Amped: How Big Air, Big Dollars, and a New Generation Took Sports to the Extreme

by David Browne

Amped is the first comprehensive account of the history, culture, and business of action sports-skateboarding, snowboarding, BMX, and freestyle motocross. Journalist David Browne interviews more than 100 athletes, pioneers, industry executives, manufacturers, and the adolescent amateurs at the heart of this movement. On his journey, he unravels the eye-opening tale of a flourishing culture that continues to reject old-fashioned stick-and-ball sports in favor of individualistic forms of expression, and that culture's struggle to hold on to its integrity despite the demands of corporate sponsors.

320 pages, Paperback

First published August 21, 2004

About the author

music journalist

Reviews

[Xenia · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was recommended this book based on a discussion I had with my friend about "The Tipping Point" by Malcolm Gladwell (specifically the history, rise and fall of the Airwalk brand of shoes). My friend suggested this book as he felt it took a similar approach but towards the rise of "extreme" sports like skateboarding, snowboarding, etc. I thought that this books outlined the history of these sports fairly well but also read a bit too much like a 'who's who' of the industry, which didn't really appeal to me since I do not know these athletes and am not that interested in their biographies. Although the author's intent seemed to be to create a book that anyone could read, whether they were involved in these sports or in the industry or not, I still felt like a bit of an outsider looking in from the other side of the fence. I think this would be a great read for someone who already has a passion for at least one of the sports discussed in this book.

[Luis · Rating 3 out of 5]

Amped. David Browne. United States: Bloombury, 2004.298
The book I read is Amped by David Browne and this book was overall full of people that are in action sports. This was packed with a lot of action sports and makes people realize that you can really be successful in life by doing action sports but needs a lot of dedication. It also shows a lot of peoples dedication to reach their dreams and the steps they took to become the best that they can really be. This book can really push some people to their best potential and its really just a motivational book for the right people.
In the beginning of this book, it really starts of by a competition and their a group of friends that attend to it. The competition is basically all about action sports which includes skateboarding, snowboarding, BMX, and freestyle motocross. Out of the whole group of friends, the best one was Timothy because he practice the most. He had the most dedication for BMX and he really had a good shot to win the competition. Through out the book its really about winning the biggest competition which was the X games and the group of friends would help each other to be the best that they can be. They do all face problems and the biggest one is trust. Trust was a big impact because one of the members of the group,Ben, was so jealous of mostly Timothy that he tried to get him out of the competition but failed.
Over all from this whole book, i give this book 3 stars from 5 because it was really not the best. This book really had some interesting parts like the competitions but it had bad ideas of other sports rather than the action sports. It gave bad ideas to the other sports because they basically ripping off the other regular sports and saying that that best sports where action sports. This was not good and their was a lot from this book that I didn't like especially didn't like it because I enjoy the other regular sports better like basketball, soccer, football, and like baseball so i hate that they talked bad about them. So its clearly that this not the best book ever but it is a motivational one especially to the people that want to become successful in life by doing any kind of sport.


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