Extreme Sports in Serbia

By Li Novak

Belgrade, Sept. 28, 2009 (Serbia Today) - Those kinds of sports activities have lots of fans in Serbia. Popular extreme sports are: rafting, rock climbing, snowboarding, parachuting, snowboarding, kite surfing, etc.
Rafting is navigating through the fast mountain rivers in rubber boats, which are built in a special manner, for the fast waters. Rafters have special modern equipment – safety belt, special suit and boots from neoprene. The leaders in the boats are skippers, rafters with a lot of experience, who, in most of the cases, have grown up in the river area. The most popular river for rafting activities is Tara. The main sailing road is from the Brstanovica till Bastas, for 21 km. The fast and the slow parts are coming one after another. Tara is a wild river and it is very attractive for the sportsmen. Rafting is always different, depends on level of the river. On the river banks, there are lots of sand beaches, for sunbath and rest.
Snowboarding and skiing, the popular winter sports also have many participants. The best mountains for these sports are: Goc, Old Mountain (Stara Planina), Divcibare, Zlatibor, Golija and Kopaonik. Large number of ski paths and untouched Serbian wild nature offer lots of satisfaction to sportsmen. Snowboard is one of the new generation white sports. For the more extreme snowboarders, best opportunities offer Old Mountain and Kopaonik. Other mountains are more convenient for the beginners.
Rock-Climbing is a very exciting sport, which becomes more and more popular in Serbia. Free climbing could be performed in closed spaces, in special polygons. But the more interesting is climbing in nature, on the real rocks. There are lots of suitable locations for this kind of activity: Kopaonik, Stol, Golija, Tara, Fruska Gora etc.
Parachuting has a long tradition in this area. Period for the jumps with parachute lasts from the early spring till the late autumn. Recently, one may parachute without much effort because there is a possibility of tandem jump. In that manner, one jumps with the instructor, who is an experienced jumper. Even the first jump may be from the height of 3000m which gives the feeling and experience of a free fall.