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Overconfidence and a lack of training and a habit of not wearing safety gear, especially helmets, help cause more than 40,000 head and neck injuries nationally a year in sports like skateboarding.

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They do it because they have to. They need the feeling of exertion, that head rush of air and attitude. They want what Warren Shouldice knows is hard to explain unless you flip head over skis, knees over board, and kick snow in the face of danger.

That's what drew Shouldice to freestyle aerials and helped him become a world champion after he had broken his neck and compressed his back. It's what powered the late Sarah Burke to four Winter X Games championships and made her a success in the superpipe, skiing's answer to snowboarding's half-pipe.

"It's almost no fun doing it if there's no risk involved," said Shouldice, a 12-time World Cup medalist in a daredevil game. "The trick is making it a manageable risk."

When Burke died Thursday, nine days after falling during a training run in Park City, Utah, it saddened a nation and a sporting community world-wide. Burke was 29 and happily prepping for her sport's inclusion in the 2014 Sochi Olympics. She had been injured many times before - a broken back, a torn shoulder - but nothing could dampen her love of skiing and the need to push herself to the brink of manageable risk and beyond.

Such is the appeal of many established and extreme sports, both for participants and spectators. The risks and rewards provide the thrills. Alpine skiing, particularly the ultra-fast downhill, has been a major attraction for decades. But the advent of the X Games upped the adrenalin quotient considerably.

The Games were the brainchild of ESPN producer Ron Semiao. In 1993, Semiao was looking for programming to fill the cable channel's fledgling ESPN2. He spotted a series of oddball sports that seemed to have a culture all their own and suggested to his bosses that ESPN create a made-for-TV sporting event. Two years later ESPN launched the first Extreme Games, a week-long competition that featured bungee jumping, mountain biking, skateboarding and street luge. Ratings weren't great and some critics panned the spectacle as "moronic." But ESPN stuck with it and made the games an annual event, later adding a second winter sports program. It also changed the name to X Games.

The popularity of the X Games took off and today they rival the Olympics in some respects. The X Games pull in more than 100,000 spectators and draw a television audience of around 44 million. They have also attracted major sponsors such as Ford, BF Goodrich, Sony and athletes such as Shaun White make up to $8-million annually in sponsorship deals.

The X Games are so popular, ESPN has announced plans to expand from two annual events to six, three summer and three winter. Bids from potential host cities have been flooding in, including one from Whistler B.C., which sees the X Games as a complement to the 2010 Olympics. Meanwhile rival network NBC has started a competing series called Dew Tour with PepsiCo and the Olympics have taken up some X Games sports, including Burke's specialty halfpipe skiing, which will be in the 2014 Games in Sochi.

The X Games "have gone viral," says Lee Berke, who runs consulting firm LHB Sports, Entertainment & Media Inc. in New York. "It's very grassroots in its appeal." Berke added that the X Games have won over major sponsors because the viewing audience is so young, largely 18-34, which means many have yet to form brand loyalties.

But at the root of it all is the question: why? Why do athletes gamble with their lives by doing something so inherently dangerous? Like flying upside down off a 22-foot snow wall or skiing from ridiculous heights?

Asit Rathod has a wonderful life. He's single, active, works at a sales job in Portland, Ore. But as often as he can, he climbs to the top of Mt. Hood and skis off a cliff with a parachute on his back. He's done it many times and is now eyeing bigger verticals - Mount Kilimanjaro and Mount Everest.

Ask him why he does it and Rathod's passion runs wild.

"People always say, 'Why do you feel the need to risk your life?' It's about the power of adventure. In day-to-day life, adventure has been ripped from us in the way we drive, the way we eat. You get to that place where you have to have that adventure," he said. "The risk is always the excitement."

Rathod was a good friend of Shane McConkey, who died in 2009 when he skied off a cliff in Italy and his chute failed to open. Over the past four years, Rathod has lost "six, seven good friends" to extreme-sport accidents yet he has no plans to take up something with a safer track record.

"You remember their spirit. You remember their smile," he said of his fallen comrades. "If anything, it gives you more inspiration to do what you're doing. It's like Nietzsche said, 'The secret to reaping the greatest fruitfulness and the greatest enjoyment from life is to live dangerously.'"

Jacques Rogge, the president of the International Olympic Committee, was saddened by the news of Burke's death but insisted freestyle skiing is no more dangerous than any other winter sport. "There are always risks attached to sport," he stated.

Mitigating those risks is the relentless challenge. The International Ski Federation is presently examining how to equip downhill skiers with air bags to protect them during high-speed spills. FIS has been working with Dainese, the Italian company that makes protection for mountain bikers and motorcyclists. Canadian downhillers Erik Guay and Jan Hudec have been involved in the testing. Three years into the project, FIS is hoping to have a race suit fully ready for the end of this year.

Not so high tech, yet just as important, is the way young athletes are trained for their sport. Alpine Canada is holding a series of speed skills camps to instruct young racers on how to ski safely. At Calgary's Canada Olympic Park, there are plans to expand on an acrobatics room with trampolines and foam pits for budding freestylers. The kids, ages 9 to 14, practise there first before graduating to jumping off a ramp and landing in an air bad. Eventually, after hundreds of practice jumps, they move to the snow and begin in moderation.

"What we're doing is hiring top coaches to train top athletes," said Daniel Lefebvre, COP's director of education/sport development. "You have to build their confidence."

Shouldice, who recovered from both of his bad crashes but is currently sidelined with a concussion, endorses all of that - solid training and coaching. He also believes Burke's death, whole tragic, will not adversely affect freestyle skiing.

"I don't think this is going to change anyone's opinion of freestyle," he said. "Yes, there are risks. There are risks driving to work every day, Look at the number of people in freestyle and this is our first death. A lot of sports can't say that."

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Given the risks involved, where's the appeal in extreme sports?

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They do it because they have to. They need the feeling of exertion, that head rush of air and attitude. They want what Warren Shouldice knows is hard to explain unless you flip head over skis, knees over board, and kick snow in the face of danger.

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Wingsuit Daredevil Jeb Corliss Completes Another Heart-Stopping ‘Flight’

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Wingsuit Daredevil Jeb Corliss Completes Another Heart-Stopping ‘Flight’ has 559 reviews and 0 ratings. Reviewer supermanbruh wrote: “I like artice, great vocabulary game”

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On Wednesday October 18th, eight of the world's best wingsuit jumpers gathered at the edge of Tianmen Mountain in Zhangjiajie, China to participate in the inaugural World Championships of the extreme sport. Originally scheduled to be held on the 13th, the event had to be delayed due to bad weather, a fact that did not seem to bother the contestants who all just wanted to soar in the skies!

Wearing their special 'birdman suits' each competitor leaped off the 1,400 meter (4,600 ft.) ledge one at a time and maneuvered the tricky route that required them to fly around an anchored Red Bull hot-air balloon, then straight down the Tianmen mountain and under a moving tramway cable to the ' finish line'. Their only goal? To fly as fast as they could to earn the coveted title of the World's First Wingsuit Champion.

South Africa's Julian Boulle dominated the day with a speedy descent time of 23.41 seconds. While that was pretty impressive, it was not as good as the 23.01 seconds it took him to complete the same course at the preliminaries that took place on Wednesday October 17th. Close on his heels was Norwegian flyer Espen Fadness with time of 23.55 seconds followed by Britain's James Boole who zipped in at 23.84 seconds.

The third place win was particularly sweet for the British athlete given that the professional skydiver had experienced a severe crash in 2008 when his parachute failed to open during a wingsuit flight over Kamchatka, Russia, resulting in a broken back, cracked rib and a bruised lung. Forced to wear a body brace for three months, he had thought he would never be able to jump again.

Missing from the roster of winners or even finalists was world record holder and the person that is largely responsible for turning wingsuit diving into a mainstream extreme sport - Jeb Corliss, who injured his legs during the qualifying event the previous day and was unable to participate in the Thursday finals.

However, the fearless diver has already performed an even more daring stunt in the same area by flying through a narrow opening on the side of the Tianmen Mountain in 2011 and, there's always next year, when the organizers are promising to come up with an even more thrilling and tougher route - We for one, cannot wait!

Resources: Chinadaily.com, telegraph.co.uk, dailymail.co.uk

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The World's First Wingsuit Champion Is Crowned

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On Wednesday October 18th, eight of the world's best wingsuit jumpers gathered at the edge of Tianmen Mountain in Zhangjiajie, China to participate in the inaugural World Championships of the extreme sport.

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In order for us to understand why people enjoy extreme sports, it is vital for you to understand what extreme sports are; the background, why they are called extreme and why they are categorize on the basis of enjoyment styles.

In recent years, the term extreme sports has evolved on grand scale. It can be categorized into three main types: Air, Land and Water. Now you'll start unleashing, how they work and why do people enjoy them.
These extreme sports are often subject of debates based of the fact that how a sport is called extreme. Often popular in younger-than-average crowd (though not mandatory), these sports are not inducted or sanctioned by schools. These sports are practiced mostly on individual level, while in many cases professional coaching can also be acquired.

Now we tell you the secret recipe of their buzz:

Control and physics: The reason why people enjoy these sports are that they are normally played, exercised or practiced in free or uncontrolled environment like base jumping and sky diving. It means while traditional athletes play in controlled environment like fields and gyms. Extreme athletes have to operate and display their skills in free-flowing natural environment. For this reason the aspects and understanding of laws of physics and how to apply and use them are really crucial for success.

Thrill: This is the single most attractive factor in people's interest for extreme sports. The adrenaline rush is what differentiates it from any other type of sports. The thrill that is derived in extreme sports is highest. The athletes are fully exposed and at the mercy of direct danger. The catch is how to maintain composure and apply skills when it is in extreme scenario. Extreme sports are also widely condemned for the same reason. As many don't think it is a game to put one's self in harm's way with full throttle, without understanding the intensity of consequences.

Pushing The Limits: Extreme sports as the name goes is about pushing the limits. The balance and control of regular instincts application is tried in the highest pressure scenario. The response, nerves and the grip over the un-controllable is the main zeal why people who play or watch, enjoy it.

Man against Nature: As we mentioned earlier that they are about natural elements- Air, Water and Land. These games are loved because the natural elements react to human extreme or instincts. The passion of man to overcome the natural barriers is an addiction for these athletes and spectators. Many a time these overtures have dire impacts, but the fear of danger is the prime motivator to excel in its skill.

Some of the mainstream extreme sports are base jumping, bungy jumping, sky diving, gliding, extreme skiing, mountain biking, cliff-diving, scuba diving, wind surfing. No matter what extreme sport you may enjoy know your limits, or you'll be pushed.

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In order for us to understand why people enjoy extreme sports, it is vital for you to understand what extreme sports are; the background, why they are called extreme and why they are categorize on the basis of enjoyment styles. In recent years, the term extreme sports has evolved on grand scale.

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Choose Your AdventureWelcome to the Outdoors section of Exploration Junkie! Exploration often implies various outdoor activities and sports - on land, in the water, or in the air. And of course, it's also a lot of fun. Develop your outdoor skills now and take your outside experiences to a whole new level!

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Famous snowboarder pulls out of slopestyle

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Famous snowboarder pulls out of slopestyle

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Do you like the excitement of extreme sports? If so, you might be an 'adrenaline junkie'. Find out more about white-water rafting and parkour in this video.

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/ CBS News

Extreme sports bring excitement, and are starting to draw big bucks.

But are the athletes putting too much on the line?

The daring participants say extreme sports are all about the thrill, the rush of adrenaline they get. They're climbing higher, jumping farther and moving faster, all in the name of personal glory.

Still, when things go wrong, they pay a heavy price.

Humans aren't supposed to fly, but Jeb Corliss comes pretty close.

His extreme exploits have a huge following. One video of him in action alone has gotten almost 9 million views.

Corliss hurt in stunt jump
Uncertainty clouds recovery of skiier Sarah Burke

On Monday, Corliss was seriously injured on Table Mountain in Cape Town, South Africa. Moments after he stepped off a cliff -- a 3,500-foot drop -- he hit the wall, breaking both his legs. He had to be taken by helicopter to a hospital.

Only a day before that, another extreme athlete, ice climber John Roberts, died after a 60-foot fall in Colorado.

And last Tuesday, free-skier Sarah Burke was critically injured during a training run in Utah.

All of these athletes take risks and are at the leading edge of extreme sports -- a one-time bit player on the sports scene that has exploded in recent years, thanks in part to social media and TV coverage.

The extreme athletes known as "Birdmen" even attracted the attention of "60 Minutes" in 2010.

Sponsorships have helped extreme athletes soar to new heights. Corliss has eight sponsors, including camera company GoPro.

GoPro CEO Nick Woodman says what Corliss does is risky, but not nearly as risky as most people would think, because he's so good at it.

Corliss jumped without permission from South African authorities, a jump that not only put him in danger, but his rescuers, as well -- one of the many reasons why big brands tend to shy away.

"A lot of big brands, (and) rightly so, don't want to take that chance. You don't want to see blood spattered all over a logo that you've invested millions and millions of dollars in," says sports marketer Joe Favorito.

But, Favorito adds, athletes who are determined will find a way. "What they're trying to do is offset costs and take it to another level as, quote, a professional athlete," he said. "And people think, when you're associated with sponsors, that makes you a professional. Sometimes, it makes you become a little more risky."

Professional skier and base-jumper JT Holmes knows how dangerous extreme sports can be. He knew Burke, and watched his close friend, Shane McConkey, die after jumping off a 2,000 ft cliff. Holmes was also the subject of the Steve Kroft "60 Minutes" story on "Birdmen," and was a stunt man for the film "Transformers." Holmes insisted on "CBS This Morning" that he engages in extreme sports because they're "just good, clean fun." He admitted he thinks about the possibility the activities could kill him. "Certainly," Holmes said. "Every single jump, every single ski run, you have to be aware of the (possible) consequences and, if you're going to choose to put yourself in these perilous situations, you need to be prepared."

To see the entire interview, click on the video below.

Jeff Glor

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They've become big business, but a death and some injuries have led some to question whether they're worth the money, thrill

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Who Its The Toughest Action Sports Athlete?

Who's the UGIEST of them all? Action Sport athletes are some of the most fearless, some might say crazy, humans on earth. They are driven by pure adrenaline, and the fact that they're risking life and limb on a daily basis only seems to fuel their fire. The unrelenting pursuit of progression leads these athletes to push the boundaries and test the limits of whať's possible, sometimes resulting in serious or fatal accidents. But you can only have ONE TRUE badass of the bunch and Krush set out to find who that is. WHAT'S THE PERCEPTION OUT THERE? WHICH ACTION SPORT HAS THE TOUGHEST ATHLETES? A recent 2012 survey of action sports athletes revealed that motocross athletes were perceived to be the toughest. *Respondents were asked to choose among the six sports listed below 32% 26.1% 18% MOTOCROSS SKATEBOARDING 11.8% SNOWBOARDING 7.7% BMX 4.4% SURFING FREESKIING #1 # 2 # 3 # 4 # 5 #6 WHERE'S THE RISK? NUMBER OF PARTICIPANTS IN EACH SPORT THAT GET INJURED PREDICTION (Per 1,000 participants) *Per 1,000 surfing hours for surfing New school freestyle skiing, or "freeskiing", has only come onto the scene since the late 1990's. Being such a young sport, data is scarce when it comes to tracking injuries and risk and includes both freeskiing and alpine skiing. We predict that the injuries per thousand will be significantly higher in the coming years. 100 94.5 63 60 40 20 8.9 6.97 6.6 2.63 Freestyle Motocross BMX Skateboarder Snowboarder Surfer Freeskier MOST COMMON INJURY IN EACH SPORT SHOULDER INJURIES LACERATIONS AND ABRASIONS BLUNT CHEST AND ABDOMINAL TRAUMA WRIST INJURIES TORN LIGAMENTS ANKLE INJURIES THE BEST OF THE WORST INJURIES NOTABLE ATHLETES FROM EACH SPORT RATED ON THEIR INJURY LEVEL *The rating system is a cross reference between seriousness & frequency of injuries FREQUENCY OF INJURIES KEVIN PEARCE TRAVIS PASTRANA MIKE METZGER MAT HOFFMAN JACOB TRETTE DAVE MIRRA O BRIAN DEEGAN JAKE BROWN DANNY WAY TRAVIS RICE TANNER HALL less often FREQUENCY OF INJURIES more often ATHLETES TRAVIS PASTRANA: Has one of the most extensive injury rap sheets in the action sports industry, including a rare dislocated spinal injury. MAT HOFFMAN: Fell after clearing 23 feet in the air, rupturing his spleen. He was given 20 minutes to live. MIKE METZGER: Broken vertebrae in his back and neck, injured both collarbones, and lacerated his kidney training for X17. KEVIN PEARCE: Sustained a traumatic brain injury after hitting his head on the hard icy side of the halfpipe training for the Olympics. DAVE MIRRA: He is called the "Miracle Boy" because he survives so many serious accidents. BRIAN DEEGAN: Broke his hip, snapped his humerus in half, broke his wrists five times, compressed a vertebra in his back and blew up his kidney doing a backflip. JAKE BROWN: Brown spent three days in a hospital recovering from a broken wrist, a bleeding liver, a bruised lung and cracked vertebrae. JACOB TRETTE: Almost drowned after being trapped underwater by two 25-foot waves. Spent three days in an induced coma in the ICU. DANNY WAY: Has had 13 surgeries, including eight on his knee, along with four ACL reconstructions in the same knee. TANNER HALL: Broke both ankles in 2005, then suffered fractures to both tibial plateaus, and ACL tears in each knee in 2010. TRAVIS RICE: Travis ruptured his spleen and spent six days in intensive care. TAKEN TOO SOON HEROIC ATHLETES, WE HONOR AND REMEMBER ALWAYS KARGOLA (1983-2011) JIM (1978-2011) JEREMY LUSK JEFF (1982-2012) CR JOHNSON MCCONKEY CRAIG AARON ROBINSON MCNEIL SHANE KELLY (1966-2003) (1984-2009) SARAH BURKE Freestyle Motocross JOYEUX (1980-2005) (1983-2010) (1969-2009) Freestyle Motocross MILOSKY Freestyle Motocross (1983-2011) SION (1975-2011) MALIK Freeskier Freeskier Freeskier Snowboarder Snowboarder Surfer Surfer BY DRIN With all action sports comes a certain degree of risk and fear that isn't found in other sports. This risk, along with the reward, is what motivates these athletes day in and day out, and even though we give props to every single one of them... WE CAN ONLY HAVE ONE WINNER: MOTOCROSS frousHEST SOURCES http://www.nsaa.org/nsaa/press/facts-ski-snbd-safety.asp http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15133584 http://www.aafp.org/afp/2001/0515/p2007.html#afp20010515p2007-b13 http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/01/070102092203.htm http://www.sandersclinic.net/common_motoxinj.html http://www.orthonurse.org/portals/0/sports%20med%203.pdf https://www.wpi.edu/Pubs/E-project/Available/E-project-042612-120758/unrestricted/final.pdf http://ajs.sagepub.com/content/40/4/770.abstract http://vuir.vu.edu.au/712/ KRUSH K http://travispastrana.net/extra/injuries/ ptavispastre http://magazine.stack.com/Thelssue/Article/7775/OneonOne_With_Brian_Deegan. aspx http://sports.espn.go.com/action http://www.grindtv.com/athlete/jeremy-lusk/ http://www.kidzworld.com/article/2703-xtreme-sports-injuries# http://www.sptimes.com/2007/07/17/news_pf/Sports/Extremely_painful.shtml http://skateboarding.transworld.net/1000077290/news/danny-way-hospitalized-at-mega-ramp-contest/ http://www.surfertoday.com/surfing/4892-jacob-trette-released-from-hospital-after-induced-coma http://www.surfermag.com/features/malikrip/ "Survey Results: 300+ respondents surveyed nationwide through Krush media outlets less serious SERIOUSNESS OF THE INJURY more serious

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Who Its The Toughest Action Sports Athlete?

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The toughest action sports athletes based on public opinion and injury reports. What do you think? Do you agree?

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Extreme Sports Facts

Check out our range of extreme sports facts.

Learn about the summer and winter X Games, different types of extreme sports, the surfaces and environments such as water, land, snow and air, as well as lots more interesting facts and information.

Extreme sports, sometimes called action sports or adventure sports, do not have an exact definition but are generally considered to be activities that are seen as having a high level of potential danger.

Extreme sports often involve high speeds, dangerous heights, the requirement for a high level of specialist technical skill, and highly specialized gear or equipment.

Success in extreme sports usually involves judging panels scoring athletes based on visual and technical criteria and completion of a 'trick'.

Height based extreme sports include Bungee jumping, skydiving, BASE jumping, paragliding and hang gliding.

Water based extreme sports include scuba diving, windsurfing, kitesurfing, wakeboarding surfing, whitewater kayaking and rafting.

Wheel based extreme sports include BMX, skateboarding, mountain biking, inline skating, rally car and motocross.

Winter based extreme sports include skiing, snowboarding, and snowmobile.

Cliff and cave based extreme sports include rock climbing, ice climbing, caving, free diving, mountaineering and cave diving.

The X Games are an annual extreme sports event, organized by the U.S. sports broadcaster ESPN. Participants compete to win gold, silver, and bronze medals along with prize money.

The first Summer X Games were held in 1995 in Newport, Rhode Island. The first Winter X Games were held in 1997 at Mountain Resort, Big Bear Lake, California.

X Games are typically held in the USA. The winter games are held in January or February and the summer games are usually held in August.

X Games have also been held in Asia since 1998 and Europe since 2010.

The X Games competitions often makes heroes of those athletes who are talented and brave enough to pull of a new and exciting 'trick' such as Tony Hawk's 900 in skateboarding, Travis Pastrana's double backflip in freestyle motocross, Heath Frisby's first snowmobile front flip or snowboarder Torstein Horgmo's triple flip.

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Extreme Sports Facts - Information About X Games, Action Sports & More

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Extreme Sports Facts Check out our range of extreme sports facts. Learn about the summer and winter X Games, different types of extreme sports, the surfaces and environments such as water, land, snow and air, as well as lots more interesting facts and information.