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35-570: The Vancouver Skate Plaza is a skatepark in Vancouver, British Columbia . It is located under the Georgia Street and Dunsmuir viaducts at the corner of Union St. and Quebec St. It was designed and built in 2004, making it the first Street plaza skatepark. The design mimics urban plazas popular in the downtown cores of many large cities, including handrails, ledges, and stairs. It is free to use and covers 26,000 square feet. Vancouver Skate Plaza

70-459: A London double-decker bus , wanting to send it down the ski slopes, and the Swiss resort managers refused. Other Club activities included expedition hang gliding from active volcanoes ; the launching of giant (20 m) plastic spheres with pilots suspended in the centre ( zorbing ); microlight flying; and BASE jumping (in the early days of this sport). In recent decades the term extreme sport

105-436: A conventional one has as much to do with marketing as with the level of danger involved or the adrenaline generated. For example, rugby union is both dangerous and adrenaline-inducing but is not considered an extreme sport due to its traditional image, and because it does not involve high speed or an intention to perform stunts (the aesthetic criteria mentioned above) and also it does not have changing environmental variables for

140-475: A cost-effective alternative to custom-designed concrete skateparks. In reality, custom built concrete skateparks can be quite cost competitive with prefabricated skate ramps. According to an editor of Transworld Skateboarding magazine, concrete parks are now "pretty much the industry standard" as they require fewer repairs and less maintenance. Extreme sport Action sports , adventure sports or extreme sports are activities perceived as involving

175-421: A high degree of risk of injury or death. These activities often involve speed, height, a high level of physical exertion and highly specialized gear. Extreme tourism overlaps with extreme sport. The two share the same main attraction, " adrenaline rush " caused by an element of risk , and differ mostly in the degree of engagement and professionalism . There is no precise definition of an 'extreme sport' and

210-453: A somewhat necessary part of its appeal, which is partially a result of pressure for athletes to make more money and provide maximum entertainment. Extreme sports is a sub-category of sports that are described as any kind of sport "of a character or kind farthest removed from the ordinary or average". These kinds of sports often carry out the potential risk of serious and permanent physical injury and even death. However, these sports also have

245-573: A successful outcome" by Dr. Rhonda Cohen (2012). While the use of the term "extreme sport" has spread everywhere to describe a multitude of different activities, exactly which sports are considered 'extreme' is debatable. There are, however, several characteristics common to most extreme sports. While they are not the exclusive domain of youth, extreme sports tend to have a younger-than-average target demographic. Extreme sports are also rarely sanctioned by schools for their physical education curriculum. Extreme sports tend to be more solitary than many of

280-490: A tendency to reject unified judging methods, with different sports employing their own ideals and indeed having the ability to evolve their assessment standards with new trends or developments in the sports. The origin of the divergence of the term "extreme sports" from "sports" may date to the 1950s in the appearance of a phrase usually, but wrongly, attributed to Ernest Hemingway . The phrase is; There are only three sports: bullfighting, motor racing, and mountaineering; all

315-881: A well designed flow park a skater can pump around the parks curved walls such as quarter pipes, pump bumps and bowl corners without taking their feet off to push. They can use that speed to hit street obstacles such as stairs, railings and benches. Skateparks may be privately or publicly owned. Privately owned skateparks usually have admission fees, while publicly owned skateparks are generally free. Many privately owned skateparks are indoors, usually in warehouses, roller rinks or buildings with high ceilings, especially in areas with snowy winters. Public skateparks are usually outdoors. Skatepark construction can be divided into two major categories — prefabricated and custom built concrete. Prefabricated parks can be made of wood, plastic, sheet metal, and concrete. Most are designed and built by playground equipment manufacturers who present these parks as

350-640: Is surfing, invented centuries ago by the inhabitants of Polynesia , it will become national sport of Hawaii . Disabled people participate in extreme sports. Nonprofit organizations such as Adaptive Action Sports seek to increase awareness of the participation in action sports by members of the disabled community, as well as increase access to the adaptive technologies that make participation possible and to competitions such as The X Games. Extreme sports may be perceived as extremely dangerous, conducive to fatalities, near-fatalities and other serious injuries. The perceived risk in an extreme sport has been considered

385-683: Is the oldest operating municipal skate park in the United States. In 1999 the city of Hermosa Beach, California opened a small skatepark at the site of the first skateboard competition. The competition held at the Pier Avenue Junior High School (now a city museum) was organized by Dewey Weber across the street from his surf and skateboard shop. Makaha Skateboards was a sponsor of the competition. In 1987, an all wooden indoor skate park, called CT Bike, opened in Bristol, Connecticut . CT Bike

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420-440: Is where Tony Hawk made his debut when he was a young boy on his first East Coast tour. Until its closing in 2022, the indoor skate park was operated by the same family who built the park despite a fire that threatening the park in 1988. As of 2022 the park is now permanently closed. In more extreme climates, parks were built indoors, often using wood or metal. By the end of the 1970s, the popularity of skateboarding had waned, and

455-698: The Pacific Northwest can be traced back to Burnside Skatepark , a DIY "barge build" beneath the Burnside Bridge in Portland, Oregon . Skateboarders used an area populated primarily by the city's "undesirable elements" to create a skatepark, building one section at a time. The process is called "design/build" (D/B), and is a characteristic of many skateparks today. The design/build process ensures that adjacent skatepark features are harmonious and rideable, allowing skateboarders to create endless "lines" to ride among

490-445: The athletes. A feature of such activities in the view of some is their alleged capacity to induce an adrenaline rush in participants. However, the medical view is that the rush or high associated with the activity is not due to adrenaline being released as a response to fear, but due to increased levels of dopamine , endorphins and serotonin because of the high level of physical exertion. Furthermore, recent studies suggest that

525-511: The creation of thriving multi-use areas, as installations often become picturesque destinations for skaters and non-skaters alike. Unlike organized sports, like basketball or football, skateboarding has no set arena or rules and skateparks have no standard design template. Each skatepark is designed specifically to provide unique challenges to its users. There are, however, three main categories of skatepark design: bowl, street plaza and flow parks. Bowl parks are designed to emulate and improve upon

560-413: The emotion of intense thrill, usually associated with the extreme sports. Even though some extreme sports present a higher level of risk, people still choose to embark in the experience of extreme sports for the sake of the adrenaline. According to Sigmund Freud , we have an instinctual 'death wish', which is a subconscious inbuilt desire to destroy ourselves, proving that in the seek for the thrill, danger

595-579: The favorite of the vast majority of skaters and they are designed to emulate and improve upon the street skating experience. Obstacles in a street plaza are styled to look like natural street terrain such as stairs, railings, planters and benches. Skaters will push off with their feet to gain momentum in a street plaza. The first public outdoor skate plaza is the Vancouver Skate Plaza , built in 2004 by New Line Skateparks. Flow parks (or Park style) combine elements of both bowl parks and street plazas. In

630-820: The first modern jumps on 1 April 1979, from the Clifton Suspension Bridge , Bristol, England . They followed the Clifton Bridge effort with a jump from the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco, California (including the first female bungee jump by Jane Wilmot), and with a televised leap from the Royal Gorge Suspension Bridge in Colorado , sponsored by and televised on the popular American television program That's Incredible! Bungee jumping

665-593: The grand opening. The park had concrete ramps and was operated by Arizona Surf City Enterprises, Inc. A skatepark for skateboarders and skaters made of plywood ramps on a half-acre lot in Kelso, Washington , opened in April 1966. It was lighted for night use. California's first, the Carlsbad Skatepark opened on March 3, 1976. The World Skateboard Championships were held here on April 10, 1977. It operated until 1979, when it

700-563: The line between skateparks and street spots. Some cities are starting to put in skate spots/plazas with features that would not have been classically designed for skateboarding, but can be skated by street skaters legally. In some instances, street spots that were not originally designed for skateboarding have been converted into sanctioned skate plazas. There is also an emerging movement of making art and sculpture skate-able. This provides additional legal skate spots that blend well with other city art and landscape features. Skate-able art allows for

735-467: The link to adrenaline and 'true' extreme sports is tentative. Brymer and Gray's study defined 'true' extreme sports as a leisure or recreation activity where the most likely outcome of a mismanaged accident or mistake was death. This definition was designed to separate the marketing hype from the activity. Eric Brymer also found that the potential of various extraordinary human experiences, many of which parallel those found in activities such as meditation,

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770-657: The many features. Skate parks, related obstacles/ramps and locations designed for extreme sport utilization have made their way into the media over time, such as with the aforementioned Burnside Skatepark being included in the movie Free Willy . Public skateparks have had a resurgence in the US, made possible by legislation such as California's 1998 law stating that skateboarding is an inherently "Hazardous Recreational Activity" (HRA), and therefore municipalities and their employees may not be held liable for claims of negligence resulting in skateboarders' injuries. Street skating has blurred

805-618: The origin of the term is unclear but it gained popularity in the 1990s when it was picked up by marketing companies to promote the X Games and when the Extreme Sports Channel and Extreme International launched. More recently, the commonly used definition from research is "a competitive (comparison or self-evaluative) activity within which the participant is subjected to natural or unusual physical and mental challenges such as speed, height, depth or natural forces and where fast and accurate cognitive perceptual processing may be required for

840-638: The original parks of the era began to close. A downturn in the overall skateboard market in the 1980s, coupled with high liability insurance premiums, contributed to the demise of the first wave of skateparks. Some second-generation parks, such as Upland, California 's Pipeline, survived into the 1980s. However, few of the private parks of the 1970s remain, with the notable exception of Kona Skatepark in Jacksonville, Florida . However, many public parks of that era can still be found throughout Western Europe, Australia and New Zealand. The modern skatepark designs of

875-670: The outcome of the given activity or event. In a traditional sporting event, athletes compete against each other under controlled circumstances. While it is possible to create a controlled sporting event such as X Games, there are environmental variables that cannot be held constant for all athletes. Examples include changing snow conditions for snowboarders , rock and ice quality for climbers , and wave height and shape for surfers . Whilst traditional sporting judgment criteria may be adopted when assessing performance (distance, time, score, etc.), extreme sports performers are often evaluated on more subjective and aesthetic criteria. This results in

910-420: The pool skating experience. Skaters in bowl parks can move around the park without taking their feet off the board to push. The curved walls of bowls allow skaters to ride around and across the bowl in addition to the back and forth skating you might see on a traditional half pipe. Bowls and bowl parks come in an endless variety of shapes and sizes but most bowls are between 3' and 12’ deep. Street plaza parks are

945-453: The popular traditional sports (rafting and paintballing are notable exceptions, as they are done in teams). Activities categorized by media as extreme sports differ from traditional sports due to the higher number of inherently uncontrollable variables. These environmental variables are frequently weather and terrain-related, including wind, snow, water and mountains. Because these natural phenomena cannot be controlled, they inevitably affect

980-459: The potential to produce drastic benefits on mental and physical health and provide opportunity for individuals to engage fully with life. Extreme sports trigger the release of the hormone adrenaline , which can facilitate performance of stunts. It is believed that the implementation of extreme sports on mental health patients improves their perspective and recognition of aspects of life. In outdoor adventure sports, participants get to experience

1015-502: The rest are merely games. The implication of the phrase was that the word "sport" defined an activity in which one might be killed, other activities being termed "games." The phrase may have been invented by either writer Barnaby Conrad or automotive author Ken Purdy . The Dangerous Sports Club of Oxford University , England was founded by David Kirke, Chris Baker, Ed Hulton and Alan Weston . They first came to wide public attention by inventing modern day bungee jumping , by making

1050-503: Was an important part of the extreme sport experience. Those experiences put the participants outside their comfort zone and are often done in conjunction with adventure travel . Some of the sports have existed for decades and their proponents span generations, some going on to become well known personalities. Rock climbing and ice climbing have spawned publicly recognizable names such as Edmund Hillary , Chris Bonington , Wolfgang Güllich and more recently Joe Simpson . Another example

1085-682: Was buried intact beneath a layer of dirt for more than two decades, before being destroyed in 2005. The current Carlsbad Skatepark is in a different location. The East Coast's first skatepark, Ocean Bowl Skate Park, in Ocean City, Maryland , opened the first week of June, 1976. Due to time, wear, and the current needs of skaters, the old bowl and ramp were torn down in the Fall of 1997 and the new park opened in July 1998. The Sandy Hills Skate Park, in Lansdowne, Maryland ,

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1120-428: Was conceived as a result of efforts to equip a surfboard with a sailing boat's propulsion system (mast and sail). Kitesurfing on the other hand was conceived by combining the propulsion system of kite buggying (a parafoil ) with the bi-directional boards used for wakeboarding . Wakeboarding is in turn derived from snowboarding and waterskiing . Some contend that the distinction between an extreme sport and

1155-478: Was further promoted after the Extreme Sports Channel , Extremesportscompany.com launched and then the X Games, a multi-sport event was created and developed by ESPN . The first X Games (known as 1995 Extreme Games) were held in Newport , Providence , Mount Snow , and Vermont in the United States. Certain extreme sports clearly trace back to other extreme sports, or combinations thereof. For example, windsurfing

1190-594: Was named as number 21 on a top-25 list of best skate parks in the world by Complex magazine in August 2013. 49°16′38″N 123°06′09″W  /  49.277285°N 123.102535°W  / 49.277285; -123.102535 Skatepark Most of the early skateparks were in the United States. The first skatepark in the world, Surf City, opened for business at 5140 East Speedway Road in Tucson, Arizona on September 3, 1965. Patti McGee , Women's National Champion, attended

1225-506: Was treated as a novelty for a few years, then became a craze for young people, and is now an established industry for thrill seekers. The club also pioneered a surrealist form of skiing, holding three events at St. Moritz , Switzerland , in which competitors were required to devise a sculpture mounted on skis and ride it down a mountain. The event reached its limits when the Club arrived in St. Moritz with

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