It's game time.
It's game time.
WE ARE ALL A LITTLE WEIRD.
Some people walk among us liking pineapple on pizza. Some fall asleep to ASMR videos on the internet. And some of us come up with bizarre ways to compete against each other and call it ‘sport’.
From snow dodgeball in Japan to car launches in the USA, we’ve found the world’s weirdest sports worth travelling for.
WE ARE ALL A LITTLE WEIRD.
Some people walk among us liking pineapple on pizza. Some fall asleep to ASMR videos on the internet. And some of us come up with bizarre ways to compete against each other and call it ‘sport’.
From snow dodgeball in Japan to car launches in the USA, we’ve found the world’s weirdest sports worth travelling for.
When you think of the 4th of July in the States, you picture neighbourhood block parties, bonfires on the beach, lake hangs, outdoor BBQs and citywide parades.
Nowhere on the list of appropriate ways to celebrate Independence Day is launching shitty cars—from 4WDs to Motorhomes—off a cliff near Anchorage, Alaska. And yet, a decent crowd turns out every July to do exactly that.
Look, we know we’re taking a bit of creative license with this ‘sport,’ but the Glacier View Car Launch is maybe the dumbest, coolest thing we’ve ever come across, and us being us, we couldn’t not include it. There are still fireworks, but instead of gunpowder and multicoloured light sparkles, there’s water from the Matanuska River being sent skyward as cars (the lucky ones) crash land into it.
But this isn’t some fancy display of mechanics. There’s no slick catapult system or clever propulsion tactics. Each car’s steering wheel is strapped down, the engines are started, and transmissions are engaged. Then a quick one, two, three and Houston, we have take-off. A collective “Ooo” goes up from the crowd as each car is launched as fast as it can go—which is quickly replaced by cheers and shouts as it hits the ground with an almighty thud. MURICA!
THE WEIRD WHEEL
Wheely weird, or totes normal?
What do you get when you mix the grace of golf and the chaos of baseball with a healthy dose of rural insanity? This is Hornussen…
…and it’s utterly compelling (read: kinda ridiculous). Two teams make up the quirky national sport, with each team trying to whack a Hornuss (puck) as fast as possible so that it hits the ground before the opposing team can wrangle their oversized paddles quickly enough to stop it. Sounds almost easy except the puck’s hitting speeds of up to 150km/h, and coordination is hard to come by.
The result is one of total madness; there’s absurd outfits, cheers, jeers and shouts of encouragement from onlookers, and plenty of sausage-led snacks to keep even the most hardcore of fans well-fed. But don’t just watch this spectacle from the sidelines—get in and join ‘em in Hergiswil bei Willisau where novices aren’t just welcomed, they’re worshipped.
THE WEIRD WHEEL
Wheely weird, or totes normal?
Again, this one’s not technically a sport, but if the event’s as cool as watching impressive eagles tear up their prey, it deserves a spot on this list.
Here’s the gist. Kazakh eagle hunters compete with their specially trained eagles in a bunch of falconry events to show off their mad skills and celebrate their heritage. Then, prizes are awarded to the human/bird duo that’s the speediest, the most agile, and the best dressed—we assume only the human part of the pair dresses up, but we could be wrong (we hope we are).
To make things a little more amusing, sometimes the eagles go off script, refuse to listen to their handlers and just fly around doing their own thing. Reckon there’s a prize for that too?
THE WEIRD WHEEL
Wheely weird, or totes normal?
The rules are simple; make a snowball and throw it. There’s no fancy footwork or difficult manoeuvres in this game.
Sounds easy enough, but there’s actually a bit of strategy, positioning, communication and teamwork that goes into making a game of Yukigassen a) worth playing and b) worth watching.
Two teams are made up of 7-10 players, and your goal is to get rid of each opposing player by hitting them with a snowball—think dodgeball but with fluffy white stuff. Unlike dodgeball though, you can’t pretend you didn’t get hit because each ball leaves a big, glaringly obvious snowy patch that screams ‘I’ve just been eliminated.’
There’s also no wandering off to the nearest food stall for a snack during this game, three rounds of three minutes are all it takes to find a winner, but there are plenty of Yukigassen tournaments held throughout Japan every year, so just catch the next one!
THE WEIRD WHEEL
Wheely weird, or totes normal?
We’ve never needed an excuse to go to Scotland but knowing there’s a World Stone Skimming Championship held on Easdale Island every year in September, gives us that extra urge to book flights.
First thought of in 1983, contestants come in from all over the world to compete for awards such as ‘The Bertie,’ named after the championship’s creator, and ‘The Old Tosser Walking Sticks,’ an award that can only be given to contestants over 60.
But it’s not just a matter of picking up a rock and piffing it as far as you can over a body of water: there are rules to this competition. Like, all stones used in the championship have to be naturally formed from Easdale slate. You only get three throws, and your stone can’t be wider than 3 inches. There’s also a minimum skim amount before your throw can be counted.
And once the world’s best skimmer has been crowned, a post-skim party kicks off so that contestants (and viewers), can set their rocks down and let their hair out for a night of beats, beers and a bit of a boogie.
THE WEIRD WHEEL
Wheely weird, or totes normal?
get in the know The first ever puck used in a hockey game was made out of cow poop. You could only use them for one game before they started disintegrating. Yuck.
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