01.2022
ADRENALINE the reason why people are addicted to extreme sports
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ADRENALINE the reason why people are addicted to extrame sports
CONTENTS 01 sensation
p.04
02 adrenaline and addiction
p.06
03 top 3 most extreme sports
p.08
04 Spencer Seabrook
p .12
05 Markus Eder
p .14
06 Nirmal ‘Nims’ Purja
p .16
04
^ photo by Felipe Giacometti
^
photo by Christian Newlands
^^
photo by Hu Chen photo by a Ambrus Gerencsèr
WHAT CAUSES PEOPLE TO ENGAGE IN EXTREME FEATS, AT THE LIMIT OF HUMAN CAPACITY, PUTTING THEIR LIFE IN JEOPARDY? SENSATION
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ADRENALINE WHAT DRIVES PEOPLE TO JUMP OFF A BRIDGE TIRED TO A TOPE, TO CLIMB VERY HIGH MOUNTAINS OR TO WHIZ AT MORE THAN 300 KM BY CAR PER HOUR ON A CIRCUIT?
Adrnaline is an hormone that prepares the body to face external stimuli. It increases the flow of blood to muscles, while releasing sugar into your bloodstream. It acts as a vasodilator and improves our respiratory capacity. In consequence you´ll feel strong, agile, fast.
Among the many and different factors, there is certainly adrenaline, capable of arousing unique emotions, causing shivers of pleasure and fear at the same time. Adrenaline is a hormone that prepares your sympathetic nervous system to fight or flee, and your body makes it in response to a stressor or threat. The so-called „adrenaline rush“ refers to a situation that is frightening and, at the same time, gives energy. It describes that particular sensation in which the reflexes are sharpened, the alertness threshold increased and the emtions amplified. Normally, blood adrenaline levels are between 20 and 190 picograms per milliliter. Physiological peaks manifest themselves as a reaction to situations of tension or danger. It can be synthesized in the laboratory and is administered in the form of a drug only in cases of anaphylactic shock, bronchospasm, cardiac arrest, drug overdose and perforating duodenal ulcer with hemorrhage.
ADRENALINE AND ADDICTION
THE REASONS WHY YOU´LL BECOME ADDICTED TO EXTREME SPORTS
08 The list of extreme sports is long and there are significant differences amongst them, but they all have something in common: practicing them will make you feel full of energy, powerful and almost invincible. They´ll help you push your limits, get rid of fear, improve ourselves and reach new goals. They are, without a doubt, a different way to get to know oneself better and to find a deep well-being. It´s not surprising that practicing extreme sports can get you hooked, as this addiction to strong emotions has a scientific and biological basis. The reason is adrenaline, increasing the euphoria and reducing fear, adrenaline helps you giving the best of yourself. After experiencing this change in your body, another reaction occurs: endorphins, another hormone related to happiness, appear. This has a powerful analgesic effect and generates a feeling of well-being and joy. All this makes people to feel „hooked“ to experience these sensations that risky sports produce and to increasingly feel the need of more and new stimuli. This is also because the body gets accustomed to these feelings and it becomes necessary to rise the level of „risk“ to reach certain states of excitement.
A COMPLEX MIX OF INFLUENCES Most scientists agree that personality is an intricate mix of environmental and genetic influences. When it comes to environmental factors, several studies have shown that risk-taking behavior is linked to the earliest bonds we form with our primary caretakers. While no study has looked directly at the role of parental attachment as it pertains to extreme sports, several studies have examined its affect on other risky behaviors—promiscuous sex, gambling, drugs—and determined that those with less secure attachments are more likely to engage in dangerous activities.
Tim Woodman, a sports psychology professor at the Bangor University in Wales, suggests that it‘s about something altogether different: emotional regulation. In his view, people who partake in high-risk sports often have difficulty experiencing emotions, a condition called alexithymia. They seek out extreme sports as a way to actually feel. “These activities force emotion out of them and that primary emotion is fear. So the person who has difficulty with emotions, goes into an environment to feel their emotions,” Woodman says. If a person has difficulty experiencing and expressing emotions in everyday life, then risk-taking activities become an exercise in empowerment in which he or she is able to conquer the most primal emotion of them all: fear...
ADRENALINE AND ADDICTION
VOLCANO BOARDING
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ICE CLIMBING
While we’ve all seen a natural disaster film or two, we, as humans, generally don’t like to test fate. For some, however, boarding down an active volcano seems like an ideal day out. If you’re the kind of soul that likes to dance with death, this is one of the most extreme sports in the world you will find.
For those of you who love frozen ice worlds and winter sports, this one is for you. Requiring a delicate combination of agility, strength, balance and stamina, ice-climbing is certainly not for the faint of heart. This extreme sport involves climbers tackling frozen landscapes and battling the odds of avalanches, as well as falling ice and rocks.
TOP 3 MOST EXTREME SPORTS
BASE JUMPING
Our need for speed, adrenaline and new experiences is pushing the wide world of sports to increasingly extreme levels. Videos of extreme downhill skateboarding and street luge starting making a splash online a few years ago, but that’s just a small part of the list of extreme activities.
For those of you who tried parachuting and decided it was simply too boring, there’s always this unusual sport which may just do the trick. Base jumping involves jumping off tall structures, such as bridges, cliffs or buildings.
TOP 3 MOST EXTREME SPORTS
12 NAME: SURNAME: NATIONALITY:
SPENCER SEABROOKE CANADIAN
PROFESSION:
SLACKLINER
KNOW FOR: free solo world record of highine
One the films showing was “Sketchy Andy”, a slackline/ highline/base jumping documentary featuring Andy Lewis as he broke the free solo world record. Walking to the car after the film, Spencer vowed to start slacklining, highlining and even began naming which highlines he would rig. No more than a week later, Spencer has his first slackline and was already starting down his Slacklife journey. Practicing every day and always continuing to push his limits, Spencer quickly advanced. As soon as he could walk the line in the park, he put it high in the trees. As soon as he could walk it high in the trees, he put it high in the mountains, always learning something on the way. It was this continuous progress of goals combined with a pure dedication and commitment to achieving the goals, that allowed Spencer to get to the level he is at. Continuing to train hard and push himself, Spencer broke the Free Solo World Record held by Andy Lewis and documented in the film that first started Spencer’s journey “Sketchy Andy”. Now Spencer inspires people around the world when he travels, from his many short videos and with his world record film ‘Untethered’.
Spencer Seabrook is the leader of the SlacklifeBC crew, dreaming up and making the epic missions possible. He continues to train hard and push his self, but is also a motivator to so many people around him, helping them realize and achieve their full potential.
SPENCER SEABROOKE
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THE ULTIMATE RUN Markus Eder looks like he was born with boots on as he demonstrates in his latest video, The Ultimate Run, 10 minutes of pure adrenaline in an incredible descent that starts from the Swiss glacier of Zermatt down to the valley. This documentary is the result of two years of filming by Legs of Steel, a production company based in Innsbruck, four ski resorts chosen for their beauty and hundreds of descents, attempts, falls and successes. What was born from this mix and match is the creation of the perfect mountain, the one that allows the skier to be able to express his incredible allround skills, from freeride to freestyle also passing on groomed snow slopes. Markus Eder‘s adventure therefore starts from the immaculate snow of Zermatt in a pure freeride descent with super technical steps and tricks. After passing several blocks of ice, caves, snow walls, Markus arrives at the Klausberg ski resort, in his country of origin. A short freestyle session with friends then Eder returns to the fresh snow and crosses the medieval castle of Tures and the mining museum before arriving at sunset at the end of this incredible adventure.
NAME: SURNAME: NATIONALITY: PROFESSION:
MARKUS EDER ITALY FREESKIING
KNOW FOR: the first Italian new school freestyler to reach international recognition
“SOMETIMES MY MIND GOES KIND OF CRAZY ABOUT SKIING AND I ASK MYSELF, WHAT IF...?“
MARKUS EDER
16 NAME: SURNAME: NATIONALITY:
NIRMAL PURJA NEPAL
PROFESSION: MOUNTAINEERING KNOW FOR: climbed all 14 of the world‘s tallest mountains and made history by summiting K2 in winter
MOUNT EVEREST
His first major project after leaving the SBS saw Nims set out to climb the 14 highest mountains in the world, all over 8,000m in just seven months. He completed the feat in just six months and six days, earning several world records in the process, including the fastest summit of the three highest mountains in the world: Everest, K2 and Kanchenjunga.
BIOGRAPHY
On January 16, 2021, Nirmal made history once again as he, along with nine other Nepali mountaineers, became the first to ascend K2 in the harsh weather conditions of winter.
Born in the Myagdi district of Nepal and raised in Chitwan, in the country’s flatlands, Nirmal ‚Nims‘ Purja may not have grown up in the shadow of the Himalayas but he has spent much of his life scaling seemingly impossible heights. Regarded as one of the world’s very best mountaineers, much of Nirmal’s life was spent in the military, initially as a member of the Brigade of Gurkhas (six years later he became the first Gurkha to ever join Britain’s Special Boat Service). During his time in the SBS, Nirmal developed an interest in mountaineering and embarked on his first major climb in 2012, reaching the summit of Lobuche East, despite having no previous experience. A passion for mountaineering was born and just two years later he made his first ascent of an 8,000m mountain when summiting Dhaulagiri in just 15 days. On May 13, 2016, he summited Mount Everest and just one year later repeated the feat when leading a team of 13 Gurkhas to the peak in order to commemorate 200 years of Gurkha service to the British Army. Immediately after, he made his way back up to the mountain this time with his sights set firmly set on a world record. Just five days later this was achieved after summiting Everest, quickly followed by Lhotse and Makalu. It was to be the first of many records he would claim in the mountains. In 2018, Nirmal chose to leave the military in order to focus on his mountaineering career. In the same year he was awarded an MBE for his outstanding work in high altitude mountaineering. NIRMAL PURJA
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CREDITS PAGE 01-20
- TREKKING - Jonathan Gallegos - Chamonix, France https://unsplash.com/photos/HoMqP_ldh-s
PAGE 04-05
- CLIMBING - Hu Chen - Tonsai, Thailand https://unsplash.com/photos/FZ0qzjVF_-c - DOWNHILL - Ambrus Gerencsèr https://www.pinterest.it/pin/590182726142880971/ - SNOWBOARD - Felipe Giacometti https://unsplash.com/photos/q80sx583gzE - SKATEBOARDING - Christian Newlands https://unsplash.com/photos/_tH3YCjPCCE
PAGE 07
- SURF - Jeremy Bishop - Morrow Bay, United State https://unsplash.com/photos/oY-BSScHYww
PAGE 09
- JUMPING CLIFF - Grand Teton National PArk https://adventuretripr.com/blog/the-must-hike-trails-in-grand-teton-national-park
PAGE 10-11
- ICE CLIMBING, Red Bull https://www.redbull.com/int-en/best-ice-climbing-destinations - VOLCANO BOARDING - Nicaragua https://www.alongdustyroads.com/posts/2014/9/29/orange-is-the-new-black-volcano-boarding-with bigfoot-nicaragua - BASE JUMP - Red Bull https://www.redbull.com/it-it/base-jumping-video-pov-60-secondi-di-adrenalina-pura
PAGE 12-13
- HIGHLINE PICTURES - Eaquire https://www.esquireme.com/sports/55234-the-scariest-moments-of-slackliner-spencer-sabrookes-e treme-life
PAGE 14-15
- MARKUS EDER - Red Bull https://www.redbull.com/int-en/athlete/markus-eder - THE UTLIMATE RUN file:///Users/susanna/Desktop/73502.jpg
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- NIRMAL PURJA file:///Adrenalinealpinism.jpeg - EVEREST https://unsplash.com/photos/oBX-b6ltYts
PAGE 18-19
- SURF - Kensuke Saito https://unsplash.com/photos/oY-BSScHYww
ADRENALINE
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