Leisure Sports

The attention given to organised sports should not overshadow the many sporting activities, which are a part of daily American life. Most Americans who grow up in the North, for example, also grow up with outdoor winter sports and activities. Skating, certainly, is one widespread activity, with most cities, large and small, flooding areas for use as skating rinks. Skiing, sledding and tobogganing are equally popular. Students at snow-covered campuses "borrow" the metal or fibreglass trays used in dining halls and race downhill standing up on them (or trying to).

Fishing and hunting are extremely popular in all parts of the country and have been since the days when they were necessary activities among the early settlers. As a consequence, they have never been thought of as upper-class sports in the U.S. And it is easy to forget how much of the country is open land, how much of it is still wild and filled with wildlife. New Jersey, for example, has enough wild deer so that the hunting season there is used to keep the herds smaller. Wild turkeys have also returned to the East and Midwest in great numbers. In Washington, D.C., commuters driving along the Potomac River can often see them flying overhead. Even more remarkable is the return of the black bear in the Northeast, as the forests grow thicker again. New York State has about 4,000 with most of them in the Adirondack, Allegheny, and Catskill mountain areas. In the states of the Midwest and West, of course, there is much more wild game, and hunting there is even more popular.

Hunting licenses are issued by the individual states, and hunting is strictly controlled. Some hunters don't actually hunt, of course. They use it as a good excuse to get outdoors in the autumn or to take a few days or longer away from the job and family. Indoor poker games are rumoured to be a favourite activity of many hunters who head for cabins in the woods.

There are many more fishermen (around 50 million in 1991) than hunters (17 million), and many more lakes and rivers than bears. Minnesota advertises itself on its license plates as the "land of 10,000 lakes." This, of course, is not quite true: there are more. Aerial photographs and maps show that there are about twice that number (each larger than 25 acres). Fishing is so popular in Minnesota that when a recent survey showed that 97 percent of all kids in the state went fishing, a newspaper asked, "What on earth went wrong with the other three percent?" Michigan not only has a long coastline from the Great Lakes, it also has what official descriptions simply call, without counting, "thousands of lakes." From Oregon to Southern California, Maine to Florida to Texas there are the ocean beaches. Finding enough water is no problem for most Americans, and where there's water, there are boats.

Overall (not including rowboats, canoes, or anything else driven by paddles), there is about one boat for every 15 people in the U.S. today (1991). In Minnesota, one out of seven people owns a boat and in Arkansas, one out of nine. In Arizona, a state usually known for its mountains and deserts, there are still enough lakes and reservoirs for over 10,000 boats.

As could be expected, all water sports and activities are very popular, including swimming, skin diving, sailing, white-water canoeing, water skiing, and powerboat and "off-shore" racing. Many Americans, of course, just like to go to the beach on a hot summer day, swim a bit, and then take a nap in the sun. Except for a few areas, such as around New York City, the beaches are not crowded, so long walks along the beaches, for example those of Northern California or those of Lake Superior, are quite relaxing. And, although the thousands of students who head for Florida's beaches each spring get headlines, many more thousands of other Americans enjoy small beach parties where there's no one else except a few friends, a fire, and the warm summer night.