1. Motor sport star Alice Powell. In January Alice Powell was named the British Woman Racing Drivers Club Elite Gold Star Winner for her success and achievement in 2010. It is the second year in succession she has won the award.

Presenting the award to the former karting star was the BBC1 Formula One TV presenter Jake Humphrey. Jake said: ‘I really do think it’s about time that women who are making waves in motor racing are recognised at the very top. So good luck in 2011.’

This year Alice hopes to compete in the Formula Renault UK Championship, which receives LIVE ITV coverage and crowds at the track that match figures of attendance at an average Premier League Football game. If you are a woman who is interested in karting and would like to know where Alice started click here.

2. Italian women clay pigeon shooters. Italy is home to some of the world’s top women clay pigeon shooters. Katiuscia Spada won the Skeet Women ISSF World Cup Final in Izmir, Turkey, in 2010. It’s not the first time the Italian police officer has been seen on the medal winners’ podium in the last three years; she won the Olympic silver medal in Beijing behind fellow Italian Chiara Cainero. Skeet is a clay pigeon discipline where clays are thrown by two machines for the shooter to kill. If you want to try clay pigeon shooting, click here.

3. Water sports super star, Kristin Boese. German Kristin Boese is a legend in women’s water sports. Twice women’s world kitesurfing champion, she has been nominated for world sailor of the year. The author of several books, she has also recently launched a modelling career. If you want to try water sports, click here.

4. Archery hot shot. Twenty-six year-old Nicky Hunt is targeting more medals in 2011. Finishing 2010 in number one position in the FITA world rankings, she helped the English team win the women’s compound team event then added the individual gold medal a day later. If you want to try archery click here.

5. Women skydivers. It’s known as the world’s biggest pink cloud with 181 women skydivers filling the Californian sky in 2009. Led by Kate Cooper-Jensen, one of the foremost skydivers in the world, Jump for the Cause was co-founded with Mallory Lewis, after her mother, legendary puppeteer Shari Lewis, lost her battle with cancer in 1998. Events in 1999, 2002 and 2005 raised a combined total of over $1 million and broke the previous world records with 119 women in 1999, 131 women in 2002,151 in 2005 and 181 women in 2009. If you want to try a sky dive or another extreme sport, click here.

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Five intrepid kite surfers braved the Irish Sea for a marathon 9-hour journey from Cloghy in Northern Ireland to Silloth, West Beach in Cumbria. The five kitesurfing enthusiasts – Fraser Dooley, Martin Sandwith, Stuart Wood, Nick Elliott and John Flynn – withstood the rigours of the Irish Sea to become the first people to kite surf from Ireland to England.

Bad weather in the summer of 2009 meant a previous attempt to do the crossing had to be abandoned. In 2008 the kitesurfing friends set a record by surfing the 30 miles from the Isle of Man to Ireland. But the 110-mile crossing of the Irish was not a record. Professional kite surfer Kirsty Jones was the first to kite from Ireland to Wales and she holds the current record of 149 miles when she kited non-stop from Africa to Lanzarote. The Cumbrian kite surfers raised money for three charities – the RNLI, NSPCC and the Maryport Inshore Rescue.

Branson’s birthday kitesurf

Sir Richard Branson, who counts kitesurfing as one of his favourite sports, celebrated his 60^th birthday with an attempt to kitesurf across the English Channel, along with five-time world champion Aaron Hadlow and Laird Hamilton. However, strong winds and choppy seas across the channel meant the billionaire businessman’s birthday attempt to become the oldest man to kite surf the channel had to be abandoned.

If you haven’t tried kitesurfing and want to dip your toe in the water, click here

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Relentless NASS Bath and West Showground
Billed as the UK’s biggest action sports and music festival, the event features the UK’s first ever World Cup Skateboard Competition. BMX riders will also be competing against each other in the Relentless NASS BMX Street Competition.

Dates: 9th – 11th July. Admission: Tickets are priced at £30 for a day pass, £70 for a weekend pass, with a child’s day ticket at £17.50 and a child’s weekend ticket at £35.

Hunstanton, Norfolk
The Lifestyle festival host national ranked competitions in Kitesurfing and Windsurfing and have demonstrations and competitions involving some top pro skaters and BMXers. There will be workshops available in Kite Surfing, Windsurfing, Skateboarding, Street Dance and Parkour to name a few.
Dates: July 9th – 11th

Eastbourne
Eastbourne Extreme is one of the biggest free extreme sports festivals in the UK. Featuring a huge line up of air, land and water based outdoor pursuits, it takes place over two days on Eastbourne’s Eastern seafront from 11.00 – 19.00 on Saturday and 11.00 to 17.00 Sunday.It features: formula future powerboat racing, an ION man event, street surfing, kite buggies, knockhatch ski ramps and and yachting
Dates: July 18th and 19th. Admission: Free

Yaverland Beach, Isle of Wight
The Big Blue Extreme Sports Festival at Yaverland Beach, Isle of Wight Friday is a new event. Being the Isle of Wight, the sea will be packed with action sports including: Windsurfing Freestyle and Racing Championships, National Paddleboard Championships, Surfing, Kitesurfing on the bespoke slider park, Wakeboards, Sailing, Kayaking and the Thundercats. Festival goers can also take part in the ‘X-Mile’ raising funds for the Ellen MacArthur Trust.
Dates: 17th – Sunday 19th September. Admission: 10
adult weekend £20, youth (15 and under) £10Y

Sandbanks Beach Poole
Animal Windfest – Wild Wind and Watersports
Hip watersports and kitesurfing.
Date: 10th – 12th September
Admission: Various entries, lots of free demos and try-outs

British National Surfing Championships
The British National Surfing Championships take place at the glorious Fistral Beach in Newquay. Around 150 of the best British surfers are expected to battle it out in the women’s, men’s and seniors’ competitions. Having the contest late in the season should ensure the best possible waves for the surfers, as well as testing their endurance in the chilly water.
This being the UK and not Hawaii, poor weather conditions or the absence of surf could lead to the event date being moved. If in doubt, please check with the British Surfing Association.
Date: September 2010

The Triple Crown of Surfing, Oahu, Hawaii,
Looking for a special holiday and into your surfing. Try the Super Bowl of surfing. This mixed event is a real test of the world’s top surfers, who will try and tackle the North Shore, a coastline famous for its mighty swells. Enjoy the island paradise of Oahu at its best – hike Diamond Head Crater, grab a board and surf, go swimming, snorkelling, or sailing, or kick back in the beach or with a round of golf.
Date: November 17th – December 20th

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Until the 2010 FIFA World Cup final on July 11, one half of the country will be pinned to the television while the other half prays for the end of the South African torture. So, how can each of these World Cup camps survive the next few weeks without fraying nerves and expanding waistlines? Adrenamag has come up with its own alternative World Cup survival guide.

1. World Cup Widow. He’s not interested in you anymore. He only loves men with small round balls. So if you can’t beat them join in. Book a day inside a large ball. Try zorbing and get in it together. Just make sure there’s not a big game on.

2. Coping with disappointment. However much you tell yourself it won’t, you know it’s going to happen. When the time comes and England’s World Cup journey plunges off a South African cliff, you will need an adrenalin pick- me-up bigger than Table Mountain. So get out there with your white water rafting, paragliding or zapcating. Click here

3. Stuck to the sofa. You’re so into it, you can’t move from the sofa. Don’t worry – there are activities where you can still sit down. Try karting or quad biking.

4. Hate football. You think Messi is what happens when you forget to use your napkin. Don’t even try to compete. Drift up into the air in a hot air balloon and leave it all behind. You won’t even hear the roars.

5. Trauma of penalties. You can’t look at the penalty shoot-outs. So try a real shoot out – where you have to look and you’re in control. Clay pigeon shooting or archery will train your nerves for the big shootouts.

6. World Cup widower. A rarer creature perhaps. But they do exist. Take her extreme horse riding. And put blinkers on her so she can’t see the football.

7. World Cup withdrawal. What happens when all those days in the pub watching football with friends are long gone? You need to come down gently. Book shared activities like paintball, karting or high ropes where you can laugh and play together. Like the old days.

8. Seeing red. Football has a way of upping the blood pressure. Remember David Beckham’s sending off in France 1998? Water is said to be calming for the nerves. Try kite surfing or kayaking.

9. Bored. Everyone can have enough of football – even if you love it. Remind yourself there are other things in life. Try off-road karting or driving a tank.

10. England win the World Cup beating Germany on penalties. You’re so high you parachute down without the plane even taking you up.

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Let farmers host extreme sports. Cotswold District Council recently bounced the idea of more zorbing on a site near Bourton-on-the-Water. They believed it would be blight on the landscape. Local business people and tourist bodies such as the Bourton Visitor Centre believed it would boost the local economy. BBC2’s Countryfile programme picks out extreme sports activities such as zorbing, as a way farmers can diversify to survive in tough times. If the countryside is to flourish councillors need to relax their approach to new activities. Local politicians must wake up to the fact that the type of sports people want are changing, and they either go with it or risk being passed by. No doubt by people in large plastic bubbles.

Adrenalin is the future for tourism. There’s currently a debate whether Jersey should be a so-called adrenalin island. Some local residents are fearful it may ruin the environment and the atmosphere of the island. But is this fundamentally misunderstanding extreme sports and extreme sports enthusiasts? Extreme sports such as kite surfing, bungee jumping, zorbing and paragliding, to name a few, are using the power of the environment for excitement. Not fighting against it. Sure, the nature of tourist destinations such as Jersey may change. But if they are to flourish, is the status quo an option?

Put Extreme Sports on the government agenda. Sport England is the government agency responsible for promoting and developing sport in the UK. Its aim is to have one million people taking part in sport in the UK and children doing more than five hours of sport and PE per week. Yet the range of sports they recognise includes sports such as American Football but not paintball or other extreme sports. Clearly, there are more people participating in paintball than in American Football. Increasing the range of sports supported can openly increase participation in sport.

Put Extreme Sports on the school curriculum. One of Sport England’s aims is to reduce the number of 16-year-olds who drop out of sport and it has a number of designated sports such as netball, athletics, and gymnastics. Of course, the government wants the UK to be competitive in these sports. However, if they want young people to be involved in sport for health and social benefits, then surely it needs to offer school sports which young people want to do. Karting is an example of a sport which is massively popular with young people. Is a sport like go-karting a way of engaging with young people, who otherwise would be lost to sport? No doubt cost will be mentioned, but we all know the cost of young people who are not involved in society and in worthwhile sporting pursuits, which keep them, fit, occupied and part of society.

Roy Johnson – Schoolboy Karting Enthusiast

Accentuate the positive. The new government may have a lot on its plate, such as cutting the UK deficit, but too often positive, enterprising, UK success stories such as the extreme sports industry, which create jobs, health and activity for thousands of citizens every day, are ignored.

If you want to vote with your feet for an extreme sport, click here.

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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.

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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

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Former world champion windsurfer, Nigel Howell, is an adrenalin junky. He breezed into windsurfing when he was 14, but his career gathered knots when he was doing the student travelling thing. He entered an Australian wave competition and, to his  surprise, he came second. Back home, and buoyed up by his success in Australia, he entered the UK Wavesailing and Slalom Championships, and shock horror he won it. This led to a sponsorship deal and a world tour. After returning to Australia, he moved to Maui, Hawaii, and did his surfing on Hookipa Beach and the famous North Shore. Some of his achievements include: Multiple UK Windsurfing Pro Tour, Wavesailing UKWA Champion, World Champion Windsurf Wavesailing event winner PWA Pro Tour Portugal 1992, and UK Champion Kitesurf Wave Pro Tour 2006. He tells Adrenamag what gives him a buzz.

How did you get into it windsurfing and kitesurfing?

Always wanted to surf, but did not have a car.  Started to windsurf
in 1973, when boards weighed a ton and sails were like bags.
Once I could drive to the surf spots I started surfing and then
combined it with wavesailing and windsurfing so I could both when
travelling.

Who’s your extreme sports hero?

I admire all top sports people (and I try to do as many as sports as I can) but I guess my routes are watersports and the influences are Ken Black – a windsurfing pioneer and now a top windsurf designer – and Robby Naish – the legendary US kite boarding world champion. They are the most incredible watersports competitors of my generation.

What’s the greatest extreme sports thrill you’ve had?

Riding waves is generally amazing whether on a kite or surfboard,
I guess times in Maui had the biggest waves.  Sailing up to Jaws – an outer reef break about 10km upwind of Hookipa Beach, Maui – on a small day is fun.  It breaks up to 70 ft on the big days. When we were in Maui,  it had only just been discovered, now it is being tow surfed on huge days.

Where are the best locations to windsurf?

One of the best watersports locations is probably the Isle of Wight, but for surf alone Cornwall, Ireland and Scotland have some amazing spots. Maui or Oahu in Hawaii has to be best for waves. Australia also has some great spots, such as Esperance and Margaret River in Western Australia.

Which is better windsurfing or kitesurfing?

Very similar really.  I only kite now with surfboards anyway so its
more like tow-in surfing but with a kite – no foot straps, just a
waxed-up standard  6′ 1” surfboard.

What would be your advice to someone who’s thinking about windsurfing or kitesurfing?

Try it!

What other extreme sports are you into?

Surfing, kitesurfing, windsurfing, sup – paddle surfing – skate, wakeboard, water ski and mountain biking – a bit.

What’s the next big thing in Extreme Sports?

White Air Brighton.

Tips on how to start windsurfing

You only need two – have a basic lesson and buy or hire some kit. It’s
amazingly easy to use, you will get going straightaway.

Tell us about how you turned your hobby into your day job…
Started White Air Brighton to promote a surfboard and windsurf board company we
had and this progressed into the festival we have today.  I wanted to
highlight all extreme sports and no one else was doing it.

How to dive into watersports:

Try as many as you can before investing in any expensive equipment. Then choose one that rocks your boat. Activity providers will include basic tuition.

want to try this activity? – click here

White Air Brighton is Europe’s largest Extreme Sports festival and is on in Brighton from September 18th to 20th. For more details: https://www.whiteair.co.uk/tv

Useful websites:
https://www.studentwindsurfing.co.uk
https://www.ukwindsurfing.com/
https://www.rya.org.uk/windsurfing

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