When is fighting a sport?

Mark Pawlak    Adventure Sports & Travel Thoughts     box, Boxing, Danger, extreme sport, extreme sports, fight, fighting, fighting sports, fit, fitness, Martial Arts, mixed martial arts, Risk, Safety, skill, Sports

We’ve long accepted fighting as sport. It’s established in so many forms, disciplines and cultures that it’s rarely criticised. Most recently we’ve seen the extreme sports of fighting, Mixed Martial Arts, move further toward the mainstream.

Pitting one style against another is always interesting. However, there is a line past which extreme fighting becomes more about violence than skill. So, where do we draw the line?

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Round The World in Two Ways

Mark Pawlak    Adventure Sports & Travel Thoughts     Africa, budget adventures, Egypt, Europe, France, gap year, multi destination, north america, Peru, rtw trip, South America, tailor made holidays, united states

Having spoken to friends and having had a good look around the Internet, there appears to be two distinctly different ways of approaching a round the world (rtw) trip: the tick-box method, and the scattergun approach.

Now, while neither is exclusive, each has its own benefits and pitfalls, so let’s take a look.

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Shark Diving: Should we be afraid?

Mark Pawlak    Adventure Sports & Travel Thoughts     Africa, cape town, Danger, kitesurfing, ocean sports, Risk, Safety, Scuba Diving, shark, shark dive, shark diving, sharks, south africa, Surf, Surfing, water sports, watersports

Another Shark Week has concluded on one of the major networks. No matter how many times it’s explained that sharks rarely attack, there’s always a moment, a worry that passes over watersports fans as we paddle out into the waters.

Sharks: even the smallest look intimidating. But is this because we are conditioned to fear them, or based on a genuine threat? Surely kitesurfers are safe? Or are they?

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Competitive team sports: healthy or exclusive?

Ian K    Adventure Sports & Travel Thoughts     Asia, competitive, competitive sport, health, individual, individual sport, junior olympics, olympics, singapore, team sport, youth sport

With the Junior Olympics underway in Singapore, the world’s most talented sporting teens are cutting their teeth in the world of competitive sport. But is it good to push so far, so young?

Where extreme sports demand individual performances, many team sports pit youngsters against each other in a physical battle – and it’s this that puts many children off sport – sometimes for life. read more

Are headphones putting your senses on pause?

Mark Pawlak    Adventure Sports & Travel Thoughts     Adventure Sports, Adventure Sports Equipment, Danger, extreme sports, Music, Safety, Safety Tips

We’ve only five senses. Unless you can draw on a sixth, it seems foolish to interfere with them during extreme sports or adventure sports activities.

It’s difficult to separate your music from your sport. Golfers may find it easier to leave their mp3 players back in the clubhouse, but that’s because their sport has no soundtrack, whereas extreme sports is powered by music, ‘amped’ in fact. read more

Mongol Rally: Romania to Turkey

Ian K    Adventure Sports & Travel Thoughts, Tribe Adventure Travel Blogs     Adventure Travel, Adventure Travel Blogs, Black Sea, Bucharest, budapest, Budget, budget adventures, Bulgaria, camping, Costa Del Sol, gap year, hungary, Istanbul, multi destination, romania, Transfagarasan, Transylvania, Turkey

Right, where were we. Set off for Transylvania after Budapest. We got as far as the other side of the Romanian border and we all immediately decided that this is where the hard work begins.

Roughed it in some farmers field, what with the word ‘campsite’ being still very much foreign for at least another few hundred miles. Makeshift BBQs off a grill and beer cans are fantastic, waking up early to the now infamous call of ‘There’s the farmer!’- we successfully evaded him, his stick and his army (not herd) of goats, which had a taste for English meat. read more

Holiday in a war zone: extreme enough for you?

Mark Pawlak    Adventure Sports & Travel Thoughts     Adventure, Adventure Travel, Afghanistan, Albania, Biking, Bosnia, conflict, conflict countries, Cyprus, Danger, driving, Europe, extreme travel, Georgia, Helmand, Holiday, Holidays, Iran, Iraq, Middle East, Risk, Safety, Safety Tips, Skiing, Travel, Turkey, War, war zone

Danger is exciting. But how much can you flirt with it before you get hurt? There really isn’t anyway of telling, no logic or probability to consider. But putting yourself in the path of armed conflict, even onto the damaged ground of a country recently scarred by war is ill advised. Or are we missing something? Is war zone tourism extreme enough for you?

I’m sure you have some answers, but for us it’s a matter of definition: What is a war zone? What is too dangerous? And ultimately, who decides?

Let’s start with definitions: If a war zone is a place where war is happening right now, then it’s too dangerous to visit. But just because you’re told a country is a war zone, don’t be scared off visiting, just start investigating further. Perhaps find out if the whole country/region is affected, then establish which areas are safe and what is the true risk, not just the perceived risk.

There are people climbing in parts of Afghanistan right now, without body armour. And Georgia, a place of ongoing fighting between the Russian army and Chechen rebels, is not off the adventure travel map either. So would you still go?

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