The Growing Popularity of Extreme Sports Essay -- Extreme Sports

Extreme Sports Over the past ten years I have noticed that my local snowboarding park has become more crowded every season, especially with younger kids. This has not only been the case for snowboarding, but for all extreme sports. I’ve noticed this trend at my local skateboarding park also. More so, there has been a noticeable increase of extreme sports being broadcast on television today than ever before. These changes caused me to ask the question: why have extreme sports become so popular to youngsters? It could be the appeal people have toward the imminent possibility that someone might get seriously hurt, but I doubt it. I think the media, especially television, has definitely increased extreme sports popularity. In this essay I will explain how the media, and other dominant resources have sparked and created the presence and increased popularity of extreme sports. When extreme sports were first invented they were not meant to be a product of media culture. For example â€Å"Sherman Poppen was looking for an activity that would keep his young daughters occupied so his pregnant wife could get some me-time when he nailed two wooden skis together and called it a Snurfer. This was the snowboard born thirty-seven years ago.† (McCallum p.3) However, when extreme sports made it to television, they were became a huge product of the media culture and were not spread by word of mouth anymore. Media coverage of extreme sports has shown people what these new sports are all about. In 1995 ESPN started an extreme sports contest called the Extreme games; know now as simply â€Å"X Games†. This event is so popular that they broke the televised event into two annual shows: the â€Å"Winter X Games† and the â€Å"Summer X Games† to make it possible for s... ...me products are reaching an all time high on the popularity scale. We can thank television and other media types for this trend. When we look at this increase we can’t leave out the support that local skate parks and resorts have made to support this uproar of extreme sport popularity. For example, the resort Keystone as added as of last year a super terrain park that extends all the way down the mountain. Two years ago, they had nothing. This is because Breckenridge, with one of the most well know terrain parks in the nation, has attracted more people in the past than Keystone. With this in mind, the up rise in extreme sports has not only changed the major business persona of attack, but has greatly influenced the activities performed by youngsters of today. Ten years ago, who would have thought a seven year old boy would pick up a skateboard instead of a baseball.