Second wind

Recently Kyiv city hosted First Ukrainian Festival of Extreme Sports X-Day.

The Park of People’s Friendship accommodated, among others, a paintball arena, climbing walls, rope parks, quad bikes, and trampolines. In spite of the heat, some 7,000 Kyivans and guests of the capital came to look at these unusual – for the average Ukrainian at least – kinds of sports.

“Preparation for X-Day took part in two stages. The first one lasted 2.5 months, and involved negotiating with clubs and developing a website. Preparing the event itself took us about a month,” Emma VYNOKUROVA, the organizer of the event and director general of the Euroevent Agency told The Day. “Nearly 250 athletes are officially taking part in the tournaments, though much fewer amateurs. We did our best to address the interests of both professional sportsmen and common people, so that everyone willing could get involved in the extreme sports.”

The event was dazzling, I wanted to try everything at once, starting with the climbing wall. But the men’s competition was taking place at that moment. This sport develops one’s flexibility and strategic thinking. I decided to leave it for later. Perhaps paintball? I looked at the field separated by a net. The military manoeuvres were in full swing. This game might be a good stress-reliever.

One could also enjoy wakeboarding, a sport based on speeding over a surface of water. “This sport has the broadest age and (when closed-course cables appeared) social range,” explained Yurii ZOZULIA, Ukraine’s champion in wakeboarding, the founder of the Extreme Current Club, “The thing is that the whole event is taking place on the water. The rope version is the cheapest, most popular, and ecological. As you can see, closed-course cables are stretched over a small area, which enables 7-18 persons to ride simultaneously. For example, whereas one minute on a cutter costs on average 24-35 hryvnias, here the average cost is 70 hryvnias for half an hour. This makes a big difference. In this season the program ‘Healthy Youth Makes Strong Ukraine’ was announced, with every school able to come, show its class, and teach the students of the class to ride water skis.

“Last year, the Ukrainian closed-course cables were created in Ukraine, they are ten times better than the German ones, and same ten times cheaper. In our country the age range of those who ride with closed-course cables is between three and 87, whereas in the world they range between three and 95. This sport is safe. Everyone may choose the load needed. There have been cases when people started to go in for wakeboarding in the age of 50-60, and they caught a second wind thereafter.” Today Zozulia is heading the working group “Sports Parks in Ukraine” in the Sports Committee – the commission for the development of sports objects, and is doing his utmost so that this kind of parks be established all over Ukraine.

At the festival the author spoke with the host of the TV programs Wake up and Comedy Club Ukraine Oleksandr PEDAN: “Today I did not take part in the competition, but I supported the players. The age category, where I could take part, had complicated tricks. I think that I may perform in the next competition already. It is good that we have so many young people who get involved in sport and come here instead of drinking beer in kindergartens. In winter, I take up snowboarding, in summer – wakeboarding, and I play football the whole year through. On the whole, I have tried myself in nearly 30 kinds of sport.”