What's the worlds most dangerous and extreme sport?

[NRS]

LimaDelta said:

CaptainSlow said:

LimaDelta said:

Climbing (to an extent), motorsport, horse riding, diving, all have a pause button. If things start to go wrong you can take stock, evaluate your options and stop. .

Ha. None of these have a pause button if things go pear shaped. What the hell do you mean?

Of course they do. When climbing if you reach a dodgy ascent, or feel knackered you turn around and go home. With motorsport at any time you feel uncomfortable you can just pull over and stop the car/bike. You can't do that when committed in other extreme sports. If you are halfway down on a parachute jump and fear issues - what are your options? none. Just deal with it. You can't get back in the aircraft and call it a day.

Of course you could have a sudden mechanical failure in a car or bike which instantly makes you a passenger, but as I said any sport can unexpectedly kill you - even golf or driving to work. That doesn't make those activities extreme or inherently dangerous.

I know you compete or are active in motorsport. How scared do you actually feel when starting an event? I'd wager not at all as you are a professional and have invested a lot of time learning your skill and preparing your car. I'm sure to the casual spectator what you do seems extreme and dangerous, but you mitigate all (as far as one can) dangers before you even turn the key. If you thought there was something loose with the rear suspension - would you carry on? or pull back into the pits to have it checked? That is my point.

You do have some bail out chances in sky diving - you can stop in the plane for eaxmple. Also in sky diving you have a reserve chute. Say for rock climbing if you have a problem with your rope then there is no back up. So both are dangerous in different ways. Plus for climbing at altitude, diving etc you may not have a mind that is working correctly because of the conditions, so although it is ok to say you can stop now, your mind may not be in a position to make that decision.

[CaptainSlow]

Motorcycle road racing seems to have a few casualties.

[OliilO]

LimaDelta, climbing depends on what you are doing exactly. If you commit to soloing something near your physical limit, chances are that you can't 'press pause' and await help although admittedly that is possible. Aside from that, I climb a lot and have done some things people would class as an unacceptable risk for them; but that's the point, everyone's perception of risk is different. I'd actually say climbing is fairly safe as its all about controlling risk rather than necessarily taking it.

I'd put BASE or cave diving up there. I don't dive but could see that for an experienced diver it may seem like a logical progression. It depends on your experience and appetite for risk. I still think cave diving would be harrowing though.

[CaptainSlow]

OliilO said:

I'd put BASE or cave diving up there. I don't dive but could see that for an experienced diver it may seem like a logical progression. It depends on your experience and appetite for risk. I still think cave diving would be harrowing though.

I did a night dive through a cave tunnel with a buddy a few years ago. We'd had a couple of beers earlier in the evening so pretty much breaking every rule in diving. Was quite scary.

Also I did a dive though the internal corridor of a scuttled frigate just off Plymouth. I was second from last of about six divers. The amount of silt kicked up by the preceding four divers meant I was in pitch fog, a torch was no good as it just highlighted the silt. I had to go fast enough to not lose the tips of the fins in front of me but also be minded I had a friend behind. There was a lot of rule breaking on that dive too. There have been a number of fatalities on that wreck since of people doing less stupid things than us.

[Disastrous]

I was pissed the other night and had a shot on a downhill longboard on a steep hill with a 90 degree bend at the bottom, in the dark.

I'm now convinced this is the most dangerous sport in the entire world.

Brilliantly terrifying.

[GravelBen]

Disastrous said:

I was pissed the other night and had a shot on a downhill longboard on a steep hill with a 90 degree bend at the bottom, in the dark.

I'm now convinced this is the most dangerous sport in the entire world.

Brilliantly terrifying.

A bit like these jokers? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DgVo1IAVrDM

(but darker, obviously)

Edited by GravelBen on Wednesday 22 June 12:05

[ATG]

Traditional extreme: cheese rolling at Coopers hill, Gloucestershire. You rarely get to stand so close to such sporting lunacy. It's steep enough that you can hit the ground feet, head, feet, head, feet, head quite a few times before being able to crumple into a confused heap and ask for your mother. There's also a stone wall at the bottom of the slope to help you stop. It is astonishing that there aren't more serious head and spinal injuries.

I'd be surprised if there was any other sport as dangerous as close proximity wing suit flying if you factor in the time spent actually doing the sport. 8000m climbing is very dangerous, but you're going to spend days doing the climb and many hours in the death zone. Proximity flying lasts for seconds. The chances of anyone surviving enough flights so that they accumulate a significant amount of proximity flight time has got to be tiny.

[Disastrous]

GravelBen said:

Disastrous said:

I was pissed the other night and had a shot on a downhill longboard on a steep hill with a 90 degree bend at the bottom, in the dark.

I'm now convinced this is the most dangerous sport in the entire world.

Brilliantly terrifying.

A bit like these jokers? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DgVo1IAVrDM

(but darker, obviously)

Edited by GravelBen on Wednesday 22 June 12:05

Something like that, yes! But as you say, darker, and with a raincoat slung nonchalantly over one arm. And more a drunken confidence derived from a youth spent skateboarding that quickly turned to utter fear once it started going faster than I could jump off. Which was near instantly.

[FlyingMeeces]

Cave diving is the one that pretty much gives me the screaming heebiejeebies. This kinda thing. And yeah, the 'point of no return' for a lot of these is basically as soon as you've really started, so I'm not sure it really counts - once you're in a car doing 200 mph, or hundreds of metres under water, you're way past the point where stopping to properly take stock, review options and such is possible.

I hate the accounts of Everest deaths where people were beyond saving, exposed and stuck but still took a very long time to die. At least the poor bloody cave diving casualties spent minutes at most going from 'everything's fine' to never having to worry about anything ever again.