"Pull your feet up, Jim!"

My muffled yell successfully navigated through layers of wool; Jim's feet rose a few inches above the ground, activating the descent of our plastic sled. With my hands braced firmly against Jim's shoulders, I ran through thick powder for a few seconds and hopped aboard.

Acceleration makes the process more interesting. Like pro luge competitors, Jim and I ducked to cut wind resistance, and shifted our body weight to avoid smashing into trees. Then, WHAT? A four foot jump?! No way!

It was too late; we had too much speed; we had no choice...SLAM!!

Our bodies launched over the ramp, scattered limbs crashing into a soft snow-fluff landing pad. The sled flew down the hill and abruptly collided with an innocent fir. Then deep laughter rose above the bruises, continuing until our tired abs pleaded for mercy from the intensity of our giggles.

Apparently the snowboarders had built a jump earlier that morning. Apparently we destroyed it.

Extreme Sledding 101: expect crashes, expect pain, expect a wild ride.

Over the years, I've tried a lot of stupid/dangerous sledding maneuvers. One of my favorites was an activity we called "stackers' sledding". In this extreme sport, the largest kid lies on his belly on the sled. Other kids lie face down on top of the first kid, creating layers of bodies. Then another kid pushes the whole mass down a steep sledding hill. We found that we had a natural stacking limit of about five or six teenagers. More than five led to a very unstable stack, especially at the top of the pile; over-stacking usually resulted in the entire stack tumbling within a few feet. More than five stackers also meant that the poor kid on the bottom of the pile could no longer breathe.

I'm totally psyched to go sledding this winter (last winter I lived in Hawai'i, where sadly, I didn't play in the snow). Now I'm still bumming due to a lack of snow. All of the winter storms in the past week were for naught; the warm rain hitting Chicago this weekend wiped out what little snow we had.

So I'm temporarily relegated to enjoying the snow vicariously through other extreme sledders.

Here's a hilarious video of extreme sledders launching off some very large jumps.

This guy discusses high-tech sleds specifically designed for different types of extreme sledding.  They are huge improvements to the classic plastic rectangular sleds from my childhood. The Mad River Rocket—a Vermont-based freestyle sled—is all the rage in extreme sledding.

But you don't need a Rocket to get outdoors for some winter play. All you need is some snow and gravity to enjoy the wonders of sledding. Snow isn't even an essential element—I had some friends who took their old ratty skis and flew down sand piles in the summer. I'm sure you could take a sled to a sand pit and have a grand time.

Need a boost?  Need more POWER!?!?!  Then slam down a hyper-caffeinated high-sugar ENERGY DRINK !  These days I feel like everywhere I go, somebody is peddling another stimulant-soda that's supposed to "enhance performance".  At school, marketing reps hand out free Monster drinks from the back of a giant pickup truck and tell me that it will help me ace my finals.  At the corner store, the counter is full of signs telling me how I can improve my performance at work.  And on television there's no shortage of 'extreme' advertising aimed at making me a better athlete through beverage consumption.  I'm not interested.

Coffee and tea have been a part of human culture for thousands of years, as have countless other stimulant plants, but just because they've been around for a long time doesn't mean that its smart to toss them back whenever you feel tired.  These new energy drinks are often full of high fructose corn syrup and other less-than-desirable ingredients as well.  Most importantly though, all of the stimulant drinks on the market, man made or not, can be habit forming.  Because the adult population is so full of unapologetic coffee addicts, not many people stand up against caffeine beverage machine.  We're mostly just trying to make sure that we drink enough coffee to avoid the debilitating withdrawal headaches.

In 2006, somebody let Red Bull buy our local major league soccer team.  The New York MetroStars became "Red Bull New York".  It's not that energy drinks are all bad-- they certainly DO improve concentration as well as boost energy.  The problem is that their hip, youth-focused advertising obscures the amount of caffeine present, and the cross-promotion with sporting teams and events can make the drinks seem like "sports drinks", even though they actually have dehydrating properties.  Drinking too many energy drinks can cause nausea, convulsions, and various other negative effects on athletic performance.  I'm sticking with water.