The Cost of Extreme

Every time you switch on a television set, every time you pick up a
newspaper, every time you tune in your radio, you hear about how
luxurious the lifestyle of the average sports man or woman has become.

Every
time you think about the world of sports you feel that big business has
taken away some of the enjoyment out of life for these sportspeople.

The reality, however, is somewhat different.

The cost of most sports has gone up, making the need to find a benefactor to assist you more necessary.

The young sports competitor today has to be a mixture of talent and marketing wizardry.

I speak of this, because I know about it.


I have spent the best part of two years door stepping potential backers
for Extreme Escapology, people whose company fit the marketing plan of
the sport and could have benefited from the national exposure.

I
have spent three years walking around trying to convince people that
robotic combat is not confined to Star Wars and that if they were
interested in it then it would become the next big thing.


Alas, there is nothing that can be done except keep trying and hope one
day there will be someone brave enough to assist you as an individual,
as a team or as a sport to allow you to display your natural talents in
the media long enough for others to support you.

Until that
day, you have to consol yourself with the fact that you become an
expert on the internal architecture of office buildings and not
becoming depressed at the rejections of people that really do not care
one little bit about you or your chosen sport.

So when you
read the newspaper about how overly paid a sport competitor is, think
for a second and wonder if he or she had not earned it by having to
crawl their way to the top.

I know I am hypocritical as I too
have looked at Soccer players, at Footballers, at Basketball players
and wondered if there was anything so overrated as their earnings? Then
I realise what they have had to sacrifice, to dare, to risk to get
where they have and then I feel that they have earned it.

But
in extreme sports, they have earned it too. Where as the majority of
soccer and football stars have only risked their employment prospects
away from their chosen sports by sacrificing their education, there are
more injuries and broken bones from extreme sports than anything else
out there.

Yet these people may never become the next Tony
Hawks but if they did it would not be because someone has given them
money that they have not earned.

Go down to the high street in
your home towns, the board park, the malls, the footpaths of an evening
or at the weekends. Take a good long look at the people that hang out
there and then think that out of those 20 or 30 people, maybe one of
them might, if the stars and planets unite in the right order, might
just become a national level competitor.

Take a look at the
cuts, the bruises, the padding, the limps and the scrapes that pot mark
the exposed flesh, then think that maybe one person in one thousand,
through practice and skill, gets to make it to the very top.

Then
after all that, look at the newspapers, the television, listen to the
radio and then make your judgement if the money spent on Extreme
Sports, is spoiling those involved.

Thank you for reading.

Take care.