of the skiing fraternity began taking part.

Today some national bodies are starting to form in the Alpine countries. The French Free Flight Federation, for example, an umbrella organisation that represents paragliding and skydiving, is attempting to regulate the sport. It has decreed that to teach speed riding, an instructor must first hold a paragliding teaching licence and pupils should follow a training course similar to that of paragliding students.

The main attraction of the sport is that you can go places where you couldn’t on conventional skis or snowboards. For example, if you want to ski a line down a really gnarly couloir with rock bands and cliff faces, the wing en­ables you to attempt it in the knowledge that if your skis lose grip you will not be entirely at the mercy of gravity. As Graham Bell, Britain’s former downhill racer and occasional speed rider, describes it: “It’s like skiing with a guardian angel above your head.”

Like many speed sports, it can be taken to the extreme. For evidence, check out Antoine Montant, a French speed-riding pioneer, practising his sport down the north face of the Eiger on YouTube (tinyurl.com/8p2vzk). During his 5,000ft descent, Montant lands on snow shelves where, only 70 years earlier, the mountain’s pioneering climbers were dying because their studded leather boots and hemp rope were too crude tools with which to conquer this treacherous face. Montant skims and flies down the mountain, looking like a superhero, his cape-shaped wing fluttering above him.

So how hard is it, and how dangerous? For my first lesson, I went to Les Arcs speed-riding school in France, where all instructors are qualified under the French system. Getting started is easy, quick and totally safe and the sport is gaining a cult following here: “I only snowboarded three days last season; the rest were speed riding,” says one convert. “There’s a hard core of us now. We can ski lines that skiers can’t get near, and it opens up a third dimension because we can go up as well as down. It’s like being in a very realistic computer game.”

We begin our lesson on wide-open, rock-free slopes. With the wing and lines (which are used to steer and brake) trailing behind like a bride’s train, I run straight down the slope until I am going much faster than feels comfortable.

A prerequisite of speed riding is to be a sound skier. Just as I consider baling out, the wing inflates and rises above my head. As it gets lift, I become light on my feet until I am barely touching the surface of the snow. With Arnaud Baumy, the school’s owner, giving instructions over the radio into my earpiece, I learn to make left and right turns. After two days, my adjustments on the lines are still too hard and I am jerked around underneath my wing like a puppet, but I am in reasonable control.

The next time I attempt it I am in Austria, under the tutelage of a new instructor, and things are about to get a lot harder. For someone just learning the ropes, the complexities of the sport are baffling. I am standing on a steep slope — arguably too steep for my abilities — but I am conscious I have only limited time to learn. Ahead of me is a precipice, and I have been told to ski towards it to gather speed so the wing inflates, then ignore every skiing instinct I have and launch myself off the ledge into the valley below, where the instructor is giving directions via a microphone and speakers in my ear.

“Okay, ski straight towards me,” he orders. I straight-line the 20ft towards the edge, hoping to gather enough speed to lift the wing above my head. The rattle of fabric tells me it is rising. The edge is now just feet away, and the mic is silent, which I hope is a good sign. I glance up and see my angel overhead as the ground drops away. My life is hanging from something which only minutes before was packed in a rucksack. There is no gentle soaring, as with a paraglider; I am on a fast descent across the valley, aiming for Penz, who his standing on a plateau on the other side.

Within seconds I am overhead, but too high and in danger of flying into the next valley. “Turn left, left,” Penz shouts into my earpiece. I pull down hard on the lines, much harder than I should, and it sends the wing into a sharp left-turning dive. From about 30ft I descend almost vertically, ploughing into the snow. Both skis fly off (luckily the bindings snap open instantaneously) and I am thrown forward into the snow, performing what is known among skiing novices as a spectacular face-plant as I crash head-first. If I could have taken a plaster cast of the impression left by my face in the snow, it would have shown pained surprise. How could it all go so wrong, so quickly? Luckily, I am embedded in a crater of soft powder, unhurt. If I had been flying any higher, or landed on a harder surface, I would have been less fortunate.

Chastened and winded, I skip the rest of the lesson, then later tell the story to Franz Klammer, the Austrian skier who dominated downhill racing throughout the 1970s. The man who built a reputation as one of the sport’s most brave and reckless men looks at me sternly. Even by his standards it was foolish to try to progress in giant leaps rather than small steps. “You are stupid,” he observes, correctly.

Was it my imagination, or was there in his eyes a glimmer of approval? The secret of any accomplishment, after all, is getting back up when you fall. Maybe next time, though, I’ll wear more padding.

Getting started

Speed riding is a relatively new sport and is largely unregulated. Some resorts do offer training, and novices are advised to start in France, where instructors must hold a paragliding licence and are recognised by the French Free Flight Federation (Fédération Française de Vol Libre), which is at www.ffvl.fr

The speed-riding school in Les Arcs (www.speedriding-school.com) has three-hour try-out courses for €95 (£85), or a three-day course aimed at getting you flying on your own for €290 (£260). Simon Penz, a speed riding instructor, can be contacted through the Flight Connection Arlberg (www.fca.at). A day’s tuition costs €145 (£130).
Sourced via timesonline.co.uk

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