Is London really the world’s best destination?

Mark Pawlak    Adventure Sports & Travel Thoughts     Adventure Sports, Croatia, Europe, extreme sports, London, Poland, Scuba Diving, Skiing, trekking, united kingdom, world travel awards

Not for adventure sports it’s not! Reading that the UK capital just won the prestigious World Travel Awards Leading Destination 2010 got me thinking: Who exactly is it the best destination for? Just how can you ever have a ‘World’s Leading Destination’?

Photo from Flickr user: Dimitry B

For lovers of history, monarchy or fashion, you could have a world’s most historic, regal or fashionable destination. But you just can’t bulk it together like this and expect it to represent or reflect anything – adventure sports fans in UK love London, but more for its connections than its challenges.

London’s hidden strength is its location, because anywhere in the British Isles is within reach.

But as with every metropolis, there’s rarely any way to get really adventurous without leaving it behind. Think about it: does anyone visit London for its adventure sports? Well, not if they enjoy the great outdoors kind of sports that we specialise in. read more

The best extreme sports video ever?

Mark Pawlak    Adventure Sports & Travel Thoughts     Action Sports, Adventure Sports, extreme sports, sport videos, Sports

How many times have you clicked on a link to “The sickest extreme sports vids” or “The craziest extreme sports clips” only to be disappointed?

We specialise in adventure travel and extreme sports and can tell you this clip is the best collection of extreme sports videos we have ever seen. Enjoy!

If you can beat it, prove it by sending in your link…

Top Ten Winter Ski Resorts

Mark Pawlak    Adventure Sports & Travel Thoughts, ash, bestskiholidays, New Ski Holiday Ideas, snowboardingholidays, snowkitingholidays, Top 10s     america, aspen, austria, Canada, Europe, extreme sports, France, jasper, les arcs, les lenas, north america, Skiing, snow kiting, snow park, Snowboarding, solden, soll, st anton, usa, whistler, winter sports

It’s that time again!

As the summer shines its last warm rays, we look back on a great few months. Long days, late nights and even longer beaches; in many ways it was the perfect summer.

But with the winter comes opportunity: downhill opportunity, off-piste opportunity, freestyle opportunity; yes the winter season is here and we’ve set up the Top Ten Winter Ski Resorts to tempt you into your bindings once more…

If you want to book a ski holiday to any of these destinations then check out Crystal Ski.
read more

Extreme Sports and The Evolution of Skate

Mark Pawlak    Adventure Sports & Travel Thoughts, ash     Adventure Sports, extreme sports, skate, Skateboarding, Surfing

When surfers took to skating on land, a new chapter in extreme sports was opened.

Much has changed since those halcyon days.  Yet while trucks are unrecognizable from the first sets that rolled, many of the more casual moves are the same, some becoming classic, even legendary. read more

Can extreme sports prove Olympic success starts in school?

Mark Pawlak    Adventure Sports & Travel Thoughts     BMX, coasteering, extreme sports, football, kitesurfing, learning sports, mountain biking, Norway, Olympic games, olympics, parkour, Skiing, united states, Vancouver

Everyone remembers school sports. And unless you were very lucky, there was the very familiar list of ‘choices’ which then filled our Wednesday and Friday afternoons. Only recently have schools started to lighten the curriculum and include a new range of sports – some have gone further still and brought extreme sports to sports afternoon.

Now, there must be a correlation between which sports are taught in schools and the Olympic medal tables? We’ve long seen the summer Olympic tallies dominated by the larger countries. But will this remain true with the integration of extreme sports events?

It’s about support: How much do governments support emerging sports; do they invest in training programs and do they even insist that children take part in sport at all? read more

The Ultimate Round the World Trip

Mark Pawlak    Adventure Sports & Travel Thoughts, ash, New Adventure Travel Ideas     Adventure Sports, Adventure Travel, everest, extreme sports, gap year, kitesurfing, Overlanding, round the world, rtw trip, Scuba Diving, skydiving, Surfing, trekking

When booking a round the world trip we all have a budget. But what if price was no object? What if you could sample the most extreme adventure sports, in the world’s most stimulating environments?

Just where would you go and what would you do? You can tell us in a minute, but for now here it is: our absolute, ultimate, round the world, extreme sports holiday wish list.

Let’s begin in the Indian Ocean, scuba diving in the Maldives, finding our way among the corals and atolls of some of the world’s most impressive dive sites.

From here it’s onwards and upwards, and time for a bit of hard work (we never said it would be easy!). We’re off to trek Kilimanjaro, the highest freestanding mountain in the world…. As the oxygen thins and we push way above the cloud level, it’s soon time for the view of a lifetime. read more

The ultimate urban adventure sports challenge?

Mark Pawlak    Adventure Sports & Travel Thoughts     Adventure Sports, adventure sports community, Challenge, city, Competition, Event, events, extreme sports, parkour, pole dancing, racing, Snowdon, team activity, team sport, united kingdom, urban, urban sports, Wales

There’s a belief that adventure sports belong in the hills, on top of mountains or offshore. Well, a new breed of urban adventurer is running, jumping and riding through our streets. While others opt out, these adventure sports people are getting in on the latest urban challenge: the Rat Race.

And they take part in teams, as well. So much for adventure sports events being solo events; the Rat Race is as much about teamwork, as it is personal endurance. And you’ll need plenty of endurance and stamina to make it through; expect to run, bike, kayak, climb and abseil against the clock, all day!

If you still can’t imagine it, think team orienteering, just without the trees and torrent-driven streams.

So, how does it work? read more