A sobering look at extreme sports and tragedy

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Permalink Reply by Rob Larkham on October 20, 2009 at 1:22pm

At age 42 I tried to come out of retirement on the wrestling mat. I was a three time state champion in High School. I LIVED it! It was my life and I missed it dearly. I returned to the mat this past summer in a failed attempt and reinjured my recently reconstructed shoulder and have had to give up kayaking. I'm married, two kids, one in college.

After it was all said and done I asked myself, did I miss the sport or did I miss the spotlight. In High School I was very well known and my picture or name was in the paper almost daily during the season. I think the answer is this, at 18 years old I was a small scale superstar in my neck of the woods. That is a pretty heady thing for a young male. I think I missed a part of that and at age 42 thought I could recapture it. Was I crazy? Maybe. Do I regret it? NO!

The flip side to this is I have to make a living so I can provide for my family. Injuring myself could prevent that. I would be letting my family down. I believe in living life and playing hard but recently have stepped back to take a closer look at the bigger picture. Will I give up riverboarding or mountain biking? NO! But, I do need to keep it in perspective for myself and my family.

As for the young superstars out there. They are the only ones who know why they do it and if they are willing to pay the ultimate price. I will be one of the crazy public who will pay the ticket price to watch them put it all on the line. I'm sad when they fail and pay the ultimate price, but in the end, it was their decision as was mine to step to the line one more time and take a shot at glory.

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Permalink Reply by Alicia Monahan on October 20, 2009 at 1:24pm

When I heard about Shane McConkey's death I was saddened. After reading some articles posted on his death, and watching some videos of Shane, I became angered by the comments and posts on various sites that basically said, "He had a wife and children, he should have settled down."

As a mother of two myself I get varying opinions from people. Some think it's awesome that I have two kids and I'm still out there doing the things I love, and setting goals to do more while following my passions. Others think I should throw in the towel and do the mom thing full time. When I get flack from those who think I should settle I always tell them that I'm more scared driving in my car than I am hopping on the river, Airboarding headfirst down a snowy mountain, crawling in caves, or even jumping out of a plane.

My boys love the things I do, and I hope to one day be able to take them on my adventures, when they are old enough. They get excited when they see the Face Level logo and see my pictures. They smile and say, "That's mommy! Mommy that's you!'

They're only 5 and 2, but they are proud of me, I can see it in their faces when they watch videos and watch me land my parachute (which I hope to be doing a lot more of soon!). I want to teach them that they can achieve their goals, whatever they may be. Don’t let anyone stand in the way of your goals and passions, because you can do it!

Yes, accidents do happen. But should we live our life in fear, giving up what we love, or should we seize the day and live our lives to the fullest? I vote seize the day.

As far as pushing the envelope, that is a personal choice. The uber extreme athletes out there LOVE doing what they do, getting the attention, breaking the records. If they didn’t, they wouldn’t be doing it. I’m pretty sure Red Bull isn’t putting a gun to their athlete’s heads and demanding they perform, or else. In that respect it is up to the athlete to decide how far they want to push their limits, everyone has their off days, and if you’re having one, you need to speak up, camera rolling or not.

Bottom line is: Everyone (I hope) who participates in extreme sports are aware of the consequences. It is up to the individual to decide where they want to go and what they want to do, not the spectators who may not share the same passions.

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Permalink Reply by Rochelle Parry on October 20, 2009 at 2:32pm

Truly, what does it mean, when "the best in the sport" as all these guys purportedly were... this was a recurring theme in the tributes and stories... it just makes me wonder, when you can be the absolute best at something and it still kills you in the end. You're the best because you have a passion for it with or without cameras or sponsors or an audience... and you do it a lot... even Craig Kelly was described as beyond anal about safety... but you're the best because you do more than others, but doing it a lot increases the odds of having a problem one of those times - relating it to avalanches here - which isn't so much equipment failure but playing the odds. And the odds of an accident increase the more you do it, do they not? Would it be better not to be the 'best' and have a longer life? It's up to the individual to make that assessment. I try not to judge people but it is my personality type (ENFJ). I bite my tongue a lot. I'll be the first to admit to "kodak courage" as we called it when a photog was in the lineup while bodyboarding. I'm sure these guys knew their limits, but at what point does one stop pushing them, esp. in a sport where failure means death most of the time? I don't think I can criticize these men for their choices. But I might wonder about the women who chose to build their life with them.

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Permalink Reply by Charl van Rensburg on October 20, 2009 at 5:27pm

I agree with much of what everyone has said thus far.

I guess the way I like to look at it is to strip it of all the glamour and bring it down to the most basic explanation (to my mind anyway), which is:

These are men/women who have chosen to do a dangerous job, as have Policemen, Firemen, Heavy Machine Operators, Airforce Pilots, etc. They understand that there is inherent danger and possible severe consequence in whatever their pursuit is. Some will say they feel called to it, others say the perks are good, still others say that due to their background they are uniquely suited to do whatever their job is.

One can debate whether one man's vocation, choice or reason is morally or ethically more noble than another's, but to my mind it is what it is.

I am reminded of that quote by William Wallace in Braveheart: "All men die, but not all men truly live"

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Permalink Reply by Kevin Yount on October 20, 2009 at 6:11pm

First off, this first response is just a few snippets instead of a long thought out discourse.

I personally think that Shane should have jumped from a taller cliff, but obviously he was comfortable with the small margin of error. An equipment failure on a taller cliff, or equipment working perfectly from that cliff and things would have been fine, but put equipment failure on a short cliff and we lose an icon.

The article mentioned a ratio of 1 in 100 base accidents going wrong, so I think that the case could be made that sooner or later something might go wrong. I read a lot of mountaineering books and it seems like every now and then you might can make a mistake and be fine (put if you make more than one, then the chain of events starts to compound, especially at high altitude such as Into Thin Air), but other times one mistake and people slip off the mountain to their death. It really is chance and God's providence as to whether one makes that mistake at the wrong moment or not. Mountaineer Joe Simpson says "If you keep sticking your head in a lion's mouth, eventually he's going to close it".

How many of us riverboarders run a perfect line on the river, every single time? We're probably a few inches or feet off, but the line we're running is that forgiving. I really don't like running things that require me to land in a spot just wide enough for my board, but give me a foot of margin on either side, and I might fire it up on a good day. There have been times when I've had to ask myself "Right now, can I be close to perfect for x number of seconds or x number of meters?" and when the answer is yes, I'm in.

Being that I am trying to become a full time sponsored pro, there may be moments when I do something just for the attention, but the motivation is still to attract more exposure and sponsors so that I can do what I enjoy more often. I'd like to hope that even in the attention seeking exploits, I'd still be in it for the challenge of that rapid. I also know that if I ever get to the point where I'm allowing the limelight to force me into running something that I don't feel comfortable with that day, then it's time to slow down or reevaluate why I'm doing it.

As for families, the chance of not being able to provide for them or not being there period will always be in the back of one's mind. I think the major thing is being truthful with your loved ones about the risks one takes. I am glad that I got into this while single, so that any lady I want to date knows what she's getting into. That is if a relationship gets to the point of beyond friendship, I plan to tell a lady how dangerous my job is as well as how much time away from home I spend; to give her a chance to bow out before things get serious. And that's not to say that once she accepts that, that she never gets a say as I would listen to her opinion if she thought I was threading the margin of error too closely. Now whether we would have the same opinion on how much risk I was taking, I don't know.

I also recommend the titles This Game of Ghosts and The Beckoning Silence by Joe Simpson to see how mountaineers deal with some of the same questions.

That's my thoughts for now. Want to see what we all stir up and how we move forward.

Kevin,

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Permalink Reply by Mad Dog River Boarding on October 22, 2009 at 6:38pm

As is now well publicised, we have lived through this personally over the past 18 months. Yes, it was commercially, as opposed to one individual 'pushing the envelope', but the result is still tragic.

When dealing with Mother Nature, we must always remember there is an element of risk that can never be removed, unlike a factory where everything is man made and 'theoretically' controllable. But even that does not stop accidents happening in those places.

People drive a piece of road for years without incident, and then a small change in conditions, i.e. rain or fatigue or any other number of variables , and a crash results.

I had swum the chute where our accident occured too many times to count. Let alone all the other guides and clients who had done the same thing. I had been down it the day before with a couple of clients.

Mother Nature retains an element of unpredictability, and this must never be forgotten. Unfortunately for anyone who chooses to do anything with some risk involved, from walking across the road to extreme sports, this is a part of what they choose to do.

I used to work for a Bungy jumping co here in Queenstown many years ago. An old jump master who had been around since AJ Hackett first started commercially operating once told me 'I have done over 10,000 jumps, I stopped counting years ago. If I get to the edge of the platform and don't feel nervous at all, I don't jump!'

I am exactly the same every time I get in the river, commercially or recreationally, no matter how many times I have run that stretch of river.

When my now fiancée and I first started living together, it took her an entire summer to get used to the fact that every time she said good bye to me in the morning, it could potentially be the last time she saw me alive, and it still could be to this day. She also knows that I am a lot nicer person to be around once I've been for a swim, or been up the ski field for the day, than if I am cooped up in the house for the whole day!

But to put it in perspective, it should be the same for everyone who drives to work, or walks or catches a bus etc, as there is risk in everything we do, people just accept the risk involved in these sorts of things and tend to dismiss it far easier. People seem to accept driving and flying and walking across the street as a necessity in life, and therefore the risks are accepted, and not really thought of as the same type of risk which 'extreme athletes' take. When someone does something which they do not deem to be a necessity of life, they can be far quicker to criticise, as they do not place the two things in the same basket.

Some of us choose to do things that have more risk than others, but it is exactly that - A PERSONAL CHOICE!

The unfortunate outcome of this can sometimes be that people only learn their limits by paying the ultimate sacrifice for learning where that limit is.

I agree with what has been said above, so long as people understand the outcomes of their choices, then as human beings, they should be free to make them. Those close to them will always have a say, and the person will take that information on board as part of the decision making process, but that person must be the one who makes the decision for themselves. That is what makes us all individuals and unique.

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Permalink Reply by J. Young on October 31, 2009 at 12:29pm

I'm not trying to pass judgment here -- not my style -- but there might be one or two things I'd back off from, if I had children. On rock, free soloing and run-out trad climbing would be two of them. River swimming might be another. Big-water riverboarding, however, would not be one of them. Assuming you can read water and have the sense to scout when necessary, I actually think it's a relatively safe way to ride the fluffy train.

Personally, if I ever have kids, I think an important part of raising them will be introducing them to human-powered, gravity-riding and gravity-fighting-type sports. How far they eventually take those sports for themselves will eventually be their decisions to make.

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