New emotions, overcoming fears: the story of an extreme sports enthusiast from Yerevan

Extreme sports in Armenia

The number of extreme sports enthusiasts in Armenia is increasing every year. People are attracted not only by the opportunity to maintain physical fitness and lead a healthy lifestyle but also by the emotions they gain from extreme sports.

28-year-old Artur Petrosyan is one of them. He started engaging in extreme sports as a teenager. First, he became interested in wakeboarding, which combines elements of water skiing, snowboarding, skateboarding, and surfing. Then he moved on to riding motorcycles, high-speed bicycles, and paragliding.

Artur is a finance economist and combines his love for extreme sports with his work. He does not consider office work boring at all. Instead, he complements it with strong emotions from extreme activities.

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“Extreme sports have their own philosophy”

“When I was a child, inspired by movies, I started practicing parkour. My friends and I would jump from one garage to another, leap over fences. At that age, such activities are very appealing. But many abandon these pursuits as quickly as they take them up because they don’t delve into their philosophy. For many, it doesn’t become a way of life. Extreme sports are about life, about your perception of life.”

“It’s impossible to engage in extreme sports without appreciating the risk, without being brave and determined in everyday life. Science has proven that the human body produces the hormone dopamine during extreme sports activities. This natural stimulant makes a person feel happier,” he says.

Artur believes that extreme sports also represent a certain type of thinking, a mindset. By performing challenging exercises, a person gains new emotions, gets rid of fears. He is confident that by overcoming difficulties, one becomes stronger:

“Extreme sports are a challenge for both the body and soul of a person. No one can imagine how they would behave in unpredictable, dangerous situations. No one knows what our body is capable of, how the instinct of self-preservation works, how the brain manages these processes. All this is only found out in an extreme situation. And many, including myself, understand themselves better thanks to extreme sports.”

Now, Artur is into alpine skiing. He’s glad that more and more young people are getting into skiing and snowboarding each year:

“I was 14 years old when I first stood on skis. I didn’t even have a sports suit. I wore jeans and several sweaters to keep from freezing. My uncle taught me how to ski. But I got so hooked that I started doing it professionally. And I started skiing in areas that are not meant for skiing, that is, off-piste. For example, in forests, mountains with difficult terrain. This is called freeriding. It’s a wilder version and, naturally, it brings stronger emotions.”

“Being afraid is normal”

Many are afraid to engage in extreme sports due to the possibility of injuries, Artur says. He understands this – there can be irreversible injuries. Now, years later, he talks about his fractures and bruises with a smile. He’s broken his leg several times, but that hasn’t stopped him from continuing with sports. He only gave up motorcycle riding after an accident:

“Armenian drivers are not used to having two-wheeled vehicles moving nearby. Unfortunately, there is no respect for motorcycles, mopeds, and bicycles here. The last time I had a motorcycle accident, a driver, without looking in the side mirror, opened the door and knocked me down. I had a broken arm, and the motorcycle turned into a pile of metal. I realized that even if I ride very well, there are circumstances that depend not on me but on other drivers. And this can lead to fatal consequences. When you’re young, you fear the consequences less, you don’t even think about them.”

Even now, he continues to take risks, otherwise, he wouldn’t be involved in extreme sports.

“It’s normal to be afraid. Before every jump, every run, you feel anxious because you’re human and you have an instinct for self-preservation. But you need to learn how to dull this feeling,” Artur believes.

Currently, he is learning to paraglide to engage in speed riding. This combines skiing and paragliding and requires more refined techniques and greater preparation.