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Ultimate Sports Party Gadgets

What would watching sports be without beer and BBQ? It might be winter, but summer is just around the corner and it’s never to early to get ready. Check these great gadgets I found, designed with fun in mind.

First up is the Grill Sergeant Apron. With pockets for beer, utensils and condiments, add camo and what more could you want?

 

 

 

Then I found this portable pizza oven, for pizza on the go, or more specifically, in the car. Running off the cigarette lighter, now you’ve not got any excuse for not being able to enjoy a pizza anywhere you can drive or park.

Running off small propane canisters, check out the Blacktop 360 grill. This is the ultimate, with a deep fryer infrared grill and warming plate. This is kind of like BBQ for the James Bond in all of us.

Finally for now, want to drink beer, but have hands free for burgers? You need this hoodie. But they should have made it a better color to hide the ketchup stains.

Chess Boxing – I didn’t believe it.

“Fighting is done in the ring, but wars are raged on the board”

To be honest, I always thought chessboxing was like an urban myth. I’d heard the name, but hadn’t really entertained the idea that it could be a real sport. I was wrong.

Touted as the ultimate challenge for the body and mind, chessboxing is a combination of extreme physical stress and huge mental challenge. Chessboxers go through alternating four-minute long rounds of chess and three-minute boxing rounds with a one-minute break in between. A maximum total of 11 rounds are fought out—six rounds of chess and five rounds of boxing. The fight begins with a round of chess. Each player has a respite of 12 minutes during the game of chess, which means the maximum duration of the whole chess game is 24 minutes. A K.O. or checkmate can lead to an early win, and the fight can also be cut short if a player exceeds the chess time limit or the referee decides the fight has to be aborted. If the game of chess ends with a tie, it is settled with the points earned in the boxing rounds. If the boxing fight ends with a tie, the player who had black on the chessboard wins.

Found this great documentary on Chessboxing.

Part2:

The sport began at the beginning of the nineties when French comic book artist and filmmaker Enki Bilal depicted chess boxing in his graphic novel. Later Dutch artist Iepe Rubingh organized real fights. In accordance with book, boxing  match was followed by a chess match but Rubingh instead decided alternating rounds of chess and boxing.

The first World Championship was held in Amsterdam in 2003. Rubingh was the first winner. The first European Chess Boxing Championships took place in Berlin in 2005 and was won by Tihomir Atanassov Dovramajiev of Bulgaria.

Odd Sports

I’ve not had the time to post much recently, so this is a bit of a catch up post that I’ve been meaning to write for sometime. Of course, there’ll never be any sport that can get into my top ten spectator sports (Football, football (soccer), basketball, baseball, hockey, boxing, motocycle racing, F1, NASCAR, horse racing), but I’m always on the lookout for new and interesting sporting events. Even darts can have its attractions.

In my quest, I’ve come across a slew of unusual sports that I thought deserved a mention. Beleive it or not, they are real, genuine sports.

Wife Carrying

Wife carrying originated as a joke in Finland. It dates back to an old Finnish courting ritual which involved a man running to a woman’s village, picking her up, and carrying her off. The sport has since greatly grown in popularity and is practiced all around the world. More info here.

 

Bog Snorkelling

Like many other  unusual sports bog snorkelling also evolved from a bar conversation, this time in Wales, UK. Bog snorkelling is a sporting event that consists of competitors completing two consecutive lengths of a 60-yard (55 m) water filled trench cut through a peat bog, in the shortest time possible.

Competitors must wear snorkels and flippers, and complete the course on flipper power alone. Wet suits are not compulsory, but are usually worn. I can see why.

Cheese Rolling

Competitors chase a round of cheese (traditionally Double Gloucester) down a hill in an attempt to see which is faster – human or cheese.

Extreme Ironing

Combining the thrill of an extreme outdoor activity with the satisfaction of a well-pressed shirt, “competitors” travel the earth finding new and extreme places to iron a shirt. The official site extremeironing.com seems to be down at the moment, which is a shame because it’s a lot of fun.

Toe Wrestling

The rules are simple. With shoes off, the competitors face other toe-to-toe across the ‘toedium’, where they interlock their big toes and try to force each other off the toedium. The organizers applied for its inclusion in the Olympics in 1997, but it was rejected. Can’t think why.

To be honest, although Toe wrestling sounds ridiculous, it’s actually a lot of fun to watch, as are all these sports. Even if it’s just the once.

 

 

Dangerous (But Fun) Sports

The role of sport in society seems to have changed somewhat.  Now it is far more parcipatory than before. It is much easier to get involved in sport, and, because of the wide range of sports available, much easier to get involved.

Dangerous sports are on the rise. Now, depending on your point of view, some of these are downright stupid, but for me, some have a lot of appeal – the rush of adrenaline, it’s not so much about winning, more about surviving.

Opinions are like *you know what*, everyone has one. Here are three ‘dangerous sports’ that in an ideal world I would very much like to get involved in.

Big Wave Surfing

I love surfing and would love to take it to the next level. These guys are maniacs though, I think it would become a like a full-time job. In another life…

Skydiving

Of course, I’ve never done anything like in the video above, just good ole regular skydiving. It is one hell of a buzz and something I’d recommend to anyone. My first time I was full of apprehension and I didn’t really see the point, but once I stepped off that plane I was converted. BTW, the guy in the video above is incredible, there’s loads of his videos on Youtube,  if you want to see more.

Heli Snowboarding

Although I’m into a lot of sports, snowboarding is probably my favorite one to actually do. It’s sometimes a bit naughty, but whenever I get the chance, I go off piste/back-country – I love the sensation of untouched powder and feeling of discovery. Heli-snowboarding would be the next logical step. Unfortunately, for now I don’t have the budget. Maybe next year.