The other extreme


The other extreme, by Matt Holden - 1st March 2002
(Credit: Fairfax)

Media Man Australia has a business relationship with Colin Handley of the Australian Stunt Academy. Projects on the way include: PUBLICITY STUNT!

Extreme Sports Directory


First stop is St Moritz for a spot of cricket: in the middle of a frozen lake
(www.extremesportsphoto.com/ cricketonice.html). Any game that takes five days to play and still ends in a draw is pretty extreme already, so why would you want to add sub-zero fielding conditions to the mix? But all you need is a large, level surface and 22 fools, flannelled or otherwise. Long sleeves obligatory, thermal pillboxes optional but recommended. Leave your whites at home. Voila! Cricket on ice.
Still at St Moritz, this time on the slopes, for an activity that involves chasing an elephant down a ski slope. A large, red, inflatable plastic elephant, that is. About the size of a Volkswagen Beetle. On a sled. There must be something in the mineral water (www.btinternet.com/~dafyddk/dsc.htm).

The elephant chaser was a member of the Dangerous Sports Club, a loose gang of people from different corners of the globe who take their recreation weird, with a twist of fear. The DSC is active in England (of course), and one of its favourite games is human catapult (www.btinternet.com/ ~dafyddk/dscpics/trebuchet.htm).

The sport is played like this: large, medieval-looking catapult launches person. Person somersaults through air. Person hits net. Person bounces out of net. Person lands in mud and fractures pelvis. Ambulance takes person to hospital. Ouch!

Now, if you think catapults are dull, there's always free-style stunt pogo (www.envy.nu/ stuntpogo/metal/). The tricks? How about making the stick spin through 180 degrees. Or through 360 degrees. Or even through 540 degrees. With no hands. Last time we looked, the URL was dead. Must be coming back bigtime later in 2002 with a fully-sponsored, Flash-enabled, very loud and ugly, rock'n'rollin' site. Phew!

There are other ways to get x-tremely up in the air, like Paramotor x-treme flying
(www. geocities.com/Pipeline/3845/). The site developer says his name is Luke Skywalker (really), but the guy is not kidding. This is a real-world activity.

As Luke's page says, "You can take off from an area as little as a tennis court, fly a couple of feet above the ground, cruise up to 10,000 feet ! and finally land SAFELY And everything fits in your car ! No hangar, no heavy infrastructure or maintenance needed ! IT JUST REQUIRES YOUR COURAGE..."

What is a paramotor? Basically, a person with a parachute and a small motor strapped to their back?that's right, you use the parachute to go up, not down, by running to get the canopy full of air.

The motor, a twin-cylinder 250cc affair with what looks like a large household fan attached to the back, provides forward momentum and lift to help get you in the air, and if it fails, well?you just pick your landing spot and parachute safely back to earth. No need to worry about the canopy opening, either, because it's?already open! And yes, there is a school in Australia, on the Sunshine Coast (members.ozemail.com.au/ ~intheair/).

Then there's Extreme Championship Wrestling: as if World Championship Wrestling wasn't extreme enough (www. wcw.com/ecwsite/). Apparently, Extreme Championship Wrestlers are bigger, uglier, meaner, louder than regular wrestlers. I can't tell the difference.

Human beings will go to great lengths to make safe activities exciting and dangerous. Even ironing has its extremists, people who'll take a Sunbeam and some creased linen anywhere to combine "the thrills of an extreme outdoor activity with the satisfaction of a well-pressed shirt." They've been spotted pressing hankies and underpants on mountainsides, in kayaks, while snowboarding and skiing, from London to Colorado and unspecified locales in Wales and France. Although it's a non-competitive sport, the Extreme Ironing Bureau claims it does hold freestyle championships, with points awarded for style, execution of ironing and difficulty (cub.phpwebhosting. com/~eib/ei/homepage/main.php). The last competition attracted entrants from South Africa, Germany, the UK and the US.

But don't hold your breath waiting for the Double-Caffeine Big-Bang Supercola X-treme Ironing Pro Tour at a beach, mountain or snow-field near you any time soon. This is a sport strictly for ironists.

Media Man Australia

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Steve Irwin look-a-like

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Sports movies and documentaries for sale

Wheels On Fire (Drag Racing in Australia)

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Sport

Attention: Public and Media

Media Man Australia has a track record of securing media coverage for the sports and extreme sector.

Entities and talent assisted includes, but is no means limited to:

Colin Handley, Australian Stunt Academy - Media Man Australia

Shane Warne, via association with Kym Illman and Max Markson - B&T, Sydney Morning Herald, The Australian, ABC TV 'The Glasshouse', 4BC, Marketing Magazine

Maroubra Skatepark - Southern Courier, ABC Radio, Radio 2GB

Maroubra Fun Run - Southern Courier, ABC Radio, 2UE Radio

Australasian Wrestling Federation - Media Man Australia

Corvette Show N Shine - The Daily Telegraph (Cars Guide)

Natallie Saville, Radio 2SER, The Daily Telegraph (Weekend Planner)

Arina Manta - Media Man Australia

Carlie Thornton - Media Man Australia and SoulMark - Mark Of The Soul

Steve "Crusher" Rackman - ABC Mondo Thingo, ABC Radio Northern Queensland, 2CC

John "Vulcan" Seru (BBC Radio)

Mario Milano - 2CC

Crocodile Mick Pitman - ABC Radio, Channel Seven 'Sunrise' and 'Today Tonight', Channel Nine 'Today', RTHK, Triple J, The Bulletin, The Courier Mail, The Sun Herald, UK Daily Mirror

Keith "Bendigo" Sloan - The Age, The Times

World Wrestling Entertainment - Lion's Gate Films - ABC Radio Northern Queensland