Cycling, Jumping, Skiing, Diving and other things
January 15, 2014 12:49 PM Subscribe
For me this alternated between (a) "how do you know where the [ground/bar/vehicle] even is if you're in the middle of a quadruple backflip" and (b) total wordlessness, for I am having a panic attack.
posted by savetheclocktower at 12:59 PM on January 15, 2014 [1 favorite]
posted by savetheclocktower at 12:59 PM on January 15, 2014 [1 favorite]
Some dazzling stuff in there, to be sure, but there is a lot of very calculated Red Bull clickbait in the mix. I was hoping for some more spontaneous Jerome Simpson-style action.
posted by ricochet biscuit at 1:03 PM on January 15, 2014 [4 favorites]
posted by ricochet biscuit at 1:03 PM on January 15, 2014 [4 favorites]
This video is improved 100% by playing Queen's "Don't stop me now" in the background.
But probably much more accurate to be playing Rawcus's White People Are Crazy from the post on the Blue earlier today.
posted by Admiral Haddock at 1:03 PM on January 15, 2014 [3 favorites]
But probably much more accurate to be playing Rawcus's White People Are Crazy from the post on the Blue earlier today.
posted by Admiral Haddock at 1:03 PM on January 15, 2014 [3 favorites]
Brought to you by GoPro® and Red Bull™.
Also: KEEP BOTH HANDS ON THE CRANE!
posted by tylerkaraszewski at 1:13 PM on January 15, 2014 [5 favorites]
Also: KEEP BOTH HANDS ON THE CRANE!
posted by tylerkaraszewski at 1:13 PM on January 15, 2014 [5 favorites]
A fun look at yet more hobbies I won't be taking up in 2014.
posted by ThatCanadianGirl at 1:14 PM on January 15, 2014 [2 favorites]
posted by ThatCanadianGirl at 1:14 PM on January 15, 2014 [2 favorites]
I'm a hook-line-and-sucker for REGULARSPEED>SLOMO>REGULARSPEED style shots.
Also, never sure how to feel about the pole-dancing stuff. I mean, incredible athleticism is incredible athleticism, but.... I dunno.
posted by stinkfoot at 1:15 PM on January 15, 2014 [1 favorite]
Also, never sure how to feel about the pole-dancing stuff. I mean, incredible athleticism is incredible athleticism, but.... I dunno.
posted by stinkfoot at 1:15 PM on January 15, 2014 [1 favorite]
I tried to keep my cynicism intact for as long as possible but that kitesurfing on rice patties shit did me in. Where the hell is that?
posted by phaedon at 1:17 PM on January 15, 2014 [4 favorites]
posted by phaedon at 1:17 PM on January 15, 2014 [4 favorites]
I know this is a sign of aging but my first reaction was, "this video should be renamed 'rich adrenaline junkies doing stupid things 2013'".
posted by pmv at 1:23 PM on January 15, 2014
posted by pmv at 1:23 PM on January 15, 2014
I don't think too many of these guys are rich. Most people who do things like that that I've run into, mountain guides, "pro" cyclists and the like, are dirt poor.
posted by bondcliff at 1:27 PM on January 15, 2014 [5 favorites]
posted by bondcliff at 1:27 PM on January 15, 2014 [5 favorites]
Correction: 3:22 of people being awesome and 0.20 of some guy being a total loon.
posted by MuffinMan at 1:27 PM on January 15, 2014 [1 favorite]
posted by MuffinMan at 1:27 PM on January 15, 2014 [1 favorite]
I know it's a cranky thing to say but after watching this video, once I unpuckered, I couldn't help but say WELL WHAT DID YOU THINK WAS GOING TO HAPPEN WHEN YOU JUMPED OFF A CLIFF
posted by pmv at 1:27 PM on January 15, 2014 [2 favorites]
posted by pmv at 1:27 PM on January 15, 2014 [2 favorites]
Never could be an extreme sports person, but if I had the balls, man, I would love to try that proximity flying business.
posted by Lutoslawski at 1:30 PM on January 15, 2014 [1 favorite]
posted by Lutoslawski at 1:30 PM on January 15, 2014 [1 favorite]
bondcliff: To be fair, that's true of a lot of these specific instances. The median sick skateboarder or BMXer doesn't have to be loaded.
But the dude driving a snowmobile off a mountain, or synchronized his parachuting jump with the driving car…
Basically, I lead a very boring life you guys.
posted by pmv at 1:31 PM on January 15, 2014
But the dude driving a snowmobile off a mountain, or synchronized his parachuting jump with the driving car…
Basically, I lead a very boring life you guys.
posted by pmv at 1:31 PM on January 15, 2014
Granted, you couldn't tell the sex or gender in plenty of these, but mostly, it seemed like a lot of men doing awesome stuff plus one woman pole dancing and one woman jumping rope (both of whom were, indeed, awesome, but I sure wish the gender split weren't so extreme in these videos).
posted by spindrifter at 1:37 PM on January 15, 2014 [1 favorite]
posted by spindrifter at 1:37 PM on January 15, 2014 [1 favorite]
My impression is that very few extreme athletes get the top-tier sponsorships necessary to live a wealthy lifestyle. Most put every cent they have into their equipment and travel (or have travel paid by video producers).
posted by stinkfoot at 1:42 PM on January 15, 2014
posted by stinkfoot at 1:42 PM on January 15, 2014
That last image made me turn pale. Literally - my co-worker just asked me if I was all right.
posted by Joey Michaels at 2:10 PM on January 15, 2014
posted by Joey Michaels at 2:10 PM on January 15, 2014
I used to be "pro" enough to at least get a discount on gear from some of the major manufacturers. This was back in the days of extreme sports videos being sold in VHS form in the various outdoors stores. The people who made those videos were, yes, largely white and male (with a few amazing women), but they were distinctly not rich. As a weekender, I bought a lot of the beer.
They tended to live in tents, follow the seasons, and do what they loved. Now, of course, we've all settled down to our lives, but, yeah, adrenaline isn't something you do because you have money or because that's a way to get money.
posted by straw at 2:19 PM on January 15, 2014 [1 favorite]
They tended to live in tents, follow the seasons, and do what they loved. Now, of course, we've all settled down to our lives, but, yeah, adrenaline isn't something you do because you have money or because that's a way to get money.
posted by straw at 2:19 PM on January 15, 2014 [1 favorite]
on a related note: here's the trailer for the 2013/2014 Banff Film Festival World Tour, which is basically a travelling showcase of outdoor extreme sports and other adventure documentaries. If watching 3 minutes of this stuff leaves you wanting to watch more as opposed to cranky and curmudgeony (like the rest of this thread ;p ) then it's worth your while to look up the tour schedule and see if it's coming to a city near you.
standard disclaimer that, as with past Banff trailers, the segment between 2:00 and 6:30 of this 7:30 minute clip is filled with sponsor ads.
posted by bl1nk at 2:30 PM on January 15, 2014
standard disclaimer that, as with past Banff trailers, the segment between 2:00 and 6:30 of this 7:30 minute clip is filled with sponsor ads.
posted by bl1nk at 2:30 PM on January 15, 2014
The videos are a reflection of the makeup of the extreme sports community, which in turn is a reflection of the fact that testosterone leads you to do stupid things for thrills and to show off.
If that were the cause of doing stupid things for thrills and showing off, I would be putting on muscle in my bench-press a lot faster due to all the testosterone in my system. There are plenty of ladies who do totally crazy shit.
posted by WidgetAlley at 2:32 PM on January 15, 2014 [2 favorites]
If that were the cause of doing stupid things for thrills and showing off, I would be putting on muscle in my bench-press a lot faster due to all the testosterone in my system. There are plenty of ladies who do totally crazy shit.
posted by WidgetAlley at 2:32 PM on January 15, 2014 [2 favorites]
The last time a "PEOPLE ARE AWESOME 2013" link was an FPP, the MeFi peanut gallery was in full force cynical mode.
posted by mistersquid at 2:36 PM on January 15, 2014
posted by mistersquid at 2:36 PM on January 15, 2014
These guys are definitely not rich, I know a lot of similar folks and they scrape by. Although I think the guy doing all the handsprings is a football player, so he might be rich! Aside from him and the professional drivers the pole dancer is probably the best paid performer on this video.
Pretty sure the rider on the pink motorcycle is a woman too.
posted by fshgrl at 2:40 PM on January 15, 2014
Pretty sure the rider on the pink motorcycle is a woman too.
posted by fshgrl at 2:40 PM on January 15, 2014
Maybe this is just my biases, but I have a really hard time appreciating the parts that are basically just "look at my motorized penis extension".
posted by ssg at 2:44 PM on January 15, 2014
posted by ssg at 2:44 PM on January 15, 2014
Granted, you couldn't tell the sex or gender in plenty of these, but mostly, it seemed like a lot of men doing awesome stuff plus one woman pole dancing and one woman jumping rope (both of whom were, indeed, awesome, but I sure wish the gender split weren't so extreme in these videos).
and
here's the trailer for the 2013/2014 Banff Film Festival World Tour
I go to the traveling version of the Banff Mountain Film Festival most years. The first and largest stop, they always tell the audience, is my hometown of Great Falls, MT. Anyway, this year, the standout film was definitely the documentary about the struggle of the Women's Ski Jumping team trying to get the sport into the Olympics. There wasn't a dry eye in the house. The NYT Magazine did a great piece about this team and their work to get recognized in the sport (despite many of them outskiing men at less-than-Olympics competitions).
This year at the Banff festival, there was also a great shorter film about two women mountain climbers pushing their limits. The feel of their climb and the movie was radically different from male-focused extreme sports videos...less screaming/adrenaline/domination-of-nature-and-competition (not sure if those are the right words), but no less impressive and intense and pucker-inducing.
Every year in recent memory, the Banff film festival has had at least one film focusing on women pushing themselves and their sports.
Can't recommend the traveling festival enough.
posted by msbrauer at 2:47 PM on January 15, 2014 [1 favorite]
and
here's the trailer for the 2013/2014 Banff Film Festival World Tour
I go to the traveling version of the Banff Mountain Film Festival most years. The first and largest stop, they always tell the audience, is my hometown of Great Falls, MT. Anyway, this year, the standout film was definitely the documentary about the struggle of the Women's Ski Jumping team trying to get the sport into the Olympics. There wasn't a dry eye in the house. The NYT Magazine did a great piece about this team and their work to get recognized in the sport (despite many of them outskiing men at less-than-Olympics competitions).
This year at the Banff festival, there was also a great shorter film about two women mountain climbers pushing their limits. The feel of their climb and the movie was radically different from male-focused extreme sports videos...less screaming/adrenaline/domination-of-nature-and-competition (not sure if those are the right words), but no less impressive and intense and pucker-inducing.
Every year in recent memory, the Banff film festival has had at least one film focusing on women pushing themselves and their sports.
Can't recommend the traveling festival enough.
posted by msbrauer at 2:47 PM on January 15, 2014 [1 favorite]
Jesus, this stuff is mostly terrifying. I feel like sending it to everyone I know in the insurance industry, just to freak them out a bit today.
posted by mathowie at 3:00 PM on January 15, 2014 [1 favorite]
posted by mathowie at 3:00 PM on January 15, 2014 [1 favorite]
Maybe this is just my biases, but I have a really hard time appreciating the parts that are basically just "look at my motorized penis extension".
Anyone with balls big enough to do that doesn't need extensions. I think it's just your biases. ;)
posted by anonymisc at 3:12 PM on January 15, 2014 [5 favorites]
Anyone with balls big enough to do that doesn't need extensions. I think it's just your biases. ;)
posted by anonymisc at 3:12 PM on January 15, 2014 [5 favorites]
The videos are a reflection of the makeup of the extreme sports community, which in turn is a reflection of the fact that testosterone leads you to do stupid things for thrills and to show off.
What an appalling display of gender essentialism.
posted by erlking at 3:16 PM on January 15, 2014 [1 favorite]
Well, thank god I watched this because I started out the day with too much self-asteem.
posted by Foam Pants at 4:23 PM on January 15, 2014 [1 favorite]
posted by Foam Pants at 4:23 PM on January 15, 2014 [1 favorite]
Maybe this is just my biases, but I have a really hard time appreciating the parts that are basically just "look at my motorized penis extension".
This comment and the thought behind it is fascinating. What are you saying, that certain feats of physical prowess are just male displays of virility and/or power? And that tis is bad, correct? If so, can you specify which displays illustrate "motorized penis extension" and which do not?
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 4:44 PM on January 15, 2014 [1 favorite]
This comment and the thought behind it is fascinating. What are you saying, that certain feats of physical prowess are just male displays of virility and/or power? And that tis is bad, correct? If so, can you specify which displays illustrate "motorized penis extension" and which do not?
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 4:44 PM on January 15, 2014 [1 favorite]
I'm pointing specifically to the clips involving motor vehicles that one straddles. Motorbikes, snowmobiles, etc.
You did a cool thing with your body is pretty different to my mind from you did a cool thing riding a motor vehicle. Obviously some of those moves are physically difficult but to call them all physical prowess (when the prowess is in fact gasoline fueled) doesn't make sense to me.
And clearly women can do those things on motor vehicles too. This isn't an exclusively male thing.
posted by ssg at 5:15 PM on January 15, 2014
You did a cool thing with your body is pretty different to my mind from you did a cool thing riding a motor vehicle. Obviously some of those moves are physically difficult but to call them all physical prowess (when the prowess is in fact gasoline fueled) doesn't make sense to me.
And clearly women can do those things on motor vehicles too. This isn't an exclusively male thing.
posted by ssg at 5:15 PM on January 15, 2014
Obviously some of those moves are physically difficult but to call them all physical prowess (when the prowess is in fact gasoline fueled) doesn't make sense to me.
To me, prowess is more about skill and ability more than force vectors. Gasoline is merely adding velocity, the actual physical coordination and skill involved in mid-air shenanigans is extreme. (I am physically-able, therefore doing a backflip with my own body is less physically challenging than doing one on a motorcycle... and a whole lot less scary!)
But perhaps more to the point, probably the real reason these activities are in the video is that the person is putting themselves in an extreme situation where their physical body will be physically destroyed if their immense physical skill fails.
posted by anonymisc at 5:40 PM on January 15, 2014 [1 favorite]
To me, prowess is more about skill and ability more than force vectors. Gasoline is merely adding velocity, the actual physical coordination and skill involved in mid-air shenanigans is extreme. (I am physically-able, therefore doing a backflip with my own body is less physically challenging than doing one on a motorcycle... and a whole lot less scary!)
But perhaps more to the point, probably the real reason these activities are in the video is that the person is putting themselves in an extreme situation where their physical body will be physically destroyed if their immense physical skill fails.
posted by anonymisc at 5:40 PM on January 15, 2014 [1 favorite]
A couple of those shots were of Red Bull Rampage. You can find complete coverage of the last couple years' events on YouTube. It's not mountain biking, it's just falling with style.
posted by spikeleemajortomdickandharryconnickjrmints at 5:44 PM on January 15, 2014
posted by spikeleemajortomdickandharryconnickjrmints at 5:44 PM on January 15, 2014
when the prowess is in fact gasoline fueled
To me, prowess is more about skill and ability more than force vectors. Gasoline is merely adding velocity
To expand on this, skiers doing somersaults in mid-air are also physical prowess to me, even though your criticism is that the power they employ to do this does not come from their muscles, it comes from gravity by way of a (gasoline-fueled) ski-lift.
Almost every activity in that video shows people harnessing external sources of power, and masterfully playing with that external power, almost never creating it. The dancer and a few others were operating entirely under their own power, but almost everyone - from the motorcyclist to the surfer to the skydiver to the skier to the kite-boarder to the water-skier to the snow-mobiler - almost everyone was fueled by gasoline or other external power.
And their physical prowess was magnificent.
:)
posted by anonymisc at 5:57 PM on January 15, 2014 [1 favorite]
To me, prowess is more about skill and ability more than force vectors. Gasoline is merely adding velocity
To expand on this, skiers doing somersaults in mid-air are also physical prowess to me, even though your criticism is that the power they employ to do this does not come from their muscles, it comes from gravity by way of a (gasoline-fueled) ski-lift.
Almost every activity in that video shows people harnessing external sources of power, and masterfully playing with that external power, almost never creating it. The dancer and a few others were operating entirely under their own power, but almost everyone - from the motorcyclist to the surfer to the skydiver to the skier to the kite-boarder to the water-skier to the snow-mobiler - almost everyone was fueled by gasoline or other external power.
And their physical prowess was magnificent.
:)
posted by anonymisc at 5:57 PM on January 15, 2014 [1 favorite]
So I guess these are outtakes from that White People Crazy link that was posted earlier?
posted by cyberscythe at 6:07 PM on January 15, 2014
posted by cyberscythe at 6:07 PM on January 15, 2014
I tried to keep my cynicism intact for as long as possible but that kitesurfing on rice patties shit did me in. Where the hell is that?
Difficult to be sure, but I'd guess Banaue in northern Luzon. Gorgeous location wherever it is.
posted by minedev at 6:07 PM on January 15, 2014
Difficult to be sure, but I'd guess Banaue in northern Luzon. Gorgeous location wherever it is.
posted by minedev at 6:07 PM on January 15, 2014
The dude hanging at the end literally hurt my stomach.
posted by anothermug at 6:08 PM on January 15, 2014
posted by anothermug at 6:08 PM on January 15, 2014
"Oh hey guys we found new ways to fall off a mountain with incredible velocity because the old way of falling off a mountain just sucked and in this version you might live and anonymously appear in a video so I guess we gotta do it?"
posted by Turkey Glue at 6:12 PM on January 15, 2014 [1 favorite]
posted by Turkey Glue at 6:12 PM on January 15, 2014 [1 favorite]
Ok, the kid at the end had a death wish, but mostly I watched this with a surmounting feeling that I am an entirely different species than these awesome crazy athletic driven people. I mean, is it just middle age or are we talkin DNA here?
posted by eggkeeper at 6:23 PM on January 15, 2014
posted by eggkeeper at 6:23 PM on January 15, 2014
Tomorrow, I am going to make an appointment to get my testosterone level checked.
posted by 4ster at 6:25 PM on January 15, 2014
posted by 4ster at 6:25 PM on January 15, 2014
Almost every activity in that video shows people harnessing external sources of power, and masterfully playing with that external power, almost never creating it.
Absolutely. I'm not trying to make a strict argument about the source of power for any particular activity.
I'm making an aesthetic argument about the beauty inherent in a human being doing something versus a human being causing a motor vehicle they are astride to do something. Those are very different things for me and clearly they are not so different for others.
posted by ssg at 6:37 PM on January 15, 2014
Absolutely. I'm not trying to make a strict argument about the source of power for any particular activity.
I'm making an aesthetic argument about the beauty inherent in a human being doing something versus a human being causing a motor vehicle they are astride to do something. Those are very different things for me and clearly they are not so different for others.
posted by ssg at 6:37 PM on January 15, 2014
in my mind, every time they showed someone jumping off a tall thing and didn't show them land, it's because they died.
posted by the agents of KAOS at 7:14 PM on January 15, 2014 [5 favorites]
posted by the agents of KAOS at 7:14 PM on January 15, 2014 [5 favorites]
> I tried to keep my cynicism intact for as long as possible but that kitesurfing on rice patties shit yt did me in. Where the hell is that?
That is Brian Grubb in the Philippines. It is wakeskating, with power provided by a winch, not kitesurfing.
posted by theony at 12:54 AM on January 16, 2014
That is Brian Grubb in the Philippines. It is wakeskating, with power provided by a winch, not kitesurfing.
posted by theony at 12:54 AM on January 16, 2014
The Michael Bay version of extreme sport videos. Just the explosions and none of the context, prep, landings or ...
posted by panaceanot at 2:58 AM on January 16, 2014
posted by panaceanot at 2:58 AM on January 16, 2014
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posted by hellojed at 12:54 PM on January 15, 2014 [2 favorites]