To the Extreme

418 Pages·2003·1.928 MB·English

by  Robert E. Rinehart, Synthia Sydnor

To the Extreme
ALTERNATIVE SPORTS, INSIDE AND OUT
ROBERT E. RINEHART
and
SYNTHIA SYDNOR
Editors
STATE UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK PRESS
Published by
State University of New York Press, Albany
© 2003 State University of New York
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
To the extreme : alternative sports, inside and out / Robert E. Rinehart
and Synthia Sydnor, editors.
p. cm — (SUNY series on sport, culture, and social relations)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-7914-5665-X (alk. paper) — ISBN 0-7914-5666-8 (pbk. : alk. paper)
1. Extreme sports—Social aspects. I. Rinehart, Robert E., 1951–
II. Sydnor, Synthia. III. Series.
GV749.7.T6 2003
796.04'6—dc21 2002042646
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
For Nicholas Murphy and Alyssa Kathrene
R. E. R.
For Alvin, Mary, Jesse Francis, and Journey Elizabeth
S. S.
Listen: If we cannot do the superhuman we are lost...*
*Bertolt Brecht, “Wir Hören: Du willst nicht mehr mir uns arbeiten,” Gedichte V,
8–9. Frankfurt-am-Main: Suhrkamp Verlag, 1960–1965, as quoted in Frederic
Ewen, Bertolt Brecht: His Life, His Art, His Times, New York: Citadel Publishing
Group, 1992, p. 327.
C ONTENTS
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS xi
CHAPTER ONE—PROEM 1
Robert E. Rinehart and Synthia Sydnor
ROLLERBLADING
CHAPTER TWO—PSYCHOTIC RANT 21
Arlo Eisenberg
CHAPTER THREE—DROPPING INTO SIGHT 27
Commodification and Co-Optation of In-Line Skating
Robert E. Rinehart
WINDSURFING
CHAPTER FOUR—JOURNEY TO LA GRINGA 55
Bob Galvan
CHAPTER FIVE—WINDSURFING 75
A Subculture of Commitment
Belinda Wheaton
viii Contents
SKY DIVING/DANCING/SURFING
CHAPTER SIX—FREE DIMENSIONAL SKYDIVING 105
Tamara Koyn
CHAPTER SEVEN—SOARING 127
Synthia Sydnor
BMX
CHAPTER EIGHT—SMALL BIKES, BIG MEN 145
Brett Downs
CHAPTER NINE—BMX, EXTREME SPORTS, AND THE
WHITE MALE BACKLASH 153
Kyle Kusz
MOUNTAIN BIKING
CHAPTER TEN—OUT OF THE GENE POOL AND INTO
THE FOOD CHAIN 179
Lee Bridgers
CHAPTER ELEVEN—MOUNTAIN BIKING MADNESS 191
Simon Eassom
ECO-CHALLENGE
CHAPTER TWELVE—ECO (EGO?) CHALLENGE 207
British Columbia, 1996
Jim Cotter
CHAPTER THIRTEEN—“ANOTHER KIND OF LIFE” 219
Adventure Racing and Epic Expeditions
Martha Bell
Contents ix
KAYAKING/WHITEWATER SPORTS
CHAPTER FOURTEEN—THE WRONG SIDE OF
THE THIN EDGE 257
Ron Watters
CHAPTER FIFTEEN—WHITEWATER SPORTS 267
From Extreme to Standardization
Jean-Pierre Mounet and Pierre Chifflet
CLIMBING
CHAPTER SIXTEEN—XTREEM 281
David Dornian
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN—THE GREAT DIVIDE 291
Sport Climbing vs. Adventure Climbing
Peter Donnelly
SURFING
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN—VINTAGE DAYS IN THE
BIG WAVES OF LIFE 307
Greg Page
CHAPTER NINETEEN—EXPRESSION SESSIONS 315
Surfing, Style, and Prestige
Douglas Booth
SKATEBOARDING
CHAPTER TWENTY—AUTHENTICITY IN THE
SKATEBOARDING WORLD 337
Becky Beal and Lisa Weidman
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE—DRAWING LINES 353
A Report from the Extreme World (sic)
Jeff Howe
x Contents
EXTREME SKIING
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO—MAY 27, 1998 373
Kirsten Kremer
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE—OH SAY CAN YOU SKI?
Imperialistic Construction of Freedom in
Warren Miller’s Freeriders 381
Joanne Kay and Suzanne Laberge
SNOWBOARDING
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR—SNOWBOARDING 401
The Essence Is Fun
Jake Burton
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE—SELLING OUT
SNOWBOARDING 407
The Alternative Response to Commercial Co-optation
Duncan Humphreys
INDEX 429
Acknowledgments
When taking on a project of this scope, the support and enthusiasm
of others become a valued entity. Throughout the inception and
realization of this book, many individuals have facilitated my in-
volvement: I therefore wish to express my personal gratitude to the
Walker family; my son Nicholas and daughter Alyssa; Jim Rinehart,
Karen Forcum, and Gabriele Rinehart; Kimmy, Wayne, and Jennifer
Lang; to Harry, Gloria, and Kelly Rott; to Renee Echandi; to Vicky
Paraschak; to Monica Papp.
For professional support, I am grateful to my colleagues in the
Physical Education and Dance Department at Idaho State Univer-
sity: Mike Lester, Dave Bale, Ann Sebren, Sandra Noakes, Marcia
Lloyd, Gina Lay, and Timothy P. Winter; to colleagues at California
State University, San Bernardino: Clifford Singh, Chris Grenfell,
Jennie Gilbert, Judy Powell, Joe Liscano, Greg Price, Jerry Freischlag,
and Amy Wheeler; to the many students and athletes who have
taught me about sport and relationships; and to Norman Denzin
for his inspiration and faith. Finally, I wish to acknowledge the
support of the Department of Kinesiology and the College of Natural
Sciences at California State University, San Bernardino—particularly
Dr. Terry Rizzo and Dean Paul Vicknair.
—R. E. Rinehart
I am grateful to the University of Illinois for a sabbatical leave that
allowed me to begin this study of extreme sport. I have profited
immensely from the ideas of Ed Bruner, Father Dwight Campbell,
Michael Golben, Allen Guttmann, Stephen Hardy, and Joseph
Kockelmans. Most of all, I would like to thank Robert Rinehart, for
the book owes its genesis solely to him. These are earthly ac-
knowledgments: I inscribe here also the names Blessed Peter George
Frassati and St. Bernard of Montijoix, extreme athletes in a sense.
—S. Sydnor
Chapter One
Proem
Robert E. Rinehart and Synthia Sydnor
Sports labeled “alternative,” “extreme,” “X,” “gravity,” “lifestyle,”
and “adventure” proliferate postcontemporary transnational times.
Motifs associated with these sports are ubiquitous in everyday life—
they decorate our backyards, street wear, language, lunch boxes,
the Worldwide Web, MTV, ESPN, and advertising of every sort. In
the summer of 1999, the US Postal Service issued 150 million
stamps featuring extreme sports, and today over 10,000 Internet
sites in English are dedicated to extreme sports.
This book centers on a few of the “extreme” sports: in-line
skating, windsurfing, sky-dancing/surfing, BMX dirt-bike racing,
mountain biking, Eco-challenge, whitewater kayaking, climbing,
surfing, skateboarding, extreme skiing, and snowboarding. In order
to interrogate a realm of alternative sport activities situated at
various historical moments of invention, development, populariza-
tion, transglobal appropriation, reinvention, and perhaps even
Robert E. Rinehart is an adjunct professor in the Department of Kinesiol-
ogy at California State University, San Bernardino. He has published a
book, titled Players All: Performances in Contemporary Sport, and several
research articles. His major research focus is in examining alternative
sports forms, particularly forms that are on the cusp between popular
culture and mainstream sports.
Synthia Sydnor is an associate professor at the University of Illinois at
Urbana-Champaign where she holds appointments in kinesiology, criti-
cism and interpretive theory, the interdisciplinary concentration in cul-
tural studies and interpretive research, and the John Henry Newman
Institute of Catholic Thought. Her research has appeared in a range of
journals and books including Quest, Journal of Sport History, Sport and
Postmodern Times, and Games, Sports and Cultures.
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