Julian Price

Who Invented Extreme Sports: Olympics 2012 to Feature Shopping Trolley Go-Karting



Posted: Tuesday, November 10, 2009

by Julian Price
http://www.uk-freelance-content-writer.co.uk/

The concept is simple and the equipment basic. Take (perhaps from a scrap yard, not by theft) one standard supermarket trolley, remove the basket and frame until you are left with just the base and wheels. Attach a flat board, almost anything flat will work as long as it's fairly sturdy. Here's the science bit, add a large rubber tractor tyre to the flat base and you have yourself one near indestructible Go-Kart that is impossible to steer.

The steering problem was definitely an oversight when a group of friends and I dreamed up this super trolley when we were kids. However, it didn't stop us from putting it through its paces. Admittedly, we should not have tried it out first on the nearby road and the fact that any of us are still alive to tell the tale is by pure chance rather than common sense.

We survived the close shave on the road and managed to guide our proud invention, erratically to a nearby, none traffic hill. The trees, however, proved to be another fly in the ointment for our design and but for the giant tractor tyre buffeting us off the tree trunks, we may have gone home to our parents with more than a few cuts and bruises.

This all happened before the advent of the likes of snowboarding and wakeboarding, so perhaps we were the true originators of extreme sport? I suppose there are those that would have "tagged" it and us with the title extreme stupidity but as pioneers of sport, one has to be prepared to take the rough with the smooth.

How much fun would it be to see dozens of shopping trolley go-karts hurtling down a mountainside? Of course, all competitors could and should wear essential protective gear and extreme sports clothing (something else our childhood minds had failed to think of), and the first to the bottom of the hill, as opposed to the ones wedged against a tree, or floating in the ocean (see where that tyre comes in handy?) would be declared the winner!

Extreme sports equipment has of course come along way since those early glory days, and tractor tyres and bits of plywood have been replaced by fancy bits of shiny carbon fibre. Perhaps this article will inspire a new bunch of extreme sports enthusiasts to once again bring the supermarket trolley go-kart to the front of its field . Perhaps a little late, but I suggest the Olympic committee should make it an Olympic Sport for the 2012 games in London .
Julian has diplomas in freelance journalism (with distinction), copywriting and proofreading. He is also a creative writer and poet who writes both professionally and for pleasure. Julian has written articles for an internet marketing company and although this medium is often restricted by topic, his writing still maintains a unique and often humourous style, with many of his articles achieving good results on search engines. He has found the discipline involved with this kind of work to be a great writing exercise and believes it enhances and improves other areas of his writing. Julian is becoming an established freelance writer and many of his articles here at searchwarp are a showcase of the variety and quality of his work.

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