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£ £ 7" -ploit the
X-treme
sports”
seems to be the rally cry
among advertisers who want
to appeal to the so-called
“Generation X” — from makers
of Mountain Dew to the manufactur
ers of the N issan X-Terra — and the at
tention that has been given to these
sports have not failed to touch the mi
crocosm of Texas A&M.
But why this sudden explosion of
high-flying, cargo-pant wearing, crash-
helmet-bearing athletes?
Martha Muckleroy, a senior lectur
er for the Health and Kinesiology De
partment who teaches several kinesiol
ogy classes at A&M including
beginning mountain biking, venture
dynamics and volleyball, said she be
lieves the growth of the economy has
allowed more college students to break
into outdoor sports.
“The economy is so good, people
have a lot of money. There’s people in
this [beginning mountain biking] class
sports is another issue enthusiasts must
deal with in order to participate. While
most of the athletes admit that a certain
degree of danger is inherent in their
sports, they also agree that buzz words
like “extreme sports” and “X-Games”
are misleading.
“Extreme is a cool word, but
it’s really limiting to what we’re
doing. A better word would
be action or adrena
line sports,” said
Page 3
be k X-Games\ The term ‘X-Games’ is
given to anything non-traditional. I
don’t think that’s accurate.”
Heath said that some risks are un
avoidable when skydiving, but that
most are controlled by the
skydiver.
“Some people don’t
know very much about
the safety concerns, but
some are willing to do it
regardless. It doesn’t
matter what you tell
them,” he said.
“But I looked at it,
and I realized that the
way I looked at it and
the way that most people
look at it was wrong. You
can control more aspects
about your environment than
you think. Certainly not every
thing, and that’s what makes it
still dangerous, but you deter
mine what degree of difficul
ty you decide to undertake.”
AGGIES SEARCH FOR NEW THRILLS
BY EMILY HARRELL
57TOILLLUSTRATION BY CHADT3n33
Battalion
with $1,500 mountain bikes,” she said.
also think that the design, the
physics, the engineering maybe... the tech
nology has gotten so good and affordable
and safe to participate in these sports.”
Russell Heath, a licensed skydiver
and a senior genetics major, is who said
he agrees that the healthy economy al
lows more students to participate in
outdoor sports.
Heath said he has made 42 jumps
since he started skydiving.He said his
certification cost about $ 1,500 and that
he has spent at least $2,000 total in
cluding the gear that he has purchased.
“Once you get into it, it’s a pretty
cheap sport day-to-day, but getting certi
fied and all that equipment is a heck of a
lot of money. You can’t get into the sport
without at least a credit card,” he said.
The danger involved in many of the
Andy Ambros, Class of ’94 and de
signer of Earthsports.com, a Website
that sells gear and accessories relating
to outdoor sports.
“Know your limits. My limits are dif
ferent from the next guy. These sports
are about challenging yourself, but you
have to know your limits,” he said.
Muckleroy said the level of danger
involved in outdoor sports is deter
mined by the individual athletes.
“I think that the sports are as dan
gerous as you want them to be. And you
can’t tell me it’s more dangerous than
football. I don’t like the fear of panic,”
she said.
“When you say ‘X-Games,’ it
sounds like that’s what they’re in, but
they’re not. They’re at a very high lev
el in their sport, doing what they’ve
been training to do. They don’t have to
Once athletes have come to terms
with the danger involved with outdoor
sports, they can concentrate on finding
their favorite.
Muckleroy said that of all the sports
she teaches, white water canoeing is her
favorite.
“I really enjoy the coordination and
the power of my body working if some
thing is really hard, and you have to
balance,” she said.
Ambros said that skateboarding
while growing up made the transition
to snowboarding natural.
“We’ve all at one point had a skate
board in our hand. My favorite [sport
is] snowboarding,” he said. ‘‘It’s an un
believable experience. I personally feel
like you have more control.
See Xtrlme on Page 4.
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