UK – as the ski season winds down, clothing manufacturer Fat Face’s Night Ski extreme sport event is imminent. The first of the Night Series 2008 events will take place on May 17th at the Chill Factore in Manchester for both ski and snowboard, with 3 categories – Pro, Seasonaire and Amateur. Other events will take place across the UK in the coming months featuring other extreme sports such as surfing, mountain boarding, wakeboarding, sailing, windsurfing and mountain biking…. fat free? AUSTRALIA – ever heard of the POP’s? Well, this week the ninth World POPS (Parachutists over Phorty Society!) championships is being held at Toogoolawah in southeast Queensland, Australia, where competitors are proving that life does begin at 40. The oldest competitor is an 83-year-old who completed his first jump in a more stressful situation – as a soldier in World War II. Last month he completed his 3,000th jump. The disciplines for the competition includes formation skydives, sport accuracy landings and wingsuit flying. USA – Worthington, Minnesota, is hosting the U.S. Windsurfing National Championships this June (11-15) in parallel with the city’s annual Windsurfing Regatta and Unvarnished Music Festival – races will be held on Lake Okabena. Worthington also hosted the national championships in 2003 and previously, was part of the U.S. Windsurfing National Race Tour. FRANCE – the FISE extreme sports festival is on now until 4th May at Montpellier, southern France. Worth a big effort to get there if you’re into Roller, Sk8, BMX, Wakeboard, MTB and of course the required music & partying… see you there. CINEMA – Lord of the Rings star Karl Urban is set to star in a 3-D film about extreme sports enthusiasts who survive a plane crash in the Amazon jungle, only to be hunted down by a group of homicidal natives… the “stars” use their sporting skills to defeat the locals and escape. Sounds a bit like action Extreme Ops? USA – The world’s best wakeboarders battled it out on the waters of the Orlando Watersports Complex in the final rounds of the 2008 Air Nautique Wake Games. The main event featured an international showdown between Rusty Malinoski (Humboldt, Sask.), Phillip Soven (Longwood, Fla.), Adam Errington (Ullapool, Sct.) and Josh Sanders (Nowra, Aus.) in the Pro Men’s Division finals. All four rippers took to the water, going huge and holding nothing back, as all four riders wanted to kick off the 2008 King of Wake season with a win. After a tight battle, "Bone Crusher" Rusty Malinoski took the title. Soven, Errington and Sanders respectively rounded out the finals.