Episode #1

The first episode of the Adventure Sports Show where hosts Jimmy & Jon lay out the vision for the show, and discuss their personal goals.

Jon interviews Debra Martin, MSPT, CLT of Archer Physical Therapy in Fort Oglethorpe, Georgia where she discusses the need for adventure athletes to pay attention to their bodies whether they’re beginner or elite.

Jimmy discusses the benefits of breathable wearables, and shares how to create a personal air conditioner to keep cool while training.

Apple developing activity monitor for skiers, snowboarders, bikers

According to AppleInsider,  Apple appears to be working on an activity sensor similar to the Nike+ iPod sport kit geared towards skiers, snowboarders and mountain bikers that would be capable of determining their “air time,” “speed,” and the amount of “power” or energy absorbed during those sporting activities.

“It is well known that many skiers enjoy high speeds and jumping motions while traveling down the slope. High speeds refer to the greater and greater velocities which skiers attempt in navigating the slope successfully (and sometimes unsuccessfully),” Apple wrote in a new patent filing discovered by AppleInsider this week. “The jumping motions, on the other hand, include movements which loft the skier into the air. Generally, the greater the skier’s speed, the higher the skier’s loft into the air.”

The Cupertino-based electronics maker further notes that the interest in high speed skiing is apparent simply by observing the velocity of skiers descending the mountain. Meanwhile, interest in the loft motion is less apparent, though it is known that certain enthusiastic skiers regularly exclaim “let’s catch some air” and other assorted remarks when referring to the amount and altitude of the lofting motion.

“The sensations of speed and jumping are also readily achieved in other sporting activities, such as in mountain biking. Many mountain bikers, like the aforementioned skiers, also crave greater speeds and “air” time,” Apple wrote. “However, persons in such sporting activities typically only have a qualitative sense as to speed and loft or ‘air’ time. For example, a typical snowboarding person might regularly exclaim after a jump that she ‘caught’ some ‘big sky,’ ‘big air’ or ‘phat air’ without ever quantitatively knowing how much time really elapsed in the air.”

There are also other factors that extreme sportsmen sometimes assess qualitatively. For example, if a snowboarder goes down a double-diamond ski slope while a friend goes down a green, easy slope, when they both reach the bottom, the double-diamond snowboarder will have expended more energy than the other, generally, and will have worked up a sweat; while the green snowboarder will have had a relatively inactive ride down the slope. Currently, there is no method or system to quantitatively compare how rough their journeys were relative to one another.

This is where Apple is looking to step in with a device — or series of devices — capable of detecting and displaying a visual and quantitative measure of how much “air” time and, in certain aspects, how fast a user moves in a particular activity.

Full story with diagrams

Aspen rock climber who fell 40 feet remains hospitalized

Aspen Daily News report:

An Aspen woman continued to recuperate Monday at Aspen Valley Hospital after a 40-foot rock climbing fall and a swift but very technically challenging rescue.

Forty-year-old Karen Sahn, an Aspen Highlands ski patroller and accomplished endurance athlete, fell due to an equipment failure while lead climbing a rock face in the Lincoln Creek Cliffs area off Lincoln Creek Road on Sunday, according to Pitkin County Sheriff’s Office reports.

The three other climbers she was leading, all local men, were unhurt.

Read the rest of the article in the Aspen Daily News

Recent Study on Heart Risks of Triathlons fails to mention risk of sitting on your @$$ all day

A recent study brought to light in an AP news story extols the dangers of doing a triathlon and the heart risks involved.  The study cites that participating in a triathlon (15 heart related deaths per million participants per year) is deadlier than running a marathon (4-8 heart related deaths per million participants per year). 

The AP  article fails to mention what distance those triathlon deaths occured.  Were they all Iron Mans?  If so, isn’t it a bit misleading to compare statistics when a marathon is one third of the distance traversed in an Iron Man?  Were those 4 to 8 marathon related deaths resulting from stand alone events or did they draw them from full Iron Man distance triathlons too?

Even if they were Half Iron (or Long Course as referred to on the West Coast) you’re still not comparing apples to apples.  If they were Sprint distance, then we may need to talk more about this.

This is by no means meant to trivialize any deaths occuring from a sporting event: marathon, triathlon or other.  However, the study appears faulty in at least the way it was reported and a bit asinine to those who compete in such events.  By all means do get routine physicals and advise your physician if you intend to train and compete in an endurance event.

We conducted a quick and very unscientific poll in the iMULTISPORT hallways this morning and unanimously concluded that sitting on the couch day after day, eating potato chips and watching Law & Order reruns is far more hazardous to your health than training for and participating in a triathlon of any distance.  What do you think about that?

Celebrating the Life of a Ski BASE Jumper Legend

From his bio on Matchstick Productions

Date of birth?
12/30/69

Hometown?
Squaw Valley, CA

Home mountain?
Squaw

What age did you start skiing?
2-ish

How would your mother describe you in one word?
“Perfect” of course. What do you expect? I’m a spoiled only child.

What animal best describes the kind of guy or girl you’d be interested in?
Flying squirrel

Who is your favorite historical character?
It’s not really one person. I admire the ancient explorers. The ones from many thousands of years ago that we don’t have any exact record of.  The ones who traveled great distances and over seas and continents in search of new possibilities or because of necessity.

Glam rock or ghetto hip hop?
Hmmmm… tough one. Gonna have to go with the ghetto hip hop even though I am tremendously white.

Planes, trains, or automobiles?
Parachutes

Finish this sentence: “Happiness is a thing called…”
Heli budget

The funniest trend in skiing is…
Bandannas on the face. Oh and life style shots in movies of pro skiers trying to act tough and intimidating.

Shane McConkey, legendary skier, in tragic BASE jumping accident

Legendary skier, innovator, personality and all-around snow industry superhero Shane McConkey passed away Thursday in a tragic ski BASE jumping accident in Italy. He was 39.

How to Swim Faster

How’s this for motivation?  Seriously, it’s a good thing they were monitoring the waters.  Does your insurance cover shark attacks?

If you do stuff like this, then we need to talk

 

20 Seconds of Joy

“BASE jumping kills people very quick,” says Jeb Corliss, professional BASE jumper. “It’s one of the few sports in the world where you make mistakes, you get killed.”

Documentary filmmaker Jens Hoffmann met the Norwegian freeskier Karina Hollekim in 2002 when she first became interested in BASE-jumping. He immediately started filming with the intent to follow her for a period of time in which he hoped to understand her addiction to such a sport.

Throughout the five-year filmmaking process, the director is able to capture a young woman as she opens up toward the camera, creating a view into life and mindset that is often misunderstood. Over the years, the film documents Karina through many stages of her BASE jumping career, from birth to sudden and tragic end.

20 seconds of joy traces the story of the athlete, past and present; but also explores the psychology behind life, death, risk and the confrontation of fear. It is an intimate portrait and a unique documentary in which reality is more captivating than any fictional script.

“I don’t want to die, I want to live. I’m pretty good at running away, and this is my escape!” This is how Karina Hollekim describes her dedication to BASE jumping. Documentary filmmaker Jens Hoffman first met the now 30-year-old Norwegian in 2002. He immediately started to film, accompanying her through many stages of her BASE-jumping career, until it comes to a sudden stop, changing all aspects of her life.

20 Seconds of Joy was screened for the first time in public recently. The occasion could not have been a better one, as the movie being chosen as a finalist of the Banff Mountain Film Festival this year, one of the most prestigious and respected festivals of this genre worldwide. Even though rumors were around and expectations for the movies were high, the reaction of the audience towards “20 Seconds of Joy” was described as absolutely unique in the past years of the festival by its staff members.
During the screening the director of the movie, Jens Hoffmann, was surprised by the sensitivity of the viewers, but as the last credit was disappearing from the silverscreen and the audio faded into mute, he was not the only one being confused by the silence in the big theatre. It took some seconds until the crowd exploded in applause and overwhelming cheers, like a wall of noise, and did not stop for a longtime. When the obviously touched presenter of the theatre came back on stage to guide the audience into the brake, applause rose again, giving  20 Seconds of Joy such a warm reaction, that it could not have been expected any bigger.

At the official award ceremony in the big Eric Harvie Theatre  20 Seconds of Joy was awarded as  BEST FILM ON MOUNTAINSPORTS, the same award achieved by Fatima’s Hand  last year. It was also chosen for the  PEOPLE’S CHOICE as  BEST MOVIE OF THE FESTIVAL, a highly credited award not chosen by the jury but by the audience. The movie achieved two of the most prestigious awards on mountain and adventure films in its first appearance ever.

Reasons to BASE jump in ‘09

from Jaunted – the Pop Culture Travel Guide

Because kayaking isn’t extreme enough, because it’s on your list of resolutions or because you’d rather not actually get stuck in a ski gondola: The reasons to go BASE jumping this new year are plenty, and we’ve been hearing more and more about the insane sport recently.

In Whistler, two nuts dudes leaped from the new Peak2Peak gondola, which is at its highest point more than 1,400 feet above the ground. Meanwhile, three jumpers in Minneapolis were nabbed by cops after they flung themselves from the 32-story-high Foshay Tower–and then returned to the building, now a W Hotel, to brag about the feat in the lobby bar.

But lest this trend seem too safe, an English jumper snagged his ‘chute on a cliff face in Devon in December and had to be rescued by the local coast guards. While he was uninjured, authorities said a similar incident in 1996–when BASE jumping was truly cutting edge!–left a thrill seeker seriously hurt.