Fear: the life force for extreme sports enthusiasts
The most important thing is to stay within the limits of your strengths and fears
By Merituuli Ahola
Two men sit quietly in a squeaky mountain train in central Switzerland. On the horizon lies the cliff of Staubbach, 400 metres above the village of Lauterbrunnen.
Osku Siivonen and his friend Teppo Heikkinen intend to run off the edge of a cliff, experience a five-second free fall, and then yank their parachutes open.
“On the day of the jump you get nervous right from the morning", Siitonen admits.
“There’s a tingling sense of excitement all the time”, Heikkinen agrees.
So two grown-up men are on their way towards a terrifying leap into emptiness. Whatever for?
Fear is a basic human emotion. You won’t get very far without fear and common sense.
“Fear protects us from danger. If people do not feel fear, they are a danger to themselves”, explains Ritva Laaksonen, a neuropsychologist and psychotherapist at the KL Institute, a psychotherapy training centre.
Fear can be either positive or negative. People wish to experience positive fear to rid themselves of negative fear. It is good for a person to be able to withstand fear, according to Laaksonen.
“There are individual differences in the way that people feel fear. Those who have grown in an overprotected environment may be too timid, whereas others may be excessively reckless”, Laaksonen explains.
Some scream on a roller coaster, others seek fear from horror movies. Still others – like Siivonen and Heikkinen who are preparing for their base-jump – leap off cliff-tops strapped to a parachute.
Base-jumping (Building, Antenna, Span, Earth) means parachute jumping off of solid platforms. It is one of the wilder extreme sports and is forbidden in some countries, including Finland. The cliff at Staubbach, however, is one of the best base-jumping venues in Central Europe.
The experience one gets from the sport is based on a controlled performance - a few seconds of free fall and flying – and to some extent, also on the overcoming of one’s own fear. Adrenaline rushes through your veins, and you cannot afford to make mistakes.
“You bring the fear under control”, Siivonen says and hops off the mountain train.
Black backpacks sway between the mountain pines. Heikkinen and Siivonen tread up the slope made slippery by the dew. The closer they get to the cliff, the more tense the atmosphere becomes.
Meticulous precautions relieve the tension somewhat: the parachutes have been packed with meditative precision the previous evening and the position of the spare parachute is checked a few minutes before the jump. Boosting Heikkinen’s self-confidence are also his 2500 parachute jumps and over 1500 base-jumps. Siivonen has jumped out of an airplane about 500 times and base-jumped about 100 times.
Siivonen is actually a kind of fear control professional, as he earns his keep with extreme sports and the money from his sponsors.
"Those who enjoy extreme sports usually have tremendous self-confidence and the experience that they are in control. Overcoming your fears like this is not for everyone”, Ritva Laaksonen says.
Preparing for his jump in Switzerland, Heikkinen agrees. “You have to feel that everything is under your control. The slightest change in weather conditions can cause the jump to be cancelled”, he says and tosses a tuft of grass down into the valley to test the direction of the wind. The current makes the grass rise high into the air. The wind appears to be just right.
Laaksonen says that people should face their fears within their own limits. “By overcoming his or her fears a person gets positive experiences which strengthen his self-confidence”, she says. Fear also depends on age.
“Children are afraid of the dark because they feel that they cannot control it. Adults can look at things more rationally, and their fear of the dark is not so strong. For example as an adult a person’s fear of high places can increase as his confidence in his sense of balance and control of limbs weakens.”
The sweaty palms and fast heartbeat one experiences during the climax of a horror movie is in turn explained by people’s ability to adapt to what they see around them.
“If you see someone in terrible pain you might feel some yourself”, Laaksonen explains.
“Fear causes some to freeze, but I’m at my best when I’m afraid", Siivonen says pleasantly as he leans against a tree growing next to the steep cliff. The 400-metre vertical drop down into the valley is only half a metre away.
“Being free is what it's all about. Flying. The best feelings I experience when base-jumping come from being able to do it. I run off the cliff, look where I am, open the parachute and make a controlled landing", Heikkinen says as he checks the straps pressing against his thighs.
“Jumping is not the difficult part; doing it in a controlled manner is. If you could do this without the risks involved it would be fine by me", summarises Siivonen. Then he draws a deep breath, jumps and disappears in an instant into the valley.
“I have no intention of dying today, or even risking my life”, adds Heikkinen and jumps after Siivonen into the void.
A few seconds later the soft whumping sound of two parachutes opening safely can be heard echoing off the mountainside.
Helsingin Sanomat / First published in print 16.8.2004
More on this subject:
 FACTFILE: A basic human emotion
MERITUULI AHOLA / Helsingin Sanomat
merituuli.ahola@hs.fi
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Fear: the life force for extreme sports enthusiasts
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