Wednesday, October 10, 2012

Extreme Sports


Since the dawn of time, man has been pushing the envelope of what is humanly possible. Through the advancements of technology and the imagination of men and women, every day people accomplish tasks prior generations would never had imagined.
                                                                                                                         
In the past two centuries we have flown through the air, traveled under the sea, and landed on the moon.  As people and as nations we have challenged the laws of physics over and over again.  Sometimes we have done this in order to advance society, other times we have done it simply because nobody thought we could.  As the bar of human accomplishments continues to rise, people are more and more fascinated by these incredible physical acts. 

The most recent extreme event is the jump of Felix Baumgartner.  Felix is an extreme athlete from Australia.  He has spent a majority of his life skydiving and BASE jumping from recognizable landmarks around the globe.  He set the world BASE jumping record when he jumped from the hand of Christ the Redeemer in Rio de Janeiro.  He was the first man to skydive across the English Channel.  His most recent event is now scheduled October 14, when he will attempt to skydive from an all time record of 120,000 feet.

The Red Bull Stratos project is unlike any project ever before.  Felix will take a helium balloon 23 miles into the atmosphere.  Once he reaches the height 120,000 feet, he will open the door, step to the edge and jump.  He is expected to be the first man to break the sound barrier reaching speeds around 620 mph.  Attached is a CGI video.

What are your impressions as you watched the video?  Would you ever be willing to perform extreme sports (with the proper training and conditioning, of course)?  Why or why not? Why do you think mankind is fascinated with taking things to the extreme?  

20 comments:

  1. My impression is that the height that Felix Baumgartner is jumping from is absolutely amazing height because no one has ever done that before. Just the numbers on the blog were absolutely astounding, this was one of those things that just before he jumps he asks himself this ‘What the heck am I doing?’ But of course someone who is as experienced as his would know that the utmost caution was taken in this stunt. I think this video is a good representation of what this stunt is all about. I guess I would but since my mom worked in critical care as a nurse at the hospital. So she has seen the different types of things that can happen when accidents happen. But my final decision is, yes I would do it, not for the thrill but for the fame. Even if I did I am still if I would take it as far as some people have. Probably the number one thing is that my mom would never let me do anything like that because she is smart. I Think that mankind is fascinated with doing crazy stuff like this is that when someone says that something is not possible it just makes you want to do it even more. This brings me to the conclusion: Some things are just too extreme for me but man will always go up and beyond.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Ben: if the highest sky dive was all the way in space wouldn't the pressure kill you? or was that space suit air resistant of the pressure. were the red bull people insane when they broke that record like seriously i would do it only if i knew i would have a 25% chance f living at least.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Grace- My impressions are, it's very cool how anyone would have the courage to jump from that height, and not knowing where they'll land. I don't think I will ever do extreme sports because I just can't go up to space without being scared, and I cannot just jump down and assume that I'll land in a nice, grassy field somewhere in America. I think mankind is fascinated with taking things to extreme because they want to see people, or themselves, accomplish something that they thought was impossible to do. People are also very curios, and want to know what would happen if they did something like that.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Kylee- My impresions where that Felix was awesome.Yes,becauseit whould be fun and amazing.so that we arent just average.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Emily- my impression was that it is really amazing at someone would even do that. I sould definately do extreme sports because it would Be really fun. Probably because no one just wants to have a boring life, so they make it fun and interesting bydoing extreme sports and everyone else thinks its really cool so they do tthe same thing.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Claire- My impressions were that Felix was so courageous and brave to jump from that height. I know if I was doing that, I wouldn't even think or imagine of going that high. I don't think I would try extreme sports because just thinking of jumping from an airplane makes me scared. I don't think sports that are off ground would really appeal to me, I would much rather do sports that are on the ground. If I did do extreme sports it would not be a very fun time for me. Mankind is fascinated with taking things to the extreme because people like watching other people do things like that for entertainment. You see all of these T.V. shows with people taking things to the extreme and then they end up getting hurt and people just laugh. Other times, when they don't get hurt, it is kind of cool to see people jump from that height because you see the whole process from start to finish.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Charlie- My impressions were that Felix was an amazing hero to the world and will encourage other people to follow in his footsteps. I would love to do extreme sports because they would so exciting to do what Felix did. Mankind is so curios and is always wondering what if or that would be awesome and I think that it is very interesting and entertaining to see a human do what has never done before and that is exactly what Felix did. I think it would take so much training to be able to accomplish in something so extreme.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Madeline- I thought that what Felix did was amazing and very risky. I think it was amazing, because nobody else had ever thought of doing such a high sky dive so he didn’t know what to expect. I also think it was very risky, because he has a high chance of killing himself. I would never be able to do a stunt like that, because I am afraid of heights. I think mankind is fascinated with doing extreme things, because they want that extra thrill and adventure of doing it.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Mackenzie- I was absolutly blown away at what Felix was attempting.I mean can you imagine jumping from that height of 120,000 ft. I think it is truly amazing. Yes, I think it would be a great experience to meet the people along the way and also prove that with the proper training our bodies can withstand amazing things. I think that mankind isn't really ready to take things to the extreme. We might think we can do something and we try it and say "WoW that was a really bad idea." We also can't understand for some reason why we can't fly or breath under water But we must understand that we rant supposed to breath under water or fly. I just hope one day we can understand that so no more people will risk doing things that don't make sense

    ReplyDelete
  10. Graci- My impressions on the video were I was absolutly amazed of what Felix did! I think Felix is a very brave man. The height of what he skydived was incredible! Also, especially he knew he could have died but he did it anyway and to go faster than the speed of light is amazing! Yes, I would be willing to compete in extreme sports because it would be very exciting, fun and I would love the experience. I think mankind is fascianted to take things to an extreme because they want to know what we are capable of doing and not. But then again it could be very dangerous of someone tried doing something that they knew they weren't capable of. When we watch the extreme sports it's very entertaining but also very suspenseful because you don't what will happen!

    ReplyDelete
  11. Austin- I think Felix is amazing. He is very brave and adventurous. I would not be willing to do extreme sports. A lot of people refer to me as saftey Sam so I would not be the person to ask to do an extreme sport. I think people like taking extreme risks because they get excited if they do something risky. They might also like to feel that nervous rush that goes through your body right before you are about to do a risky thing.

    ReplyDelete
  12. Isaiah-My impressions are that Felix wanted to be known through history and many americans do it for just the same reason. I mean its not like everyone jumps from 12,000 feet.

    ReplyDelete
  13. Henry-My impressions are that these are Fearless Felix's hobbies, doing dangerous things such as this. If I was totally mentally and physically prepared then yes i would do a stunt like this. The reason why is because I will be prepared to do it. I thnk man kind it fascinated by this because we love to see people succeed and others fail in a funny not like death or anything just a crash or something.

    ReplyDelete
  14. Emile-some of my impressions is that Felix wanted to be known as a man who every one knows now and that he went through lots of training and preparation. i will never do extreme sports for the risk of parachute failure injury death ect. man kind wants to do these stunts or performances because we all have a certain sense to achieve something or do something that every one will know them for.

    ReplyDelete
  15. Welles. My impression on Felix were amazing. It would be a chance of a life time to do that but I probably would not do that because I am scared of heights.

    ReplyDelete
  16. Robert- My impressions where that I was amazed that he would even think about doing that because when you risk your life like that i personally think that you would be putting way to much trust in your equipment because I'm sure that i wouldn't ever risk my live do just achieve some sort of record. There is no way that i would ever try to do or performe an extreme sport even with proper training because again like i said earlier I'm not the kind of person to risk my life or put it on the line just to possibly break some sort of record plus i don't want to try to encourage other people to do reckless things because things could then possibly get ugly in the courtroom for me. I think that mankind loves taking things to the extreme level because some people just love the feel of the adrenaline rush. I also think that one other factor could also be fame and fortune because so many people just think about all the prose like becoming rich and things like that when they aren't even thinking about all of the danger or cons that the stunt could do to themselves. Like for example some people get broken legs or something like that making it impossible to run again therefore the fame and fortune for the few is not worth the injuries of the many.

    ReplyDelete
  17. Awesome supere high fall i wish i could do that! and i agree with robert

    ReplyDelete
  18. Mckai- When I wached this video I thought that is totaly awsome but I would never do that. The only thing I do that is extream going on ropswings and clif jumping. the only thing that makes me want to do that is Utube and the movies. I think mankind pushes it because of the fame, fun, and girls.

    ReplyDelete
  19. Margaret- my impressions is that that is so amazing and extremley hard. i could never do that because i would be to scared and i woud think that i would die. he has spent many years mentally preparing for this and that would be so hard. i dont even think that i can bungy jump off of a bridge. i think that mankind is fasinated with doing these things because we always want to try something new and we want to prove that anything is possible but some of us are just plain crazy!!

    ReplyDelete
  20. Elizabeth- I think that this dude is giving an impression on kids and people which can be good and or bad. I could not free fall from that hight I would scream and be messed up for the rest of my life. I believe that mankind is coureuse and want to know what its like to do so crazy things.

    ReplyDelete

Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.