| |  |  |  | June 22, 2003 - They'll go to Extremes... |  |
THEY'LL GO TO EXTREMES
Author(s): Christopher L. Gasper, Globe Staff
Date: June 22, 2003
Section: Globe North
BEVERLY - After several attempts and a few spills, Kevin Dyer smoothly sailed up the ramp at the McPherson Youth Center skatepark and rolled back down again with the skateboard still beneath his feet. The subtle success drew applause and encouragement from the small crowd that had gathered to cheer him and a large smile from Dyer. The scene was not unusual except that Dyer's ramp tutorial was courtesy of the YMCA.
Reaching out to teenagers and pre-teens, the Greater Beverly YMCA offered a crash course in extreme sports for the first time this spring. The six-week course, which was scheduled to wrap up last Friday, taught participants the basics of rock climbing (indoor and outdoor), mountain biking, kayaking, skateboarding, bicycle motocross (BMX), and rollerblading. There was also a high-ropes obstacle course for them to traverse. Ben VanCamp, the YMCA's adventure director, is responsible for the program. The 23-year-old, who graduated from Springfield College with a degree in outdoor recreation, has taught rock climbing since age 14, and is spearheading the YMCA's push into extreme sports, also called action or adventure sports.
The Greater Beverly YMCA has offered adventure sports in some form for seven years, according to Ryan Allen, the YMCA's teen director, who said the program started off with basic outdoor trips, but has matured to the point where the YMCA owns kayaks and indoor climbing walls. While only six kids turned out for the first "Extreme Adventure Challenge," VanCamp, who has been working for the YMCA for a year and a half, said the adventure program at the Greater Beverly YMCA is growing slowly, but surely. The YMCA's Adventure Camp, which served as the model for the adventure challenge, begins tomorrow and some 350 kids are expected to participate in one of the camp's 10-week-long sessions, which also offer indepth instruction such as in kayaking or mountain biking. The last session ends on Aug. 29.
"We are constantly trying to engage in other programs and with adventure sports there is a segment of the population we can capture - the kids that are not into traditional sports," said VanCamp, one of the few YMCA adventure directors in the country. "Kids that are not into traditional sports sometimes get left out and that's where we come in."
Dyer, who participated in the program with his older brother, Robbie, is one of those kids. The 9-year-old Beverly native said that skateboarding and rollerblading were the only sports that interested him and they were the main reasons he signed up for the adventure challenge. "I like them a lot and it feels cool. It's a rush of energy," he said.
Robbie, 12, said he has also tried conventional sports like swimming, but enjoys the extreme sports. "I like high-roping and mountain biking better than the other sports I do," he said.
The Dyer brothers express a point of view held by a lot of kids their age who are shying away from traditional sports. Since 1998, the estimated number of people in the United States over the age of 6 participating in skateboarding has jumped from 7.2 million to about 13 million, according to American Sports Data Inc., a New York-based company that specializes in sports and fitness research. During that same period, participation in baseball dropped from 12.3 million to 10.4 million and in basketball from 42.4 million to 36.6 million.
Harvey Lauer, president of American Sports Data Inc., said the presence of marketable extreme sports heroes such as skateboarding legend Tony Hawk, who peddles products for a number of companies, serve as a "magnet for participation."
Lauer added that the nomenclature used to group sports from BMX to indoor climbing is largely arbitrary because the sports classified as extreme, action, or adventure are in essence offering the same thing. "The common thread that holds all the extreme sports together is the adrenaline rush," said Lauer, who holds a master's degree in psychology. "It is about thrill-seeking, being on the edge . . . which is complicit in a lot of them."
VanCamp said there is a good mix of kids who participate in the adventure programs offered by the Beverly YMCA. "You get kids that are curious [about extreme sports] and want to give them a try, and then you have some kids that may have tried a rock climbing class once and they liked it and they just keep coming back." He also stressed that adventure sports, like traditional sports, are not just for boys. The Beverly YMCA offers a camp for girls that involves them in many of the same activities.
"Adventure has really taken off as a sport," said Allen of the YMCA. "We are creating people that will stay with the Y and participate in all different types of sports, whether it is kayaking or skateboarding."
Robbie Dyer said the high-ropes course, which was his biggest fear, turned out to be his biggest thrill. The course called for him to leap from a platform on the top of a tree to grab a trapeze dangling five feet away. The jump is known as the "Do or Die." After initially balking at making the jump, Robbie, who was wearing a harness, said that once he did it he was eager to try it again.
VanCamp said Robbie's case is not unusual. He said there is a noticeable difference in the kids after they face and often overcome their fears. "They have more self-confidence, and they are more self-assured than at the beginning of the program. Sometimes these kids are afraid to try other sports because they are afraid they won't be good at them, but once they are exposed to new things, they become open to trying them."
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