Outdoor recreation

Outdoor recreation or outdoor activity refers to leisure pursuits engaged in the outdoors, often in natural or semi-natural settings out of town. Examples include adventure racing, backpacking, cycling, camping, canoeing, canyoning, caving, disc golf, fishing, hiking, horseback riding, hunting, kayaking, rock climbing, running, sailing, skiing, surfing, ATV riding, and sports.

Outdoor recreation may also refer to a team sport game or practice held in an outdoor setting. When the recreation involves excitement, physical challenge, or risk, such as in rafting or climbing, it is sometimes referred to as adventure recreation. The two primary purposes for outdoor recreation are beneficial use and pleasurable appreciation.

History
Due to the ever-increasing standardization in sport, natural sports have become increasingly important as a counter-movement. Nature sports is still a relatively young concept of the German language. The first scientific uses can be found in examinations and diploma theses in the mid / late 1980s, such as the didactic value of skiing or the field of conflict between conservation and sport using the example of canoeing. The term has been in regular use since the late 1990s. As a related designations have been and still are some of today’s adventure or outdoor sports (or outdoor sports) used. This also includes a recourse to old-time sports.

The natural sports are also attributed to some fun sport and trend sports, z. B. windsurfing and surfing, as well as extreme sports (z. B. Freeclimbing ).

Purpose
Beneficial use is related to the physical and social rewards that goal-directed activity instills in individuals or groups. Some outdoor goal-directed activities are: backpacking, canoeing, canyoning, caving, climbing, hiking, hill walking, hunting, kayaking, and rafting. Arguably broader groupings of goal-directed outdoor activities would include water sports, snow sports, and horseback riding. Goal-directed outdoor activities are predominantly physical, though they may also be mentally, emotionally, and spiritually rewarding.

The outdoors as a physical or social setting may meet the needs of physical health, self-sufficiency, risk-taking, the building of social ties, and the needs of achievement (such as practicing, enhancing and challenging skills, testing stamina and endurance, and seeking adventure or excitement). The outdoors can be an environment in which people “show what they can do”.

Pleasurable appreciation encourages experiences of being “let in on nature’s show”. Enhancement of inner perceptual and/or spiritual life may be experienced through outdoor activities and outdoor-related activities such as nature study, aesthetic contemplation, meditation, painting, photography, archeological or historical research, and indigenous culture among others. These activities may also be physically rewarding.

Many people in modern civilizations believe that the value of nature is found only in its “utilitarian value” (beneficial use). They would discount the inner perceptual and/or spiritual benefits of the “intrinsic value of nature” that may be experienced during pleasurable appreciation.

Outdoor activities may also be pursued for the purposes of finding peace in nature, enjoying life, and relaxing. They are alternatives to expensive forms of tourism. Outdoor activities are also frequently used as a medium in education and teambuilding.

Activities

Mountain Forest Beach and sea Freshwater Air Desert Family Cultural and historical
Trekking Wildlife safari Snorkeling Angling/fly fishing Gliding Camel safari Amusement park Indigenous culture
Rock climbing Camping Scuba diving Canyoning Ballooning Desert Jeep safari Safari park
Mountain biking Birdwatching Parasailing Whitewater rafting Flying Sandboarding Off-leash dog park Metal detecting
Motorbike expedition Elephant safari Sport fishing Water sports Paramotoring Bungee jumping Benchmarking (geolocating)
Skiing Tree climbing Windsurfing Kayaking Skydiving Picnicking Sightseeing
Snowboarding Adventure park Water sports Canoeing Paragliding Corn maze
Snowshoeing Mushroom hunting Clam digging Waterskiing Wingsuit flying
Ice climbing Orienteering Running Jetskiing
Mountain climbing ATV riding Swimming
Canyoning Paintball
Skyrunning Hunting

Trekking
Trekking is about enjoying a great walking holiday. Treks can be day hikes, overnight or extended hikes. An example of a day trek is hiking during the day and returning at night to a lodge for a hot meal and a comfortable bed. Trekking can be more enjoyable when undertaken while being generally physically fit. Physical preparation for trekking includes cycling, swimming, jogging and long walks. To ensure the safest experience possible it is generally a good idea to have some form of experience with basic survival skills, first aid, and orienteering when going for extended hikes or staying out overnight. It’s also expected that backpackers leave no trace while enjoying the outdoors.

Mountain biking
The activity of mountain biking involves steering a mountain cycle over rocky tracks and around boulder-strewn paths. To tackle the trails, the requirements are physical strength, stamina and a strong mountain cycle. Mountain bikes or ATBs (all-terrain bikes) feature a rugged frame and fork. Their frames are often built of aluminum so they are lightweight and stiff, making them efficient to ride.

Many styles of mountain biking are practiced, including all mountain, downhill, trials, dirt jumping, trail riding, and cross country. The latter two are the most common.

Balance, core strength, and endurance are all physical traits that are required to go mountain biking. Riders also need bike handling skills and the ability to make basic repairs to their bikes. Advanced mountain bikers often attempt technical descents as well as some of the more intense styles of mountain biking, such as down hilling and free riding.

Canyoning
Canyoning is an activity which involves climbing, descending, jumping and trekking through canyons. The sport originates from caving and involves both caving and climbing techniques. When people mention canyoning they are typically referring to descents that involve rope work, down-climbing, or jumps that are technical in nature. Canyoning is frequently done in remote and rugged settings and often requires navigational, route-finding and other wilderness skills.

Education
University outdoor recreation programs are becoming more popular in the United States. Universities often offer indoor rock climbing walls, equipment rental, ropes courses and trip programming. A few universities give degrees in adventure recreation, which aims to teach graduates how to run businesses in the field of adventure recreation. Along with hands-on training on activities included in adventure recreation, basic courses needed for any business, such as accounting, are required to obtain a degree. The UK house of commons’ Education and Skills Committee supports outdoor education. The committee encourages fieldwork projects since it helps in the development of ‘soft’ skills and social skills, particularly in hard to reach children. These activities can also take place on school trips, on visits in the local community or even on the school grounds.

Nature sports and nature conservation
Nature sports activities can lead to heavy loads in nature and landscape. As a result of the strong increase in nature sports activities since the 1980s, conflicts between nature sports enthusiasts and nature conservation are increasingly arising; especially individual landscapes or habitats that are particularly attractive for sports and recreation and that are particularly sensitive and / or worthy of protection. The potentially conflictive areas have at least one of the following characteristics:

High degree of closeness to nature and sensitivity
Occurrence of rare animal and plant species ( Red List species )
Ecological diversity / high density of ecological niches
Rarity and representation for a landscape or biotope type
High protection function for certain ecological potentials such as buffer zone, drinking water protection area or protection forest
Particularly affected are mountains as a retreat for many rare animals and plants as well as wetlands and coastal zones as spawning and breeding places for waterfowl, amphibians and other animals.

With different solutions and strategies it is achieved that on the one hand nature sport activities are practiced and on the other hand impairments for nature and landscape can be avoided or reduced:

Planning strategies: creation of infrastructures or facilities, territorial development concept, infrastructural steering
Persuasive strategies: agreements, patronage, information / education, self-restraint appeals, codices, incentive / stimulation, multiplier education / training, environmental education
Standards strategies: prohibitions, commandments / protective regulations
Nature-friendly sport
In September 2001, the Advisory Council for the Environment and Sport in the German Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety published a technical explanation of nature and landscape-friendly sport. Accordingly, sport in nature and landscape of recreation and nature and landscape compatible, if the requirements of the German Federal Nature Conservation Act are respected. There it says in § 4 u. a. that they behave in such a way that ” nature and landscape are no longer unavoidably affected by circumstances “. Sport, on the other hand, is not compatible with nature landscapes if it:

contravenes the legal provisions adopted for the protection of biotopes and plant and animal species,
significantly affects the diversity, character and beauty of nature and landscape and reduces the experience and recreational value,
due to noise or other influences, the recreational function of the landscape considerably disturbs,
Causes substance inputs or physical stresses that exceed the self-regulatory power of the affected ecosystem,
disturbing wild animals in such a way that effects on the reproduction and stability of the affected populations are suspected
the habitat of domestic animals and plants changed so that they are endangered in their survival or
takes place by means of internal combustion engines.
Clothing
Nature sports are typically practiced in functional clothing, so-called outdoor clothing. This clothing is worn by many in everyday life. The industry association European Outdoor Group estimates that in Europe 2010 outdoor clothing worth about 6 billion euros will be sold.

Sporting activity in the field of nudism or nude sports, however, takes place unclothed.

Source from Wikipedia