Adventure sports are those activities that involve higher levels of risk and greater levels of physical exertion and high dosage of adrenalin and concentration levels. This above definition can be true for all types of sports and adventure activities but adventure sports, in specific are those activities that also involve risk caused by the environment, equipment and conditions. For example, street luge is one type of adventure sports where competitors not only compete against each other, they also will have to overcome the natural climatic conditions, along with successfully navigating the obstacles of the man made roads or streets. This type of dual competition, coupled with the non acceptance of these sports into the main stream sporting activities, classify the adventure sports.

Adventure sports have been in existence for quite some time but its popularity has increased only in the past two decades.

Adventure sports people often will have to overcome the social non acceptance too, along with the mastery of their crafts. The high levels of risk and lack of knowledge have made adventure sports non acceptable in many schools and colleges. The adventure sports people often do not get professional guidance or coaching; they will have to train by themselves. They also will have to ensure that they take adequate precautions for their safety and well being. Lack of proper safety equipments and specialized sporting equipments force adventure sports enthusiasts to use modified equipments of other sports or even create their own sporting gear. The high levels of risk and the penchant of the participants for stunts, leave them prone to many injuries. In the present times, there are many regulations, especially on safety and equipments, have minimized the risk involved with these sports to a great extent.

There are many extreme sport competitions that are conducted on a regular basis and the most popular are the X games. There are many types of adventure sports and they can be broadly classified into three categories – Air sports, and sports and water sports. Land sports include racing, motocross, skateboarding, etc. Air sports include parasailing, bungee jumping, etc. Water sports include scuba diving, wind surfing, jet skiing, amongst others. Most of the adventure sports are relatively new and are yet to find the social acceptance of the people. There is also a lack of awareness about these sports with the people and this leads to a misclassification of some of these sports are extremely hazardous, even if they really are not.