8. Hurling

Hurling is a sport popular in Ireland and is not as it may sound. It is not a competition for the most colourful and disgusting barf. The sport at first seems to be too simple to follow a rule book, but the competition is tough, requiring excellent physical fitness and superb skills on the field.

 

It is like field hockey at first glance with a small ball called sliotar that is hit by using a hurley, which is like a regular hockey stick only wider at the tip. The two competing teams consist of fifteen players who each try to hit the sliotar into the H-shaped goal.

 

A point is awarded if the sliotar passes the goal above the crossbar. Three points is awarded to a goal that passes below the crossbar. The players can use the hurley to control the sliotar on the ground, in midair, or balance it on the hurley.

 

Players can practically do anything to get the ball from the opposing team except for kicking or punching them. Challenge can come in terms of dipping the shoulder to charge an opponent or clash hurleys to get the other player out of rhythm. In case of a foul, a penalty shot is rewarded where a player can pass to a team-mate or attempt to hit a goal.

 

The game lasts for seventy minutes and the team with the most points wins. Hurling is very popular in Ireland with the championship being held in Dublin. The audience can grow as big as seventy thousand, which goes wild in celebration after the game.

7. Tuna Throwing

Tuna throwing has been a tradition in Port Lincoln, South Australia. They are not upset but just want to show their strength by throwing a big fish, which can weigh more than 50 kg. The player who tosses the tuna farthest is awarded AUS$1,000.

 

The event is held during the celebration of Australia Day every January 26th as part of the Tunarama Festival. The tuna throwing contest doesn’t really have a complicated rule book. The only rule is throwing as far as you can.

 

Sean Carlin of Australia holds the record for the farthest throw of a large tuna at 122 feet in 1998. Before thinking how a man like him learned to do that, one must realize that Carlin is part of the Aussie Olympic Team, which took part in hammer throwing in the 1996 Atlanta Olympics. The gold medal in the event might support his claim that he can throw frozen tunas well.

 

Starting in 2008, however, there has been a move by the organizers to change the real tuna into a fake fish. The statue of the tuna weighing around 22lbs was created by a local artist using polyurethane.

 

The move to throw fake fish was a move to go green since frozen tunas tend to break when tossed. Organizers are also trying to avoid wasting good fish that may lose its tail, or fins, or break its underbelly when tossed.

 

Some players have tried the fish replica and can’t really feel the difference except they know that they are not throwing one fish that costs around AUS$6000.

6. Todd River Regatta

The Todd River Regatta occurs every September in Alice Springs, Australia. This is the only known regatta or boat race that occurs on a dry riverbed.

 

A large number of tourists and locals enjoy the event as different food goodies are sold in various stalls. Everyone awaits the hits of race, which will determine the champion of champions.

 

It is a spectacle to see makeshift boats out of bathtubs, oxford tubs, and old yachts with rowers, who are still sane, to outrace each other on the deep, sandy, dry riverbed.  Traditional teams like the Vikings and Pirates often rule the games.

 

Sidelights of the event include war game like scenarios where old trucks piloted by boatmen armed with flour and water bombs slug it out. The audience often is the victim but nevertheless they enjoy and are back year after year.

 

The Todd River Regatta also known as Henley-On-Todd Regatta is organized by the local Rotary Club who never runs out of volunteers for the event. They raise funds, which are used for different humanitarian missions.

 

The big aqua sport on the dry River Todd attracts not only the local media but the world news to cover the event. 

 

The celebration keeps everyone busy for a whole day. Signs of “No Fishing” are all over the place and are followed without choice by the crowd.

 

Another interesting fact about this unusual sport is the cancellation of the 1993 event. The regatta was cancelled due to the heavy rains, which caused flooding of the Todd River.

5. Wife Carrying

The wife carrying sport has a plain and simple objective: pick up your wife and carry her across a set obstacle and finish the fastest.

 

The origins of this sport can be traced to old Finland where it is called eukonkanto. The custom during the olden days was for men to court women by running to the village and carrying them out of it. Some attribute it to a local general who only recruited troops who were strong enough to complete a difficult obstacle.

 

The styles of carrying allowed vary from piggyback style, fireman’s, and Estonian carry. Big events for the sport are held in Sonkajarvi in Finland where the victorious get an amount of beer equal to the weight of his wife. Other competitions are held in Michigan, Wisconsin, and Maine.

 

Wife carrying has also been included in the Guinness Book of World Records. This may be an indication that people take this game seriously.

 

The rules were altered from the original to fit the modern times. The carrying takes place in a 253.5 metre course where there could be dry and wet obstacles. The wife to be carried can be any woman as long as she is over seventeen years of age and at least forty-nine kilogrammes. The carrier may wear a belt and the woman must be wearing a helmet.

 

Aside from the winner, special prizes are awarded to the most entertaining couple with the most interesting costumes.

 

Believe it or not, a lot of people pay 50 Euros to join the event.

4. Ditch Snorkelling

Ditch snorkelling or bog snorkelling is an aqua sport where contenders dive into a peat bog filled with water, decaying plants, insects or even animals. The goal is to complete the 2 laps of the 30-yard or one lap of a 60-yard murky course in the shortest possible time.

 

Players may don wet suits and mask but contrary to the scenic ocean floor seen during regular snorkelling, they cannot see a thing. The peat is full of muddy water and players cannot even see their own hands.

 

Hundreds of people converge in England and Wales where the sport is very popular. Players don’t even understand the point as to why they dive into the very dirty and smelly drainage. A lot of players even say that they may need to find new things to do other than bog snorkelling.

 

Small competitions take place and some claim they have made a world record. Everyone else will just have to wonder how in the world it was done when no time was monitored and recorded.

 

There is even an organized World Championship for bog snorkelling, which is held annually in the small town of Llanwrtyd Wells in Wales. The list of champions are getting longer with their recorded fast times in completing the long ditch.

 

Pointless as it may seem, the world championship generates money to donate to a foundation that benefits cystic fibrosis patients and those afflicted with neuron motor diseases. How bog is connected to those health concerns is still a puzzle.

3. Canoe Jousting

Canoe Jousting is starting to gain popularity. The object of the game is to submerse the opposing player’s canoe to be declared the winner.

 

A spot in the river where the battle will take place is identified as ground zero. When the canoes reach this point, jousting starts until one canoe submerses. A referee in another canoe or on the riverbank decides who wins a hit.

 

During its inception, poles and paddles were used to tip over the canoe of the opposing team. History has shown that it can be a dangerous tool as some people have been hit on the neck or the head. Some thought not to use them anymore but it would be fun, so paddles and poles are still being used to this day.

 

Anyway, it is a joust with no formal rules but one — tip over the opponent’s canoe and you win. Losers are also not allowed to tip over the winning canoe as a sign of being sport.

 

Some varieties include giving points to players who hit the other player’s life jacket. It can also be played as a single or double’s match.

 

There are no big tournaments organized as of yet to promote this unusual sport. Usually, a morning or afternoon of drinking gets some fellows in the mood for canoe jousting.

 

The key to winning is to paddle hard and great timing as to when to knock over the other canoe. Costumes like Viking hardhats may also intimidate opponents.

2. Office Depot Jousting

The first match was held nowhere else but in an Office Depot.

 

The game was discovered when a group of friends took a joyride around the Office Depot on some brand new office swivel chairs. They discovered some garden hoses hanging on some ladders and figured they could use the tip of the hose to poke other riders speeding on the office chairs. After some laps around the halls of the store and after a fair amount of bruises they opted to get some binders as shields.

 

The office depot jousting requires at least four players and another person who would act as referee. Two of the players will push their partners around the hallways to fight for the best position to give the opponents a lot of black-and-blue bruises.

 

Like the classic jousting on horses, penalties may be imposed if a pair cowardly turns their back on the charging knight on swivel chair. The course of the battle may be limited in one hallway, or around some aisles, or even the whole store. The referee calls the start of the match and reminds the teams of the boundaries of the game.

 

The game ends and the pair who receives the most strikes with the least amount of bruises to ice are considered the winners. The game may also end if the store crew and manager kicks the whole gang out or calls for security backup.

 

Office depot jousting may even get more exciting when players decide to return to the same store for a rematch; that’s if they won’t be recognized by the store personnel and bar them out.

1. Man Vs Horse Marathon

Who will ever think of racing against a horse that runs better than 30 miles per hour on average? Every year, such a race takes place between runners and riders on horseback in the Welsh town of Llanwrtyd Wells.

 

The race falls short of the standards to be called a real marathon. The competition is slightly shorter than 22 miles and is held on rougher terrain.

 

A local landlord by the name of Gordon Green is responsible for starting the race in 1980. He overheard the interesting idea between two men in his Neuadd Arms pub. One man had the drunk, fascinating hypothesis that over a great distance across country, man will be as fast or can outrun a horse. The challenge was launched in full public view that year and the rest, like the cliché goes, is history.

 

For almost two decades, the hypothesis remained to be a drunken man’s chunk of wild imagination. Riders on horses ruled the marathon.

 

Jacqui Phelan, a champion cyclist from the U.S., came close to winning in 1985. British cyclist, Tim Gould, outpaced a horse when he won the marathon in 1989.

 

History was made in 2004, the 25th race across the scenic paths of mid Wales, when Huw Lobb crossed the finish line in 2 hours, 5 minutes, and 19 seconds. Lobb became the first man on foot to outrun the race. He pocketed the £25,000 prize money with which he bought running shoes for his training.

 

Every year hundreds of runners from all over UK, Europe, and the rest of the world challenge the horses to see who will bite the dust.