SECOND REPORT (Second Part)

Colombia: Adventure and Extreme Sport

Colombia’s rugged topography encloses an infinite number of environments that are ideal for exploring. Colombia adventure features varied landscapes and regions, rich in flora and fauna, which are an invitation to experience unforgettable thrills.

To explore our natural parks, valleys, mountains, savannas, deserts, seas, lakes, and rivers is to discover an exuberant nature where the practice of extreme sports is a permanent temptation. In Colombia, adventure is waiting for you.

Diving in Colombia

Colombia is not only a tropical land. It possesses a gigantic aquatic garden in the Pacific Ocean and a virtually unlimited pool in the Caribbean Sea.

Indeed, our house is enormous and the only one in South America with such attractions. Located at the geographical center of the American continent, it occupies a small portion of the tropical zone, and is a country graced by abundant water, bathed by the two biggest oceans on the planet, and dotted with islands, cays, and coral reefs. Over 2,900 km of coastline, with cliffs and rocky and sandy beaches, constitute a large tourist attraction due to their expanse and color.

River Rafting in Colombia

With so much water running down the slopes of the mountains of Colombia, it is only natural that there be so many stages for engaging in the thrilling sport of river rafting, a discipline with remote origins in southern Africa, yet relatively new in Colombia.

What is rafting about?

It is about challenging the force of rivers from aboard inflatable boats. A group of people maneuver paddles and struggle to stay afloat to avoid bowing down to the rapids formed in the river. The rapids are classified in six classes - 1 to 6 - according to their level of difficulty.

Class 1 is the gentlest, perfect for beginners, although they can easily advance to Class 3 rapids in a short time. Classes 4 to 6 are very demanding, with challenges only for experts; here the margin of error and the rescue possibilities are minimal.

Paragliding

A French poet once wrote that “flying is like looking at birds and smiling without envy, knowing that when one wishes, one can open one’s wings to accompany them.” As an action, flying is a dream common to all men, a dream of being carried away by a sense of freedom and surrendering to the will of the wind. In the context of expression, flying is about going beyond, about giving in to imagination to the point of abandoning logic.

Surely, these were the motives of the creators of paragliding - undoubtedly the sport that comes closer to man’s old illusion. Flying on a paraglider is safe, does not pollute, allows contact with the wind and, if as this were not enough, it is a delight to the senses when flying above spectacular and exotic landscapes.

Paragliding Sites in Colombia

Due to their geographical conditions and climate, the best sites are in Santander, Valle del Cauca, the Bogotá region (department of Cundinamarca), and Medellín (department of Antioquia). Paragliding may be practiced year round, with the exception of rainy days. The absence of electric power lines, poles, and facilities ensures the safety of these sites.

SECOND REPORT

SECOND REPORT:

·         DEFINITION:  

An extreme sport (also called freesport, action sport, and adventure sport) is a popular term for certain activities perceived as having a high level of inherent danger. These activities often involve speed, height, a high level of physical exertion, and highly specialized gear or spectacular stunts.

The definition of an extreme sport is not exact — for example, although studies show that road cycling ranks as the sport with the highest number of injuries; it is not considered an extreme sport because it is not counter-cultural. The term's origin is also unclear, but it gained popularity in the 1990s when it was picked up by marketing companies to promote the X Games.

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.

·         HISTORY:

The origin of the divergence of the term "extreme sports" from "sports" may date to the 1950’s 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 the rest are merely games."

The implication of the phrase was that the word "sport" defined an activity in which one might be killed. The other activities being termed "games". The phrase may have been invented by either writer Barnaby Conrad or automotive author Ken Purdy.

In recent decades the term extreme sport was further promoted by X Games, a multi-sport event 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.

·         MOTIVATION:

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, a recent study suggests that the link to adrenaline and 'true' extreme sports is tentative. The 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.