Extreme sports are very new in America. They usually come from people trying the craziest things. Bungee jumping is a good example. Someone tied a bungee cord to himself one day and jumped off of a very tall bridge. Bungee cords stretch a lot, so the person lived, but he took a big risk to find out if his idea would work. Another extreme sport is snowboarding. A skier decided to stand sideways on one piece of wood to get down the mountain instead of using two skis. People like these dangerous sports because they are exciting. They often do them for “the rush” they get. The first extreme sport might have been mountaineering, or mountain climbing. Sir Edmund Hillary, the first man to climb Mt. Everest, gave another reason for doing something so dangerous. When asked why he climbed the world's tallest mountain, he replied, “Because it was there.”