‘I Like Being Scared:’ Kids Who Play Dangerous Extreme Sports

Yahoo Parenting
Updated

Imagine letting your 11-year-old kid speed 70 miles per hour on a motobike or fly down a skateboard ramp with a nine-story drop.

The New York Times magazine has published a stunning new video and story that chronicles thrill-seeking children – or, as one psychologist calls it “sensation-seeking.” In some cases, they’ve sustained life-threatening injuries.

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(All Photos: Yahoo Screen/New York Times)

Snowboarder Tessa Maude, 11, tells the Times, “I like being scared.”

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Minna Stess, 9, says she started skateboarding when she was hardly out of diapers. “If I didn’t have skateboarding, I would probably just lay around on the couch all day and watch TV,” she says, laughing lightly. “If I’m really scared of trying something, I just think to myself: If you want to do it really bad, you can do it.”

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More From the Times: Is It Wrong to Let Kids’ Play Extreme Sports?

Eric Burdell is 11, and has been involved in Motocross for the past three years. He admits the sport is dangerous – “every time you go out there you keep it in the back of your head, 'I could break an arm, I could die doing this” – but still talks excitedly of driving 70 mph and flying 60 feet in the air after hitting a jump.

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One dad, Brian Cullen, rock climbs with his kids, Michael, 8, and Kylie, 10.

“Climbing for us has really brought the family together,” he tells the Times. “It’s just really exciting to see what it’s done for them physically and mentally. I mean, climbing is problem solving.”

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Another dad, Geoff Eaton, tells the Times that he supports his son Jett’s skateboarding passion, his grit, and determination – even though, at 13, the boy was seriously injured on a nine-story “mega” ramp. (He had to be airlifted to a hospital 130 miles away, and suffered a fractured skull, bruised frontal lobes, a seizure, and a concussion.)

“If you’re going to live, you can’t live behind a stop sign, taking no risk, and every time you want to do something that gets your heart beating, you decide that it’s safer if you don’t,” Eaton says. “That’s not how I live. I don’t want my kids living like that.”