Amped: How Big Air, Big Dollars, and a New Generation Took Sports to the Extreme

Once a fringe underground culture, extreme sports are now the stuff of car commercials and Olympic competitions. How did they get there - and how does it feel to be in the middle of it all? The first comprehensive account of the rise, culture, and business of action sports, Amped plunges us into this exciting world. Readers will find themselves aboard a skateboarding bus tour with superstar Tony Hawk, behind the scenes at the X Games and snowboarding contests, on the sidelines witnessing the first-ever double backflip on a motorcycle, on the road with the Warped Tour, and in the offices of the multinational corporatison that have tapped into the vast amounts of money to be made from these nontraditional sports.

Based on interviews with more than one hundred athletes, managers, business executives, extreme-rock musicians, and, most importantly, the adolescent amateurs who are at the heart of this movement, Amped is not merely the story of an alternative world of sports now four decades old. It's the tale of a flourishing culture that continues to reject old-fashioned stick-and-ball sports in favor of individualistic forms of expression. The story of extreme sports speaks volumes about Generations X and Y and their divergent views on life, creativity, gratification, and identity.