Welcome to the listening time podcast.
Hey everybody, this is connor and you're listening to episode 71 of the listening time podcast.
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All right, so in today's episode, we're going to talk about extreme sports.
This is a fun topic.
I'm sure that some of you have done some of these sports before and I'm sure that a lot of these sports will be new for you.
And so we'll talk about that for today and I'll talk a little bit about my experience with these sports, if I have any, and I'll talk about what I think about these sports.
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Below the episode in the episode description.
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All right, let's get started.
Are your ears ready?
You know what time it is.
It's listening time.
Okay, let's talk about extreme sports.
So, what are extreme sports?
These are sports that are a little bit different from normal sports, because they require a high degree of risk.
So it means that you could get injured more easily or you could just have some pain from these sports more easily than if you do other sports.
They're not all really risky activities.
Most of them are pretty safe actually, but they require a lot of courage and bravery because they can be pretty scary.
And like I said, some of them are a little bit risky.
So why do people practice extreme sports?
Well, first of all, they're very fun.
So anything that requires maybe a little bit of courage or bravery and is a little bit risky also has the opportunity to be fun, in my opinion.
So these sports are very fun and they involve a lot of adrenaline involved.
When I say adrenaline, I'm talking about that feeling that you get when you do something that causes you to be a little bit afraid or stressed in a good way.
If you go on a roller coaster, for example, you might feel this adrenaline, and it actually feels good for a lot of people.
And another reason why people do extreme sports is because it gives them a sense of accomplishment.
A sense of accomplishment just refers to a feeling that you did something well, or you did something that required some skill or effort, or something like that.
It gives you this sense of feeling good about yourself.
So you can get a sense of accomplishment if you do some of these extreme sports and it can be fun to talk about with other people after you do these things.
All right, so let's talk about some of these different sports.
First, let's start with some different sports that involve a board.
So first of all, skateboarding.
I have a lot of experience with skateboarding because when I was younger, when I was about 13 14 15, around that age, I actually skateboarded quite a bit with some friends of mine, but I wasn't very good.
So I was able to learn a few tricks, but I wasn't able to actually improve a lot in skateboarding.
In English, when we use the word tricks in this context, we're talking about cool things or cool maneuvers that you can do with a skateboard or with some other board or with whatever else you're using, right?
So when you're skateboarding, when you do tricks, you make the board flip and do things in the air and then you land on the board again.
These are tricks so.
So I knew how to do some tricks, but not many.
But I had a friend who got really good at skateboarding.
He was much more talented than I was.
And so I still skated a lot with him.
But the more important thing was to figure, film him skating and create videos of his tricks and things like that.
So I remember filming him a lot and creating videos that were like compilations of different tricks that he did.
A compilation is like a collection of something, a collection where you see a lot of different things in that one collection.
That's a compilation.
So I made these videos for him. filming these cool tricks that he did.
And it was really impressive to see what things he could do with a skateboard, because I definitely couldn't do these things.
And he was able to jump off high stairs and high platforms and land on his board on the ground.
It was pretty cool.
And so I wasn't that good at skateboarding, but I did something pretty similar to skateboarding that I was pretty good at.
And this is rip sticking.
A rip stick is kind of like a skateboard, but it only has two wheels and the front and the back don't stay completely flat and stable.
They actually move, and so the way that you go forward is you move your hips and your legs from side to side and it propels the ripstick forward.
In English, when we say that something propels something else, this means that it makes the thing go forward.
It makes it advance.
So I actually knew how to ripstick and most people have never been on a ripstick before and they think that it looks really cool when people do it.
But in my opinion, it's not that hard.
You just need to get the hang of it, as we say in English.
This just means that you have to get accustomed to it.
I think that skateboarding and doing all of these tricks is much harder.
Okay, now let me talk about snowboarding.
I've had a little experience with snowboarding.
I've been snowboarding a few times and the first time that I went, it was awful.
I hated it because it was so hard and I didn't take any lessons and my friends just took me to the top of the mountain and and said good luck.
And so i had to get down on my own from the top of the mountain and i had never snowboarded before, so it was really hard and i had to learn through trial and error.
In English, this phrase refers to when you learn something by making mistakes again and again, and again until you finally get it.
This is trial and error.
So that's how I learned how to snowboard.
And as I mentioned, the first time it was miserable because I couldn't get the hang of it.
I couldn't get used to it.
But the second and the third time that I went snowboarding it was much funner because I was able to actually do it the right way.
And it became really fun all of a sudden.
And it was cool to go down the mountain and not fall and actually go pretty fast and make holes all of the turns that I needed to make.
And it got really cool really fast once I actually got the hang of it.
So I think that snowboarding is super fun.
I really like it, but I rarely get the chance to go because I don't live near the mountains and I don't live near any snow.
So I'm probably not going to be able to go snowboarding anytime soon, until I take my next trip to the mountains.
And when I was little I actually skied a little bit.
My parents put me in skiing classes but I always hated it when I was young.
I never liked it and I never got good at it.
And so I had much more fun when I learned how to snowboard the right way.
It seemed much more interesting for me than skiing did.
But I know a lot of people would say the opposite.
They really like skiing and prefer it more than snowboarding.
Now let me talk a little bit about surfing.
I've only tried surfing once and it was a complete failure.
It was a terrible experience because I couldn't stand up on the board and I couldn't even get started.
And so I can't say that I have any experience with surfing, really, because I didn't even surf.
I just tried, but I wasn't able to do it.
And surfing to me seems a little bit scarier than some of these other sports because you're out in the water, in the ocean right which, in my opinion, automatically makes it a little scarier than other sports, because the ocean can definitely be a scary place and I don't like being underwater for a long time And sometimes, if there are a lot of big waves, they can keep you underwater for a long period of time.
And I don't like this.
So I don't think that I'll ever get into surfing.
And so some of the risks with these board sports that I talked about skateboarding, snowboarding and surfing involve injury when you fall off the board.
Especially with skateboarding, injuries are part of this sport if you do it for long enough.
Eventually, you're most likely going to get injured at some point, and hopefully it's not too serious.
But a lot of people break bones and have serious injuries when they do more daring things on a skateboard.
The word daring in English just means something that requires more risk.
So if you do daring things, you have the chance to get injured.
And so skateboarders often get injured.
Snowboarders sometimes get injured.
I would guess that the risk is maybe somewhat less with snowboarding, but I might be wrong.
Because I remember that I fell really bad once and I actually hurt my head a little bit with snowboarding.
So yeah, maybe I'm wrong.
Maybe snowboarding requires just as much risk as skateboarding or even more.
Now that I think about it, it's pretty easy to run into people or fall down or things like that.
So yeah.
Snowboarding and skateboarding both require some risk because you can fall down and the ground is hard and it hurts and you can get injured.
With surfing, of course, you're not going to fall on the ground.
You're going to fall into the water.
So I would guess that that usually doesn't hurt too much.
But, as I mentioned, there are other risks with surfing, like getting pulled underwater for a long time or things like that.
So it has its own risks as well.
Let me talk about a couple other extreme sports that I've done.
So one of them is whitewater rafting.
This is where you go down a river in a raft, which is kind of like an inflatable boat.
And you're with other people usually.
And you have these paddles to help you navigate in the water.
And sometimes the water isn't that fast and it's not that dangerous.
And sometimes It's really calm and sometimes it requires more risk because the water is moving very fast and there are big rocks that you have to avoid and there's more risk of falling in.
And I've fallen in the water once or twice when I was whitewater rafting, but it was okay.
It was pretty easy to get back in the raft afterwards.
And I really like this sport because I like being out in nature and I like seeing the forest around me and going down the river.
It's really cool because you often do this sport in really beautiful areas, and so that adds something extra to this activity.
And usually you do this with a guide who knows exactly what they're doing.
They know how to help you back into the raft if you fall out and they know the river very well.
So it's not that risky if you go with a guide.
So I've done that a few times.
And another extreme sport that I've tried once is parasailing.
And this is the extreme sport where you get towed behind a boat.
When someone tows you, this just means that they pull you.
So you get towed behind a boat and In the air, actually.
So the boat is on the water, of course, and you're in the air with this parachute above you and the boat is pulling you around and you're flying in the air over the water.
This is a really fun sport.
It was really cool to do this, but it can definitely be scary for a lot of people who are afraid of heights, because you go very high above the ground And just thinking about it might make some people shiver, because it seems pretty scary to just be flying by yourself over the ocean really high in the air.
But it was really fun.
I was definitely a little bit scared.
And I know that there have been some accidents where the rope actually breaks or the person somehow gets untied and then they are just flying in the air without any help, without any rope, and they hopefully have to make it down to some safe place.
Okay, i've heard some stories about this happening, So that's definitely a risk when it comes to this sport.
But I don't think this is something you really need to worry about that much if you decide to try parasailing with a reputable company.
This shouldn't be a big risk.
In English when we use the word reputable, we're talking about some company usually, or some other thing that is respected, that has been in the business or operating for many years and you can trust them.
This is someone who's reputable.
So I went parasailing with a reputable company and nothing bad happened to me.
Lastly, let me talk about two more extreme sports that I haven't done, but these sports are some of the most popular ones when you think about extreme sports.
So one of them is bungee jumping.
This is where you jump off a very high place with a cord attached to your ankles.
And then, once you reach down to a lower point, the cord stops you from hitting the ground or from hitting the water.
So this looks like a very scary extreme sport, in my opinion.
This might be the scariest one, I think.
I might try this, but it would definitely take some courage.
And I think that I would be super freaked out before I jump off the bridge or wherever the high place is.
So I don't know if I would ever do this, especially because you jump and you end up upside down.
It seems really scary that the rope is tied to your ankles or it's attached to your ankles.
And so you're actually upside down once you reach a lower point.
So that seems pretty scary.
And the other really popular, really famous extreme sport that people think about when they think about this type of sport is skydiving.
And this is the sport where you jump out of an aircraft very high in the sky and you fall to the ground.
Make it safely to the ground.
So many people pay money to do this sport, maybe once in their life, or some people really like it and do it multiple times.
But I've never done this when I was younger.
I really wanted to do this.
But nowadays, I'm not so sure.
I think that this seems a little bit crazy for me now.
I definitely like adrenaline.
I like the feeling of doing things like this.
But skydiving seems pretty scary to me now.
I think I've gotten more and more scared of these types of things as an adult, especially now that I'm a father, and I think of all the things, the responsibilities that I have, and I think hmm, is this a responsible thing that I should be doing?
I know that it's not that risky, of course, but in my mind, it seems a little bit scary.
So I don't know if I'll ever do this sport or not.
All right, why don't we stop there for today?
I hope this episode was interesting for you and I hope it was good practice for your ears, for your listening.
Remember that if you want more practice and you want my training, then become a Listening Time member.
And if you want my advanced podcast episodes, then become a Listening Time family member and you'll get two new advanced episodes every month.
And this will help you reach an advanced level of listening and it will help you understand native speakers.
So the link is in the episode description below this episode.
That's patreon.com slash listening time.
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And if you like this podcast, then please give it a five-star rating and share it with your friends, your family members, anyone else who's learning English who could benefit from this podcast.
All right.
Well, thank you for listening to this episode and I'll talk to you on the next episode of Listening Time.
