When you’re out on your bike, or you board, life can sometimes throw some you into some tricky situations. We don’t mean like that time the chain came off your bike, or your binding became a little loose.

Oh no, we mean properly tricky. Dangerous, even. Life threatening, if you will. When action sports and adventure throws you properly into the void, you need all the help you can get.

Should you find yourself in a life threatening situation with your pants rapidly filling, you don’t want to be relying on some ex-rental gear…

Should you find yourself in a life threatening situation, with your pants rapidly filling, you don’t want to be relying on some ex-rental gear that you got at a knock-down price on the market.

Oh no, you need some next-level, secret agent style tech. The cutting-edge, advanced gadgets that will help you escape certain death. However, you don’t need access to the weapons cache of a secret super spy. Oh no, what you need is already out there.

Getting Trapped Under Water:

There’s a reason why some many people have nightmares about drowning: it’s paralysingly terrifying. Imagine being out surfing one day when all of a sudden you’re thrown from your board and you find yourself quite literally out of your depth.

Or maybe you’ve gone scuba diving, seeing how far down you can push yourself to go, and all of a sudden your tank fails.

You’re trapped in a dark, murky world where the weight of the water is crushing you and, most impotently you can’t breath. What do you do?

The Gear:

You reach for your breathing crystals, obviously. You may think that sounds like the kind of thing your nutty aunty (who also claims she can heal sick hedgehogs with tree bark) believes in. But underwater breathing crystals are legit.

Scientist at the University of  Southern Denmark have developed what they’re calling the ‘Aquaman Crystal’. The mystic crystals absorb oxygen which is then stored, and can be released at a later point.

The boffins have even got the crystals to a point where just a bucket full can absorb all of the oxygen in a room – easily enough to see you back to the surface and to safety. It’s not quite on the market yet, but the possibilities are promising. Breathing crystal cuff links, anyone?

Parachute Failure

A fear of falling is inbuilt into all of us. You know that thing that sometimes happens as your falling to sleep and all of a sudden you jolt? That’s a long exiting evolutionary response to when we slept in trees and would readily fall out.

Humans and falling; it’s just not a good combination. So, imagine upping the ante significantly and skydiving.

You’re in an aeroplane, and the doors open in front of you. You find the nerve to get to the door, and even have a cheeky look down. That little bedtime twitch is nothing now, is it?

However, imagine pulling your rip-chord, only to find that nothing happens. You don’t need to be an expert to know that there’s a  whole parachute opening thing that’s integral to getting down to the ground safely.

But not this time. Nothing. Nothing but the ground rushing towards you at blistering speed.

The Gear

Parachutes? Pah! They’re so passé. As British dare devil Garry Connery proved back in 2012, you simply don’t need a parachute, you just need the right gear.

Wing suits have been around for a while now, but people are finally starting to push just what can be done with them. Garry proved that he could jump from a helicopter and make a safe landing down on terra firma without anything as dull as a parachute.

Granted he did need a few cardboard boxes for just-in-case. 18,600 cardboard boxes, to be precise, but let’s not get lost in details here. Gary proved that surviving without a parachute is possible.

All they need to do now is sew one into a pin-sharp suit and your secret agent dreams can come true.

Getting Caught in an Avalanche

There’s little better in life that hitting the mountains for some snow-based fun. Whether you’re out skiing, snowboarding, or infiltrating the secret arctic base of a super villain, the mountains are your playground. However, they’re not without their dangers.

Avalanches can be an impossible situation from which there can be no escape. Tonnes of snow can come crashing down around you, engulfing you, and taking you on one final ride.

All to often, people can find themselves trapped in the snow, unable to move, unable to breath, and being smashed against whatever the avalanche finds in its unstoppable path.

The Gear

However, pull the left hook on the coat rack in your chalet and you’ll find there secret room where the special agents keep their backpacks. Or, you know, just go to your local ski and snowboard shop. There you can get an Av Bag.

This super tech gadget can be a life saver if you get caught in an avalanche. Avalanche bags are just like a normal backpack, with all kinds of pockets for your spare goggles, and caviar sandwiches. However, they also have a secret, double identity.

They have rip-chord style pulls on them that, when tugged, deploy and inflate large balloon-like bags from your pack. They help you float towards the surface of the falling snow, prevent hard debris from crashing into you, and rescuers find you should you get buried. They also look incredibly cool.

Escaping an Erupting Volcano

As impossible scenarios go, there’s few as dangerous as coming face to face with an erupting volcano. The heat, the sulphur the smoke – it’s a truly punishing environment.

Granted, it’s not something most of us face on our daily commute home form work, but when you’re out adventuring, they become a very real problem. Even more so if you have aspirations to be a secret service operative, what with the fondness evil bosses have of building their bases in them.

 The Gear

The answer, of course, is an electric volcano puncher. No, it’s not. If only, eh? Faced with a sea of lava pouring towards them, any secret agent will have learnt from the action sports adventurers of the world and packed a therm-suit.

Despite making the wearer look a little bit like The Tin Man from The Wizard Of Oz, they’re the perfect thing for surviving a dip in the hot stuff. The reflective suit can help the person inside withstand the incredible temperatures that the volcano spews out.

The built in respirators work to combat the noxious fumes that the molten rock give off. Truly, no spy leaves home without one.

You may also like:

10 Hollywood Secret Agents Who Are Awesome At Action Sports

How Did This Guy Ice Climb Up The Most Famous Waterfall In The World?