Many sports, like basketball and football, are known around the world. But you may not have heard of unusual sports like extreme ironing. If you’re tired of mainstream sports trends and would like to try something new and unusual, here are some weird and wacky sports you might enjoy:
Bed racing
The hardest part about exercising is building up the courage and getting out of bed. But what if there was a sport that didn’t require you to get out of bed in the first place? (Well, sort of). Bed racing in Knaresborough is part pageant, part challenging time trial over a 3.8 km course. Participants’ race in teams of five, with one member on the bed. Each team must decorate their beds according to the theme of the year. The trial starts with a road race, a gradient climb, and a race downhill towards the final challenge – crossing a river. (So make sure your four-wheel bed can float too). It was first staged in 1966, by the people of the North Yorkshire Town of Knaresborough, but has spawned similar events in many other countries.
Poohsticks
Sports trends aren’t usually inspired by storybooks, but that’s how Poohsticks came about. The sport was first mentioned in The House at Pooh Corner, a Winnie-the-Pooh book by A. A. Milne. To play this sport, all you need is a stick and a bridge over running water. The rules are simple: each player drops a stick on the upstream side of the bridge and the one whose stick first appears on the downstream side wins. To make things more exciting, players can decide on a starting point and a finish line farther downstream. Believe it or not, there’s even a World Poohsticks Championships held in Witney, a small town in the UK.
Extreme ironing
If you’ve been waiting for a sport that allows you to remove creases from your clothing while taking part in an adventurous activity, then extreme ironing is for you. Extreme ironing can take place anywhere in the world – on a road, on a mountain, and even under the sea. It’s seen as an extreme sport as well as a performance art. Some people have ironed while hanging from a cliff, canoeing, and even while skydiving. Who says household chores have to be boring? All you need is an ironing board, an unplugged iron, some wrinkly clothes, and a friend to photograph the experience. According to the inventor, Phil Shaw, extreme ironing is “the latest danger sport that combines the thrills of an extreme outdoor activity with the satisfaction of a well-pressed shirt.”
Flyboarding
This is probably one of the least wacky sports trends on the list, but it’s probably different from what you’re used to. A flyboard is a mixture between a jetpack and a hoverboard, invented in 2011 by a French watercraft rider, Franky Zapata. This is how it works: the rider stands on a board connected to a long hose on a watercraft with their feet strapped in. They’re then propelled up to 15 m into the air, only to dive into the water and shoot out again, much like a dolphin. Mallorca, New Zealand and Dubai are some of the places that offer this exhilarating sport. There’s also a Flyboarding World Championships – the first one took place in Doha, Qatar, in 2012.
Mallorca might not be the home of unusual sports trends, but you can try your hand at flyboarding in the beautiful Bay of Alcudia, a town in the North of Mallorca. If you’re looking for accommodation nearby, contact us. We have a range of stunning Hotels in Mallorca, with fabulous facilities and amenities.
