Showing titles in Extreme Sports

Ultrarunning legend Dean Karnazes has run 262 miles - the equivalent of ten marathons - without rest. He has run over mountains, across Death Valley, to the South Pole, and is probably the first person to eat an entire pizza while running. With an insight, candour and humour rarely seen in sports memoirs, Ultramarathon Man has inspired tens of thousands of people - nonrunners and runners alike - to push themselves beyond their comfort zones and simply get out there and run.

There is but one aim: the summit, the summit of Mount Everest. What starts with a trouble-free trek into the Nepalese highlands explodes into a gripping tale of hardship, peril and adversity. Pushed beyond their physical and mental limits, climbers drop by the wayside. Their primal instincts for survival battle with their dogged resolve to drag themselves to the top of the world. But the focus remains: battle to the summit, and if successful, somehow get back down again. 

World-famous competitive skydiver and coach Dan Brodsky-Chenfeld presents proven tools and techniques for success and explains how they can be used in everyday life. Dan survived a plane crash from which 16 of the 22 people on board were killed. He was left critically injured and woke up from a six-week-long coma with a broken neck, broken skull, severe head trauma, a collapsed lung, and other serious internal injuries. Against all odds, Dan recovered and went on to become one of the greatest competitive skydiver in the world.

In The Mountain, veteran world-class climber and bestselling author Ed Viesturs—the only American to have climbed all fourteen of the world's 8,000-meter peaks—trains his sights on Mount Everest in richly detailed accounts of expeditions that are by turns personal, harrowing, deadly, and inspiring.

An inspiring insight into one of the oldest extreme sports, this is the definitive story of fell-running. This is a complete portrait of one of the few sports to have remained utterly true to its roots. Richard Askwith’s journey takes him into a world of forbidding rockscapes, horizontal rain, fear, exhaustion and stunning natural beauty, as well as his own attempt at one of the toughest challenges imaginable: the Bob Graham Round, the sport’s traditional test of 42 Lake District peaks in 24 hours.

Few athletes have had as big an impact on British sport over the last five years as Eddie Hall. Not only is he the subject of trending Netflix documentary Eddie: Strongman, but his Facebook page is approaching three quarters of a million likes, with 10,000 new fans joining each week, and he draws huge crowds at the Strongman arena tour Giants Live. The reason for Eddie's popularity is simple: he is the biggest name and the biggest talent in one of the fastest-growing sports.

In this groundbreaking book, New York Times bestselling author Steven Kotler decodes the mystery of ultimate human performance. Drawing on over a decade of research and first-hand reporting with dozens of top action and adventure sports athletes like big wave legend Laird Hamilton, big mountain snowboarder Jeremy Jones, and skateboarding pioneer Danny Way, Kotler explores the frontier science of “flow”, an optimal state of consciousness in which we perform and feel our best.

Wim Hof has become a modern icon for his astounding achievements, breaking world records withstanding extreme temperatures and running barefoot marathons over deserts and ice fields. Most of all, he's shown us that these feats are not superhuman - but that all of us have the ability to be stronger, healthier and happier than we've ever imagined. In The Wim Hof Method, this trailblazer of human potential shares his simple three-pillar approach that anyone can use to improve health and performance - and see real results within just a few days.

Detailing her own account of completing her first 100-mile ultramarathon, Jen brings to the fore the harshness, humour, and personal sacrifice of ultra-running. Interweaved with this are unprecedented interviews with some of the greatest ultra-women of the past 40 years, including Jasmin Paris, who triumphed in a 268-mile winter Spine Race despite stopping to express milk for her baby, and Eleanor Adams, the first woman to complete a 153-mile Spartathon ultramarathon despite opposition from male organisers.

How can an average climber do the hardest route in the world? Dave MacLeod wasn’t even the best among his fellow rock climbers in Glasgow, until a sequence of key decisions and influences catalysed his progression from an unremarkable intermediate to one of the best all-round climbers in the world. Dave shows that much of his advantage came from easily trainable skills or behavioural traits that could be replicated by any climber.

Welcome to the Barkley Marathons, a fever dream of an ultra event, inspired by a prison break, heralded by a conch blast, paid for in cigarettes and socks, and completed only by a select few. A race in which competitors haul themselves up mountains, through extreme weather conditions, beyond pain and exhaustion, mile after mile. Completed 60 miles? That’s just the fun run. In the Spell of the Barkley is a story of sporting obsession, exploring what drives individuals to challenge themselves at the limits of what is possible – and what it takes to succeed.

This book is both a lesson in true grit and determination, but its goal is one that is attainable. Andy isn't a sporting superstar, he holds down a nine-to-five job and all the pressures that go with it; he isn’t blessed with speed and talent; there are no multi-million pound sponsorship deals; yet this remarkable "common man" is inspiring in a way that some of today’s sporting superstars have forgotten how to be.

Alone on the Wall recounts the most astonishing achievements of Honnold's extraordinary life and career, brimming with lessons on living fearlessly, taking risks, and maintaining focus even in the face of extreme danger. Now Honnold tells, for the first time and in his own words, the story of his three hours and 56 minutes on the sheer face of El Cap, which Outside called "the moon landing of free soloing.... A generation-defining climb. Bad ass and beyond words.... One of the pinnacle sporting moments of all time."

In the autumn of 1982, a single stone fell from high on the south face of Annapurna and struck Alex MacIntyre on the head, killing him instantly and robbing the climbing world of one of its greatest talents. Although only 28 years old, Alex was already one of the leading figures of British mountaineering's most successful era. His ascents included hard new routes on Himalayan giants like Dhaulagiri and Changabang and a glittering record of firsts in the Alps and Andes.

Whether you're an experienced runner or a complete beginner, this inspiring book will motivate you to train your body and mind to complete one of the hardest physical feats of all—an ultramarathon.

Simon McCartney was a young British alpinist climbing many of the hardest routes in the Alps during the late seventies, but it was a chance meeting in Chamonix in 1977 with Californian "Stonemaster" Jack Roberts that would dramatically change both their lives - and almost end Simon’s...The Bond is Simon McCartney’s story of these legendary climbs.

Graham Jarvis has been at the top of off-road motorcycling for the best part of 25 years and has competed in hundreds of competitions and races all over the world, from TV's Junior Kick Start in the early 1990s to the fabled and ridiculously perilous two-day Italian event Hell's Gate, which he has dominated in recent years and which is one of motorsport's most feared events. Having excelled at trials and enduro, Graham moved into the high-octane world of extreme enduro, one of the most exhilarating sports on two wheels, in 2011. 

Lost on Purpose is the nonfiction adventure narrative of a former technology executive who took leave of the real world to reinvent himself as a 21st-century mountain man. In October-November 2013, Patrick Taylor crossed the Rocky Mountains alone on foot. He passed through one of the largest wilderness areas in the lower 48 to reach and retrace the route of Lewis and Clark in the winter. The sacrifices - vocationally, financially, emotionally - are measured against the benefits by the author in a refreshingly honest, humorous, and inspirational fashion. 

In Vertical Mind, Don McGrath and Jeff Elison teach rock climbers how to improve their mental game so they can climb better and have more fun. They teach how the latest research in brain science and psychology can help you retrain your mind and body for higher levels of rock climbing performance, while also demonstrating how to train and overcome fears and anxiety that hold you back. Finally, they teach climbing partners how to engage in co-creative coaching and help each other improve as climbers.

It is likely not terribly surprising that surfers like to party. The 1960-'70s image, bolstered by Tom Wolfe and Big Wednesday, was one of mild outlaws. Tanned boys who refused to grow up, spending their days drinking beer and smoking joints on the beach in between mindless hours in the water. As the surf brands accidentally morphed into a multimillion- then multibillion-dollar industry beginning in the 1980s, however, the derelict portrait began to harm business.