A hundred whacky ways to risk your neck
Published 22 December, 2008, 09:23
Riding motorbikes while playing football, underwater rugby in a swimming pool, jumping down from a cliff with just a rope to stop the fall. Some people just have their vision of what a sport should be.
Hundreds of championships in extreme and exotic sports are held in the world each year. Millions of people do things that will never bring them fame or money. For the enthusiasts their exotic sport is a way of life they would never give up.
The history of Rope jumping – jumping from a cliff with just a rope – goes back to 1989. It was invented by legendary cliff climber Dan Osman nicknamed the Master of Gravity. Following several falls from a cliff, Osman decided that falling from a mountain was much more fun than climbing one.
The Master of Gravity died in 1998 as he tried to set a new record with a 300 metre free-fall. He had misjudged the length of the rope and crashed into the cliff.
Underwater rugby players do not have to do such extreme jumps, but the sport is no less exotic. Players compete in a 3D space and have to hold their breath. Swamp football is played on a field measuring 60 by 35 metres. The field is overflowing with mud and the stronger the team, the muddier field they get. Before each game the field is scrubbed to make sure no stones or snags are left on it. But sometimes organizers deliberately leave special poles on the field so that players stuck in the swamp could get out of it.
Motoball is football with a twist. All the players except the goalkeepers ride bicycles and the ball is really big – almost half a meter in diametre. The sport was invented in France in 1930.
Advocates of extreme sports are prone to what the man-in-the-street sees as strange behaviour, but these people are 100-percent sure that they are doing the right thing.
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