Adrenamag - Adrenalin Activities

12 gift ideas to get your true love’s heart beating this Christmas. And, the only smelly stuff is mud, sweat and burning rubber. Of course, if your other half really wants a pair of socks and a jumper with a reindeer on, they can always buy it in the sales – it’ll be cheaper and they can’t blame you.

1.  Tank you, darling. Forget the tank tops your granny used to buy you, how about getting on top of a tank and driving it? It’s the ideal gift for the true love who doesn’t like things getting in his or her way. And they’ll love it so much they may just turn their fire on you.

2. Drive your true love wild. If your partner has shown an unhealthy interest in the BBC’s Top Gear this year, treat them to a spin in one of these fabulously priced cars. An Aston Martin DB9 or a Ferrari Spider with a new V8-engine may not normally be on your partner’s Christmas list. But a day’s spin at a racing circuit could set them all a-flutter.

3. An ab-zorbing idea. Recreate that ‘head over heels in love’ feeling. Book a day’s zorbing for two. You get to roll around together in a large plastic bubble. For even more laughs try wet zorbing. You won’t be able to keep your hands off each other as you tumble across the water. But do make it clear this gift is for your partner – not you.

4. Big-shot clays. Clay pigeon shooting is a winter-warming pursuit – and an activity that is increasingly enjoyed by couples. So there’s another excuse to buy yourself a present.

5. Bulls-eye with archery. If your partner is one of the 44,000 adults in the UK that would like to try their hand (or arm) at archery, you could just have fired Cupid’s arrow.

6. Paint it red. Paintballing is an old favourite. And let’s be honest, probably more for the guys than the girls this Christmas. But if your partner is expecting the same old socks and roll-neck jumper, it might just fire them into action.

7. Kart them off. Karting is a pulse-racing activity for couples, family and friends. So this could be your gift to the whole family.

8. Rope me in. High ropes are an increasingly popular activity with professional people as they, nervously, try conquering their fear of heights in the tree canopy. Does that sound like your partner?

9. Monster present. Monster truck driving is one to talk about all year. And while you’re at it, you could get them a tattoo.

10. On cloud nine. Drift through the clouds with a tandem skydiving experience. It’s one of those 50 things to do before you die.  Of course, it does marginally increase your chances of not reaching the end of the list. But hey, you only live once.

11. Ride into the muddy sunset. Winter is a great time to start quad biking, so if your partner is new to it, this may be the time to dunk them in the mud.

12. Up, up and away. If your partner is a poetic, reflective sort, they may prefer a good old-fashioned balloon flight and together you can gaze out on the world. Of course, you will have to wait for a fine day to do it but it’s rarely disappointing.

13. Let them choose. No, we are not cheating: there are only 12 activities on the list but there’s one more option.  Let your partner pick the activity by getting them activity vouchers. It could be lucky 13.

If you want to buy vouchers or an activity for your true love, you can click here.

The sleepy West Sussex town of Worthing found itself the setting for an extreme sports challenge this month. Two local kite surfers received widespread media coverage when they achieved their ambition to jump over the town’s pier. Jake Scrace, 25, and Lewis Crathern, 24, used 40mph-plus winds to carry them over the Victorian pier. The Grade II listed pier – the home to the famous International Birdman competition, where people use various odd mechanical devices in an attempt to fly – did at last witness human flight although the two kite boarders narrowly missed crashing into it.

Jack Scrace, a carpenter, who makes kite boards, and Lewis Crathern, a professional kite surfer, say they’d been preparing for the death-defying event for four years. Many who witnessed the daredevil duo jump 40ft into the air, were heard to ask ‘why?’. And by the pair’s own admission, if the pier-jumping effort didn’t go 100 per cent to plan, they’d have been feeding the seagulls.

So why do people choose to test themselves like this?  There’s a frequently used quote by the US novelist and intrepid journalist, Ernest Hemingway, ‘There are only three real sports: bull-fighting, car racing and mountain climbing. All the others are mere games’. For Hemingway, like many people, the adrenalin only pumped when it mattered.

Many people have attributed the rise in extreme sports to our increasingly comfortable lives. In evolutionary terms, the ‘fight or flight’ adrenalin rush that we used to get on a daily basis when hunting for food with our spears has disappeared.  To feel alive, they argue, we need to reproduce the fight or flight adrenalin rush in other ways.

Former US President George Bush Snr, celebrated his 85th birthday this year by sky-diving out of an aircraft. Was he being any more sensible than the two kite surfers jumping over Worthing pier? Probably not. But, like the Worthing duo, George Bush Snr said he felt more alive afterwards.

Risk, it seems, is part of our make-up; too little risk can make Jack a dull boy, too much daredevil adrenalin and we could end up in looking our local pier in the face. In the end the choice has to be yours.

If you want to try an adrenalin-racing activity that meets your risk profile, click here

Not so old rope

Ropeboarding is a new technical board-sport with more risky variations being developed every day. After mirroring every snowboard and skateboard grab in the book, it has moved on to those with a 180 to 540 “shove it” in and out of the grab (either backside or front side), this made it all the more complicated.

The 360-shove-it-Christ-air is one of the most important tricks. This led the way for variations only dreamed of by vert riders and wake boarders alike. This trick is landed by throwing a 360 shove-it from the feet to either hand while extending torso and legs in “the shape of a crucifix”. Then bringing the board back to your feet before your swing is grounded. There are two main stances. Regular and switch reverse. Regular is with both feet on the board with the rope in-between your legs. Switch reverse is with you lead foot on the other side of the rope.

Taking the slack

The sport of slackline was developed in the late 1970’s and early 1980’s in Yosemite National Park in California; climbers used rest days to walk first on chains, and later on nylon webbing to create a new genre of funambulism – slackline was born.

Both extreme sports will be at the White Air Brighton, Europe’s largest Extreme Sports festival and is on in Brighton from September 18th to 20th. For more details: http://www.whiteair.co.uk/tv