TheJakartaPost
Please Update your browser
Your browser is out of date, and may not be compatible with our website. A list of the most popular web browsers can be found below.
Just click on the icons to get to the download page.
Adrenaline challenges: Which one do you want to try?
A roller coaster ride, bungee jumping, skydiving, downhill mountain biking, big wave surfing, swimming along with sharks, water buffalo racing — to name but a few — are increasingly popular among adrenaline seekers.
Change Size
Comfort is not always what holidaymakers seek. That might sound weird for the average people, but not for thrill seekers.
Instead of just sitting or lying down on a beach chair to watch the sunrise or sunset peacefully, thrill seekers tend to engage in adrenaline-pumping activities.
A roller coaster ride, bungee jumping, skydiving, downhill mountain biking, big wave surfing, swimming along with sharks, water buffalo racing — to name but a few — are increasingly popular among adrenaline seekers.
In countries with four seasons, the extreme adventure sports are more diverse, with the adrenaline challenges taking place in the ice landscape, such as ice climbing, ice biking and ice surfing.
But whatever the types of the extreme sports are available, the adventurous activities pose a risk to thrill seekers. For example, a surfer may all of a sudden face strong currents and waves can potentially slam them into a reef or the ocean floor, which can result in severe injuries.
Jumping from a great height while your legs are connected to a large elastic cord may give extreme delight to the jumper, but what if the equipment is improperly maintained or the cord length is miscalculated? This may put the jumper at the risk of a fatal accident.
This explains why the average vacationers don’t dare do them or if they are at the site where the extreme adventure takes place, they may just prefer to watch from a distance.
Despite the risks, adrenaline junkies dare to engage in extreme sports and some even become addicted to them.
A desire for novelty and adventure has prompted thrill seeker Reza Anwar to try downhill mountain biking overseas.
The experienced biker has tried downhill mountain biking at Whistler Mountain Bike Park in British Columbia, Canada, in 2017, 2018 and 2019.
The biker rode downhill on his bike, conquering steep, rough terrain that features jumps, drops, rock gardens and other obstacles. The unfriendly and far-from-comfortable terrain poses a risk of falling and injuries to bikers.
“I know it is full of risks, but I enjoy it. I feel like, being at the end, nearly out of control, but I still can control it. That is an incomparable [experience],” the IT entrepreneur, who is in his 50s, told The Jakarta Post over the phone recently.
His first try at Whistler Mountain Park, which he said was the biggest and the best in the world, made him fall in love with the park as far as the downhill mountain biking was concerned, and he repeated the similar extreme adventure sport the following consecutive years in 2018 and 2019.
“I planned to go there again this year [2020] for the same purpose, but I had to cancel it due to the COVID-19 pandemic,” he said.
Reza related his downhill mountain biking experience to reality, especially in the context of business, which entails courage to take a risk.
He said that engaging in downhill mountain biking was like risk-taking. But never takes a risk unless “I feel confident in seeing a feature on the trail ahead. But if I am not sure I never hit it. I can come back to try it tomorrow or next year. It is like being back to live to fight another day.”
Extreme adventure sports like the downhill mountain biking requires the bikers to have experience and skill. But if you seek a thrilling experience that is not related to sports, you have many options. For example, spotting tigers and other wild animals in their habitat through a slowly moving car. You can find this thrilling experience in safari parks, such as Taman Safari Indonesia in Bogor, West Java. There, be prepared to see a group of tiger rushing toward your car while showing their sharp teeth.
Or alternatively, you can let your face be swarmed by thousands of honey bees, which can be done at a honey bee park in Malang, East Java.
Intense pleasure
Why do thrill seekers dare to engage in adrenaline-rushing activities, such as extreme adventure sports?
Studies have found positive effects of extreme adventure sports on thrill seekers. In “Why Do We Love Roller Coasters” on Seeker (www.seeker.com), Trace Domininguez cites a small study from the Queensland University of Technology in Australia that looked at fear responses in people who participated in extreme adventure sports.
“The researchers found that for some people, overcoming fear was a meaningful, constructive experience. They still experience fear, but it's viewed much more as a positive experience, rather that negative,” he said.
In “The Psychology of Roller Coasters”, the Conversation (www.theconversation.com) said that novice bungee jumpers not only reported increased feelings of well-being, wakefulness and euphoria just after completing a jump, but they also had raised levels of endorphins in the blood, known to produce feelings of intense pleasure.
San Francisco-based Healthline (www.healthline.com) in California, the United States, provider of health information, highlights the positive side of the adrenaline rush scientifically. It says that excitement and being afraid can cause ones’ body to produce the adrenaline hormone, and when it is released into their blood, this hormone increases their heart rate, blood pleasure and breathing rate, which can sharpen their senses and give them a boost of energy.
It also identifies some traits that thrill or sensation seekers might have. They include flexibility and openness to change, a desire for complexity, a desire for novelty, a drive to pursue challenges, spontaneity and impulsivity, curiosity and creativity.
For thrilling experiences on your vacation, there are, indeed, different levels of adrenaline challenges you can try, from light ones like spotting wild animals, to heavy ones like bungee jumping or riding a bike down a steep hill. The choice is yours.
