What is the most extreme sportlike thing you have ever done? I used to take

[applegrove]

a dip in the lake (Quebec) every April as a kid. very cold. You jump in, lose all ability to breath, and quickly get to the ladder. My April record for early dipping held until just this past year, 40 years later, when some neighbours kids went in in early April.

I also went white water canoeing in Quebec when I was 17. It was lots of fun. You get out of your canoe, scan the rocks and bolders in the rapids ahead, plan your route and you go. You can amazingly completely control and steer your canoe in the fast moving water. You can literally go left or right sideways. Lots of fun.

I went back country skiing in the Rockies on telemark skis 20 years ago. Talk about working up a sweat.

[HeiressofBickworth]

1. I stayed in a hotel without room service

[applegrove]

2. LOL!

[NYC_SKP]

32. I called a Hells Angel a "loser"!

[Capn Sunshine]

3. I was just reminiscing with a bro how we used to take off on waves over 15 feet

Last edited Sun Feb 5, 2012, 01:30 AM - Edit history (2)

This was before we had responsibilities and families and stuff when I then I limited myself to 10 feet. I had also discovered by then I was not invicible. We bodysurfed for years at Zuma Beach, our favorite break. We used to ride The Wedge in Newport when it was pumping and you got Hawaii like waves that break in about three feet of water:

I was on one of these and came down the face when the whole bottom just dropped out and there I am about to ingest Pacific Ocean through my nose.

When you go down on a big wave there's this pressure difference between the outside air and the fierce water pressure and a lot gets forced up your sinuses. Then later on, at a time of its own choosing, you feel a little "pop" in your head and water comes gushing out of your nose. It can be embarassing if you're trying to look all cool (me, most of the time) and picking up a teen angel. I swear, there was over a cup of water up there. And it all ended up on the floor in Macy's. Wow did I look cool.

[applegrove]

6. LOL! You are so brave. I always wanted to try surfing but can't these days. I still

like big waves, and by big I mean about 5 feet (Nova Scotia).

[charlie and algernon]

4. hiked 31.1 miles in a day, twice

last two years I've done the Sierra Club's One Day Hike 50k. Already paid for this year's 50k in April.

One of this years, I'd like to attempt their 100k One Day Hike. 62.2 miles!

[Tuesday Afternoon]

5. dove the wall at bimini

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bimini_Wall

[applegrove]

7. I've never dove outside of Canada. Some day...

[Capn Sunshine]

8. I always wanted to try the big blue hole

The Wall at Bimini is really an ancient road many believe, right? If you've ever read The Perfect Storm he has a whole chapter in the beginning about ancient structures like this. I would love to see that.

Oh the big blue hole is off Belize
http://www.google.com/url?source=imglanding&ct=img&q=&sa=X&ei=KxMuT9OWNueqiAKRyOGhCg&ved=0CAkQ8wc&usg=AFQjCNEJP_f2zdqORzrPIWptV8H2UsEz8g

[Tuesday Afternoon]

10. I would love to go to Belize --- as for the wall ---

there is talk about a road but, no one has been able to prove it conclusively --
The consensus among conventional geologists and archaeologists is that the Bimini Road is a natural feature composed of beachrock that orthogonal and other joints have broken up into rectangular, subrectangular, polygonal, and irregular blocks. The geologists and anthropologists who have personally studied the Bimini Road include Eugene Shinn[6][22] of the U.S. Geological Survey; Marshall McKusick.[5][23] an Associate Professor of Anthropology at University of Iowa; W. Harrison[24] of Environmental Research Associates, Virginia, Beach Virginia; Mahlon M. Ball and J. A. Gifford[4][25] of the Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science, University of Miami; and Eric Davaud[10] and A. Strasser[11] of the Department of Geology and Paleontology, University of Geneva, Geneva, Switzerland. After either inspecting or studying the Bimini Road, they all concluded that it consists of naturally jointed beachrock. John A. Gifford, a professional geologist, spent a significant time studying the geology of the Bimini Islands for his University of Miami Master's thesis[26] about the geology of the Bimini Islands. Calvert and others[8] identified the samples that they dated from the Bimini Wall as being natural beachrock.

[Aristus]

9. I once tried to jump a deadfall with a four-wheeler.

Made it, barely; but the ATV ended up with a flat that took most of the rest of the afternoon to fix. My father-in-law and his business partner were watching all of this (the ATV belonged to my f-i-l). His business partner said of me: "That guy is fearless!" He couldn't see into my head, but during the jump, I was scared out of my gourd!

[hunter]

11. My brother's Honda CBX1000 full throttle in the desert.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Honda_CBX1000

Fortunately that was without incident.

I've got scars & lingering nightmares from stuff that didn't turn out so well.

I used to self-medicate doing crazy shit. "Not dying" temporarily relieves depression. I once fell off a cliff once into a stormy ocean. At night. Alone. Why was I rock climbing in the middle of the night? I don't know. I'm sure it made some kind of sense at the time.

[flvegan]

12. Calf machine at the gym.

Entire stack with 125 stacked on top of it.

Amazed I didn't blow my ankles. Counting me, that's half a ton-ish.

[sakabatou]

13. Sailboarding

[pokerfan]

14. Climbed a bunch of mountains

including this one a few times. Never the same route twice!

[laundry_queen]

15. Double black-diamond moguls.

Yep, downhill skiing in the Rockies. Loved every minute of it - especially the moguls. Used to go a couple times a year as a teen - with our school and with my family. Once we went out of bounds (yes we were dumb teens) and heard explosions. They were triggering avalances doing avalanche control. Never skiied so fast in all my life to make it back in bounds. We also used to try jumps, although *some* of us (ahem) had a talent for landing on our backs.

That's about it. I stopped skiing at 20 years old (knee issues). I haven't done much exciting since then - I'm pretty risk-averse.

[WCGreen]

16. Swam across a Quarry lake on Memorial Day...

The water was freezing and I started cramping up half-way across. I thought I was finished because the other three guys were having as much trouble as I was....

We all made it but we just sat there on the other side, breathing deep and heavy, relieved that we all made it.

I talked about it to one of the guys last year and he had forgotten about it.

It's interesting that since I quit drinking, my memory has been restored.

[HopeHoops]

17. Hanging onto the back of a ten speed while riding a skateboard - at about 25 mph.

Too fast to stop when we hit the bottom of the hill. My friend flew out into the traffic with me in tow and cut a hard left turn. We both survived.

[rrneck]

18. I used to love to feel that footpeg touch down.

[UnrepentantLiberal]

19. Climbed a 100 foot rock face.

It may not seem like much but it was scary as hell when I got near the top.

[Bucky]

20. Jumping off my neighbors' roof into their swimming pool

But I took the appropriate precautions. I got another kid to try it first.

[madmom]

21. Back-backed/hiked parts of the Appalachian Trail, and no I

wasn't really in S America.

[UnrepentantLiberal]

27. Judging from the movie,

that was extreme.

[TuxedoKat]

22. Caving and rapelling

I thought there was one more, but I guess that's it.

[RebelOne]

23. Skydiving. n/t

[denbot]

24. Went surfing today in overhead + waves.

That is a big deal for me. My biggest wave surfed was a 10-12' in of all places Venice Beach Breakwater. We (Alley and I) ocean kayak, rock garden in surge, and paddled the lenght of Anacapa Island, sea caves and all.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

25. I've been known to walk around the block.

[rbnyc]

26. 20 years and 80 pounds ago, I free-climbed this:

Now, I free-climb this:

[Turbineguy]

28. When I was in college I went

swimming (at? in?) the Pipeline on the northshore of Oahu. I was thrown onto the beach like a sack of potatoes. Luckily at that point I remembered I had a 1/2 gallon of passion fruit juice and a sufficient amount of rum to mix it with. And so the day was saved except for the terrible sunburn.

[NYC_SKP]

29. Jump off railroad trestle, ride down a mountain on a Schwinn Stingray

Yes, with banana seat!

Campus Green, baby!

[handmade34]

30. that is one fine bike! n/t

[Mopar151]

31. Hillclimb on Mt. Washington, in "The World's Worst Weather"

The scariest was "losing the road" 3 times in one run, near some of the biggest drops on the mountain. Another run had a 7-layer cake of weather - blowing drizzle, rain, fog, snow/sleet, bright sun, back into sideways rain and blowing fog.
My best time was 7:39 for the full mountain, 94 mph in the radar trap.

[handmade34]

33. seriously? wow

I've hiked it a few times... I like my feet on the ground

[Mopar151]

34. Then you know about the weather - no joke.

The White Mountains don't fuck around. Pay attention when they tell you you can freeze to death in August if you get caught above treeline. The Observatory has to keep the door locked once the Auto Road closes, 'cuz idjits show up at the top in shorts 'n sneakers in December.

[handmade34]

35. 1st time

we were socked right in near the top... crevices in the rocks... losing the trail... etc. can do a person in... love the Mountain though

currently .. Sunday 10:30 PM

Temperature 4.7°F

Wind 53.6 mph

Wind Chill -25.1°F

[zanana1]

41. It's official.

You're insane.

[Mopar151]

42. Only marginally, and not in the ways you might think

And yes, I've had multiple reporters ask me about a death wish. Like most people who deliberately take risks, I'm actually a fairly careful person in general, and use safety equipment suitable for the task at hand. For me, insanity is buying a $300 helmet and the best available (7-point Impact Safety) seatbelts, while I'm driving a $500 car to work on used tires.

[JCMach1]

36. The climb into 'the pit' at Khor Virap monastery, Armenia

Can't believe I did that on the rickety ladder...

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_En6QJppPdTk/TI0a2kj-PEI/AAAAAAAAACo/LMnWsfrNZiQ/s1600/Khor+Virap.gif

[LoveMyCali]

44. I just had a claustrophobia attack

looking at this picture. I've jumped out of airplanes but going down into that little hole? I'd have to pass on that one.

[JCMach1]

50. Can't imagine St. Gregory spending years in what I could only describe as one of the pits of hell...

It was that horrible. Also gave off horrible, dark vibes... really not a good place.

[Rhiannon12866]

37. I kissed the Blarney Stone...

You have to climb to the top and then you have to hang down backwards upside down by your feet...

[Cooley Hurd]

47. did you mean to expose your belly button in that pic?

On edit: you have so many hearts! So many suitors, so little time...

[Rhiannon12866]

49. I'm lucky I didn't plunge backwards to my death from the top of that thing!!!

They actually do hold you by your feet. I hung upside down and kissed something, but they told me I hadn't gone far enough, so they shoved me down even farther for another try! I was hardly worried about my appearance at the time...

And it's awfully nice to know that somebody out there likes me... As for suitors, I'd be happy with just one...

[mikeytherat]

38. Rock climbing, mainly in Utah

Pete's Rock:


First climbed and rappelled this when I was 12.

mikey_the_rat

[era veteran]

39. Ran with the Bulls a couple of times

It's ok I was still drinking then. In the '70's.

[zanana1]

40. Skating down the sledding hill.

I'd wait until the sledding hill was nice and icy, then I'd go up the hill on the side where the snow was. When I got to the top, I'd put on my skates and go down the hill at about 50 mph. I was 10. I'm amazed I survived childhood.

[Betty88]

43. Tubing the Esopus river

Way back when I was going to school at SUNY New Paltz, it was a bitch keeping the pot dry but we made it.

[Chan790]

45. I'm an adventure junkie.

cliff-diving, cave-diving, zip-lining, spelunking, mountain-climbing, rough-terrain orienteering, sub-zero campout, yacht-racing, crewed a tall ship, bunch of 20+ mi. hikes, skeleton-luge.

Seriously, If adventurer was a career, I'd be a professional adventurer.

Also, I own a helmet and I wear it when I'm doing stupid things like diving blind into a water-filled cave.

[Doc Holliday]

46. "extreme sportlike"?

Good description. One person's extreme is another person's milquetoast.

Let's see....driving the German autobahn at 160 mph....yes, that was miles per hour, not kilometers. Not great shakes for a German....big-time shakes for me.

Hang-gliding....scary as hell, but more fun than a man should have with pants on.

Para-sailing... on the St. Lawrence River. I got towed about five miles, and boy what a ride! I also did this being towed behind a snowmobile on one of the Finger Lakes, but we just went around in a big-ass circle. Don't know if they'll even let you do that anymore.

[Moondog]

48. Did some pretty crazy stuff

in the service.

But I got paid for it. So I guess that doesn't count as "sport like".

Always wanted to do a HALO jump on Uncle's nickel, but got sent somewhere on short notice and by the time I got back I was really too old to risk it, or so I was told . . . .

Sigh.

Anyway, for pure sport, I used to do saber. I was adequate at it. On a good day I was good. But I was never great at it. Epee, I was a little better, but still only good, and that on a good day. But I loved saber.

Now I'm just another old fart who is on the dark side of being middle aged wondering, when shaving in the morning, who the hell that old bastard in the mirror is who is staring back at me.

[guitar man]

51. When I was a youngster

I rode dirt bikes with a kind of reckless abandon that makes me look back and wonder how I survived it all