From rock-climbing to archery to scuba-diving, Irish children are trying their hand at less traditional sports, writes Rosita Boland

Rugby: Brian O'Driscoll. Hurling: Tommy Walshe of Kilkenny. Gaelic football: Colm "the Gooch" Cooper of Kerry. Manchester United then and now: David Beckham, Wayne Rooney, Cristiano Ronaldo.

Traditional sports, traditional heroes. The names may change over time, but the core sports we follow in Ireland haven't changed with them. But there are other sports out there, and an increasing number of young people are now exploring other options, ones we wouldn't have traditionally associated with Ireland.

To reflect this increasing interest in non-traditional sports, an independent television production company wants to hear from youngsters aged eight to 13 who take part in so-called "extreme" sports for a new series on the popular RTÉ 2 children's programme The Den. Starting next Tuesday, it will profile children and young teenagers who participate in adventure sports and sports that are a bit different from the normal. The first five programmes will feature scuba-diving, karate, rock-climbing, archery and skateboarding.

Skateboarding is probably the most visible extreme sport in Ireland. Everyone's seen skateboarders practising along the promenade, or in empty flat areas, or where there are low walls and lots of spaces either side.

Depending on your perspective, they're either urban pests or young adults practising a physical skill that demands a high degree of sporting prowess and concentration.

There are very few official skateboard parks in Ireland, and those that do exist tend to be located in the bigger urban centres, such as Dublin and Cork. If you don't live in those cities, your only option is to skateboard around the area you live in or some quiet place you can find that isn't close to traffic.

Niall Rooney (11) is from Sligo, and will feature on The Den. He started skateboarding a few months ago, when he saw his friends doing it and wanted to try it out for himself.

"You fall off a lot in the beginning. Oh yeah," Niall confirms with a laugh. He wears a helmet, arm and knee pads every time he goes out. "My mum used to not really like the idea of me skating in case I got hurt, but when I got better at it, she didn't worry so much." He admits he was a bit scared in the beginning, but "that kind of passes". Niall usually skates around his estate, or on quiet roads nearby. "There's a skatepark in Sligo, but it's not very good."

"There are absolutely no facilities in the area," complains his mother, Marie Rooney.

Since starting to learn to skateboard four months ago, Niall has been through three boards. Depending on the brand, boards cost between €70 and €150. Niall's been through a lot of boards, not because he's careless, but because that's how long - or short - they tend to last.

"A very good skateboarder's board would only last about three weeks," Niall reports. The wood cracks, or the wheels wear out, or both. You can get them fixed, but most people buy new ones, which explains why skateboard shops seem to be permanently busy.

In The Den programmes, each person is profiled at home with their family and then given a challenge. They are given a week to prepare for the challenge, helped by a mentor. Niall's was at a skatepark in Santry, where he had to perform various tricky manoeuvres over humps, skate onto a ledge and jump off the end of a bridge in under a minute. He achieved it. "That's what I'm proudest of so far," he says.

Eoin O'Connor (13) is from Dundalk, Co Louth, and has been rock climbing for about two years. "A couple of years ago I went to the Carlingford Adventure Centre on a school trip. We did all sorts of things, but I liked the rock climbing best." Since then, Eoin, who also plays soccer and Gaelic football, has been back several times.

"What I like about it is that it feels exciting. Some routes are very, very hard. There are ledges only once in a while. You have to push up all the time with your legs. When you do it first, you're a bit afraid; you're afraid of falling."

For his challenge, Eoin had to collect three flags positioned at different heights from a rockface. "It was a wet day and slippy, and I kind of thought I couldn't do it. But I did. Afterwards, I was wrecked. It takes a lot of energy to rock-climb!"

Eoin's friends are quite impressed by his ability to climb rocks. "They think it's much scarier than it actually is," he confesses.

Gráinne Biddle (14) from Dunboyne in Co Meath, got a present of a course of scuba-diving lessons from her parents for her 14th birthday last September. It was a six-week, junior open water diving PADI (Professional Association of Diving Instructors) course, where they met weekly for two hours in the classroom and then had an hour and a half in the pool at the National Aquatic Centre. The last weekend of the course was spent doing open dives in Killary Harbour, Co Galway. Gráinne was the only girl on the course, and a couple of decades younger than everyone else.

"I've always been interested in learning to scuba-dive and I want to be a marine biologist," Gráinne says. She's also keen on riding, and has her own pony, Coco. "Scuba-diving is really different and really interesting. In the long run, I want to live in Australia, or Mexico."

Her mother, Sherry Biddle, explains: "We used to live by the sea and Gráinne is a great swimmer, and she is very set on marine biology. We thought the course would be an investment in her future: that if she goes to Australia to study, she could make money teaching diving."

"It's really weird the first time you breathe underwater," Gráinne says. "I didn't get scared in the pool, because there's lots of people around. But when we went to Killary to do the open sea dives, we had a lot more gear on, and weights, and it was November. I was scared doing the first dive, really tense. We had to go out over a coral reef to get to deeper water. It was so deep, and the fish give you a bit of a fright at first. The deeper you go the darker it gets; we went to 12 metres. But then I just relaxed and loved it. We saw crabs and dogfish and flatfish. I couldn't wait to go back in again after the first dive! Now I really want to go somewhere more exotic and see different things underwater."

For her challenge, Gráinne had to dive through a series of hoops in the pool at the National Aquatic Centre. The hoops were set at different depths and she had to dive through without touching them, which she achieved in the time allowed.

But then, when you've already dived 12 metres down in an Atlantic fjord, and had flatfish and crabs swim past you, diving in an indoor swimming pool must be very small fry indeed.