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  • 7 Adventure Sites that Will Get your Heart Pumping

    adventure sites

    Dear Nerve Rush Reader: You can’t get enough.

    You read the blog. You subscribe to our email. You follow us on Twitter. You like us on Facebook. You circle us on Google. You pin us on Pinterest (okay, maybe not that last one), but you want more.

    While we try our best around here to be the ONE and only place you’ll ever need for your gut-wrenching adventure fix, we know that we’re just one of the many places where you can quench your adrenaline thirst. We firmly believe in friendly competition and are big fans of a few other sites around the web that impress and inspire us to keep adventuring. It’s just plain selfish for us to keep them to ourselves, so we thought we’d share some of our favorites with you to help you stay adventurous.

    The Adventurists – TheAdventurists.com

    The Adventurists are an incredible group of people. Whether their facilitating a horse race across Mongolia, a 1500km adventure through Siberia, or a 3-wheeled motorbike adventure across Peru, they’re up to some amazing things. Focused on doing things throughout the world, they come up with some of the most ridiculous adventures in the world and raise massive buckets of cash for charities in the process. In their words, “We figure since we are rather fond of adventuring in the world we should do our bit to look after it.” We couldn’t agree more. Check out the adventurists and start adventuring all over the world.

    –> Visit the Adventurists

    The Adrenalist – TheAdrenalist.com

    The Adrenalist has Bear Grylls’s face all over it, so you know it has to be pretty good. Sponsored by Degree for Men, The Adrenalist features adventure, speed, extreme sports and gadgets for the adventure seeker. There’s a ton of video content here, there’s bound to be something up your alley. Whether or not you’re a fan of Degree, you gotta love Bear and the hardcore adrenaline-focused videos, so it’s definitely worth your time to check it out.

    –> Visit the Adrenalist

    Infinity List – InfinityList.com

    No, it’s not quite the Impossible List but the Infinity List provides daily updates for the best cinematic sports videos around. Very similar to what we offer up around here, the Inifinity List is beautifully laid out and has some exclusive content that blows our mind. If you check it out, it’s very easy to get lost in the content and spend hours upon hours drooling at the incredible stunts and extreme sports that make you want to get off your computer, climb a high building and base jump off of it. The infinity list will give you just that, an infinity list of incredible activities to put on your bucket list. Check it.

    –> Visit the Infinity List

    Pure Outside – PureOutside.com

    Created by Nerve Rush friend and reader Ross Cullicut, Pure Outside is all about helping the human-powered adventures out there get out to the cool places they want to see and help save the places they love. Featuring trails, websites, films and adventures, Ross has lined up a bunch of great outdoor activities to help you experience the human powered adventures all available thanks to the pure outside.

    –> Visit Pure Outside

    Epic Thrills – EpicThrills.com

    EpicThrills is an exclusive club of travelers with an insatiable thirst for new life experiences.  Focused on travel adventures, Epic Thrills provides outlets for your inner adventures.Whether its running with the bulls in Spain, laying in a hammock in the Amazon, or jumping out a helicopter in Alaska, Epic Thrills aims to make adventures more accessible and affordable so you can see everything the world and the many adventures it has to offer.

    –> Visit Epic Thrills

    Reddit Adrenaline Porn – Reddit.com/r/AdrenalinePorn/

    Something a little different for our last site is Reddit’s Adrenaline Porn sub-reddit. Not really as much of a website as it is a forum, it’s constantly changing . While sometimes hard to dig through for the very best content, Adrenaline Porn has all sorts of content that’s updated by the hour. If you need to feed your addiction, Adrenaline Porn is definitely something you need to pay attention to.

    –> Visit Reddit Adrenaline Porn

    Who Would You Add To This List?

    Did we miss anyone? Who would you add to the list? Who runs your favorite site? There’s always more room for adventure and adrenaline. Let us know in the comments!

  • Red Bull Moments | Bobby Brown Triple Cork 1440

    Red Bull Moments | Bobby Brown Triple Cork 1440

    Brought to you from Red Bull Moments, a series of high-definition, slow-motion extreme moments that are shot at 1000 frames per second, this clip features Bobby Brown, two-time X-Games gold medalist, performing an insanely beautiful triple cork 1440. Shot in Alaska.

  • Sean Conway Cycles the Globe for £100,000

    Sean Conway Cycles the Globe for £100,000

    My name is Sean Conway, and on 18th February 2012, I will be attempting to break the world record for cycling solo and unsupported around the world.

    I chose this challenge, partly as it will most definitely be the most physically and mentally demanding experience I have ever had, and partly as I wanted to do something that would allow me to raise as much money for charity as possible.

    This Saturday, February 18th, Sean Conway seeks to become the fastest person to cycle the Earth, alone and unsupported.

    Cycling the Earth

    Conway will kick off his journey in Greenwich, London and make his way through France, Morocco, South America, the United States, New Zealand, Australia, Singapore, Bangkog, India and Istanbul. If his timing is right, he’ll make it back to London just in time for the 2012 Olympics.

    An adventurer that one day plans to climb Everest and swim the English Channel–cycling being the hardest of the 3 challenges–Sean is also a motivational speaker and photographer with a penchant for charitable causes. During this particular journey, he hopes to raise £100,000 for Solar Aid.

    While Sean has been uber-busy training and mapping out logistics, he was kind enough to answer a quick Nerve Rush email and tell us a bit more about his background. For a more comprehensive interview, check Sean out on Adventure Inspired.

    Sean ConwayYou grew up in Zimbabwe. Where has your sense of adventure taken you so far?

    Adventure, in its purest form, is simply a way of thinking. You don’t have to climb mountains or row oceans to be adventurous. I think adventurously. Yes, this way of thinking has made me climb Kilimanjaro dressed as a penguin, made me chase some cheese down a very steep hill, made me cycle the length of Britain in winter and sent me around the Himalayas. Those are the big ones. But we mustn’t forget the small yet equally important parts of adventure like walking home in the snow instead of taking the bus, waking up at 4:30am to play a game of chess on a hill at sunrise before work. It’s the small simple things that can make the big difference to our lives without us having to spend a fortune climbing a very steep hill.

    Tell us about the history of the challenge. About Tommy Godwin & Mark Beaumont.

    Well, firstly the bar has been lifted a bit and the record now stands at 96 days set by Alan Bate on 2010. Some say the bar has been lifted pretty far out of reach as I now need to average 188 miles per day. I say that the bar has been put back to where it was 70 year ago. Tommy Godwin cycled 75,000 miles in one year back in the 30’s. That’s an average of 200 miles per day for a year. Now that’s real cycling. When Guinness changed the rules in the 90’s to make it 18,000 miles instead of the previous 13,000, many people didn’t think it was worth doing. It took the likes of Mark Beaumont to take on the challenge and remind people of what was possible. He has just made long distance cycle records cool again. Thank you Mark. Now, 5 years on there are a bunch of us looking to push the boundaries even further. Around the world in 80 days. It that possible?

    [youtube id=”b4lyuP2hTbs” width=”600″ height=”350″]

    What can Nerve Rush readers do to help? Where else can we find you?

    I am looking to raise as much money for charity as possible so am looking for everyone to follow my attempt. I will be blogging, tweeting and on Facebook the entire way round which will give everyone following a unique insight into what it’s like competing in the toughest race on earth. You can do this via my website www.cyclingtheearth.co.uk. It really will be all blood, swear, tears and gears. A true epic adventure.

    Sean, Nerve Rush HQ thanks you for taking the time to tell us about your grand adventure. Best of luck. You’ve got our support and praise. Cycle your heart out!

    Sean also wanted us to let you know that he would love to have folks come cycle with him as he rides through your city or town. Check out his planned route: if you are anywhere near him and interested in joining him for a day or two, let us know in the comments below and we’ll connect you with Sean!

  • Most Extreme Wins Pair of Parkour Kicks

    Most Extreme Wins Pair of Parkour Kicks

    Alright, folks. Phase 1 of Nerve Rush’s inaugural gut-wrenching contest has come to an end. You told us your most extreme adventures, and now it’s time to vote. While Nerve Rush HQ received some wild responses, our team of esteemed judges narrowed the results to 5 of our favorites.

    Now it’s up to you. Vote your heart out. As a reminder, the winner will receive a rockin’ pair of Parkour kicks, courtesy of Know Obstacles.


    [image via League of Women Voters of California]

  • Red Bull Art of Motion | Santorini Freerunning

    Red Bull Art of Motion | Santorini Freerunning

    On the Greek isle of Santorini, Red Bull hosts an Art of Motion parkour / freerunning event. The world’s best urban acrobats showcase their skills in the beautiful cliffside and immaculately white city of Santorini. This course was 200 meters long and athletes were given a two-minute session to impress the judges. Winner of the day? Pavels Petkuns from Latvia!

  • Sandboarding Outside Swakopmund, Namibia

    Sandboarding Outside Swakopmund, Namibia

    In August, 2010 I traveled to Windhoek, Namibia. The purpose of the trip was work–at the time I was researching the cost-of-living in southern Africa for a global mobility consulting firm–but with a gap in my schedule, I found myself with a bit of free time.

    Eager to escape the city and thrust myself into Namibia’s adventure scene, I decided to go sandboarding.

    Namibia, Sandboarding (and Sand-Skiing) Paradise

    Sandboarding has adherents throughout the world, but Namibia offers up some of the steepest (and world’s oldest) sand dunes. From Rhino Park in Windhoek, Namibia’s capital, I hopped in a 15-passenger shared van for the 5 hour trip to Swakopmund.

    Leaving the city and entering the desert, the landscape became more distinct and peculiar. Distant and undulating hills, sun-bleached shrubbery, craggy outcroppings. Termite mounds spawned up from the ground like long, skinny and gnarled fingers. The desert was ragged, dusty and seemingly endless, Namibia’s own sandy heart of darkness.

    By the time I checked into the Desert Sky Lodge, I had just enough time to catch the sunset. I ran down to Swakopmund’s Atlantic shore and snapped this photograph.

    Swakopmund Pier

    The following morning, I was picked up at by Alter Action, a Swakopmund-based adventure company. I hopped in a van with a guy from Portland, Oregon and was soon joined with a group of overland travelers from the U.K. and Australia.

    Fifteen minutes later and we were on site, at the base of the dunes.

    Instead of traditional sandboarding (standing up on a waxed snowboard), I opted to lie down on a flexible wooden sheet. I was told I’d go faster, be able to ride longer dunes and, since I’m not too comfortable on a snowboard, I’d have more fun! It was fun indeed; on the steepest run, I reached a speed of 74km/hr (46mph). This is what it looks like.

    [vimeo id=”14343631″ width=”600″ height=”350″]

    The Guinness World Record in speed sand-skiing (using skis, so not a board or waxed sheet) was set on a nearby dune that same summer, on June 6th, by Henrik May, a German living in Namibia. He reached a speed of 92.12 km/hr

    It was an amazing day. 40+ people, from the U.K., Australia, Italy and France among other countries, throttling down dunes in the Namib Desert, the oldest desert in the world.

    That afternoon, I found another passenger van to shuttle me back to Windhoek. I arrived just after dinner and went back to work the next morning.

  • Unconventional Breakdancing to Classical Music

    Unconventional Breakdancing to Classical Music

    Breakdancing to classical music? Who would have thought. Tyson Smalls, Robot Reeve, Nick Pitts, Josh Unice and Murphy Yang show us some rad moves, cued up to the classiest classical music out there. Shot on a glidecam.

  • Swedish Andreas Fransson’s Ski Descent of Denali

    Swedish Andreas Fransson’s Ski Descent of Denali

    In the summer of 2013, I plan to climb Mt. McKinley, the highest mountain in North America. And when I stand on the summit, I plan on representing Nerve Rush in the triumphant, glorious manner it deserves.

    As it stands, this expedition is about 1.5 years away. In the meantime, as I pad my bank account for the necessary gear and logistics, I also begin to think about a training schedule that will optimize my chances at reaching the summit. Standing tall at 20,320 feet, Denali is no easy climb.

    Currently in armchair-mountaineering mode, I occasionally find myself browsing the Internet for Denali-related resources. Training programs, trip reports, maps, you name it. Just recently, I stumbled upon something remarkable and definitely Nerve Rush worthy.

    Andreas Fransson, Swedish Alpinist Extraordinaire

    Andreas Fransson, a 28-year old Swedish alpinist and extreme skier, has the rare kind of prowess we at Nerve Rush HQ tend to swoon over. Not only is he capable of scaling mountains with world-renowned alpinist, but he’s one of the best extreme skiers in the world, buddying up with the likes of French snowboarder Xavier de Le Rue.

    In 2010, Fransson shattered the upper half of his body in the French Alps when a wet-slab avalanche ripped him from his rappel. A year later, in May 2011, he broke new ground with a solo first descent of Denali’s south face, a route called the “baddest unskied line in North America.”

    After a month of alpine-style climbing on the mountain, ascending and descending to acclimate and familiarize himself with the route, Fransson took 12.5 hours to descend the 8,000-foot south face of the mountain. Much of this trip was done at night..without a headlamp!

    Riding with 177-centimeter Nordica Enforcers, Fransson descended on a precarious and seemingly never-ending surface that featured sections of 70-degree ice.

    After returning safely to base camp, Fransson, in true extreme form, decided that the adventure wasn’t done. He took a rest day then climbed Denali’s Cassin Ridge, one of the most famous alpine climbs in the world, in a mere 33-hour round trip push. To lend some perspective, the Cassin Ridge has been climbed in under 36 hours fewer than 10 times. And, following this second successful venture, Fransson skied the Messner Couloir, a 5,000-foot, 45-degree descent. All told, he slept 3 hours in 3 days.

    Fransson currently lives in Chamonix, France, a skier’s and alpinist’s mecca in the French Alps. He trains 10 hours a day.

    From Fransson:

    “Society has an absurd general belief that life is about hanging on as long as possible. So people [are] often hanging on for the sake of hanging on and not for really living … I can go on for days about this, but the important things in life are unsayable, so let’s just live it out and see what we find behind the curtains in front of the big game we are all playing.”

    Here is a clip of Fransson skiing the Col de L´Aiguille Verte in Chamonix:

    [vimeo id=”19292027″ width=”600″ height=”350″]

  • Travis Pastrana’s “199 Lives” Theatrical Trailer

    Travis Pastrana’s “199 Lives” Theatrical Trailer

    Travis Pastrana, professional motorsports competitor, stunt performer and frontman of Nitro Circus, is a man with more than one life, that’s a certainty. This film pays tribute to one of the most insane and amazing athletes in extreme sports. Big cheers from Nerve Rush HQ. Hip hip!

  • Mike Hrostoski’s Tough Mudder Adventure

    Mike Hrostoski’s Tough Mudder Adventure

    This is a Nerve Rush reader experience post. We’ve profiled the Tough Mudder before, but facts only do so much to tell you about the level of adventure in an obstacle race. So loyal Nerve Rush reader Mike Hrostoski took it upon himself to jump in and find out for himself. Take it away Mike!

    —

    Sometime this past spring, my friends Hannah and Lauren asked me if I wanted to run a Tough Mudder race with them. I recall the conversation over Facebook going something like this:

    Them: Hey, want to run Tough Mudder with us?

    Me: Huh? Tough Mudder? What is that?

    Them: It’s a 10-12 mile endurance event with obstacles designed by British Special Forces. We’ll run through miles of mud, crawl through underwater pipes, run up and down ski slopes, jump into a freezing cold river, climb a glacier, carry a log up a mountain, run through fire, and finish the race running through live wires with 10,000 volts of current running through them.

    Me: Hell yes!

    Fast forward to May 8, 2011 and I found myself staring up the slopes of Mt. Snow, VT with four other teammates. I came in with pretty high expectations of the race. I work out regularly, do yoga, and eat pretty well. I ran a half marathon lat October with no training and that was 13.1 miles. The Vermont Tough Mudder was only 10 miles so it couldn’t be that rough right?

    I was dead wrong. The first mile or so was straight up the mountain. We ran up and down the entire length of the mountain multiple times. In between running up and down ski slopes we dunked ourselves into freezing cold water time after time.

    At around mile 6 I had my first cramp. My calf completely locked up when I was pushing hard up a hill. I’ve gotten these before playing basketball so I just stretched it out, drank some more water, and pushed on. At around mile 8 the other calf locked up. A couple hundred meters after that my legs literally stopped working. They were completely cramping up from top to bottom. I’ve never experienced anything like that before. Soon I found myself on an ATV ride to the medic tent where I laid under heating blankets, ate a couple bananas and three Myoplex shakes, and drank around a gallon of water before I could even walk again. Bad times.

    Looking back at the race I realize that I didn’t drink anywhere close to enough water as I should have. And my training was basically non-existent. You know what the late, great John Wooden said, “Failure to prepare is preparing to fail.”

    Today is exactly six months from the day that I ran my first Tough Mudder. This Sunday I’ll try it all over again at the Tri-State Tough Mudder in my current home state of New Jersey. Big thanks to the Tough Mudder team for letting me run this one for free on a press pass. See, there are some perks to being a “published writer.”

    I’m feeling pretty good about this upcoming race. My diet has been super on point lately with my November Detox (I actually created a daily journal for it at: bit.ly/november-detox). I’ve also been training way harder than I did for the last race. In fact, I’m feeling good enough to even say:

    In a couple days I’ll be finishing the Tri-State Tough Mudder and checking another item off of the List of Adventure. Guaranteed.

    6 Days Later…

    I did it. I finished the Tri-State Tough Mudder. I barely finished, but I finished. Here’s how it all went down.

    I’ve been detoxing for the whole month of November, so to carb up the night before I ate the equivalent of a meal for three including an entire baking pan worth of sweet potato and pineapple casserole. Half of an entire pineapple and three sweet potatoes all cut into slices and baked in the oven for an hour with butter and cinnamon on top. All the dessert you need without any refined sugar. So delicious. I then got to bed super early and slept a solid ten hours with sweet dreams of running, jumping, crawling, and mudding (Really, I dreamt about the race the whole damn night).

    The morning started off like any other morning in November: 4 eggs, a whole pink grapefruit, and some yoga. I stopped by a convenience store to grab a bottle of water and three protein bars and hit the road for Raceway Park in Englishtown, NJ.

    When I got to the race site I was pleased to see flat land for as far as the eye could see. The Vermont Tough Mudder was nothing but running up and down mountains for ten torturous miles. NJ 1, Vermont 0.

    After signing my death waiver and checking in at the Media Check-In tent, I walked into the park to check out the scene. Pop quiz: What’s the main difference between an average New Jersey Tough Mudder and an average Vermont Tough Mudder? Around 20 pounds of muscle and no shirt. Why people in New Jersey are so jacked I don’t know, but there were plenty of guys running around that looked like Rambo. Of course I took the opportunity to join the shirtless New Jersey Tough Mudder crew, but kept my secret identity intact with the Luchador mask that has now traveled all over the world with me.

    Shortly after I checked in, I met up with my friend Lauren from the first Tough Mudder adventure and her friend Melanie. As soon as I met Melanie I knew we were going to get along. She had a red bandana on and a t-shirt that read “It’s The Freakin Weekend.” My kind of people. After the obligatory pre-race photoshoot to post Facebook pictures later, we lined up at the start. We walked up to the start just as the last heat had taken off so we got to line up in the front of our heat.

    After pumping us up with a little pre-race pep talk and reiterating the fact that we signed a death waiver, the emcee let us loose on the course. Unlike a usual race though, we started by chasing a monster truck. And since we were in the front of our heat, I started the Tri-State Tough Mudder sprinting behind a monster truck.

    I could explain the rest of the thirty-something obstacles in detail, but it’s easier to read about them all here on the Tough Mudder website: Tri-State Tough Mudder Course Map

    Some of the obstacles stuck out for me though, some because they were fun and others because they were absolutely brutal. The more memorable parts of the course were:

    • Swimming across a freezing cold river and climbing up a 15 foot rope ladder on the other side
    • Then immediately after that jumping off of a different 15 foot platform into the same freezing cold river and swimming back across
    • Running through the Mud Mile, a maze of trenches that had to be at least a quarter mile long through knee-high to waist-high mud
    • Crawling through mud under barbed wire 8 inches off the ground
    • Running through bales of straw soaked in kerosene and set on fire
    • Running around the actual race track carrying a tire
    • Successfully crossing a huge set of muddy monkey bars set over an ice cold lake
    • Crawling through muddy tunnels that were so long that you couldn’t see any light halfway through them
    • Getting shocked three times by live wires carrying a 10,000 volt shock

    Tough Mudder is also a great experience because of the tone that the race organizers set at the beginning of the race. All participants raise their right hand and recite the Tough Mudder pledge before they run the course. The pledge is: “As a Tough Mudder I pledge that… I understand that Tough Mudder is not a race but a challenge. I put teamwork and camaraderie before my course time. I do not whine – kids whine. I help my fellow Mudders complete the course. I overcome all fears.”

    I can’t even count the number of times I got a helping hand from a stranger pulling me through a dark muddy tunnel or pushing me up a 12 foot wall. In return I helped dozens of people over and under the obstacles. In a Tough Mudder race you aren’t running against the other participants, your running with the other participants and against the course. It’s really a great atmosphere.

    Of course the most memorable part of the day was crossing the finish line. The feeling of stepping across that line was such a great sense of accomplishment. For those 10-15 minutes after the race I felt nothing but pure happiness. My body was on the verge of failure again, but I just felt great.

    Completing the course has also set the baseline of what I know I can accomplish at a higher level. Several years ago I ran my first 5k. A year ago I ran my first half marathon. This weekend I ran a half marathon through hell. The next race will be a little harder,  a little longer, or a little tougher, but I know I’ll be able to do it. Success breeds success and right now I’m on a roll…

    —

    We can’t wait to see what you do next Mike. Hopefully you’ll be able to share it with us (ahem, skeleton tryouts?). We couldn’t agree more – you’re on a roll!

    This post originally appeared on Michael’s own blog (first post, second post). Massive thanks to Mike for sharing this with the wider Nerve Rush audience. If you’re interested in guest posting on Nerve Rush with your own adventures or expertise, let us know – we’re always on the lookout for adventurists doing incredible things. Get in touch.