Frontiers in Psychology

MacIntyre, T. E., Walkin, M., Beckmann, J., Calogiuri, G., Gritzka, S., Oliver, G., Donnelly, A. A. & Warrington, G. (2019) An Exploratory Study of Extreme Sport Athletes’ Nature Interactions: From Well-Being to Pro-environmental Behavior. Front. Psychololgy, 10, 1233. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2019.01233

The concept of ‘Blue Mind’ coined by ocean scientist Wallace J. Nichols (2014) which has popularized water-based activities as a pathway to well-being and health provides a fitting backdrop for our publication. Blue mind refers to a “mildly meditative state characterized by calm, peace, unity and a sense of general happiness and satisfaction with life in the moment” (p.6). Researchers have been concerned with the impact of being close to water on different scales. For example, Blue Health2020 is a pan-European research project investigating the links between environment, climate and health with a specific focus on blue-natural spaces (Grellier et al., 2017). However, few studies had, to date, explored the lived experiences of those who were highly active in sport and adventure in blue natural spaces. Thus, this study focused on the voice of the participants in extreme water sports and also included mountaineering and ski-flying competitors for a green exercise contrast.