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/.