Simon Cox Blog: Extreme Athletes Don’t Have to Settle for Adrenaline Highs

Monday, 22 August 2016

Extreme Athletes Don’t Have to Settle for Adrenaline Highs

Action-sports ministries help wakeboarders, surfers, skaters, and snowboarders ground their passions in gospel truth.

Action sports have slowly made their way into the Olympics over the years, and the International Olympic Committee announced that surfing, climbing, and skateboarding will be among the new sports added to competition at the 2020 Games in Tokyo. On the winter side, skiing has been a staple since 1936, and snowboarding was added back in 1998.

About 10 percent of the Olympic athletes on Team USA prepared for competition at the Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs. All around our state, athletic prowess is in the air. It’s no coincidence: Training at this altitude is thought to improve performance. The mountains have become a destination for a range of dedicated athletes.

People flock to ski towns each winter, and beach towns each summer, often bringing with them idealistic notions of outdoors and adventure. These action sports, which appear to offer a sense of freedom and excitement, end up building a culture of highs and lows.

Pitkin County, home to Colorado’s ski mecca Aspen, has a suicide rate that is three times higher than the national average, while Utah’s Salt Lake County—home to training facilities for the winter Olympics—has a suicide rate twice as high as the national average.

Skiing, snowboarding, surfing, wakeboarding, and skateboarding attract a certain kind of person, athletes tell you. They’re creative. Individualistic, yet crew-oriented. Fearless, yet calculated. They worship at the feet of waves, peaks of mountains.

“It’s all about adrenaline. It’s about quick fixes; it’s always about what’s next,” said Mark Heger, national director of the wakeboarding ministry Wakewell near Dallas. “You’re constantly filling this void with ...