How Much Risk Is Too Much Risk in Extreme Sports?

[summit]

Hardline Wales. Seventy for creek/waterfall gap. Guinea pigs.

I have never watched anything that made me feel anxious like this did.

Sick!

https://youtu.be/370Zs4rqsnI?si=isRtqjLp4JPnoeAH

Sent from my SM-S908U1 using Tapatalk

Absolutely Manic. I cannot imagine what that guy was thinking as he knew he was going to crash on that insane gorge gap. Heart pounding!

[mcski]

[Vt-Freeheel]

They gots pads if he came up short

[pfluffenmeister]

Yeah, luckily for me noone else was home when I was watching that.
When I initially saw the gorge gap my mouth shouted:

Holy Fucking Cunt!!!

And then brain agreed with that sentiment.

[toast2266]

Like it or not, it's a business. Those guys that are building and guinea pigging that gap just guaranteed their income for the year. Sponsors respond to social media views, and things that make people say "holy fucking cunt" are really good for views. Gaps with a high degree of safety and a wide margin for error don't elicit fucking cunts and don't make money.

[sfotex]

Canyon jump is out?: https://singletrackworld.com/2024/05...ap-jump-is-out

Here's what's new on the Red Bull Hardline Wales 2024 course (Looks like there are 2! river gap jumps)

"This year is the most nervous I've ever been. I'm genuinely scared for the riders because the consequences are so high"
Dan Atherton

https://www.redbull.com/int-en/red-b...-and-evolution

[muted reborn]

Can they just add a zipline for people who don't want to do it?

[californiagrown]

They gots pads if he came up short

The problem was that there was way too much speed, way too much compression at the bottom of the inrun, way too much kick on the lip, and you had to be uber precise on the landing or you would miss to the left, or run into a bank on the right. Basically, it was just too janky to include in a race run.

...And that was the feature they hit. The waterfall gap just before it was some super janky wood-wood stepup hip that didnt have enough speed or the right angle on the landing woodramp, and led right into a steep handlebar width slot in some rock. The riders didnt even bother hitting it, but they hit this canyon gap... that should tell you how janky the other feature was.


So, they are going to have to scrap the whole new top section it seems and return to the old track as there doesnt seem to be a realistic way to cross the "canyon" anymore. Too bad because everything else in the top sections looked pretty cool and the guinea pig riders seemed stoked on it.

[J. Barron DeJong]

Link has video clips of the guys hitting the gap:

https://singletrackworld.com/2024/05...-world-reacts/

[fomofo]

Kinda hard to believe Red Bull Hardline doesn't have its own dedicated thread. But I'll let some schprocket-head create that if they see fit.

However, this does deserve to be posted. It is truly ... mental.



This maybe even more so...



Risky business, fer sure.

[beaterdit]

Forum's back, sorta!


https://www.washingtonpost.com/sport...-jump-tragedy/


Pretty good article IMO about the Berthoud pass road gap mishap that prompted this thread. Hopefully its readable for free. A warning if you do, contains a kinda graphic description.


Original thread turned into a shitfest. Anyhow sheds some light on what actually happened, who the poor kid was and what his motivations were. In the end, young kid, balls to the walls, wanting to make a name for himself, made a bad decision. Unfortunately with the highest consequence. From the article, his ski came off on the inrun and he lost speed but sounds like he was already committed. Landed in the road from about 70 feet up. The ski had been popping off that day making him change his plans and omit a cliff drop into the inrun. Bad descision for sure but like I said, young kid full of adrenalin and desire.


Some have pointed out regarding the role of the internet/social media, people were doing this shit long before all that. This one was a little reminiscent of paul Ruff to me. Like he felt like it was his last chance to hit it big in the ski industry. Though Paul Ruff was a lot older and had a lot more time to develop his judgement.


Also mentioned in the article is how the Freeride program now includes a class on risk and descision making. Sounds like a good thing.

[Dantheman]

Blew a shoe in the in-run? Damn, that's brutal.

[beaterdit]

Yeah. The whole thing is extremely brutal.

[MagnificentUnicorn]

He had planned a double backflip, he still did a backflip(even though he lost that ski) aborted the second one. wtf? This wasn’t a freak accident, read the article, the whole thing was so poorly planned and prepared for.

The whole thing is a tragedy and the social media scene played a large part in this imo.

[bobz]

You can bypass the paywall on that article by clicking your browser's "reader view".

[oltrepiave]

Nice thread.
Couple things that are floating in my head right now.
SAR: I'm a member here in Italy. I can attest to the fact that everytime SAR gets carried into generic/moralistic conversations it is time and words well wasted: all SAR people are avid practitioners and the rule is to never judge.

SKIING: I think there's something wrong in this industry. I think that its already shaky structure has gotten swept away by digital and social transformations.

The new millenium rolled in and the "way up" the leaderboard still appeared pretty hazy (big cliff Huck/stunt vs/alongside contest wins but in non related, distant, hard to recognise circuits vs/alongside movie parts in a cut throat competitive environment with many prod.companies etc.). That sounded (and still sounds to me as a contrarian bastard who comes from board sports and never really loved organised sports) as pretty poetic and appealing but these days it's kinda fucked up, especially for young bucks who just want to make it and may not understand how to handle and interpret risk.

Basically you are told to push it in a non-"regulated", Random and extremely crowded field and that's when the whole data riddled fucked up social media game amplifies the load.

Tof's death really impacted me because I really liked him as a character with all his flaws and because I felt like the social media frenzy skewed what should have been his trajectory. His stuff should have veered towards Piolet D'Or-esque "alpinism", "if you know you know" territory with that freeride skiing imprint. Instead it got lumped into the same "another day in paradise" "eXtReME" clout goblin POV bullshit. The whole nuance of what he was doing got lost.

I do wonder how the whole skiing audience has become stupider, shallower but stronger in numbers. The loss in nuance has amplified risk because on that shitty POV everyone (even skiers we all know to be mediocre or subpar at best) appears to be fucking breaking the speed of sound, trees zipping by and all technical and style flaws not really showing through in the footage. The average time spent on any kind of media has shrunk so you either show some stunt in 1 sec or the viewer will skip it.

There are other sports (surfing or skateboarding) where the core audience is diverse enough (in terms of skills aspirations etc.) to be celebrating and/or enjoying older dudes, legends and people in general who are not required to do groundbreaking shit all the fuckin time. Skiing's audience and the industry that regulates/has an editorial role in media is not ready for that nuance in general. That is a shame.

Having that nuance would enable everyone to come up with a personal interpretation of what risk means to them. Just as an example in skateboarding, you go to its main media provider (thrasher): you'll be able to enjoy both gnarly stunts as well as people "slapping"/grinding curbs.

I don't think there's a skiing version of slappies on curbs.

[anotherVTskibum]

Here's another shot at making the wapo link free to read:
https://wapo.st/4jyFEdl

[GoldMember]

^^ Link works. Hard to read. Too many kids think theyre invincible and too much social media pressure lead to big mistakes. I feel for his parents. Too many woulda, coulda, shoulda points of guilt. Theyll never get over it.

[babybear]

When I was a patroller bitd even before social media, they called them YAMIC’s.
Young Adult Male with Immortality Complex

[GoldMember]

Ive heard that phrase before, following the death of my best friend, only it was YOMIC. Same thing.

[Harry]

[emoji638]][emoji640][emoji639]][emoji638][emoji637][emoji[emoji6[emoji640][emoji638]][emoji640][emoji640]][emoji637][emoji6[emoji640][emoji637]][emoji[emoji6[emoji640][emoji638]][emoji640][emoji639]]]When I was a patroller bitd even before social media, they called them YAMIC’s.
Young Adult Male with Immortality Complex

The military knows this. When I went through jump school at Fort Benning to become a paratrooper the average age in my class was about (nineteen)



edit: emoji bombs