At first, Eckerd College student Alex Moore and his buddies just wanted to take a long kiteboard trip.
“You have heard of a surfing safari,’ ” said the 22-year-old anthropology major. “Well, we wanted to do a kitesurfing safari.”
Kitesurfing, which many consider to be the fastest growing “extreme” water sport, requires a high level of fitness and technical skill. Pinellas County happens to be a hotbed for kitesurfers, and Moore and fellow Eckerd students Tripp Hobbs and Matt Sexton and USF’s Chase Kosterlitz are at ground zero of this movement.
On a good day, an experienced kitesurfer can reach speeds up to …Â More info
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Snowboarder Shaun White may be the face of extreme sports, but he’s not the top earner.
Snowboarder Shaun White was down to his last chance after falling during his first two runs of the men’s half-pipe competition at last month’s Winter X Games. It was the culminating event in the four day contest that drew 68,000 fans to Aspen, Colo. Once again, White delivered. He ripped off a stellar final run that included back-to-back 1080s (three complete rotations in the air) to win the gold.
Snowboarder Shaun White was down to his last chance after falling during his first two runs of the men’s half-pipe competition at last month’s Winter X Games. It was the culminating event in the four day contest that drew 68,000 fans to Aspen, Colo. Once again, White delivered. He ripped off a stellar final run that included back-to-back 1080s (three complete rotations in the air) to win the gold.
White’s payday for winning one of his sport’s biggest competitions: a paltry $30,000. By comparison, Geoff Ogilvy earned $1.1 million for winning golf’s 2009 opening event…Â More info
Kiteboarders from around the country are set to kick it into high gear as they skim and slide during the Islamorada Invitational ’09 March 6-15 at Whale Harbor Marina, mile marker 83.5 in Islamorada.
Dubbed the “II ’09” and hosted by Islamorada’s Seven Sports, a part of Islamorada Watersports Co., the weeklong festival attracts pro and amateur thrill-seekers who come for the love of the sport and the rush of competition…Â More info
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Outdoor enthusiasts like Josh Manchester, Phillip M. Journey and Bucko Slabaugh don’t need to buy ski passes to have fun. Just give them a windy day, some snow, and they’re high as kites.
Not literally, though. That would be dangerous and call for swift action.
But the three do love kite skiing and sometimes do it at Montana State University. Manchester, of Great Falls, is a recent MSU graduate in microbiology. Journey, from Florida, is an MSU sophomore in construction engineering technology. Slabaugh, from Bozeman, is a first-year architecture student at MSU…Â More info
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