Discussion: AR Growing the Fastest ?
in: Adventure Racing; General
Mar 17, 2010 2:06 PM
#
z:
Who knew? According to this recent study [http://www.outdoorindustry.org/images/researchfile...] surveying outdoor sports, AR is growing really fast. See page 44 in the pdf for key stats & particulars.
Lots of interesting stuff in there. They don't show trail running as growing that quickly, but my perception is that trail running is a booming sport right now.
I need to look at the methodology a bit more. Note that "Orienteering" wasn't even a category they reported on.
I wonder if the fact that "adventure racing" is a nebulous term and could mean Muddy Buddy to one person, or the AR World Championship to another, is one reason for the statistics? The word "adventure" can mean so many different things. For that matter, orienteering and even geo-caching may have been grouped in with these stats? Is geo-caching still growing in the US the way it was a few years ago?
Lots of interesting stuff in there. They don't show trail running as growing that quickly, but my perception is that trail running is a booming sport right now.
I need to look at the methodology a bit more. Note that "Orienteering" wasn't even a category they reported on.
I wonder if the fact that "adventure racing" is a nebulous term and could mean Muddy Buddy to one person, or the AR World Championship to another, is one reason for the statistics? The word "adventure" can mean so many different things. For that matter, orienteering and even geo-caching may have been grouped in with these stats? Is geo-caching still growing in the US the way it was a few years ago?
Mar 17, 2010 2:49 PM
#
Bash:
Interesting study! I'm sure you're right about the definition of adventure racing being fuzzy.
Although they're showing a 32% increase in AR participants between 2007 and 2008, participation has stayed constant at 0.3% of the population so the numbers are very small. I'm wondering about statistical significance. They've estimated 920,000 adventure racing participants in the U.S. in 2008 based on a survey of about 40,000 people, so there's a lot of extrapolation going on. That sounds like way more adventure racers than any of us has ever met! Does USARA have stats that could be compared? I'm wondering if more adventure racers filled out the online survey in 2008. There were other tools used besides the survey but it was the primary method.
On-road triathlon recorded the biggest 1-year jump in participation: 36%. That seems a little suspect as well. Their numbers are reported to be about the same as adventure racing which is surprising. The 15% one-year increase in trail running is pretty good given the much larger number of trail runners.
What struck me most was the 3-year continuing decline of participation in outdoor activities among youth. One depressing comment was that kids' lives are so full of programmed activities that they don't have spare time to go outdoors (unless you count soccer as a nature-based activity). They also mention a lack of interest in outdoor activities as another factor. This doesn't bode well for us adults who would like today's kids to be preserving parks and building trails for us to enjoy when we're retired!
Although they're showing a 32% increase in AR participants between 2007 and 2008, participation has stayed constant at 0.3% of the population so the numbers are very small. I'm wondering about statistical significance. They've estimated 920,000 adventure racing participants in the U.S. in 2008 based on a survey of about 40,000 people, so there's a lot of extrapolation going on. That sounds like way more adventure racers than any of us has ever met! Does USARA have stats that could be compared? I'm wondering if more adventure racers filled out the online survey in 2008. There were other tools used besides the survey but it was the primary method.
On-road triathlon recorded the biggest 1-year jump in participation: 36%. That seems a little suspect as well. Their numbers are reported to be about the same as adventure racing which is surprising. The 15% one-year increase in trail running is pretty good given the much larger number of trail runners.
What struck me most was the 3-year continuing decline of participation in outdoor activities among youth. One depressing comment was that kids' lives are so full of programmed activities that they don't have spare time to go outdoors (unless you count soccer as a nature-based activity). They also mention a lack of interest in outdoor activities as another factor. This doesn't bode well for us adults who would like today's kids to be preserving parks and building trails for us to enjoy when we're retired!
This discussion thread is closed.