Been thinking about this as I've been fustrated with my lack of whitewater kayaking over the last year.
When I go biking I really enjoy myself and come back feeling great and it's exciting while i'm doing it. But and it's a big but I don't get the same rush/fear/adrenaline that I do from paddling. I've done some scary stuff including a dam spillway that's a bit naughty, I've run rapids in full flood where there was no room for error and no rescue, I've run rapids well out of my comfort zone where I was under so much pressure I've got to the bottom physically shaking with adrenaline. My biking was never something I did for kicks in the same way, I more prefered the physical fitness side of it like long days out and big climbs and descents.
For those that paddle, I'm looking for the feeling you get on the last three strokes before you have to boof off the lip of the water fall, and the feeling you get when you hit the eddy at the bottom. (For those that don't paddle that'll make no sense).
I think the last time I was genuinely scared was when I went skydiving (I'm scared of heights so It was a big deal for me).
So does biking make you scared and give you that rush, I'm not just talking about getting a little nervous I mean a dry mouth and the feeling you want to vomit, scared. If so what sort of biking do you do and do you mange to do it on a regular basis. Or do you not even care for that sort of thing at all.
I'm concerned that I might be getting soft. 😥
Yes but not as bigger rush necessarily as same of the activities you describe or say relative to what Jedi gets up to but biking is more accessible so I can get my rush easily where getting to rapids/going skydiving/etc are not practical on a Wednesday afternoon after work...for example
My trip to Switzerland last year reminded me what scarey mountainbiking was all about!
i get a good buzz after a big desent, trying to get other to make the three hour climb/walk back up to do it again.
general riding i enjoy, but i also enjoy riding into twon on the road bike. you'll get a shot of adrenaline whenever you push yourself that little bit farther toward the boundary of your comfort zone. this is a good thing.
i went away for a week boarding last month and by the second day was wishing it was summer and i had my bike with me.
biking, as mentioned, is accessible fairly easily and not weather dedpendent. i choose only to go snowboarding now on a föhn tag. a day when the air is clear and there is no chance of clouds coming in and spoiling visibility. today would have been ideal after four days of continuous snow. i get a rush with boarding when i'm able to have the piste to myself knowing i can ride, spin, jump and then fall knowing no-one will run me over and i don't have to prejudge others moves. two weeks and i'll be boarding again. one thing that does piss me off with boarding is queus and the fact you don't put any effort in to get where you are. we did do a night hike back in Nov up to 2000m, put our boards on and bike lights and hurtled back down. THAT was awesome. adrenaline and a massive sense that you deserved it.
my other big rush, kiteboarding (on land- did try it on water after having become quite proficient on land. loads of adrenaline but for the wrong reason, i very nearly died). i never fail to get an almighty dose of dopamin, screaming along at 30mph on a plank of wood, jumping 4-5m into the air and hanging there for 10 secs or more if you get it right, although it seems like an eternity. an even bigger rush when you land it well. but this is again very weather dependent, namely wind dependent. back in UK wind was never much of a problem. here in germany there is a severe lack of open sports fields (everything is fenced) and wind. we've now got a good 18" of snow and sunday is forecast to be 12-15mph winds so will be out then on the farmers fields behind us.
so for adrenaline the list goes
kting
biking
boarding
availability
biking
boarding
kiting.
****, that is a long post....
No - doesn't even come close.
As another kayaker, I can easily relate to what you're talking about. For me, I'm a better kayaker than a mountain biker so I've kayaked stuff that I've found scary and induced proper adrenaline in the process. Pushing way outside your boundaries on something that has a very real risk of serious injury does this.
But my biking skills are not as good, I'm more a wheels-on-the-ground rider too. Maybe because I'm older now, but I don't push outside of my current comfort zone as much as I did in my youth and when I do its only by a little bit - maybe rolling into a steeper than normal descent where a mistake would mean bruises but no broken bones or worse. If I was to push way outside of my comfort zone and line up a big jump, then I'm sure the adrenaline would kick in! (and I'd almost certainly get injured).
try some trad climbing, being on the sharp end of a rope will give you the fear....
The only time I get that sort of pre-event vomit-feeling when biking is when a) competing (I hate competing against others) or b) when doing a drop-in, something >1m vertical. Or maybe when doing trials and about to drop off something large, and the giggly rush afterwards is fun. But its nothing like the 20 minutes of terror while setting up a 9m kite in 35knot winds and 15ft waves, wondering if a gust is going to rip you to bits, or if you can even keep yourself on the floor with the kite up, but then when on the water its more chilled so different again.
Skydiving would kill me, due to the fact that I've developed a dislike of hights.
But in general, due to how hard it is to find places and people to do the scary stuff with since my older brother decided he breaks too easily these days and lives 450 miles away, I just cant get that stuff from biking anymore - its no fun doing stuff like that alone (for me) as its most fun when talking it up with mates etc.
To some point I think you just get accustomed to adrenalin and desensitised, and the things that used to get you giggling just dont cut it.
coffeeking, I feel dizzy when I stand near the edge of balconies on buildings. I'm crap with heights. I decided to jump out of a plane just because I didn't want to let my fear beat me (and my GF who was also doing it and is fine with heights).
Strange as this sounds although it is high it didn't have the same effect as say climbing when you are 20m off the ground or walking along a cliff top. At 15000ft the ground looks so far away I didn't associate it with being high it was all just a bit surreal, then very very windy but the height didn't get to me.
The big difference I find between most riding, and paddling, is that when you're paddling, there's often a point where you hit something, and you know you have to keep going for a minute or two, or else you'll swim and it'll hurt. Even a rubbish paddler like me, who's never paddled anything they couldn't swim out*, can get that rush.
I do get that feeling when I ride my mountain unicycle down something steep. It has the same unstoppable nature about it, every so often you just have that feeling where you know it's too steep, so stopping is going to hurt, so you just have to pedal it out. That happened on some of the descents in Morzine big time, although on the local trails it isn't often that it happens for more than a couple of seconds. I think it has something to do with not being able to freewheel, you get that "I'm being carried away" feeling, it's kind of like the constant having to paddle in white water.
I get an adrenaline rush on the road bike sometimes from going fast, but it always feels so in control, and so like I could stop if I wanted to, that it's much less full on.
The most crazy thing for that feeling though has to be surfing - the point when the wave kicks in and you get a massive acceleration and you're suddenly speeding along, how amazing is that!
*Actually white water swimming = even more cool fun than paddling for me!
Agree with previous posts, drops are the only thing that gives me that buzz on a bike. Not a kayaker, but I'm a pretty fair snowboarder and have done some pretty gnarly stuff over the years.
Nothing quite like the buzz from those scary turns in a mega-steep couloir with rock walls very close, then the rush when you shoot out the bottom onto (hopefully!) some wide-open pow!