Top 10 popular Extreme Sports in the United States 2023

Extreme sports, adventure sports or action sports are activities regarded as involving a high degree of risk. Extreme sports activities often involve speed, height, a high level of physical exertion and highly specialized gear, like skateboarding, snowboarding, freestyle skiing, in-line roller-skating, street luge-ing, BMX, mountain biking, BASE jumping, Heli-skiing, cave diving, big-wave surfing, mountain climbing, and much more.

 

Top 10 popular Extreme Sports in the United States 

1. BASE jumping

BASE jumping is a recreational sport of jumping from Building, Antenna (radio masts), Span (bridge), and Earth (mountain), carrying only one parachute. Wingsuit BASE jumping is a popular form of BASE jumping. 

 

Top 5 BASE jumping spots in the United States:

1. Yosemite National Park, California.
2. Royal Gorge bridge, Arkansas river, Colorado.
3. BASE jump Moab, Utah.
4. New River Gorge bridge, West Virginia.
5. Perrine bridge Twin falls, Idaho.

2. BMX 

Bike MotoCross, is an offshoot of motocross, is a cycle sport performed on BMX bikes on dirt tracks filled with tight turns, ridges and jumps. BMX has hit the top list of popular extreme sports, where riders participate in competitive BMX racing, freestyle BMX, or else in general street or off-road recreation. 

 

Top 5 places to ride BMX in the United States:

1. Heath Eiland and Morgan Moss BMX skate park, Austin, Texas.
2. Shaw skate park, Washington DC.
3. 5050 indoor skate park, New York city.
4. San Diego BMX, California.
5. Rock Hill BMX supercross track, North Carolina.

3. Canyoning 

Canyoning or canyoneering is exploring through canyon by using a variety of techniques such as walking, hiking, abseiling, bouldering, sliding, scrambling, jumping, climbing or swimming. Canyoning is done in remote and rugged terrains, and one needs to be skilled in navigational, route-finding and other wilderness travel. Canyoning gear includes climbing hardware, ropes, rope bags, helmets, wetsuits and specially designed shoes. 

 

Top 5 destinations for Canyoning in th United States:

1. Zion National park, Utah.
2. Antelope canyon, Arizona.
3. Matkatamiba canyon, Arizona.
4. Classic canyon and Fall Creek canyon, California.
5. Willow Valley, Arizona.

4. Extreme skiing 

Extreme skiing or free skiing is performed in extremely long, steep slopes and dangerous terrains. Skiers must take lightning-fast decisions throughout the run, unless they are actually trying to ski-off the side of the mountain. 

 

Top 5 destinations for Skiing in United States:

1. Telluride Ski resort, Colorado.
2. Silverton Mountain resort, Colorado.
3. Jakson Hole Mountain resort, Wyoming.
4. Park City Mountain, Utah.
5. Powder Mountain resort, Utah

5. Ice climbing 

Scaling up inclined ice formations, such as icefalls, frozen waterfalls, ice covered cliffs or glaciers, armed with ice tools, spike boots, ice screws. Rock climbing is physically more difficult, but the mental challenges surrounding ice climbing make it a harder sport overall. 

 

Top 5 destinations for Ice climbing in the United States:

1. Ouray Ice Park, Colorado.
2. Hyalite Canyon, Bozeman, Montana.
3. Greensteps, Keystone Canyon, Valdez, Alaska.
4. Starved Rock State Park, Illinois.
5. Lee Vinng Canyon, The Eastern Sierra, California.

6. Ironman Triathlon 

Ironman race is a long-distance triathlon with hallmarked distance for each of the sports, that is, swim, bicycle ride and marathon race. Ironman race is the ultimate test for multi-sport endurance, and hence, experienced triathletes train for years to be able to compete in such an event. 

 

You need atleast 6 months to train for half Ironman, starting from zero endurance training. Consistent endurance training 4-5 times a week for 2-3 months is required to compete for half marathon. The road bike should be the first choice for every beginner and intermediate triathlete, which are more stable and confortable.

7. Motocross 

Motocross is a dirt bike racing sport in which riders compete on enclosed off-road circuits, with steep uphill and downhill grades, wet and muddy patches, and many winding paths of varying difficulty. Motocross is the most physically demanding motorcycle sport. 

 

Top 5 Motocross Tracks in the United States:

1. Redbud MX, Michigan.
2. Spring Creek Motocross Park, Minnesota.
3. Meadow Valley Motocross, Minnesota.
4. Cahilla Creek Motocross, California.
5. Mammoth Mountain MX, California.

8. Sky diving 

Jumping from airplane, helicopter or hot air balloon with parachute to delay the free fall time while doing canopy formation, formation skydiving, wingsuit flying, para-ski are widely practiced. 

 

Top 5 places for Skydiving in the United States:

1. Skydive Hawaii, Waialua, Hawaii.
2. Skydive Snohomish, Washington.
3. Alaska Skydive Center, Anchorage, Alaska.
4. Skydive Arizona.
5. Skydive Deland, Florida.

9. Snowcross 

Winter version of motocross, snowcross is one of the most extreme non-Olympic winter sports, that involves racing snowmobiles or snowbikes at an incredible speed on natural or artificial tracks with tight turns, ridges and banked corners. 

 

Top 5 destinations for Snowcross in the United States:

1. West Yellowstone, Montana.
2. Moran, Wyoming.
3. Priest Lake, Idaho.
4. Camp Hale, Colorado.
5. Alaska Snow Safaris, Alaska.

10. Whitewater Kayaking 

Paddling through raging rapids or river gorges while creeking, slalom, playboating or squirt boating, need to use the power of torso rotation for all strokes and choosing appropriate paddling location is must to have a constant control of kayak. 

 

Top 5 destinations for Whitewater Kayaking in the United States:

1. Snake River, Wyoming.
2. Colorado River, Arizona.
3. Gauley River, West Virginia.
4. Salmon RIver, Idaho.
5. Tuolumne River, California.