Ironing meets a crazy guy with a need for adrenaline

Ironing has become a lost art. Can you remember the last time you actually cared about your business attire looking pressed and sharp? Well, by the time you remember that time I’ll have finished this blog, so just do us both a favor and keep reading.

There was a guy named Phil Shaw who lived in Leicester, England. He was tired of coming home after a long day and having to iron his clothes for the next day. So, he decided he’d make it more of a challenge. Thus began the sport of extreme ironing.

Basically, Phil would climb a tree with his iron and ironing board and press his clothes. Or he’d climb the side of a mountain and iron on top of it. Pretty much, it’s just the idea of making ironing more challenging and interesting while exerting more energy than normally required.

Phil and his friend Paul started trying this together in 1997 and, they said to avoid criticism from friends, took on the pseudonyms of Steam and Spray. Real cool guys… classy.

I know I would never make fun of my friends who ironed in trees and called themselves Steam and Spray, wink, wink.

The start of the sport was very slow making Spray try other extreme sports. Steam stuck with it and traveled the world to recruit for the sport. After meeting some crazy thrill-seeking Germans, extreme ironing became extreme ironing international.

The Extreme Ironing World Championship was held in 2002 near Munich. German ironist Hot Pants won the individual competition. I think the best part of the sport is the name the competitors take on to relate more to ironing.

The next time you’re in need of ironing your suit for work, just dive into the lake and iron under water or climb to the top of Mount Everest and iron there. Wherever you do it, just enjoy it while it lasts. Just make sure you don’t burn yourself.

Don't try this at home... because you can't.

Bringing back the handlebar

When you think of the word beard, what do you think of? 
Kittens? No. Lollipops? No. The cutest shoes ever? No! 
You think Man. So it is only appropriate that men around the world attempt to grow out their facial hair in a competition for the best beard and moustaches ever grown.

The World Beard and Moustache Championships. 

Check out these guys:

Pictures from Life.com
Yes, it’s very manly and very necessary. It is believed that the competition was started in Germany in the early 1990s, but of course, there are differing opinions on that. Some people say that it was started in Italy in 1970, but we all know that beards are really grown in Germany, so we’ll disregard the Italians claim as pure fiction.

The competition has been held biennially since 1995 and been held in a different country each time. Specific, well-known beard and moustache organizations from the host country put on the event for the competitors.

Germany has dominated the sport since it began, but in 2009 the U.S. team won in Anchorage, Alaska. U.S. became the first team to overthrow the power house since the event’s inception.

The individual categories contestants are judged seem uncountable. Contestants enter competitions for their sideburns, their moustaches, their half-moustaches, their half-beards, their full-beards and much more. One category is actually based off of the look of a musketeer. When the U.S. won the world championship, the team captured twelve of the eighteen categories along with the overall world championship title.

Men of honor, pride and facial hair go forth and conquer the world competition for this is your day to shine. Make sure your lady is all right with it first though, as some aren’t very fond of the all that fuzz.

It's all in the footwork

Now, for clarification, I want to inform you on this sport as an appreciation for the visually impaired. It’s not necessarily a weird idea, though I’m sure it is quite a peculiar sight to see guys playing soccer blind. But, these players are legally blind and have been given an opportunity to engage in physical activity, which I find to be a great opportunity.

So, with that said, I would like to introduce you to blind soccer. Mixing the extreme physical demands of playing soccer with the inability to see the field, players or the ball seems impossible. But blind soccer players have risen to the challenge to do the impossible and prove they are capable of great things.

            Picture from http://euro2009.blindsoccer.org/news.php?d=day1


The goalie is the only player on the field who can be sighted or visually impaired and the other five guys on each team are legally blind. The players wear eye covers to eliminate any competitive edge for those who have limited vision over those who have no vision. Walls surround the field so there’s no way for the ball to be kicked very far out of bounds and there are no throw-ins. The ball has pebbles inside of it for the players to know where it is and communication becomes a key factor in this game.

Players can shout to teammates by name or yell “Yeah!” to get their attention. When a players approaches an opponent to steal the ball, he must yell “Voy!”, which in Spanish means I’m here.
Each team has a person behind their goal shouting directions and instructions to them for aid.

These men have special ability to play a demanding sport while contending without one of the most important sense many take for granted. Their acquired footwork and ability to play as a team, relying primarily on hearing make them top athletes in the world in my book.

Take a seat in the hot box

Hot as Hell. This is a term we often use loosely and often don’t really think about what we’re saying when we state it. No one knows how hot Hell really is, and those who do are unable to let us, those still on this Earth how it feels. But if I was to guess, I would say the closest to feeling the heat of Hell would be to sit in a sauna, set at a temperature of 110 degrees Celsius (230 degrees Fahrenheit), for as long as possible, with the time maximum at ten minutes. Sound like fun? I didn’t think so.

You try it and tell me you’re not ready to go to Heaven.

Thus, we have competitors from more than 20 countries who find this to be a great idea and they compete in the Sauna World Championship. The championship is held in Heinola, Finland each year. The competition began in 1999 and has brought men and women alike to the challenge. There are six participants in each heat. 84 contestants compete each year and the last person out of the sauna without aid is declared the winner.

Picture from http://www.esquire.com/the-side/feature/funny-competitions-031610
There are several rules in this sport, as in any. A contestant can wipe sweat from his or her face but not off the body. Any hair that is longer than shoulder length must be tied back in a ponytail and there is a limit on the length of the swimsuit contestants wear.

After one violation, judges give a warning to the competitor. After a second violation, the contestant is disqualified.

After a death and a critical-conditioned contestant in this year’s competition, it is undecided whether this sport will continue to be around next year. I guess if you’re gutsy, or dumb, enough to try it, go ahead.


This information came from Rick Reilly's newest book Sports From Hell.

Roll the cheese, don't cut it.

Most people enjoy cheese. It could even be said that most l-o-v-e cheese.

It’s good, right? It can be used for a lot of different foods, or it can be deliciously devoured by itself. But, how far would you go to have some cheese? 

How about to Gloucester, Britain? Any takers? Now, it’s not really a place known for its quality of cheese, but much more for what it does with its cheese. 

Each year, outside of the town, a festival is held where large wheels of cheese are rolled down a steep hill.

The guy who rolls it doesn’t actually participate in going after it, makes sense, right? He’s probably the smartest one of the group. 

So, participants will run after the wheel in attempt to catch. As the hill is so steep and the cheese can often hit speeds of up to 70 miles per hour, people began to realize this wasn’t going to be easy. A newer goal for contestants is to reach the finish line at the bottom of the hill before the others instead of catching the wheel.

The pace a participant runs down the hill while often becoming unable to slow themselves or change directions has been a main reason for the goal change. 

Participants are also required to wear closed-toed shoes. The rough terrain can easily tear a pair of shoes right off of your feet, so you’ll probably want to bring extras, just in case. 

So, if you’re really craving cheese and feel like chasing it down a hill while trying not to die or at least suffer an ankle injury, then make your next vacation destination Gloucester, Britain. Let me know how it goes for you.

                                                        Picture from nydailynews.com

It's a log, it's a sword, no it's a... cardboard tube?

It’s a log, it’s a sword, no it’s a… cardboard tube?

Cardboard tube fighting started in Seattle, Washington in 2007 by one Robert Easley. Apparently, Robert had fond memories of hitting his friends with cardboard tubes when he was a child and thought he’d bring it back to life. I must say, I’m not interested in getting smacked in the head with a cardboard tube, that was one of the memories I’ve tried to block out from my childhood.

The Cardboard Tube Fighting League (CTFL) holds competitions in tournament and battle forms where adults and children can relieve their stress and try to win the duels. The active branches of the CTFL are located in Seattle, San Francisco, Sydney, Australia, Washington, D.C., and in Bristol, UK.

Upon arriving at a competition, participants are given cardboard tubes marked with a colored stripe to identify which side they are on. The number one rule in a game is you can’t break your tube. If you do, you must stop fighting. A broken tube is an automatic disqualification.

             Picture from http://izismile.com/img/img2/20090813/tube_fighting_47.jpg

A fighter cannot stab his opponent or use any weapons beside the tube itself. The greatest part of this game is that shields of any kind are illegal in tournaments and battles. No thank you.

You also cannot block an opponent’s tube with anything other than your tube. Just in case you were planning on using your body to block a strike by your opponent.

All contestants must sign a waiver before the start of the event, a sign that it’s dangerous enough that you have sign your soul over to this sport.

CTFL tournaments often have between 25 and 60 contestants and are open to anyone older than 5 years old. So, if you’re tired of working or being a responsible adult, find a tournament near you and beat someone with a cardboard tube until you’ve knocked them out.

Mind over matter? You'll need both to Chessbox

It has been said that when people complete an exam they sometimes feel like their heads been beat in. Well, I’m here to tell you about a sport that literally allows someone to beat your head in and then makes you compete mentally. It’s the game that challenges your physical and mental toughness, alternating hits to the body and the mind.

It’s called chessboxing.

                                                    Picture from http://www.betteroffed.com/.

Through eleven rounds, two opponents face off alternating each round with a game of chess and a boxing match. There are six rounds of chess and five rounds of boxing, probably because six rounds of boxing would keep Bobby Fischer from seeing the board straight.

A round of chess takes four minutes and a round of boxing takes three. The strangest part, yes even stranger than the sport’s name, is the scoring system.

After the eleven rounds, if both competitors are still standing and the score is tied, the player with the black chess pieces wins. What!? Who made that rule? Ever think of overtime or maybe taking a break and playing rock – paper – scissors for the winner? I mean, who wouldn’t pay somebody off so they had the black pieces just in case? It just doesn’t seem right.

If the chess game ends in a stalemate, the higher boxing scorer wins. A KO wins in a boxing match along with a referee’s decision, the retirement of a player in either the chess or boxing round, or one wins with a checkmate or if the opponent exceeds the time limit in a round. The last two come in the chess rounds.

This is quite an interesting idea. I’m not sure why someone thought it to be a good idea to try to think after a boxing match, but I guess its popularity has been proven by its following.

You can’t push your rival, but you can Octopush

If you were the kid who always tried to dunk the smaller kids in the pool when you were younger, then octopush is not the game for you.

                                       Picture taken from http://www.lunchwithgeorge.com/

Octopush is basically hockey under water, but is a non-contact sport, bummer. I think this game was started when some kids were playing hockey out on the local lake when the ice cracked. I picture the scene from It’s a Wonderful Life when George saves Harry, except these kids were too stubborn to stop trying to play, didn’t get an ear infection and created a sport. Yeah, I figure that’s what happened.

But really, it is a sport played around the world in swimming pools. Two teams with ten players each compete with foot-long sticks and masks and snorkels to shoot a puck into goals.  Only six players on each team play at a time as the other four stand outside of the playing area awaiting substitution. With six players on a team, each team typically plays three offensive and three defensive players, though the formations can change depending on a team’s strategy.

The players also wear protective gloves on their playing hand as to avoid abrasions from the bottom or sides of the pool and other possible injuries. Teams wear either black or white swimming caps and use the same colored sticks to differentiate from their competitor.

The puck is often made of lead or a similar material and encased in a material with similar texture to the pool’s bottom to allow the puck to move nicely along the bottom without too much friction.

A problem spectators run into is it’s difficult to watch twelve people hit a puck around while under water. One has to put on a mask and snorkel and watch from under the surface to get an up close look at what’s really going on.

Some competitions are covered by underwater cameras which give spectators a great view from nearby TV’s.

The sport was actually started in 1954 by Alan Blake when he and his ol’ club friends decided this would be a good time. It would be, if you were in superhuman physical shape and were able to hold your breath for ten minutes straight, otherwise, I’m not sure what they were thinking. Oh yeah, and look good in a Speedo, I just leave it at that...

Carry me to the finish line, or at least to the beer

Traditionally, men are the head of the household. Men support their wives in various ways. They provide the financial needs; they provide the security the woman desires, and so on and so forth. But, men around the world have carried their wives, figuratively, the distance of 277 yards in a foot race.

It sounds crazy, but it originated as a combination of two old wives tales, no pun intended. One tale tells of men stealing wives from neighboring villages. In a second tale, an outlaw named Rosvo-Ronkainen made potential soldiers prove themselves in a race where they carried heavy sacks.

The “sport” started in Sonkajärvi, Finland where men carried their wives through obstacles of sand, water, fences and more to reach the finish line in the fastest time. The winner wins, what else?, their wife’s weight in beer. Of course, somebody sat around and made rules for this game so a woman has to weigh at least 108 lbs. to compete. I may have found the reason for obesity.

Here’s a breakdown of how it works:
Now, men don’t necessarily have to carry their own wives. The sport’s officials stated that a man can also carry someone else’s wife or someone they find “further afield”, but the wife must be at least 17 years old. Let’s hope it’s still pretty hard to find a 17-year-old wife.
If the woman doesn’t weight more than 108 lbs., she must carry a weighted sack to make up the difference.

I’m not seeing how a woman who weighs less than 108 lbs. is expected to carry a weight while being bounced around on her husband’s shoulders; this would be difficult for most anyway at that size.
There are several different ways a man can carry the woman. She can ride piggyback style, sit on his shoulders, lay around the man’s shoulders or be carried the most popular way, Estonian style.

The Estonian carry is where the woman hangs onto the man upside down with her legs around his neck and her arms around his waist while facing forward. This means the woman gets a real close encounter with the man’s butt. Doesn’t sound very pleasant, especially for 277 yards.

The major setback in the race, besides carrying another person over multiple obstacles, is that women often get dropped, causing a 15 second automatic delay on the couple’s final time. As a woman, I would have to ask myself why I would consider having to spend any period of time with my face in my husband’s behind, who might not even be my husband, with the likely chance of being dropped on my head. Women do wear helmets, because otherwise, this would become the leading cause for deaths in the world.

The big race is in Finland, but similar contests occur around the world including in America. The North American Wife Carrying Championships award winners with paid travel to Finland to compete in the main event.

Even Dennis Rodman has participated in the event, but was unable to complete the race as he wasn’t conditioned to finish the grueling task.

Any way you look at this game, it’s quite an interesting concept. So go ahead and make a few extra meals for your while and then, making sure you’re strong enough to carry her, grab the next airplane to Finland to win her weight in beer! Classy.

Ground Quidditch: Fantasy or just plain weird?

   Dwell upon the word fantasy for a bit. It's used in many different contexts, but all for the same purpose. It deals with unreachable things; our unattainable desires or imaginary ideas.
   Today's society integrates the fantasy world with video games, such as Halo and War Craft, and our parents' parents played Dungeons and Dragons. Though these games come and go in popularity they are often viewed as odd and those who enjoy playing them, even odder. I can say that fantasies are a part of everyone's life. We all want something we don't have or wish we had something we may never have, i.e. a multi-million dollar home, to be a hero, to be the president or something to that effect.
   But the question put into play today is: What happens when fantasy and reality meet?
   Well, apparently it leads people to run around crazily with a broomstick between their legs chasing down a guy with a ball on his back. What the heck?!
   The last time we heard about somebody getting chased around by someone with a broom in their hand was probably when the neighborhood kids took the apple pie out of Old Lady Wilkins' window.
   But the game of Quidditch has rapidly spread across college and high school campuses all across the country. Yes, it's the based off the same game referred to in J.K. Rowlings' Harry Potter series.
   It started in 2005 at Middlebury College in Vermont by Alexander Manshel, the game's first commissioner. Since then, the game has reached over 400 colleges and 300 high schools in the U.S. That's quite the expansion of something that didn't exist five years ago.
   Here are some quick facts about the game for the novice to know:

• Each player wears a cape... usually a good way to get ripped to the ground, just saying.
• Players must have one hand on the broomstick at all times... I'd be tempted to use it as a bat otherwise.
• A volleyball, substituting a Quaffle, is used to shoot through the hoops at each end of the pitch (the field the game is played on).
• Dodge balls, in place of Bludgers, are used to hit opposing players.
• The seeker must chase down the Snitch (typically a veteran cross-country runner) and remove the snitch from them, often a tennis ball or sock, used like a flag in flag football.
• 7 players at one time can in play.
• It's a co-ed sport.

   Teams who play in the International Quidditch Association play in the Quidditch World Cup at the end of each season. The 2010 World Cup will be hosted in New York City on four pitches.
   It's an intriguing idea and probably viewed as nerdy. But the unique part about the game is that it brings a piece of fantasy to life. It allows the rest of us the hope that one day our ideas or dreams my come true, and nothing, and I mean nothing, is out of the realm of possibility.
   So, the next time you're out and about and you see some goofy kids hobbling around with broomsticks between their legs chasing a guy with a ball tied to his back, realize that there might be something to it more than meets the eye. Maybe that would be a fun challenge; maybe they are making fantasy work with reality.

Check out the IQA at http://www.internationalquidditch.org/.