It applies somewhat to the aristocratic leisure modes too. Somewhere in the corpus of Victorian literature is the notion that aristocrats pursued all these things to “rid themselves of the day”.

I can’t remember the source. The idea sounds like a way of life.

Consider how, even in the meanest sorts of Labour, the whole soul of a man is composed into a kind of real harmony, the instant he sets himself to work! Doubt, Desire, Sorrow, Remorse, Indignation, Despair itself, all these like helldogs lie beleaguering the soul of the poor dayworker, as of every man: but he bends himself with free valour against his task, and all these are stilled, all these shrink murmuring far off into their caves. The man is now a man. The blessed glow of Labour in him, is it not as purifying fire, wherein all poison is burnt up, and of sour smoke itself there is made bright blessed flame!

The article calls them “consumers”. What a put-down!

Bob: Interesting, I’ll watch out for the no-skill angle. Never noticed that before.

Albion: “gravity-assisted sports” is hilarious!

Random Observer: I wonder how much pain is endured for sake of Instagram or FB. Inspired literature for the 21st Century. No point in putting the effort in if you can’t signal about it.

Historical ruling classes tested their physicality with horses and swords and prided themselves on the ability to endure pain. It would seem sufficiently few sought pain for its own sake for those who did to inspire literature.

Skateboarding, skiing, snowboarding, surfing, parachuting and others like that may all require a certain bravery, plus balance and timing — no question — but modern ‘fashionable’ sports involve a lot of gravity.