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Abstract
Sports such as surfing, mountaineering, and backcountry skiing are often grouped together. But what exactly it is that they share, and the implications of their common characteristics, have not been explained clearly. I refer to such sports as ‘nature sports’ and argue that they share a fundamental structure in which human beings and features of the natural world are brought together. The principal claim I make is that nature sports are those sports in which a particular natural feature, or combination of natural features, plays at least one of the primary roles that human competitors or partners play in traditional or standard sports. This article is a detailed explanation of that claim.
Acknowledgements
I would like to thank Alison Caputo for patiently reading early drafts of this article and providing excellent commentary and editorial advice. As well, I greatly appreciate the comments given by John Russell and two anonymous reviewers at JPS.
Notes
1. I have argued briefly for this point in two other published works, Krein (Citation2007), and Krein (Citation2008) I have not however, discussed or defended the position in detail. This article is an attempt to provide a detailed exploration of this understanding of nature sport.
2. Howe makes a similar point, and argues that such sports should be classified as nature-instrumental sports. What I refer to as ‘nature sports’ most closely resemble what she calls ‘nature-specific sports’. While we agree about many aspects of nature sports, I put far more emphasis on, and see more significance in, the claim that, in nature sports, natural features take on primary roles that are played by human beings in traditional sports. The closest she comes to such a claim is to say that nature-specific sport ‘is directed to a specific natural feature and seeks characteristically sportive experiences in relation to that feature, i.e. ones having to do with the perfection of physical and technical skill and experience’(Citation2012, 385). While our understandings of nature sports differ in some respects, we agree on most questions concerning why nature sports are valuable as ways of pursuing excellence and relating to the environment. I have benefited greatly from Howe’s published work and from personal discussions with her on the topic of nature sports.
3. Howe (Citation2008b, 2) seems to argue along these lines.
4. In part, the confusion may stem from seeing nature sports in a similar light as activities such as camping and flat water canoeing that are often motivated by the desire to reenact historical wilderness experiences. Failing to distinguish these very different types of activities leads to various conceptual difficulties. For a more complete discussion see Krein (Citation2012).
5. This is not to say that nature sports athletes are not competitive in the sense that they want to be better than other humans or want to be the first to accomplish a particular feat. The point is that this type of competitive attitude is not a requirement of nature sports, nor the principal source of intensity within them. For a differing view see Howe (Citation2008a), who argues that there is competition in nature sports, but that it is internal competition or competition between aspects of the same person or self.
6. See Gebauer (Citation1993) for example.
Additional information
Notes on contributors
Kevin J. Krein
Kevin J. Krein is an Associate Professor of Philosophy and Academic Director of Outdoor Studies at the University of Alaska Southeast.
