Dancing with nature: Rhythm and harmony in extreme sport participation

Abstract

Research on extreme sports has downplayed the importance of the athletes' connection to the natural world. This neglect stems, in part, from the assumption that these activities derive their meaning primarily from risk. The authors' long-term research reveals that the interplay between adventure athletes and the natural world is, in fact, crucial for many participants. This study used hermeneutic and phenomenological analysis of first-hand accounts of these sports and interviews with 15 veteran participants. These included BASE jumpers, big-wave surfers, extreme skiers, waterfall kayakers, extreme mountaineers and solo rope-free climbers. Participants spoke extensively about developing a deep relationship with the natural world akin to an intimate 'dance' between actively engaged partners. Our experience-based analysis has found that extreme sports aficionados do not simply view the natural world as a commodity, a stage for risk taking, or vehicle for self-gratification. On the contrary, for veteran adventure athletes the natural world acts as a facilitator to a deeper, more positive understanding of self and its place in the environment. For some, nature was described as omnipresent and ubiquitous, and a source of innate power and personal meaning. The authors explore how these findings may augment the delivery of more 'ecocentric' programmes in the outdoor adventure field.

Full text

QUT Digital Repository:
http://eprints.qut.edu.au/
Brymer, Eric and Gray, Tonia (2009) Dancing with nature : rhythm and harmony
in extreme sport participation. Journal of Adventure Education & Outdoor
Learning, 9(2). pp. 135-149.
© Copyright 2009 Routledge

1
Dancing with nature: Rhythm and harmony in extreme sport participation
Eric Brymer
Queensland University of Technology, Australia
Tonia Gray
University of Wollongong, Australia
Abstract
Research on extreme sports has downplayed the importance of the athletes’ connection to the
natural world. This neglect stems, in part, from the assumption that these activities derive
their meaning primarily from risk. The authors’ long-term research reveals that the interplay
between adventure athletes and the natural world is, in fact, crucial for many participants.
This study used hermeneutic and phenomenological analysis of first-hand accounts of these
sports and interviews with fifteen veteran participants. These included B.A.S.E. jumpers, big
wave surfers, extreme skiers, waterfall kayakers, extreme mountaineers and solo rope-free
climbers. Participants spoke extensively about developing a deep relationship with the
natural world akin to an intimate “dance” between actively engaged partners. Our
experience-based analysis has found that extreme sports aficionados do not simply view the
natural world as a commodity, a stage for risk taking, or vehicle for self-gratification. On the
contrary, for veteran adventure athletes the natural world acts as a facilitator to a deeper,
more positive understanding of self and its place in the environment. For some, nature was
described as omnipresent and ubiquitous, and a source of innate power and personal
meaning. The authors explore how these findings may augment the delivery of more “eco-
centric” programs in the outdoor adventure field.
Introduction
When we try to pick out anything in itself,
we find it hitched to everything else in the universe.
(John Muir cited in Warrawee’a, 2002, p. 95)
For the most part, contemporary, Western discussions on the human relationship with the
natural world are an anthropocentric proposition that views nature as separate from humanity
(Schultz, 2002). From this perspective nature appears to be inanimate, providing a resource,
medium or place for human action, an obstacle for conquering, or a play-ground for
exhilaration and natural “highs”. An extreme version of this standpoint is a Cartesian
treatment of nature as simply a type of machine valued only for its worth to humanity
(Wilshire, 1997). For some writers with a focused curiosity about the relationship between
humanity and nature, the natural world has been afforded intrinsic value for its own sake and
is often seen as a place of worship and worthy of stewardship. In this instance nature is
described as a sanctuary, refuge, sacred reservoir or natural reserve (Gray, 2005; Shoham,
Rose, & Kahle, 2000; Slattery, 2001), but still separate from humanity (Martin, 2009). In
contrast, for other researchers the natural world is deeply connected to humanity and
described as an intimate partner or an extension of the self where humanity is seen as an
integral part of a greater whole (Birrell, 2001; Martin, 2009; Schultz, 2002). These tensions
are often reflected in theoretical perspectives on outdoor and adventure education (Nicol,
2003; Stremba & Bisson, 2009).

2
In order for educators to maximize the learning potential of outdoor activity, we must come
to better “understand the psychological and emotional connections between humans and the
natural world” (Stremba & Bisson, 2009, p. 345) and how these connections might be
facilitated. Although unfounded prejudice may lead some in our field to disregard extreme
sports as part of outdoor education, the multi-faceted account of extreme athletes’
experiences that emerges once they are placed under the analytical microscope may help us to
better reach out to this significant public.
Whatever the motives that initially attract participants to extreme sports, their own accounts
of why they find these activities compelling show a change over time. Rather than an
egocentric focus on personal achievement or triumph over nature, we find instead a deeper
reflection on eco-centricity and connectedness with nature. Although they may first jump
from cliffs or enter big waves or ride waterfalls for more shallow personal motives, they
often find over time that they are, as John Muir too realized, ‘hitched to everything else in the
universe’ (John Muir in Warrawee’a, 2002, p. 95). If this trajectory of growing awareness is
typical, outdoor educators may find allies in the extreme sport community rather than
philosophical adversaries.
Defining Extreme Sports
Although a cluster of increasingly popular sports fall under the general heading of ‘extreme’,
arriving at a universal definition of the term can be a challenge as the boundaries of what
counts as ‘extreme’ are ambiguous. Brymer (2005) defines extreme sports as outdoor leisure
activities where the most likely outcome of a mismanaged mistake or accident is death. Over
the past two decades, participation rates in these sports have grown exponentially. According
to Puchan (2004) involvement has “been shown not to be just a ‘flash in the pan’ but a sign of
the times in which people are looking for a new way to define their lives and to escape from
an increasingly regulated and sanitised way of living” (Puchan, 2004, P. 177).
The activities that most clearly fall under this definition of ‘extreme sports’ are B.A.S.E.
jumping (Buildings, Antennae, Space, Earth), extreme skiing, waterfall kayaking, big wave
surfing, high-level mountaineering and climbing without ropes or ‘free solo’ climbing.
B.A.S.E. jumping, for instance, in which participants jump from solid structures such as
cliffs, bridges or buildings, is considered to be the most extreme of the parachute sports
(Celsi, Rose, & Leigh, 1993; Soreide, Ellingsen, & Knutson, 2007). Whilst skydivers use
safety devices such as warning technology and second parachutes, B.A.S.E. jumpers cannot
employ warning devices or second parachutes because they simply will not function given
B.A.S.E. conditions. B.A.S.E. jumping is arguably one of the most extreme of extreme sports
(Soreide et al., 2007). As one B.A.S.E. jumper put it: ‘There are no second chances’ (James,
male B.A.S.E. jumper, early 70’s).
Extreme skiing involves skiing down sheer cliffs or very steep grades where a fall results in
the skier tumbling out of control. Waterfall kayaking occurs in waterways rated at the highest
grade on the international white-water grading system. The highest waterfalls, for example,
are at least thirty metres tall, and again a mistake would most likely result in death. Big wave
surfing takes surfers into waves over twenty feet tall, where even some of the most renowned
surfers have died (Warshaw, 2000).
Traditionally, critics have assumed that these sports are motivated by a thrill-seeking
willingness to take unnecessary risks, show that one has ‘No Fear’ or pursue a ‘death-wish’
that these critics have denounced. Theorists have presented explanations for participation
including an innate and perhaps pathological drive (Rossi & Cereatti, 1993; Schroth, 1995;
Self, Henry, Findley, & Reilly, 2007; Zuckerman, 2000) or a socially unacceptable learnt

3
behaviour (Hunt, 1995, 1996). However, more recently researchers following a
phenomenological tradition have argued that extreme sports might enable more positive
experiences (Brymer, 2009; Brymer & Oades, 2009; Willig, 2008). In this paper we explore
one particular experience: the encounter between extreme athletes and the natural-world.
Extreme sports and the natural world
Extreme sports are often represented as the ultimate demonstration of humanity’s power and
control, a bold assertion that even nature’s most basic laws do not apply to the athlete
(Millman, 2001). Writers who explicitly discuss the relationship between extreme sports and
the natural world consider sport participation to be an expression of an innate human drive to
conquer or battle against nature as part of identity formation or a demonstration of personal
power (Celsi et al., 1993; Millman, 2001; Rosenblatt, 1999). This portrayal of extreme sports
as a confrontation between participants and the natural world assumes that humanity is
separate from the natural world, and as the distance grows, the natural world becomes a threat
to fear and control (Schultz, 2002; Stilgoe, 2001).
Millman (2001) considered participation in extreme sports to be the epitome of naïveté and
nihilism that stems from self-indulgence. His argument is that, as society leads people to feel
powerless and insignificant, people search for ways to prove to themselves that they are, in
fact, potent and in command of their own destinies. Le Breton (2000) considered the extreme
sport experience to be the ultimate hand-to-hand fight, where a participant’s battle against
nature somehow adds importance and value to their life.
Both critiques of extreme sports as unnecessary risk taking and accounts of a quest for
individual feelings of power suggest that the essential relationship between the natural world
and the extreme athlete is to battle against or attempt to conquer or vanquish part of the
natural world. In these accounts of extreme sports, the natural world has only anthropocentric
worth, that is, it is recognized only for its use or value to humanity.
Dancing with nature
Our research findings suggest that the relationship between athletes and nature is not purely
anthropocentric, about conquering or conflict, but rather built upon a recognition of an
integrating process or journey (Olsen, 2001). The criticism that extreme sports participants
are out to conquer the natural world may be more a reflection of how a naïve non-participant
of extreme sports or even a novice practitioner understands the relationship as opposed to an
inherent element of the extreme sport experience.
The metaphor of ‘dance’ recognises a dynamic, rhythmical, harmonious, fluid and responsive
interplay between the extreme sport participant and nature. Dance may also be characterized
as a partially inexpressible, emotionally filled experience (Dienske, 2000) involving
intentional and creative movement, like a choreography (Lane, 2005). The dance metaphor
embraces the holistic experience of extreme athletes within nature. Engaging in extreme
sports (just like dance) is a transformational experience for some participants that taps into
the emotional, spiritual and physical realms.
Any study of the meaning of extreme sports must recognize that people’s understandings
evolve over time. Rowe (2008) cautions that “the ephemeral nature of dance, existing as it
does ‘in the moment’, accentuates how shared understandings in dialogue do not constitute
finalized, static representations” (Rowe, 2008, p.50). Even our findings are a window in on
one stage of an emerging worldview, shaped by ongoing interactions with nature. The
potency of nature is articulated by Uhlik (2006) when he says “nature continually impresses
humans in its role as an omnipresent, if not ultimate, source of power” (Uhlik, 2006, p. 135).

4
For this reason, we suspect that we are detailing a sophisticated, veteran perception of the
activity, one that some participants may never develop. Part of our reason for discussing this
view is to encourage outdoor educators to assist people to reach this integrated eco-centric
stage of understanding. Prematurely dismissing the inherent value of these activities because
novices’ motives appear suspect may serve to crystallize less well-developed understandings
and discourage the emergence of eco-centric consciousness.
In this paper, part of a larger hermeneutic phenomenological investigation of extreme sports,
the authors explored this particular eco-centric relationship between extreme sports
participation and nature by asking the question, ‘How does the extreme sports participant
relate to the natural world?’ We discuss participants’ descriptions of a relationship they
characterized as a harmonious and rhythmical interaction between partners, an engagement
some likened to a ‘dance.’ Through ‘dancing’ with the natural world, an extreme sports
participant generally undergoes a transformation in self-understanding at the same time that
his or her view of nature also changes.
The findings presented in this paper are particularly significant because the research project
did not initially set out to explore the relationship between extreme sport participation and the
natural world; this theme only emerged from the ongoing hermeneutic analysis of interview
transcripts over the course of the project. Equally, the researchers “bracketed” or suspended
in advance any presuppositions about the relationship between extreme sports and risk,
allowing subject interviews to shape our emerging interpretation. The researchers were
surprised that risk did not play a more important role in our analysis, at first, until we
recognized that the absence of this theme was indicative of the type of eco-centric worldview
that many veteran athletes achieved.
Methodology
Interview participants
Fifteen participants (ten men and five women) from Europe, Australia and U.S.A., aged 30 to
70 years, agreed to be interviewed for this study. Participants were recruited for three
reasons. Firstly, they were identified as participating in one of the extreme sports that the
research investigated. Secondly, they demonstrated a desire to unpack or analyse their own
extreme sport experiences. Thirdly, all subjects were outside the age group typically
discussed in the literature about alternative sports, some of them significantly older than the
demographic associated with high-risk behaviour. This third criterion was crucial to the
project to counter a tendency in previous research to focus predominantly on the supposed
‘core’ participant group: young people. By recruiting outside this ‘core,’ we sought to
increase our understanding of diversity and longitudinal change in extreme sport experience
(Donnelly, 2006).
Following a phenomenological strategy, participants were chosen for the sake of the
phenomenon rather than according to an arbitrary sampling procedure (Van Kaam, 1966). We
recruited participants for their ability to explore and articulate their experience, not for their
prior knowledge of the phenomenological framework. Other data sources, including firsthand
accounts in the form of autobiographies, biographies, academic papers and video, were
resourced from around the world, including India, China, Taiwan and Nepal. These published
materials allowed the researchers to cross-check themes that were emerging in the interviews
to make sure that the interview questions were not stimulating atypical or idiosyncratic
accounts. The extreme sports included B.A.S.E. jumping, big wave surfing, extreme skiing,
extreme kayaking, extreme mountaineering and solo rope-free climbing. Participants of
alternative, lifestyle or sub-culture sports that did not fit the definition outlined earlier,

5
including the same activities at a level where death would be unlikely or impossible, were not
included, nor were practitioners of sports such as skateboarding and BMX although they are
sometimes referred to popularly as ‘extreme sports’.
The first author conducted focused conversations with all fifteen extreme sport participants
either face-to-face or by phone. Open-ended questions elicited experiences in an unstructured
way, allowing subjects to focus on the themes that were most important to them. One
question guided the interview and analysis process: ‘What is the extreme sport experience?’
Or to put it another way, ‘How is the extreme sport experience perceived by participants?’
Further open-ended questions encouraged deeper reflection of subjects on their personal
experiences, asking them to clarify and comment upon their own statements.
Hermeneutic phenomenology is both descriptive and interpretive. The hermeneutic
phenomenological approach used in this research project aims to investigate an experience as
it is lived and demands the use of a multitude of data sources for exploring a phenomenon
like extreme sports (van Manen, 1997). The researchers examined a wide range of materials
in addition to interviews in an effort to understand the nature of a particular experience and to
assure that some accounts are originating outside the interview setting. Phenomenological
research achieves rigor, in part, by ‘bracketing’ or setting aside pre-existing understandings
and by comparing among a variety of accounts to see if dimensions of the experience recur
across multiple subjects (Giorgi, 1997).
The first stage of the interview analysis involved listening to each tape immediately
following the interview and repeatedly rereading interview transcripts in relation to each
other (Amlani, 1998; Ettling, 1998). Each individual transcript was read and thematically
analysed as a separate entity although all transcripts were revisited as themes became more
explicit. Both formal and non-formal understandings of potential themes were continually
questioned, challenged and assessed for relevancy. Questions such as; ‘What is beneath the
text as presented?’ ‘Am I interpreting this text from a position of interference from theory or
personal bias?’ and ‘What am I missing?’ guided the intuiting and analytical process.
The analysis considered both verbal and non-verbal aspects of the interviews. The researchers
highlighted interesting phrases and any relevant non-verbal considerations. Accepting
Steinbock’s (1997, p.127) argument that phenomenological descriptions are not about
reproducing ‘mere matters of fact or inner feelings,’ these notes were reconsidered in terms
of potential underlying thematic phrases or meaning units (DeMares, 1998; Moustakas,
1994). A similar interpretation process was undertaken with videos, biographies and
autobiographies.
The quotes throughout the paper illustrate themes drawn from a variety of our sources. They
are chosen because, although typical, the passages present a particularly articulate or eloquent
instance of a theme that was more widespread in our interviews and other research. Where
the source was an interview rather than a published account or video, we have changed names
in order to maintain confidentiality.
Results and discussions
In the interviews and other research, we found participants in extreme sports specifically
reflecting on the widespread idea that these athletes seek to conquer nature, either to carve
out a particular identity or in order to prove themselves. The analysis of participants’
accounts has led us to question this stance and present a viewpoint that is both more
consistent with athletes’ views and that may enhance potential collaboration with the outdoor
education field.

6
A. On conquering
Many discussions of extreme sports assume that athletes seek to conquer elements of the
environment. In contrast, Charles Houston (1968), an experienced Himalayan expedition
climber and surgeon, was quite clear that the relationship between climber and mountain
could not be that of conqueror to conquered.
Mountaineering is more of a quest for self-fulfilment than a victory over others or
over nature. The true mountaineer knows that he has not conquered a mountain by
standing on its summit for a few fleeting moments. Only when the right men are in the
right places at the right time are the big mountains climbed; never are they conquered
(Houston, 1968, p. 57).
Similarly, a white-water kayaker, recalling a trip in Russia, evidenced analogous respect for
rivers:
You cannot conquer a river. How can you defeat something that is never the same
twice, that is unaware of your presence? To the river, we are so much flotsam, and if
we forget that, the results can be decidedly final. It is often difficult to remember the
force of the river in places like this; the water can smash a swimmer to pieces on the
rocks and leave them broken like a doll or a piece of rubbish bobbing in the
backwaters of an eddy.
There was enough force in ‘The thing you strain spaghetti through after you’ve
cooked it’ [the name of a particular rapid] to rip us from our frail craft and pound us
like so much drift wood. And the river wouldn’t even know we were dead. There can
be no competition, no way we can fight against the huge forces we travel on (Guilar,
1999, chap 11 [brackets added]).
This recognition that, no matter how successful the athlete, the natural force will register no
reaction, no lasting impression, humbles many participants in extreme sports. Page (2003),
for example, wrote that big waves pay no attention to the surfers riding them and by
implication would not even know that a competition was taking place. Given the transience
of the athlete’s passage through the natural world, participants often come to recognize the
overwhelming power of nature.
B. The dance
Participants suggest that a more appropriate understanding of the relationship is an interaction
with the environment as partner, likened by some to a metaphorical ‘dance.’ Lynn Hill, an
extreme climber, reported that climbing required, not domination, but rather adapting to the
rock, and that:
It is not about going out there and conquering something-proving that you are
somehow stronger than other people or the rock you’re about to climb. It is much
more about interacting with your environment (Hill cited in Olsen, 2001, p. 59).
For Hill, only by achieving ‘a harmonious relationship to the rock,’ can an extreme climber
progress at all (Hill cited in Olsen, 2001, p. 60). Olsen (2001) also found that the women she
interviewed for her book spoke about a partnership with the natural environment or about
being in harmony with self and the environment.
Similarly, Midol and Broyer (1995) characterized the human-nature relationship as
interacting and blending with the environment to the point that participants perceive parts of
nature as agents with which they negotiate and, ultimately, identify.

7
Snow and mountains are perceived as living entities, at once dangerous and
benevolent. In their return to an intimate dialogue with mythical characters, skiers
experience a phantasmogorical relationship that is also real. One must blend with the
environment, become one with it (Midol & Broyer, 1995, p. 207).
The difficulty of describing this unusual state leads participants and observers to grasp for the
language of myth and mysticism.
In their research on high-risk sports, Slanger and Rudestam (1997) specifically describe the
partnership as a state akin to a dance, drawing on the account of one of their informants:
A solo climber stated that he did not use ropes because it interfered with the dance-like
quality of climbing, while another said that he was motivated by the movement of
climbing. A kayaker said, ‘what motivates me is the state I enter into. There is a real
clarity and heightened senses-both physically and of mind. The risk is completely out of
my mind. I am connected and in it. All my senses just feed in’ (Slanger & Rudestam,
1997, p. 366).
This climber highlights that the dawning connection to nature occurs not simply in retrospect
but in the movements of the athletic activity themselves. Slanger and Rudestam found this
pattern of satisfying bodily engagement across a range of activities:
Climbers spoke of the feeling of movement and rhythmical pleasure of the experience.
Aerobatic pilots spoke of the pleasure and beauty of controlled movement in space.
Kayakers expressed their appreciation for the beauty of the natural environment in
which their activity took place and the pleasure of intimacy with the rivers, getting to
know their various characteristics and idiosyncrasies (Slanger & Rudestam, 1997, pp.
370-371).
Rather than focusing on risk or a sense of personal efficacy or conquest, these athletes
dwelled on the pleasure derived from their immersion in the environment and their own
action.
For Helen, a mountaineer, the experience engaged all her senses as well as what she called
‘intuition’ which she described as being in touch with herself.
It’s all senses and perhaps also intuition, because you are more in touch with yourself
as well in those situations which can be dangerous situations. You tend to be very in
tune with your environment and that means that you are going to react very intuitively,
I suppose, to what’s around you (Helen, female mountaineer, mid 30’s).
Helen explained the heightened self-awareness of intuitive activity later as moving in the
environment, not controlling the environment.
Booth (2003, p. 316) likened surfing big waves to a dance ‘to and with a natural energy
form.’ Sam, an extreme kayaker in his late 30’s, described feeling as if he and the waterfall
were travelling together in a sort of ‘flow’: ‘I feel that I'm going with the flow of the waterfall
and it's letting me out at the bottom and I'm still in the hands of the waterfall, it's going along
with me.’
Guilar (1999) drew similarities between the kayaking experience and a dance; he cautions
that, should the dance turn to competition or fight, then the likely result would be death.
Charles Houston (1968) echoes this warning, suggesting that the challenge is to overcome
self-imposed obstacles rather than the environment:
The aim is not to conquer, for mountain climbing is not a conflict between man and
nature. The aim is to transcend a previous self by dancing a ‘ballet’ on the crags and

8
precipices and eventually, at very long last, to emerge exhilarated and addicted
(Houston, 1968, p. 49).
Rather than an addictive rush of adrenaline, Houston suggests that his feeling of ‘dancing’
with the natural world, transcending a ‘previous self,’ provides an addictive form of self-
revelation. Other accounts describe a similar paradox, that engagement with and adaptation to
the environment actually provides greater internal awareness and introspective insight.
It’s all about learning to adapt totally to the environment you’re in. I think it provides
the perfect opportunity for learning about what makes you tick. When you’re that
involved in the external world, you can really explore your inner nature (Hill cited in
Olsen, 2001, p. 66).
Pushed by their engagement with the environment, extreme athletes sometimes find
unrecognized resources within their own character. Vicky, a B.A.S.E. jumper in her late 30s,
highlighted this paradox in stark terms:
While you’re like a leaf in the wind, you can also make a difference, and you can also
explore parts of yourself that you had no concept of even being there.
In summary, many veterans of extreme sports consider the concept of fighting or conquering
the environment profoundly alien to their experience. After all, how can a person conquer a
mountain, or defeat a river, or dominate a wave that does not even recognize the existence of
the athlete and that will never remain the same? One cannot compete with nature when the
human presence in the face of immense natural forces is so insignificant and transitory.
Rather participants speak about the extreme sport activity as learning to adapt to,
participating with or being attuned to the natural world as in a partnership or ‘dance’. If a
conquest exists, it is more of an internal quest for self-knowledge and transcendence. For
Arnould and colleagues (1999) this extreme experience tends to produce a reverence for the
natural world. Providing the participants take the time to learn about their partner, this
harmonious relationship can trigger opportunities for lasting positive change. The power,
uncertainty and potential of death outside of the safety nets of civilization, in the face of
immense natural forces, facilitates a personal exploration of the participant’s internal
landscape and a transcendence to new forms of awareness. Although the sports may be new
and rely upon technological innovations, as Bell (2003) appreciated, to ‘dance’ with nature is
deeply embedded in human mythology and may be experienced as a spiritual awakening.
Ironically, this ancient awareness can occur in new sites using new techniques. The
exploration of nature to plumb the depth of human spirit may require contemporary people to
enter nature’s wild and untamed places in unprecedented ways.
Implications for outdoor education
The term “outdoor education” has been used in a variety of contexts to describe a vast range
of experiences. Seminal work by Donaldson & Donaldson (1958) defined outdoor education
as education in, for, and about the outdoors. Since then, it has evolved into an educational
experience “which impels participants into challenging and demanding situations requiring
effort, determination, co-operation and self-reliance” (Hattie, Marsh, Neill, & Richards, 1997,
p. 45). More recently Neill (2002) has expanded this definition to include “an international,
experiential education phenomenon which engages people in adventurous activities for
enhancement of the well-being of individuals, communities, and the environment ” (Neill,
2002). In short it would seem that an important role of outdoor education is to enhance
individual wellbeing through activities that take place in the outdoors.

9
Researchers exploring the relationship between health and human-nature interactions have
found that feeling disconnected from the natural world adversely affects mental health
(Frumkin, 2001; Scull, 1999; Wilson, 2001). That is, as human-beings we depend on the
natural world, not only for basic needs such as air and water, but also for more holistic
wellness. To be fully healthy beings we must establish an intimate relationship to the natural
world (Glendinning, 1994).
Some expert extreme athletes suggest in interviews that they do not consider this relationship
to be an attempt to conquer the natural world, playing on the natural world or using it only as
a resource. Instead, like advocates of holistic, ecological awareness, our subjects describe a
relationship of nature-as-partner, nature-as-family, nature-as-self or nature-as-unity. In a
sense, they have no “relationship” with nature because there is no separation. From this
position of recognizing their embeddedness in nature, to fight nature is to fight oneself, to
understand nature is to understand oneself, to be in the natural world in all its glory is to
recognize that we are part of that glory (Watts, 1970).
The synergy and power of the dance relationship develops into an awareness of a partnership
of between equally valued participants, even if the relationship is clearly asymmetrical.
Partners may not always be friendly but the possibility of treating one’s dance partner as non-
valued object or inert presence dissolves. The relationship is no longer one where the other is
objectified and valued only for what it can provide. As Mathews (2008) observed the natural
world and other-than-human life forms can be seen from a moral and synergistic point of
view, even if sometimes the relationship can be confusing, it will never be indifferent.
What I will never be, however, is indifferent. I will never see them merely as an
externalised object, either to be treated inhumanely, as the immoral person treats
others, or to be treated with in-principle deference, as the person acting merely from
probity or moral principle treats them (Mathews, 2008, p. 50).
In this state of interdependence and awareness a particular aspect of the natural world has
subjectivity and innate value (Schultz, 2002). The extreme sports experience re-can establish a
nature-humanity partnership, where the environmental other becomes emotionally connected
and deemed to be worthy of care (Schultz, 2002). Reciprocally, the natural world can also
become a facilitator of a deep sense of wellbeing and even extraordinary states of awareness
and consciousness. Schultz (2002) argued that such experiences of connectedness are
characterised by feelings of intimacy. In this way fear, and a resulting desire for domination
and control, may be replaced by respect and harmony. The perceptions of the human partner,
in many of our accounts of the extreme sport ‘dance,’ have moved from an anthropocentric to
an eco-centric perspective, where humanity is recognized as part of the natural world (Kleffel,
1996; Oelschlaeger, 1992).
The findings of this study indicate that by experientially realising that we are part of nature, as
perhaps a leopard or bird is part of nature, we may re-establish a more intimate link with the
natural world and open ourselves to lasting positive life enhancements. To be in nature in such
a way that these life altering experiences are discovered seems to rely on an acceptance that
the natural world is more powerful than humanity; extreme sports may provide a particular
potent catalyst for participants to recognize the power of nature and their own immersion in it.
In this way, the heightened expereince of extreme sports may help participants to decrease
their need to control, conquer or battle against the natural world. The natural world becomes
more than playing field or resource. In the wave or on the side of the mountain or in the midst
of rapids, the natural world and humanity may be experienced as one.

10
Outdoor education has a role to play in fostering this experience. Our study has shown that
rather than cultivating an atmosphere of fearful disconnect and wreckless conquest in the
natural world, we can work with extreme athletes to foster an intimate relationship by
enhancing opportunities for students to dance with the natural world.
Institutions involved in outdoor leadership training could nurture this relationship by
reframing delivery so that inclusiveness and intimacy within nature is enhanced, where nature
becomes a partner. To do this, we need to reconsider some of our current metaphors for the
natural world and how we present the outdoor experience, in both extreme outdoor sports and
more traditional activities. Instead of travelling on the river or mountain, these extreme
athletes suggest that we need to consider how we travel with the river or mountain.
Participants have to experience the connection, not just come to an awareness through
theoretical perception. In this way, outdoor education will become the medium for
reconnecting with the natural world and play a major role in the development of global
environmental care. Ironically, extreme sports, which may first attract people because they
search for confirmation of their own potency, might instead to a dawning recognition of our
own dependency upon and place within the natural world.
Conclusion
Extreme sports unfortunately have earned a reputation for being all about adrenalin and the
desire to pit oneself against nature. However, this paper has shown that this external criticism
does not align with the experiences of extreme sports participants who speak about the
natural world as a partner and the relationship as more of a ‘dance.’ The athletes described
their experiences of being in harmony with nature and suggested that the natural world
provides a context for self-learning. These experiences are reflected in modern eco-centric
research and writings.
Extreme sports seem to enable transformational experience by facilitating a deep connection
with an aspect of ourselves that is brought to light only by being truly in the natural world
and subject to outside forces. Outdoor educators can integrate our findings into the fabric of
their program construction, finding ways to reach an audience in extreme sports as well as
potential resources for our programs. The salient message for those responsible for program
design is to encourage a reciprocal relationship with nature by focusing on intimacy as
opposed to risk. Clearly, there is a need to re-evaluate existing extreme sport research in a
way which strengthens our understanding of connection to nature. This paper suggests that
we may learn much by paying attention to extreme athletes’ own metaphor of a dance that
can be choreographed, embedded and intertwined into the adventure education paradigm.
References
Amlani, A. (1998). Internal events and archetypes. In W. Braud & R. Anderson (Eds.),
Transpersonal research methods for the social sciences: Honoring human experience
(pp. 179-183). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
Arnould, E. J., Price, L. L., & Otnes, C. (1999). Making consumption magic. Journal of
Contemporary Ethnography, 28(1), 33-68.
Bell, M. (2003). Another kind of life. In R. E. Rinehart & S. Sydnor (Eds.), To the extreme:
Alternative sports, inside and out (pp. 219-256). NY: State University of New York
Press.
Birrell, C. (2001). A deepening relationship with place. Australian Journal of Outdoor
Education, 6(1), 25-30.

11
Booth, D. (2003). Expression sessions: Surfing, style, and prestige. In R. E. Rinehart & S.
Sydnor (Eds.), To the extreme: Alternative sports, inside and out (pp. 315-333). NY:
State Univ of New York Press.
Brymer, E. (2005). Extreme dude: A phenomenological exploration into the extreme sport
experience. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, University of Wollongong,
Wollongong.
Brymer, E. (2009). Extreme Sports as a facilitator of ecocentricity and positive life changes
World Leisure Journal 51(1), 47-53.
Brymer, E., & Oades, L. (2009). Extreme Sports: A positive transformation in courage and
humility. Journal of Humanistic Psychology, 114-126.
Celsi, R. L., Rose, R. L., & Leigh, T. W. (1993). An exploration of high-risk leisure
consumption through skydiving. Journal of Consumer Research, 20, 1-23.
DeMares, R. (1998). Peak experiences with cetaceans: A phenomenological study.
Unpublished doctoral thesis, The Union Institute Graduate College, California, San
Francisco.
Dienske, I. (2000). Beyond words: On the experience of the ineffable. Phenomenology and
Pedagogy, 3(1), 3-19.
Donaldson, G., & Donaldson, L. (1958). Outdoor education: A definition. Journal of
Physical Education, Recreation & Dance, 29(17), 17 and 63.
Donnelly, M. (2006). Studying extreme sports: Beyond the core participants. Journal of Sport
& Social Issues, 30, 219-224.
Ettling, D. (1998). Levels of listening. In W. Braud & R. Anderson (Eds.), Transpersonal
research methods for the social sciences: Honoring human experience (pp. 176-179).
Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
Frumkin, H. (2001). Beyond toxicity: Human health and the natural environment. American
Journal of Preventative Medicine, 20(3), 234-240.
Giorgi, A. (1997). The theory, practice, and evaluation of the phenomenological method as a
qualitative research procedure. Journal of Phenomenological Psychology, 28(2), 235-
260.
Glendinning, C. (1994). "My name is Chellis & I'm in recovery from western civilization".
Boston: Shambhala.
Gray, T. (2005). Exploring our connections and relationships with place and/or nature. In T.
Dickson, T. Gray & B. Hayllar (Eds.), Outdoor and Experiential Learning: Views
from the Top (pp. 9-12). Otago: Otago University Press.
Guilar, L. (1999). Dancing with the Bear: An online book of a kayaking adventure in Russia.
In R. Watters (Eds.). Available from www.isu.edu/outdoor/dwbstart.htm
Hattie, J., Marsh, H. W., Neill, J. T., & Richards, G. E. (1997). Adventure education and
Outward Bound: Out-of-class experiences that make a lasting difference. Review of
Educational Research, 67, 43-87.
Houston, C. S. (1968). The last blue mountain. In S. Z. Klausner (Ed.), Why man takes
chances (pp. 48-58). New York: Doubleday.
Hunt, J. C. (1995). Divers’ accounts of normal risk. Symbolic Interaction, 18(4), 439-462.

12
Hunt, J. C. (1996). Diving the wreck: Risk and injury in sport scuba diving. Psychoanalytic
Quarterly, LXV, 591-622.
Kleffel, D. (1996). Environmental paradigms: Moving towards an ecocentric perspective.
Advances in Nursing Science, 18(4), 1-11.
Lane, M. R. (2005). Creativity and spirituality in nursing: Implementing art in healing.
Holistic Nursing Practice, 19( 3), 122-125.
Le Breton, D. (2000). Playing symbolically with death in extreme sports. Body and Society,
6(1), 1-11.
Martin, P. (2009). Loving nature through adventure: Examing the human-nature interaction.
In B. Stremba & C. A. Bisson (Eds.), Teaching adventure education theory: Best
practices (pp. 359-368). Champaign, Ill: Human Kinetics.
Mathews, F. (2008). Thinking from within the calyx of nature. Environmental Values 17, 41-
65.
Midol, N., & Broyer, G. (1995). Toward an anthropological analysis of new sport cultures:
The case of whiz sports in France. Sociology of Sport Journal, 12, 204-212.
Millman, J. (2001). Extreme sports: Dudes vs. nature. Retrieved from
www.salon.com/weekly/extreme960603.html
Moustakas, C. E. (1994). Phenomenological research methods. Thousand Oaks, California:
Sage.
Neill, J. (2002, 07 Nov 2006). International outdoor education: Bringing experiential &
adventure educators around the world together. Retrieved from
http://www.wilderdom.com/OEinternational/
Nicol, R. (2003). Outdoor education: Research topic or universal value? Part three. Journal of
Adventure Education & Outdoor Learning, 3(3), 11-28.
Oelschlaeger, M. (1992). Introduction. In M. Oelschlaefer (Ed.), The wilderness condition.
San Francisco: Sierra Club Books.
Olsen, M. (2001). Women who risk: Profiles of women in extreme sports. New York:
Hatherleigh Press.
Page, G. (2003). Vintage days in the big waves of life. In R. E. Rinehart & S. Sydnor (Eds.),
To the extreme: Alternative sports, inside and out (pp. 307-314). New York: State
University of New York Press.
Puchan, H. (2004). Living 'extreme': Adventure sports, media and commercialisation. Journal
of Communication Management, 9(2), 171-178.
Rosenblatt, R. (1999). "The whole world is jumpable": The most extreme sport of all often
kills its players. What is its strange appeal? Time, 154(3), 94.
Rossi, B., & Cereatti, L. (1993). The sensation seeking in mountain athletes as assessed by
Zuckerman’s sensation seeking scale. International Journal of Sport Psychology, 24,
417-431.
Rowe, A. (2008). Unfolding the dance of team learning: A metaphorical investigation of
collective learning. Management Learning, 39(1), 41-56.
Schroth, M. L. (1995). A comparison of sensation seeking among different groups of athletes
and nonathletes. Personality and Individual Differences, 18(2), 219-222.

13
Schultz, P. W. (2002). Inclusion with nature: The psychology of human-nature relations. In P.
Schmuck & P. W. Schultz (Eds.), Psychology of sustainable development (pp. 61-78).
Boston: Kluwer Academic.
Scull, J. (1999, February 15th, 2004). Ecopsychology: Where does it fit in psychology.
Retrieved from www.islands.net/~jscull/ecintro.htm
Self, D. R., Henry, E. D., Findley, C. S., & Reilly, E. (2007). Thrill seeking: The type T
personality and extreme sports. International Journal of Sport Management and
Marketing 2(1-2), 175 -190
Shoham, A., Rose, G. M., & Kahle, L. R. (2000). Practitioners of risky sports: A quantitative
examination. Journal of Business Research, 47, 237-251.
Slanger, E., & Rudestam, K. E. (1997). Motivation and disinhibition in high risk sports:
Sensation seeking and self-efficacy. Journal of Research in Personality, 31, 355-374.
Slattery, D. (2001). What can environmental history offer outdoor education practitioners.
Australian Journal of Outdoor Education, 5(2), 28-33.
Soreide, K., Ellingsen, C., & Knutson, V. (2007). How dangerous is BASE jumping? An
analysis of adverse events in 20,850 jumps from the Kjerag Massif, Norway. Journal
of Trauma-Injury Infection & Critical Care, 62(5), 1113-1117.
Stilgoe, J. R. (2001). Gone barefoot lately. American Journal of Preventive Medicine, 20(3),
243-244.
Stremba, B., & Bisson, C. (2009). The human-nature connection. In B. Stremba & C. Bisson
(Eds.), Teaching adventure education theory. Champaign: Human Kinetics
Uhlik, K. (2006). The Nature of Leadership Philosophy in Outdoor and Adventure Education:
Partnership or Predation. Journal of Adventure education and Outdoor Leadership,
6(2), 135-142.
Van Kaam, A. (1966). Existential foundation of psychology. Pittsburgh: Duquesne University
Press.
van Manen, M. (1997). Researching lived experience: Human science for an action sensitive
pedagogy (2nd ed.). London, Ontario: The Althouse Press.
Warrawee’a, K. l. D. (2002). There once was a tree called Deru. Sydney: Harper Collins.
Warshaw, M. (2000). Maverick's: The story of big-wave surfing. San Francisco: Chronicle
Books.
Watts, A. (1970). Nature, man and woman. New York: Vintage Books.
Willig, C. (2008). A phenomenological investigation of the experience of taking part in
‘Extreme Sports’. Journal of Health Psychology, 13(5), 690–702.
Wilshire, B. (1997). Pragmantism, neopragmatism, and phenomenology: The Richard Rorty
phenomenon. Human Studies, 20, 95-108.
Wilson, E. O. (2001). Nature matters. American Journal of Preventive Medicine, 20(3), 241-
242.
Zuckerman, M. (2000). Are you a risk taker. Psychology Today, Nov/Dec, 130.

14
Author Biography
Dr Eric Brymer received his PhD from the departments of psychology and education in
Wollongong, Australia. He is lecturer and consultant with over 20 years experience in
adventure recreation and outdoor learning as a participator, coach, manager, lecturer and
consultant in the U.S., Europe, UK, Asia and Australia. Eric is currently a lecturer at
Queensland University of Technology. He can be contacted at: eric.brymer@qut.edu.au
Dr Tonia Gray is a senior lecturer at the University of Wollongong in both undergraduate and
postgraduate outdoor education. With a PhD in Outdoor Education, she also co-edited
“Outdoor and Experiential Learning: Views from the top”. Tonia can be contacted at
toniag@uow.edu.au