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98 free Extreme Sports trivia questions with answers — sports quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
15 free extreme sports trivia questions with answers. Are you an adrenaline junkie who lives for extreme sports? Put your knowledge to the test with our challenging 98-question trivia quiz covering skateboarding, BASE jumping, surfing, mountaineering, and more. From legendary athletes to iconic moments in extreme sports history, this quiz will separate the true enthusiasts from casual fans.
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Q 01At which Portuguese town did Sebastian Steudtner surf a record 86-foot wave in October 2020?
Nazaré
An underwater canyon off Nazaré's Praia do Norte funnels Atlantic swells into monsters that have drawn big-wave surfers since Garrett McNamara's rides there in 2011.
Q 02What is the official Hawaiian name of the Maui surf break nicknamed Jaws?
Peʻahi
Peʻahi sits a few hundred feet off Maui's north-shore cliffs, and its waves are so big and fast that riders are usually towed into them by jet ski.
Q 03In what year did snowboarding make its official debut as an Olympic sport?
1998
Snowboarding debuted at the 1998 Nagano Games with giant slalom and halfpipe; first men's giant slalom champion Ross Rebagliati briefly lost his gold over a cannabis test before it was reinstated.
Q 04Which peak's 1865 first ascent by Edward Whymper's party ended with four deaths on the descent?
Matterhorn
Whymper's party reached the Matterhorn's summit on 14 July 1865, but a rope broke on the way down and Croz, Hadow, Hudson and Lord Francis Douglas fell to their deaths.
Q 05Which country is widely recognized as the origin of modern commercial bungee jumping?
New Zealand
A.J. Hackett opened the world's first permanent commercial bungee site at New Zealand's Kawarau Gorge bridge near Queenstown in 1988, a year after his publicity jump from the Eiffel Tower.
Q 06Which extreme sport uses a jumpsuit with fabric membranes to glide during a skydive?
Wingsuit flying
Wingsuit flying trades vertical speed for horizontal glide thanks to the suit's extra surface area, and flights can start from an aircraft or from a fixed cliff or structure.
Q 07What is the primary philosophy behind the discipline of Parkour?
Efficient navigation through any environment
Parkour's aim is efficient navigation through any environment: getting from one point to another as fast and fluidly as possible using only the body; flips were historically not considered part of the discipline.
Q 08Which activity involves balancing along flat webbing tensioned between two anchor points?
Slacklining
Slacklining is a sport and art that involves balancing on a piece of webbing, which is rigged with less tension than a tightrope, allowing for more dynamic movement.
Q 09What distinguishes freerunning from traditional parkour?
It emphasizes acrobatic, expressive movement.
Freerunning emphasizes acrobatic, expressive movement: Sébastien Foucan's stylised take, adding flips and tricks, diverged from David Belle's speed-and-efficiency parkour and got its name in the 2003 film Jump London.
Q 10Which water sport pairs a small board with a steerable canopy flown on long lines?
Kitesurfing
Kitesurfing, also called kiteboarding, uses a power kite on long lines to pull a rider on a small board; its Formula Kite class made its Olympic debut at the Paris 2024 Games.
Q 11Which activity sends a crew of paddlers down river rapids in a large inflatable boat?
Whitewater rafting
Whitewater rafting sends crews of four to eight paddlers down rapids graded on an international scale from Class I to Class VI, the top class considered effectively unrunnable.
Q 12Which sport is off-road motorcycle racing on enclosed dirt circuits with obstacles?
Motocross
Motocross blends motorcycle with cross-country; the sport grew out of motorcycle trials competitions in Britain.
Q 13What is the primary objective in downhill mountain biking?
Descending steep technical terrain fastest
Q 21Which filmmaker filmed jumps from El Capitan in 1978 and helped coin the BASE acronym?
Carl Boenish
Carl Boenish filmed the August 1978 El Capitan jumps that launched modern BASE jumping; Michael Pelkey and Brian Schubert had already parachuted from El Capitan in 1966.
Q 22Which route did Alex Honnold climb in June 2017 to become the first to free solo El Capitan?
Freerider
Honnold free soloed Freerider, a roughly 900-metre 5.13a route, in under four hours on 3 June 2017, a climb captured in the 2018 documentary Free Solo.
Q 23Felix Baumgartner's 2012 Red Bull Stratos jump made him the first human to do what without engine power?
Break the sound barrier
Descending steep technical terrain fastest against the clock is the whole game; jumps can reach 12 metres, and riders usually take a lift or shuttle back up rather than pedal.
Q 14Which legendary skateboarder is widely recognized for completing the first documented '900' trick?
Tony Hawk
Tony Hawk landed the first documented 900, a two-and-a-half-revolution aerial, in the Best Trick contest at the 1999 X Games in San Francisco, and repeated it in 2016 at age 48.
Q 15In the extreme sport of BASE jumping, what does the acronym BASE stand for?
Building, Antenna, Span, Earth
BASE stands for Building, Antenna, Span, Earth, the four fixed launch points ('span' means bridges, 'earth' means cliffs); jumps start far lower than skydives, leaving little time to fix a problem.
Q 16The inaugural X Games were held in the summer of 1995 in which US state?
Rhode Island
The 1995 Extreme Games ran in Providence and Newport, Rhode Island, from June 24 to July 1; the first Winter X Games followed at Big Bear Lake, California, in 1997.
Q 17Which broadcaster founded the X Games?
ESPN
ESPN created the Extreme Games in 1995, renamed them the X Games for 1996, and sold a majority stake to MSP Sports Capital in October 2022.
Q 18From which structure did the Oxford University Dangerous Sports Club make the first modern bungee jumps on 1 April 1979?
Clifton Suspension Bridge
Club members jumped from Bristol's Clifton Suspension Bridge in top hats and tails on 1 April 1979, inspired by the Pentecost Island land-diving rite, and were arrested afterwards.
Q 19The land-diving ritual behind bungee jumping takes place on Pentecost Island in which country?
Vanuatu
Pentecost Island is in Vanuatu; in the naghol land-diving rite, men leap from wooden towers up to 30 metres with vines tied to their ankles, traditionally timed to the yam harvest.
Q 20Which bridge on the Zambia–Zimbabwe border hosts a 111-metre bungee jump over the Zambezi?
Victoria Falls Bridge
Victoria Falls Bridge, opened in 1905 across the Second Gorge below the falls, hosts a 111-metre bungee jump toward the Zambezi from the bridge's midpoint.
He hit Mach 1.25 after leaping from about 39 km over New Mexico on 14 October 2012, becoming the first person to break the sound barrier in free fall.
Q 24Whose 1960 highest-altitude jump record did Felix Baumgartner break, with that man mentoring him at mission control?
Joseph Kittinger
Joseph Kittinger set the 31,300-metre record with Project Excelsior in August 1960 and served as Baumgartner's capsule communicator, talking him through the 2012 jump.
Q 25Which skateboard company did Tony Hawk co-found with Per Welinder in 1992?
Birdhouse
Tony Hawk and Per Welinder founded Birdhouse in 1992 after leaving Powell Peralta; Hawk, nicknamed 'Birdman', turned pro at 14 and launched his Activision video game series in 1999.
Q 26What was early skateboarding nicknamed in 1950s California?
Sidewalk surfing
Sidewalk surfing was the idea: early 1950s skaters copied surfing moves, often barefoot, when the waves were flat; skateboarding made its Olympic debut at the Tokyo 2020 Games, held in 2021.
Q 27The 1965 forerunner of the snowboard, invented by Sherman Poppen for his daughters, was called what?
The Snurfer
The Snurfer, named by Poppen's wife Nancy from 'snow' and 'surfer', was two skis bolted together with a rope at the nose; Brunswick licensed it and sold about a million.
Q 28How many Olympic gold medals did Shaun White win in halfpipe snowboarding?
Three
Shaun White won three halfpipe golds, at Turin 2006, Vancouver 2010 and Pyeongchang 2018, before finishing fourth in his fifth and final Olympics at Beijing 2022.
Q 29'Parkour' derives from 'parcours du combattant', a military obstacle-course training method proposed by whom?
Georges Hébert
Georges Hébert, a French naval officer, devised the 'méthode naturelle' behind the parcours du combattant; David Belle's friend Hubert Koundé later suggested swapping the 'c' for a 'k' and dropping the silent 's'.
Q 30What were practitioners of parkour historically called?
Traceurs
Traceurs, French for 'tracers', was originally the name of a group led by David Belle that included Sébastien Foucan and Stéphane Vigroux.