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Jonathan White

The pandemic lockdown is perhaps proving hardest for fans of outdoor and extreme sports.
Football fans might miss the 90 minutes of action but that’s hardly the same as an ultramarathon or climbing a mountain.
Never fear, aside from the books, TED Talks and thrilling documentaries that have been rounded-up for your isolation enjoyment, there is plenty of adventure content on YouTube.
These are some of the more niche examples of the sport for outdoors enthusiasts to add to their bucket list and, for the rest of us, it is a glimpse into the weirdest sports that you are never likely to try (but cannot help watching).


Parkour is pretty extreme as is high diving so combining the two must at least double the danger. British pro parkour team Storror did just that with a video of them parkouring their way into the Rhine.
It’s been viewed a whopping 23.5 million times but that does not stop each rewatch seeming like the one where it all goes awry.


Extreme ironing was a sensation a few years ago to the point where it had its own calendars and was the subject of television documentaries.
Run by the, ahem, Extreme Ironing Board, the premise was simple. Take an ironing board and some clothes to iron along on your adventures – and then get photographed doing it. Under water, skydiving, on a mountain – the only limit is your adventure.
The sport has not quite pressed ahead its inventor’s stated dream of reaching the Olympics, arguably losing some steam since its rapid increase in popularity in the early days.


If you think skydiving needs an added element, or perhaps you wondered how to elevate your next kayaking trip, then the answer is skyaking.
You skydive strapped into a kayak and paddle through the sky before parachuting onto the water.
It might go slower through the air than normal skydiving, but the increased wind resistance increases the chances of the adventure going up the creek.


Mountain biking is clearly ‘two-easy’ in the minds of extreme mountain unicyclists, who take the one-wheeled way down.
Also known as “Muni”, mountain unicycling does allow riders to have bigger, fatter tyres and some also have a disc brake that they can operate via a handle under the seat.
There are no two ways about it, brake or otherwise, coming down a mountain at 80km/h (50mph) on one wheel is as dangerous as it sounds.


Zorbing too tame? Take it to the ocean in a sport described by the US Coast Guard as “manifestly unsafe”.
The heat inside the see-through zorb ball is one factor, as is the fact that you only have yourself to power you, but it can be done.
One YouTuber went from the UK to France in his, although that is not recommended in this post-Brexit world.


Wingsuits were given the nod by the FAI, skydiving’s governing body, in 2015 – years after such competitions had started.
Now, organised performance flying competitions are judged on time, distance and speed, with the acrobatic aspect of the discipline being decided on the formation of the team.
Either way, it is as close to flying as humankind can get and even the GoPro videos are not for the faint of heart.


Sand boarding is snowboarding on sand. Simple stuff.
The sand is there year-round, but the four seasons availability is ruined by a lack of accessibility – no one is building ski lifts on the dunes.
If someone would, then there is no reason why this cannot be an Olympic sport of the future.


The Inside Hook luxury lifestyle website talks of a combination of cliff diving and free diving, where the jumpers then hold their breath to journey as deep underwater as they can.
Dutchman Daan Verhoven made a video of something similar for RedBull TV, but the jump was actually filmed by a drone. So while there’s no evidence, it seems entirely believable if you’re already jumping in.
What does definitely exist is underwater BASE jumping as seen performed by Guillaume Nery above.


Ice canyoning turns up the danger on canyoning, challenging those who do it to test their climbing and rappelling with the added element of ice.
Much like canyoning, adventurers explore canyons and the rivers that run through them, but below freezing so waterfalls are frozen in time.
It needs specialist equipment and it comes with special risks – avalanches, falling ice and being trapped in freezing water. Reasons enough to heed the advice of TLC and not chase waterfalls.


Anyone who has been to Pompeii will tell you that volcanoes tend to come off best in any battle with mankind, but that has not stopped intrepid adventurers in Nicaragua.
Volcano boarders head to Cerro Negro, which claims to be both the youngest and most active volcano in Central America with 23 eruptions in 160 years.
Starting near the top they then sled down the volcanic ash on the side. Assuming that you’re not unlucky enough to have a go when it erupts, it sounds much more dangerous than it is.


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Outdoor

Extreme Sports


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Tourism