Powerbocking VS Competition essay (WARNING: very long post!)

[Dawesome]

This essay was something I did for my third year in university, its a philisophical look at competitions relationship with Powerbocking, and what I have evaluated it to be at this curent moment in time. This essays constructs only no view of the argument and I am sure there will be people who disagree with sections of the essay.

So hope you enjoy the read and hope even mroe so you can agree/disagree with anything I put.

Also thanks again for everyone who I have quoted/citated from these forums, I reference you guys during the essay

Intro here!
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1.0 Introduction
This essay critically evaluates the role of competition within an extreme sports setting. The sport that will represent the subculture and setting that the role of competition will be investigated into is the sport of Powerbocking. Powerbocking is an activity that is only a few years into its development as a sport, and at current the main focus for the participants is upon their own personal enjoyment. This base value for why people partake in the sport is argued against the values that competitive activities instill. Many extreme sports have faced the dilemma between developing into a more mainstream competitive sport or becoming its own little niche

[Dawesome]

2.0 How the sport came about
Powerbocking or just Bocking is a fairly new sport and has a small subculture surrounding it that is growing in participant size on a daily basis. The sport evolved when a german man called alexander Boeck patented his design for a pair of stilts with "leaf style springs" on the back of them to allow people to be able to experience the same type of leaping motion as a trampoline. It was designed for recreational use and envisaged by him that it may be used in a sporting context; that of which has become true. There are now over 30 different manufacturers producing a type of these jumping stilts under the patent of Mr. Boeck. The sport has been called Powerbocking after the patent holder as a sign of respect the subsequent subculture has given him.

The first users of the stilt truly came about 6 years ago in the form of circus performers and entertainers as these stilts offered the chance to incorporate two of the types of entertainment they offer; stilt walking and acrobatics. The most famous of all the performers for using these stilts are a pair of Swedish brothers under the pseudonym 'Swebounce', who have been using them for over 6 years now. They use these stilts as their main form of income and are highly admired within the Bocking subculture. Many groups have developed since this, including a UK team called 'UK B-Bounce' (of which this author is apart of) and have become famous throughout the UK from these stilts.

2.1 Reasons people partake in the activity
As with most sporting activities people take part in, the main reason people do this activity is for the enjoyment aspect (English-tailor, 2007). Other reasons people have mentioned for taking part in the activity is health benefits, uniqueness of the sport, ease of using the equipment, large range of options in how they can be used etc. One Bocker goes as far as stating the

[Dawesome]

3.0 Freedom
Freedom has been stated as one of the main reasons for people to take part in the sport of Bocking and is common to most extreme sports according to Kay and Laberge, (2003), when they talk about freedom and how it is one of the defining factors of linking the wide range of extreme sports together. Freedom is ambiguous in definition, freedom can be seen as having complete choice for what a person may want to do but nearly always there will be some form of constraints of limits on a person. It can be argued that a child in a nursery has freedom to do what they want, but only within the confines of the nursery and the objects the child can interact with. A person may have freedom to go and dine at one of London

[Dawesome]

4.0 Competition's anti-Bocking Values
Competition in sports is about pitting two or more people in an activity together to find out who is the best within the rules that the competition sets out. A competition relies on a form of being able to judge which competitor is the best, these may be covered in the rules i.e. who scores the most points in basketball, or they can be judged by a group of specialised judges who compare the competitors to a perfect model i.e. gymnastics and skateboarding vert's aesthetic judging (Sabin, 2001). Nonetheless the overall aim of competition is to find a winner, the best participant compared to the others, something that goes against the reasons why people take up Bocking. Wheaton (2003), states that competition does not fit within the extreme sport of windsurfing as it counters the sports freedom. Immanuel Kant would agree with the problems competition infers to extreme sports concept of freedom, as he believed there was nothing worse than one man

[Dawesome]

5.0 Conclusion
People enjoy Powerbocking for many reasons, the individuality of the sport, the freedom the sport offers and the subculture of just enjoying the activity through the users own ideals and wants. Competitive sports necessitate that rules, regulations, and a hierarchy of ability be understood for them to be competitive. Competitive sports normalise all aspects into one set way of doing things, and try to develop the sport through competitive elements. Therefore Powerbocking with its emphasis on freedom and individuality does not fit well with competition and its normalising ideals. Powerbocking is a sport still in its early stages, it has only really developed into a consumer sport in the last year and a half and there are very few people partaking in the sport at the current time. As the popularity increases the sport will be more and more subject to categorisation, linking it to other sports. At the moment the sport is leaning heavily towards the freedom and individuality that many extreme sports are rooted from, such as skateboarding and surfing. But as history has shown with these other sports, there will inevitably be a time when part of the sports participants will start mainstreaming the activity according to what the overarching culture decides. Humphreys (2003) describes how many of snowboarders don

[Dawesome]

6.0 Reference
Becky. (2007). Reasons for Bocking? PoweriserPages.com [online], [cited 25-05-07] Available from URL: http://www.PoweriserPages.com/forum/empty-t2263.0.html

Borden, I. (2001). Skateboarding, Space and the City: Architecture and the Body. Oxford: Berg

[Locky]

[tfd]

i am definatly going to read this paper paul, but for now i've got cars to fix, new stilts to buy but u were right dude lol
t'is a very long post
tfd...

[Lukey]

Have copied the text to word and will read during my lunch hour.

Was going to say "For your references havent you used any books?" but I cant see many out there, in fact, this could be the first!

That or my diary!

[Sprog]

I've read the first couple of posts (I'm on section 4.0 at the moment) and it's a great paper Dawesome
I like the fact that you've actually gcome on here and asked bockers of their opinoins and then linked back to this, and given them due credit.
I'll finish it off after some more revision, I'm really liking it though

[tundrah]

I've just read it all, it's a good job my magnager is off site today.  It's very well written and I agree with all of your points except the fact that Locky is respected.......  What a load of piffle, I do respect him for not falling asleep going to Bradford though.



P.S.  I love you really Locky. 

[Locky]

LMAO, that why i put it in bold in the quote, in case paul had made an error.

[lewis]

nice long post il read later though gotta go out
sounds and looks intersesting

[Athoul]

Took a good 20 minutes to read it all, but it was definatly worth it.

Well done dawesome you summed it all up really well. 

Locky, Respected....

[MCTom]

Very nice post   And whilst I would like to see some form of competition in the sport I do agree with most of it.  After all, skateboarding can be very competition oriented, but at the same time you see plenty of people just going out and having fun, or breaking the rules of what "conventional skateboarding" is, (e.g. Danny Wade)