Two extreme sports are enjoying modest success recently (according to stories in, respectively, Time magazine and the Honolulu Star-Bulletin).
First, in Manali, India, yak-skiing has recently become a hit. To participate in yak-skiing, a person on skis and holding a bucket of nuts is attached to a yak by a long rope. They are then fixed to a pulley on a hilltop, with the yak near the top and the skier far below. The skier rattles the bucket of nuts loudly to infuriate the yak, which then charges down the hill, yanking the skier rapidly up the other side.
In Hawaii, ancient, luge-like Hawaiian lava sledding is growing in popularity. Here, a person lies on his stomach, four inches off the ground on a handcrafted board about six feet long, and slides down a 700-foot-long rock formation. To top it all off, these daredevils commonly reach speeds anywhere between 30 and 70 mph.
??-BBC News
