Some extreme ways to see the summer through

  • 2004-07-28
  • By Andrei Tuch
TALLINN - While numerous skate parks and the Extreme Channel on cable television have done a lot to promote alternative sports in the Baltics, a lot of people have turned to more indigenous disciplines.

With rising water and air temperatures and forest wildlife out in full force, August is certainly extreme sports month in Estonia.
One outdoor pastime which has been embraced in this country is orienteering - the activity of dashing through the woods with a map and compass, trying to reach all the checkpoints before others do. Its popularity is very easily explained, as this is something that Estonians have had the chance to get very good at. There is an abundance of suitable landscape, too.
Orienteering is a massive grass-roots sport and all through the summer there is an event nearly every day, but there are big meetings too. The Beaver Cup will be held on August's first full weekend, with a showdown between the national teams of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania among other teams. That same weekend, orienteering will be taken to the next level with a championship meeting and an Estonian Cup event in finding your way under water held at Lake Viljandi.
The Gulf of Finland can't quite match the Pacific Ocean for producing big waves, so Estonian surfers are forced to stick to wind power. On Aug. 7, the best windsurfers in the Baltics will be doing a marathon run from the Pirita beach in Tallinn to the Island of Aegna and back. It's a 15-minute trip by ferry, but must seem like a lot longer on a board.
Cross-country skiing may not strike you as an extreme sport, but it can be one when held on the second weekend in August. At least the location is right - Otepaa, where a proper European Cup event is held in the winter. Or if you happen to be there a week earlier, be sure to catch the European championship in cycling. But Lance Armstrong is not expected to attend.
If you consider running to be something one does on a paved road, and windsurfing just an overcomplicated way to take a swim - but you do like bicycles - then triathlon is the sport for you. Various individual and cup events will be held throughout the month.
So if you're bored of the beach and too hot to stay in the city this August, then get out and enjoy one of the extreme sports events on offer. Of course there are less extreme disciplines to have a look at. Riding for example. Or petanque. Apparently there is actually a whole season devoted to it. Who would have thought it?