Book Description

Dare to read the extreme!

Product Description
Dirt bike racing, bungee jumping, paragliding, skateboarding. Cheese rolling, extreme ironing and going over Niagra Falls in a barrel (yes, really!). There's all kinds of crazy and not-so-crazy extreme sports.Here's your chance to get the facts.It's OK doing extreme sports when you want to, but what about when you HAVE TO -- to survive?? Read "The Climb" and find out.Finally use the Word Check to make sure you know your kitesurfing from your skysurfing. ... Read more

Book Description

This high-speed introduction to extreme biking showcases the skills and shares the secrets of mountain biking, BMX biking, road racing, four-tracing racing, and C-X biking. This is the ideal book to have on hand for following the Tour de France and Summer X Games!

Customer Reviews (1)

Great Introduction!
Bike!is such a dynamic, well-written and well designed introduction to the biking world that I've given it as a present to several of my friends, both new and experienced riders. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

A bloody how-to book
The book was a little bloody in its descriptions.The story was set in the snowy mountains.The main characters in the book were Sherman Poppen, Bob Webber, and Dimitrije Milovich.My favorite character was Sherman Poppen because she was good at snowboarding and she did tricks too.My favorite part of the book was when they told you what you need to snowboard.I would recommend this book to my friends maybe they will try it once.However, I will only tell them if they are 13 years old or older because if they are younger they might get hurt.

A good book about snowboarding
The book was a little bloody story because snowboarders get hurt very often.The setting of the story was during the winter in the mountains.The main characters of the book were Sherman Poppern, Bob Webber, and Dimitrije Milovich.My favorite character was Sherman Poppoen because she was good at snowboarding and she did tricks too.My favorite part of the book was when it told you what you need to snowboard.I would recommend this boook to my friends, maybe they will try it once.However, I will tell them to read it if they are 13 years old or more because if they are younger they will get hurt. ... Read more

Book Description
This book shows you how to apply the principles of extreme sports - such as drive, stamina, flexibility, and guts to achieve extreme career success.Filled with advice from careerists who have reached professional nirvana, this contrarian guide shows readers how to get beyond the ho-hum career comfort zone to reach their professional peak. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (6)

Going for the big air at work
Your career will almost certainly not be a straight, uphill climb within a single company, according to author Eileen Gunn. Extreme sports are about personal expression, enjoying an exciting experience and developing a reputation for spectacular feats. An extreme career is about the same things. Orientated to Gen Xers and Gen Yers, the book describes a career trajectory that is more like jumping from peak to peak than like steady mountain climbing, as varying peaks and valleys bespeak dramatic career changes. We find value in the message that you can have an extreme career, if you wish, and in the instructions for how to hit the peaks. You can learn how to grab big air for your career and make more of every day of your life.

Grabbing the big air while not breaking your career's neck.
This book is aimed at people under 35 and the earlier in their career the better.It is written in a multimedia style and has the graphic style of a packet of information given to an extreme athlete at a competition.That is the metaphor for the book.

The idea is that the single company, climbing the corporate ladder of your parents and grandparents is over.Young people today will be switching jobs on a regular basis.To get the most out of a job to advance your career for the next job you land you need to treat your present job as a competition to get you some recognition that will get you noticed for the next gig.Grab the big air now.

Eileen Gunn uses anecdotes from the careers of people who have been successful in business and as extreme athletes.She shows us how they used a series of jobs to end up in the good places they are now and relates that to what they do as an extreme athlete.

Probably the most valuable service she offers in the book is showing how extreme athletes mitigate as much risk as they can through planning, training, gathering intelligence, and then letting go and relying on their preparation.

She also points out a style of teamwork and leadership she calls kinetic leadership and recommends that to the younger generation of workers.That is, be a part of a team and contribute all you can, but don't hog the sunshine.Lead when your skills warrant it, but support others when they have the most to offer.These trade-offs help everyone.

Not so relevant to me, but it might be very helpful for someone a generation younger.

The use of metaphor
Using extreme sport as a metaphor the author explores the topic of managing your career. The graphic style (both literally and figuratively) are aimed at a young audience. I purchased a copy for my nephew.

A Good Read on Career Climbing!
I had intended to quickly glance through this book and ended up reading it attentively. Though I am past thinking of my career as an exciting 'climb, the way the author uses the metaphor works well for life in general, and therefore made for an informative read, whether you are near the summit or have already peaked. But if you are in your 20's or 30's, this is a must read (my daughter will receive her gift next week). It is a 'how to' book that passes along alot of information without sounding like preaching. And it is well written. I hope the author considers doing a sequel: a 'how to' reppel into retirement!

This metaphor leads to a new way of thinking
If you're looking to advance up the corporate ladder, practice tackling risk as a rock climber.Sports lingo is commonly used as metaphor for the work world--"Be a team player" and all that.This books teaches a new set of lingo drawn from extreme sports that more accurately reflects the realities of today's job market.It's packed with examples of business tycoons who've learned all their important lessons "grabbing big air" on a snowboard.A must for members of Generation X/Y who want to be noticed by the big decision-makers. ... Read more

Product Description
This handsome volume is penned by journalist Patricia Oudit, an extreme sports specialist and snowboarder.Oudit has first hand knowledge of the ins and outs of snowboarding technique and is on first name terms with snowboard amateurs and professionals alike.The 100 awe inspiring images are the work of leading snowboard photographers, Pascal Boulgakow, Philippe Fragnol, and Jean-Marc Favre - who have recorded the exploits of powder snowboarders at hotspots worldwide. ... Read more

Book Description

Customer Reviews (1)

nice pictures
This is a pretty good book with tons of photos and info. I would say to buy it, but first look at what else is out there. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (5)

Outstanding read
Also an old favorite of mine.I recommend this book for anyone who wants to get more juice or joy out of their sports and/or adventures.I'm an endurance runner and when my running gets stale I pick up Bone Games and re-read it for a refresher on how to keep my running interesting and exciting.Anyone who enjoys sports, including hiking, running, climbing, adventure racing or whatever would get value out of this one.Anyone who enjoys a good adventure story would like it as well.It's well written, interesting, and therefore, easy and quick to read.

an old favourite
This book is an old favourite of mine. When I came across it on sale a few years ago in the Daedalus catalogue, I bought a bunch of copies to give to friends, mostly martial arts types. This book is not about martial arts per se, I can't help feeling that what Mr. Schultheis has to say is important to all martial artists and those involved with peak athletic performance. While mainly focused on high-risk sports and survival situations, I think most readers will be fascinated by his obsessive search for the consummate mind-set in which the seemingly impossible is accomplished with ease.

Schultheis is a runner and a climber, and when climbing in the Colorado Rockies, he had a bad fall which triggered a kind of peak experience. As he describes it: "Something happened on that descent, something I have tried to figure out ever since, so inexplicable and powerful it was. I found myself very simply doing impossible things: dozens, scores of them, as I climbed down Neva's lethal slopes. Shattered, in shock, I climbed with the impeccable sureness of a snow leopard, a mountain goat."

This experience sets the author off on a quest to find the key to this altered state of consciousness. And what a quest it is! He ranges from Shamanism to long-distance running, mountaineering in Nepal, Plains Indian vision quests, and survival at sea. He doesn't specifically deal with martial arts, but the state of consciousness he seeks is known by various terms such as "muga-mushin" and "heijoshin" in the Japanese Martial Arts. More recently Mihaly Cziksentmihaly has researched what he calls the "Flow" state and written extensively on it. While Schultheis doesnft seem to come to any firm conclusions, it's certainly not through a lack of effort, and it sure is fun being along for the ride.

Excellent
I found this book very intresting and would recommend it to anyone intrested in "the search for transcendence".The reading is easy and flows well.

Between Endorphin Addiction and The Will to Power
A mix between Brad Lewis' "Assault on Lake Casitas", Heart of Darkness, Walden and "Jonathan Livingston Seagull". Throw in some JOhn Muir and youre set. A kindred spirit of anyone who has ever found a balm for existential anxiety in testing the limits of the human body and spirit.

Spiritual/psychological analysis of extreme athletes.
Don't be deceived by the title.This book leaps beyond mere 'games' and instead zeroes in on a wide spectrum of outdoor adventurers.The author, Rob Schultheis, compares a wide spectrum of athletic psyches to himself,hoping to explain the lure to nature's most extreme challenges.Hiswriting may stray from scientific methods, but his anecdotal and personalstyle is engaging and often based in Eastern philosophies. Overall, a solidcollection of musings in a topic rarely navigated, sprinkled with harrowingaccounts of unbelievable triumphs and near-misses. ... Read more

Book Description
Whether you're a longtime outdoorsperson looking to get your kids involved in the activities you loved B.C. (Before Children), or have no outdoor experience but want to enjoy a new sport alongside your children, Extreme Kids will take the whole family on an adventure. Learn the basics of outdoor sports, some extreme (whitewater rafting, kiteboarding, backcountry skiing), and some less so (day hiking, peak bagging, flatwater canoeing), and how to share them with your kids. The book also includes practical and philosophical reasons for family outdoor adventuring. It's never too early to hit the trail (or the river, or the vertical wall) with your kids--each section has an easier version of an extreme sport to get the family's feet wet before diving in.

Winner of the 2006 National Outdoor Book Award for Best Instructional Book!

Foreword Book of the Year Award 2006-Silver Medal ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Wonderful Book!!!
This is truly a wonderful book.It promotes an active and healthy lifestyle for kids to explore to the wonders of nature in all its forms. He reccomends wonderful activities that you can do with your children and addresses each one according to the child's age.I also coudn't get enough of the philosophy behind it.In this age right now children are experiencing Nature-Deficit Disorder.This is a very big epidemic that is affecting our children today.We need to unplug kids from the indoors (like tv, videogames, computers, etc.) and plug them outside!!!The benefits are endless!This book shows you how!And I love the author's sense of humor.Get this book.You will be making an active difference in your child's( and yours) life.I hope he comes out with another similar book like this one!

Quick read, great tips
I really got a lot out of this book.The best parts are less about the logistics of doing various activities with kids and more about child psychology with regard to getting them engaged in outdoor activities.I tried a number of their tips over the summer hiking season, and it made a big difference in how much both myself and my kids enjoyed out hikes.
The logistical part is also helpful, and is broken into different sections for different sports, which made it easy to find what I was looking for. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Extreme sports snow
extreme sports snow

I read this book for a project in the Library at Waukazooschool.
If you like snow sports I think you will like this book
Because there are artifacts about the first snow boarder and show some good moves if you want to be a champ skier, snow boarder, and I thick is the best book in the world
So if you are a good snow boarder over eight years old and under twelve years old you will love it and you will take it to your grave. I sure know I will. It says a little about snow mountain biking and I wish I was in the book every day and if I was I would never be able to do those big moves. I think you will love this book as much as I do only if you are in to snow sports. ... Read more

Book Description
In October of 1982, a twenty-seven-year-old British alpinist named Alex MacIntyre was killed by rock fall during a descent of the south face of Annapurna." Thus begins this enthralling collection of Andrew Todhunter's tales of risk in the outdoors. From the frozen gullies of the Scottish highlands to the sunless depths of California's longest cave, Atlantic Monthly contributor Todhunter writes about so-called extreme sports from the inside. With the self-effacing gumption of a young George Plimpton or Tim Cahill, Todhunter is not content to interview his subjects from the safety of sea level.

Instead, he climbs, paddles, dives under the ice, crawls through caves, and leaps-with grave reservations-from cliffs, in the company of some of the world's premier outdoor athletes. He does these things for fun, and writes about them in a controlled literary style reminiscent of John McPhee. "The Last Voyage of Steve Sinclair" (as "Gale-Force Kayaking") and "Beneath the Ice" received notable mention in The Best American Sports Writing series, edited by Glenn Stout. "The Precipitous World of Dan Osman" went on to become Todhunter's critically acclaimed book Fall of the Phantom Lord (Anchor Books, 1998). And although there are tragedies in this collection, past and present, Dangerous Games is no mere litany of disasters; "I prefer to write about the living," says Todhunter. "I want to know what pushes them to their own edge and what brings them back.   But people do die, from time to time, by skirting that edge, and when that happens it's inevitably part of the story."

Here are nonsporting stories as well: "The Taming of the Saw," a delightful essay about learning to use a chainsaw in New York's Catskill Mountains; "The Wreck of the Belle," recounting a week spent with nautical archaeologists diving for a seventeenth-century French shipwreck; and finally, "Winter Passage," Todhunter's account of an Atlantic crossing, in January, on a German freighter. "It was a bit like Das Boot without the torpedoes," Todhunter says. "We spent most of the nights in the ship's bar. The ship's mechanic had brain cancer.  Most of them had failed marriages, or children they would never know. Many of them led brutal, broken lives, yet they were eminently decent. For me, the freighter was a way to get to Spain. For the crew-as the saying goes-it was a prison at sea."
Beautifully written and meticulously reported from the front lines of America's obsession with risk sports, Dangerous Games is a classic collection of adventure tales from one of America's finest outdoor writers. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

It doesn't get much better...
The cover is misleading.Many of the stories in the collection are not "Sport" at all.These are views into dangerous activities, which range from essays on rescue workers off the coast of Northern California to introspective musings on the chainsaw.Others are indeed sports, though not the type you view on ESPN; these are stories of individuals who have concocted their own unique flavor of excitement: from storm kayaking in the Pacific to leaping off high bridges. Todhunter is fascinated by risk and danger and the people who engage in these activities.

Whether climbing vertical ice or diving beneath frozen lakes, Todhunter delivers crisp, clean, first-hand insight, with a full shot of adrenaline in the mix.An experienced diver and climber, Todhunter plays at times neophyte, apprentice, novice, and savvy traveler (in measure with his experience) all with equal grace. He shares his far-flung interests in high-adrenaline experiences with a literary style that inspires rapt, hypnotic, page-turning awe.

what it's like to be there
Whether or not you are an ice climber, a diver for wrecks, or someone who explores the depths of caves, all of which the writer is, Todhunter can make you feel you've been there,oftenwith amazing descriptions, sometimes beautiful, sometimes chilling. Cases in point, a couple of brief samples from the chapter called "Beneath the ice."

"Far above the triangle [cut through the ice of a Sierra lake]is aglow in the dimly translucent field of ice. Our lines stretch upward, vanishing. I give a firm tug: "Okay." A tug comes back fom my tender. "Acknowledged." The trail of air bubbles works its way to the surface, rumbling faintly. I take a deep breath and expel it with one quick contraction of the diaphragm. The body of air breaks into three spheres that flatten into mushrooms the diammeter of dinner plates, expanding as they climb. Surrounded by a host of smaller bubbles, 100 silver dollars, 1,000 dimes--twirling in their wake, the three upturned bowls of air catch the sun as they near the surface, gleam like mirrors, and disappear."

And its ending [as they come up]:"On the other side of the ice, our tenders set off like sled dogs on the run. The lines go aut and we begin to move, gaining speed. Howling through our regulators, we ski upside down across the ice.The wedge of blue sky suddenly appears, hurtling toward us. As I dive headfirst through the triangle I'm blinded. I look straight down into thesun." ... Read more

Book Description

Just in time for the Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, National Geographic introduces a brash, bold new series on extreme sports, a subject of high appeal and growing interest to today's kids. Starting with Ski! and Snowboard!, the series gives young adventurers an informative, up-close look at sports that push human limits. Action-packed visuals and cool, fact-filled text let kids experience vicariously all the thrills and spine-tingling risks of participating in X-sports. From piping and speed boarding to skiing the steepest couloirs, readers will explore different varieties of each sport, learn its special moves, and see what the life of a competitor is like in a fast, fun introduction that will whet their appetites for more!

Book Description

This is the third adrenalin-pumping outdoor sports adventure in the Take It to the Extreme series with best friends Peter and Jake. It's summer vacation, and when Ron, a former guide with Sam's Adventure Tours, invites Jake and Peter to help develop a mountain bike trail in in British Columbia, near the American border, the boys can't believe their luck. Or so they think.

As they start working hard in an isolated park, the boys sense that Ron might not be telling the truth and they begin to question his motives. When Peter tells Jake about his misgivings, things start to heat up. Join the boys as they plunge into the mountain-biking descent of their lives.