We have all religiously supported our favourite Football club, or Tennis player, or Cricket team, season after season. Those late night match screenings with our friends, complete with bets and all, the finger-crossing and silent praying at crucial moments, the top-of-the-lung screaming and cursing when some player does some stupid thing and misses out on a match-winning chance, the tears when our team loses, the joy and dancing when it wins. Basically, you get the point. For a sports fan, it’s much more than a couple of hours of television entertainment. It’s a life-long passion, a necessary ritual.
But what if I told you there was more to the world of sports? What if I told you there were several unconventional games, that you probably didn’t know about, that will entertain you to the fullest and make you jump at the idea of giving them a shot? We’ve all sat in bed and watched Formula 1, but Bed Racing? We’ve chugged beer to celebrate Football goals, but Beer Mile?
While cheering for our teams, we’ve made both friends and enemies over sports. Here is a list of 13 bizarre sports (that will absolutely blow your mind) you must create enemies over before you die:
1. Bed Racing
This is popular among college students, who can finally put to use the baby cot pushing they did in their childhood. A team of students roll/push a bed on wheels and the team that finishes the race first wins. Specifications regarding size and dimensions of the bed and length and terrain of the course vary. The teams may even be asked to decorate their beds based on a particular theme!
2. Beer Mile
From four-minute mile to four-beer mile, this unusual sport combines drinking beer and running a mile. The race takes place on a standard 400m track. The rules are simple; drink one can/bottle of beer, run one lap (400m) and repeat till you’re four beers and four laps down! The world record is 4 minutes 57 seconds. So what it going to be? Running on a high or throwing up?
3. Bossaball – Trampoline Volleyball
Remember those “bouncies” we loved jumping on at birthday parties? Remember the joy of jumping on trampolines? Bossaball combines football, volleyball, gymnastics and capoeira and is played on an inflatable court with a trampoline on each side of the net. Each team aims to ground the ball in the opponent’s field by punching, slamming or kicking it!
4. Card Board Tube Duelling
Another game we probably played when we were kids: hitting each other with cardboard. Contestants duel each other with tubes or pipes made of cardboard. Stabbing your opponent or hitting their face leads to instant disqualification. Shields are not allowed by rule. In a duel, the last person with an unbroken tube is declared the winner.
5. Cell Phone Toss
Participants throw mobile phones and are judged on distance as well as technique and style. Just like discus, javelin, etc, while tossing the phone, the competitor is must stay within the throwing area, and the phone must land in the marked sector, to avoid disqualification. World record: 110.42 meters. Here is your chance to get rid of that old obsolete phone!
6. Cheese Rolling
One piece of cheese, one steep hill and one old tradition. A piece of cheese (weight varying for different competitions) is rolled down a hill. Contestants run down the hill, with the aim of catching the cheese. However, the cheese is given a one-second head start and reaches high speeds, making this almost impossible! I wonder if you get to eat the cheese if you do manage to catch it…
7. Extreme Ironing
This activity combines the thrill of adventure sports with an everyday household chore. People take their iron boards to various locations and press clothes. Popular types include: cliff iron, chopper iron, underwater iron (cause well who needs a steam press under water), surfing iron, cave iron, cab iron and base-jump iron! The prize: a well-pressed shirt!
8. Pea Shooting
Participants place the pea-shooter, a tube or a pipe similar to a drinking straw to their lips, and blow as hard as possible, aiming to shoot dry peas at the target. The championship consists of a variety of heats designed to test the accuracy and consistency of the shooting skills of the contestants, to decide the winner. Get those dart boards out, we’re aiming for bulls-eye!
9. Underwater Hockey
Two teams compete to manoeuvre a puck across the bottom of a swimming pool into the opposing goal’s team by propelling it with a pusher. Players wear fins for speed, masks, snorkels, protective gloves and headgear and carry short sticks. On an average, each player is underwater for less than five seconds at a time. If diving into swimming pools for coins was fun, this is a whole another level!
10. Unicycle Jousting
Two opponents charge each other and attempt to knock one another off. Simple enough? Not really, because we missed out an important detail. Here goes: the participants aren’t running towards each other, instead they are riding unicycles while they charge each other and attempt to knock each other off their vehicles! And if you thought removing those training side-wheels was difficult…
11. Volcano Boarding
Also known as ash boarding, this sport is a real treat for adrenaline junkies. It gives people the opportunity to slide down on the steep-sloped side of a volcano, specifically active volcano, on a sit-down wooden toboggan, made of metal and plywood. The speed attained goes all the way up to 96 km/hour, something that cannot be achieved by skate-boarding down stair case railings!
12. Wife Carrying
Competitors run the course in times heats, and the team with the fastest time wins. The course is approximately 254m and includes two dry and one wet obstacle. The terrain and length however can vary. Drop the wife, and be penalized as seconds are added to the time. World record: 55.5 seconds. Here’s the catch: the teammates are not allowed to be legally married!
13. Wood Chopping
This one is for the skilled carpenters out there! The competitors are given a log of wood and an axe. Wood types vary. The first person to cut the piece of wood is declared the winner. The sport has different types of events that contestants can participate in, for example, standing block, underhand, tree felling, etc. The world record is: 1 minute 28 seconds.
Which of these crazy sports are you putting down on your bucket list? Maybe try them out in 2015?
