Nature-based extreme sports are often framed through sensation seeking, thrill, and voluntary exposure to risk, yet this framing can obscure the meanings participants attach to prolonged engagement with demanding natural environments. This study explored how experienced South African participants interpreted the relationship between nature-based extreme sport participation and eco-sensitivity. In this article, eco-sensitivity refers to participants' reported environmental attention, affective connection with nature, recognition of ecological dependence, concern about degradation, and efforts to reduce personal impact. A qualitative design using interpretative phenomenological analysis was applied to semi-structured interviews conducted between 29 April and 4 July 2019 with 10 experienced participants, five men and five women, who represented 11 nature-based extreme sport activities and reported two to 22 years of experience. Four interconnected themes were identified: risk as a managed component of participation; connection rather than conquest; sensory sensitivity and experiences consistent with mindfulness and flow; and eco-sensitivity and self-reported pro-environmental orientation. Participants described risk as something to calculate and manage through competence, preparation, and situational judgement. They also described respect for natural forces, heightened bodily and environmental attention, and a stronger sense of ecological dependence. Reported pro-environmental practices were self-reported and were not independently observed. The findings provide an interpretive account of how participants made sense of environmental meanings within prolonged outdoor sport involvement. They do not establish a causal developmental mechanism. The results suggest propositions for athlete education, outdoor recreation management, environmental learning, and future longitudinal research. Keywords: eco-sensitivity; extreme sport; interpretative phenomenological analysis; nature connectedness; pro-environmental behaviour; risk management.
Restrictions during the COVID-19 pandemic pushed large numbers of recreationists towards freshwater ecosystems, but whether this shift was temporary or lasting has remained unclear. Using 129045 freshwater-related Wikiloc records (2016–2024), we modelled how recreation changed in time and space along the entire river network of the Catalan River Basin District (NE Spain), separating the pandemic effect from the platform's own growth. Recreation after the pandemic was 2.4 times higher than before, and the number of users doubled. Once platform growth was accounted for, recreation showed no return to its pre-pandemic baseline: activity remained elevated and its composition shifted, with hiking increasing by 168% and consolidating as the dominant activity. The increase was spatially uneven. Visitors continued to concentrate near roads and trails, but the sharpest relative growth occurred in the most natural stretches of river, and use rose as strongly outside protected areas as within them. Recreation has therefore remained elevated since the pandemic, spread more widely across the network, and grown fastest in its least disturbed reaches. Carrying-capacity assessments calibrated to pre-pandemic conditions may no longer reflect where and how recreation now takes place.
محدودیت‌ها در دوران همه‌گیری کووید-۱۹ شمار زیادی از افراد علاقه‌مند به تفریح را به سوی اکوسیستم‌های آب شیرین سوق داد، اما این که آیا این تغییر موقتی بوده یا پایدار باقی مانده است، همچنان نامشخص بود. با استفاده از ۱۲۹۰۴۵ رکورد مرتبط با آب شیرین در Wikiloc (۲۰۱۶ تا ۲۰۲۴)، تغییرات تفریح در زمان و مکان در سراسر شبکه رودخانه‌ای حوزه آبریز کاتالان (شمال‌شرق اسپانیا) مدل‌سازی شد و اثر همه‌گیری از رشد ذاتی پلتفرم تفکیک گردید. میزان تفریح پس از همه‌گیری ۲/۴ برابر بیشتر از پیش از آن بود و تعداد کاربران دو برابر شد. پس از لحاظ کردن رشد پلتفرم، تفریح به سطح پایه پیش از همه‌گیری بازنگشت: فعالیت در سطح بالاتری باقی ماند و ترکیب آن تغییر کرد، به طوری که پیاده‌روی ۱۶۸٪ افزایش یافت و به فعالیت غالب تبدیل شد. این افزایش به طور فضایی یکنواخت نبود. بازدیدکنندگان همچنان در نزدیکی جاده‌ها و مسیرها متمرکز شدند، اما بیشترین رشد نسبی در بکرترین بخش‌های رودخانه رخ داد و میزان استفاده در خارج از مناطق حفاظت‌شده به همان اندازه داخل آن‌ها افزایش یافت. بنابراین، میزان تفریح از زمان همه‌گیری همچنان بالا باقی مانده، در سراسر شبکه گسترده‌تر شده و سریع‌ترین رشد در کم‌دست‌خورده‌ترین بخش‌ها مشاهده می‌شود. ارزیابی‌های ظرفیت برد که بر اساس شرایط پیش از همه‌گیری کالیبره شده‌اند، ممکن است دیگر بازتاب‌دهنده محل و نحوه وقوع تفریح در حال حاضر نباشند.
