Summer is here, which means it’s time to start playing outside as much as possible. Are you tired of all the old summer standby sports, though? Sure, baseball and volleyball are fun, but sometimes you want something just a little, well, weirder. This summer, take a chance on one of these obscure sports.
1. Bossaball
Surprisingly originating in Belgium and not a Nickelodeon back lot, bossaball finally answers the question of why no one ever thought to make hybrid of volleyball, gymnastics, soccer, and the Brazilian fight-dancing capoeira and then played said hybrid on an inflatable court outfitted with integrated trampolines. Basically, the sport is played much like volleyball, except contact can be made with any part of the body, each side can touch the ball eight times before knocking it back over the net, and serves can be made via kick. Also, one player on each side is the “attacker” and bounces on the aforementioned trampoline, which enables him to fly up for huge spikes with his hands or feet. Like in volleyball, teams get one point for making the ball drop on the opponent’s side of the court, but this score jumps to three points if the ball lands on the trampoline. Sound confusing? Check it out for yourself (this video’s shot indoors, but it’s also common to see the court blown up on beaches):
2. Ga-ga
According to Wikipedia, ga-ga is a dodgeball variant that probably originated in Israel. Much like a good mixed martial arts bout, it’s contested in an octagonal ring surrounded by walls known as a ga-ga pit, and, again, much like a good MMA bout, it’s popular at summer camps. Basically, the game is played in much the same way as the dodgeball with which you’re probably familiar, but with a few key differences. Players don’t catch the ball; instead they smack it open-handed and let it careen around the octagonal pit. To start the game, players bounce the ball three times, repeating “ga” with each bounce then running towards it to try to make the first kill. Additionally, they’re aiming for a lower area on their targets; players are only out if they get hit at or below the knee. Leaving the pit or touching the ball twice without it hitting the wall or another person earns a quick DQ. Here’s a look at a game:
3. Underwater Hockey
The NHL’s popularity is waning, so maybe they should catch up with the times and replace their icy old rinks with pools. As the name implies, underwater hockey (also known as octopush) is like ice hockey in a pool. A lead puck is dropped to the bottom of the pool, and teams of six players in masks, snorkels, and fins maneuver it towards goals at opposite ends of the “rink” using small sticks. Unlike ice hockey, underwater hockey’s a non-contact game, though, so don’t’ expect any brutal checks into the pool’s wall.
Englishmen Alan Blake invented the sport in 1954, and its popularity has since spread worldwide. This video from Singapore gives a pretty good idea of what it’s all about:
4. Mountain Unicycling
Unicycling is great and all, but isn’t it just a little too easy? You can barely turn your head without seeing someone who scoffs at bicycles in favor of going everywhere on a single wheel. Such would seem to be the logic behind mountain unicycling. The name is in no way misleading; it’s a sport in which riders climb and descend hilly trails on their unicycles. These intrepid souls ride specially designed unicycles that have cushier seats, fat mountain bike tires, stronger frames, and longer cranks. Proponents say that it’s not as dangerous as it looks; since unicycles don’t have multiple gears, they don’t fly down hills as quickly as mountain bikes and are easy to bail off of in a pinch. The enthusiasts in this video say they enjoy the sports because it’s more difficult and technical than mountain biking on sophisticated modern bikes, although even with their experience, you’ll see them take some pretty tough spills:
5. Wife Carrying
There’s no more auspicious beginning for a sport than to start out as a joke, and wife carrying has somehow made the leap from laughable oddity to legitimate sport since its inception in Finland. Originally designed as a play on the legend of men courting women by grabbing them and running off with them, wife carrying is a form of racing in which a man totes his wife (or other female partner) through an obstacle course as quickly as possible. For all the silliness of the endeavor, the rules are fairly technical. The couples pass through a 253.5-meter course complete with a water obstacle and two dry obstacles, and any husband dropping his wife is docked 15 seconds. The wife must weigh at least 49 kilograms, otherwise she is given a weighted sack to make up the difference. If you can make it to Sonkajarvi, Finland by July 4, you can still compete in this year’s world championships. The sport still has a sense of humor; first prize is the wife’s weight in beer. Or check out the video first; this style of knees-over-the-shoulder positioning is known as an “Estonian carry.”
6. Pesapallo
Wife-carrying isn’t the only odd summer sport the Finnish people enjoy, though; they also have their own variation of baseball known as pesapallo. The game, which was developed by Lauri Pihkala in the early 20th century, is ostensibly similar to baseball, although watching it would be totally disorienting for fans of America’s pastime. For starters, the bases don’t form the familiar diamond; instead, first base is where third base would be in American baseball. Second base is roughly where it would be in American baseball, and third base is then located on roughly the same line as pesapallo’s first base, but deeper in left field, which means that running the bases requires zig-zagging all over the field of play. Furthermore, there’s no pitcher’s mound. Instead, the pitcher stands to the opposite side of the plate from the hitter and tosses the ball up in the air; the hitter then swings as the ball descends. The pitch is a strike if it goes a meter above the batter’s head, then lands on the plate without being hit. Catching a flyball doesn’t score an out for the defense, and if a batter doesn’t like the ball he hits on his first or second strike, he doesn’t have to run and can keep batting.
Despite all these differences, though, it’s easy to tell the game is a cousin of baseball, and it looks like a lot of fun:
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