Active.com Action Sports

The Active Action Sports Blog Has Moved!

ATTENTION! We've moved! Please update your bookmarks and feeds. The new home for the Active Action Sports Blog is http://community.active.com/blogs/actionsports

New RSS feed: http://community.active.com/blogs/actionsports/feeds/posts

X Games 13

The 13th annual X Games are quickly approaching. Three new events will be featured this year: women's surfing, BMX freestyle big air and motocross racing.

While X Games 13 will take place August 2 to 5 in Los Angeles, California, the surfing competition is scheduled for July 3 to 6 at Puerto Escondido, also known as the Mexican Pipeline. In addition to women’s surfing, this year's competition will feature a "USA vs. the World" format that replaces the "East Coast vs. West Coast" approach from past years. This format pits surfers on opposing teams against one another as they compete for the highest score based on speed, control and power, all in support of a team victory.

The surfing competition is less than a week away. Until then, this video should hold you over.

Surfing 50 States

With Memorial Day weekend behind us and schools dismissing their classrooms, summer is (unofficially) here. The season for  vacations and road trips is upon us, and I’ve got a few trips lined up that I’m looking forward to. However, none of my plans are nearly as cool as the trip two Australians, Jonathan Durrant and Stefan Hunt, just completed.

Durrant and Hunt traveled for seven months to complete their mission to surf in all 50 states. When told that they couldn’t possibly surf the inland states, they found "waves" in irrigation ditches, snow and even in a potato field. Raised in St. Louis, I was curious to see where they chose to surf in Missouri and was expecting to find they took on the Mississippi River. I think they did one better in checking off Missouri by surfing down the steps at the Arch.

Their rules were simple: to surf all 50 states, “surf” was defined as being on a surfboard with some sort of momentum, and to document and share the experience with as many people as possible.

To top it all off, they had an ice cream truck donated to them by a sponsor to help minimize their costs. However, during the 20,000 miles they traveled, it seems the truck ended up being more trouble than it was worth. It needed two engines, two alternators, one muffler, one repaired fuel tank, one battery, one ignition coil, two rewiring repairs and three tows.

Judging by their stories and pictures, it looks like it was worth it.

(Photo provided by Getty Images)

Speed Flying

There is an up-and-coming sport that combines skiing, parachuting, snow kiting and parasailing that allows you to descend mountains at speeds up to 70 miles an hour. That is intense.

Here’s a unique view of the new sport known as speed flying or speed riding. The video lets you vicariously experience the alternating skiing and soaring effect:

This sport gives a whole new meaning to the phrase “extreme sport.”

Changing the way we see skateboarding

As an underground activity, skateboarding has always come along with stereotypes, many of them negative and misconstrued. But the rebellious, drug-taking-punk image of old is giving way to that of a skillful athlete with a daring edge. It's the skaters themselves making this change, and Richard Zuccarello is among those leading the way. His organization Skateboarders Against Drugs sends a positive message to the community while promoting the sport of skateboarding to kids.

The creation of Skateboarders Against Drugs was sparked in 2003 when an elementary school in Woodland Hills, Calif. asked professional skateboarder Zuccarello to help them with their anti-drug campaign.

Read more about Skateboarders Against Drugs.

How to Harness the Wind

Combining paragliding, wakeboarding and windsurfing, kiteboarding (also known as kitesurfing) is still a debutante in the athletic world -- yet to celebrate its tenth birthday. But the high-adrenaline sport, in which you can perform tricks more than 20 feet above the water and travel at speeds of more than 30 knots, is steadily gaining disciples.

Despite its reputation as an extreme sport, kiteboarding is also about balance, technique and finesse. Perhaps that's why the ranks of women riders increase every year, along with female instructors and women-specific kiting camps.

Kiteboarding classes -- an absolute must to get started in the sport -- are available around the country. Follow these tips to help you soar across the water.

How extreme should I go? You Decide.

Dear readers,

The weather is getting warmer and I'm looking for more reasons to get outside and enjoy being active.

My first love is team sports. However, I want to broaden my horizons and take up a new action sport. I want you to decide which one I pick up. I will post which sport got the most votes and updates on how I am progressing.

So, let's hear it. Should I be grinding at the skate park? Hitting the trail? Tell me which sport I've been missing out on.

Greetings from the top of the United States

Lone Pine, Calif., is a quiet through town located along the southern section of U.S. Highway 395, the main north-south artery through the Owens Valley, connecting the Inland Empire to Reno, Nev. Whitney Portal road travels west from the center of town and climbs 13 miles and about 4,000 feet, terminating at a parking loop flanked by 1,000-foot granite walls and dotted with pungent pine trees. Here, trailheads originate which lead west into the John Muir Wilderness and to the summit of Mount Whitney, the highest point in the Lower 48 states.

During the summer months, throngs of weekend mountaineers trudge up the 11-mile trail to the coveted peak…if they are lucky enough to obtain a permit which often must be reserved months in advance. Winter on Mount Whitney is a different story. While winters in the Sierra Nevadas can be relatively calm and warm much of the time, storms can start on a whim and last for a week. And the swiftness with which storms move in and the severity with which they linger make for an unforgiving environment that can strike fear into the heart of even the most seasoned mountaineer.

Rather than the soft, 11-mile route which most folks take in the summer, winter ascents follow a shorter, steeper and far more direct route to the top. First climbed by John Muir, the mountaineer’s route is a strenuous third-class hike with areas of exposed ledges from which a fall means certain death. Hard-packed snow can make travel over rocky terrain slightly easier by creating a blanket upon which one can create tracks, but loose powdery snow will cause a would-be summiteer to sink to their waist with every step, severely slowing progress and increasing the chance of injury.

I attempted the mountaineer’s route three times over this past winter. My first two attempts were cut short by bad weather that moved in unexpectedly during the first night of camping. My third attempt was the charm. Two days of blue skies and warm daytime temps made it possible to hike in no more than my long johns and a T-shirt. The first day was a hike from the car (8,500 feet) to a relatively flat and wind-protected spot at 12,000 feet. The second day started before sunrise in order to take advantage of solid snow which allowed for the use of crampons rather than the snowshoes which keep oneself from sinking in looser snow. The final sections of the hike follow a 1,500-foot gully just to the north of the summit and then 500 feet of scrambling up boulders to the summit plateau. This last 500 feet is a “no-fall” zone, which means that a one wrong move will surely result in serious injury and possibly death.

Standing atop the summit of the highest mountain in the contiguous United States is quite surreal. To the east lies the Owens River Valley and the White Mountains, which receive far less precipitation. The lack of snow and their soft contours belie their size. But there is no mistaking the grandeur of the entire Sierra Nevada range which dominates the views to the north, south and west. One could stand for days on the summit of Whitney and count the endless snow-capped peaks and subsequent valleys. Taking in the view from the summit, it is easy to forget your everyday life and the troubles which plague society. From the top of Mount Whitney, you can gain a better perspective of our own insignificance, and life’s myriad challenges pale in comparison to the struggle to gain the summit. For a moment I felt like I had achieved a great victory, but that moment was short lived, and soon I was facing a long descent back to the car, tired, sore and wanting nothing more to get back to the same society from which I’d fled into the mountains.

(Photos provided by Gil Weiss)

Mountain Biking the North Pole

A couple weeks ago Chicago had record high temperatures and I was overjoyed to be outside on my bike after a long winter of indoor training rides. Winter is back now in the Midwest and it is a rude awakening. It’s almost the middle of April and Major League baseball games have been canceled in both Cleveland and Chicago on account of snow. I’ll admit, it makes me not want to take my bike out anytime soon.

Until I read about the North Pole Bike Extreme, the first bike race at the North Pole. The race description on the site is as follows:

You will cycle a 26.2-mile marathon distance in extreme sub-zero temperatures on the high Arctic Ocean while negotiating small hillocks of ice and pressure ridges. You will struggle in this formidable challenge, constantly aware you are on territory where the polar bear is king. Forced to carry your bike in some sections, and with 6 to 12 feet of pack ice separating you from 12,000 feet of Arctic Ocean below, a steely nerve will be required to take part in North Pole Bike Extreme - the coolest bike race on the planet.

The Midwest weather doesn’t seem so bad anymore. Fewer excuses, more pedaling!

(Photo provided by Getty Images/Image Source)

Surf Year-Round

Whenever surfing comes up in conversation with non-surfing people, the matter of water temperature almost always surfaces. I've met several people who say, "I don't surf here (in Nor Cal) because the water is too cold!" Yes, the water temperature around Half Moon Bay, Calif. is typically in the 48 - 58 F range year-round, including in the dead of winter and summer. But, with new technology in wetsuits, this is no longer an excuse.

A wetsuit is a surfer's essential life-support system, especially for a starter who spends more time inside the water.

For more on new wetsuit technologies, accessories, and how to choose the right one for you - check out the full story here!