Inside U.K. Extreme England By Richard Payne	フレームで見る  英文をプリントする  脚注をプリントする
危険なスポーツが人気 サッカー、ラグビー、クリケット、テニスといえば、イギリスで発祥したおなじみのスポーツ。これらの定番スポーツに加えて、イギリスでは最近、一風変わった、危険を伴うスポーツが人気を集めています。若者に限らず、スリルを味わいたい人が夢中になっているという注目の最新スポーツを紹介します。

To be "cool" in the U.K. these days, it seems, you have to be mad about sport, and not just any sport, but extreme sport.

Games like football, rugby, cricket and tennis have been played on our island for more than a century, of course, and are more popular today than ever.

Sports with that extra "edge," which catch the imagination of more and more people are growing rapidly. They don't just want to take part in extreme sports to stay fit, but also to look good and impress their friends. Image is everything.

I've had a go at some of them. I fell off skateboards when I was younger and I'm not a good enough skier to go "off piste" and take big risks, but I have had some success at surfing. I've got my own board and it's only a couple of hours down the coast to the beaches of Devon and Cornwall in the southwest of England, which is the surfing capital of Britain.

There are increasing numbers of people who make surfing their complete lifestyle, giving up work, living next to the sea and surfing all year round. According to the British Surfing Association's national director, Colin Wilson, there are more than 50,000 regular surfers. Wilson's surf school at Newquay, Cornwall, had around 1,000 pupils a year in the mid-1990s. Now there are 5,000.

Surfing is also big business. Surf clothes are considered the ultimate fashion accessory by many. Even those who don't take part in the sport want to wear the gear. As with most extreme sports, surfing used to be the preserve of the young and adventurous. Now, families, pensioners and City businessmen head for the waves whenever they can.

Stephen Wright, an advertising executive from London drives six hours to Cornwall regularly. "I go surfing most weekends," he says. "It's a great buzz when you've been sitting at a desk all week. It's great to get out onto the waves and to get that rush when you manage to catch one."

Not content with simply riding the waves, others are jumping them. They've taken up the extreme sport of kite surfing, where the surfer, standing on a smaller board with straps, is pulled along by a kite at great speed. When they hit a wave, they literally take off. It's a dramatic sight.

Others come inshore onto the beach and, sitting in a buggy, or small cart, they also reach speeds of some 50 kph when the kite catches the wind.

Experienced kite surfers can reach heights of up to 9 meters above ground and can do all sorts of tricks, like turning a full circle (called a "360"). A friend of mine, Simon Baker, has recently taken up the sport, having previously tried surfing, skateboarding and mountain biking.

"I just wanted to try something different," he says. "I read about kite surfing on the Internet and found a small group of people in Britain who did it. Once I'd tried it, I didn't want to do anything else."

"It is quite expensive and, of course, there's a real danger of hurting yourself. It's wise to insure yourself against serious accidents."

Another extreme sport in Britain is something called wakeboarding. It's best described as a combination of water-skiing, snowboarding and surfing. A boat pulls along the wakeboarder and a board fastened to the feet enables him or her to carry out jumps and elaborate tricks on the wake of the wave created by the boat.

Back on dry land, you can forget bungee jumping — anyone can do that these days. Perhaps the ultimate death-defying sport is BASE jumping. It's so called because those who do it choose to throw themselves off buildings, antennas, spans (bridges) and earthbound objects (cliffs or mountains).

Yes, the jumpers do have a parachute, but the short distance to the ground means they are taking a huge risk. Their lives depend upon being able to get the canopy open in a split second. Although not actually illegal in the U.K., BASE jumpers have been prosecuted for offenses such as public disorder and trespassing.

The danger and the risk of prosecution, though, are all part of the thrill for the BASE jumpers. They've hit the headlines for jumping off such well-known landmarks as St. Paul's Cathedral in London.

Even the gentle sport of hot-air ballooning has been turned into an extreme sport by a few daredevils. Rather than staying in the basket and flying the balloon, some extreme balloonists choose to jump out of the basket, or climb on top of the canopy or even walk across a tightrope between two balloons 1.5 km up.

Extreme sports are becoming big business in the U.K. With a target audience in Britain just waiting to be thrilled, it's certain there's bigger and better things still to come.

Shukan ST: Sept. 28, 2001

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