By Aggeliki Tzola and Vasiliki Stathopoulou (B Class)

When you are choosing a sport or a hobby to take up, what influences your decision?

Some people may wish to avoid excessive risk. Others believe that the only activities worth doing are those which involve some real danger. So, what activities could you do and how risky are they?

The risk-takers among us enjoy participating in extreme sports, but what is fashionable changes every year. Snowboarding and bungee jumping are just too well-known these days. Today’s winter sport adrenaline junkies prefer heli-skiing or snow kiting. The first requires a helicopter to fly you to the top of the mountain, far from the ski lifts and slopes full of ordinary people. Then, you leap out and ski down the crispy, white snow. Of course you are skiing off-piste without marked runs and you don’t know whether you are going to go off the edge of the mountain, but that’s the full idea. Snow kiting   is just what you would expect. The skier or snowboarder is pulled along by a large kite which is blown by the wind. On a windy day, you can go so fast that you think that you are on the steepest of slopes. The best thing about it is that you aren’t dependent on the crowed ski lifts.

OK, perhaps you want to take part in an activity that doesn’t require so much energy and is likely to cause physical pain? Maybe you don’t have enough time to do sports because you have too much housework to do? There is an activity that will allow you to do both at the same time. Extreme ironing! Not only does it involve ironing, but also a sport or activity of your choice.  For those who like heights you can set your ironing board up on a rocky ledge high above the ground. For the more athletic, you can try ironing while cycling, waterskiing, or even underwater.  The sport started up in the late of 1990’s and today silly people the world over take part in competitions and can even win awards! And when you’ve finished ironing, you can start extreme vaccuming!