Extreme ironing

Posted by admin on Feb 17, 2009 in Issues & Ideas | 0 comments

Kids these days, we’re all about the extremes. Extreme snowboarding, extreme surfing, extreme reality TV and being extremely good looking. We want to live on the edge, push it to the limits, seek the ultimate thrill.

Nothing seems to satiate this drive for the extraordinary. We seize the day, then wring every drop out of it we can get.

And now for something completely different, it is my pleasure to present: extreme ironing.

Yes, folks, extreme ironing is a full-fledged extreme sport. Its popularity is on the rise, and it is gaining world renown as participants from many nations grab their boards and raise the stakes through bigger and better ironing escapades.

The extreme ironing website, www.extremeironing.com, describes it as “the latest danger sport that combines the thrills of an extreme outdoor activity with the satisfaction of a well-pressed shirt.”

Extreme ironing can happen on treacherous mountain cliffs, while skiing or snowboarding, in forests or in canoes, and even while parachuting or bungee jumping.

One of the most impressive feats of extreme ironing is underwater ironing. On January 12, 2009, a team of UK divers broke the world record for this achievement, with 86 extreme ironists successful ironing their garments under the sea. The record was previously held by a group of 72 divers from Australia.

The founder of extreme ironing is a man from England named Hans Meimban, who goes by the nickname “Steam.”

As the story goes, in 1997 Steam arrived home from a hard day’s work at a knitwear factory in England. He had to iron his clothes, but thought the prospect of an evening rock climb was much more appealing. So Steam decided to combine the two activities, and thus extreme ironing was born.

So what is with this fascination with such a bizarre and seemingly counter-productive activity?

Yes, it might just be the crazy Brits. But perhaps there’s more to it than that.

A quest to make interesting out of the mundane seems to consume the children of modernity, as the naturally interesting collapses in on itself. Surrounded with endless opportunities for adventure, as the world is now everyone’s oyster, it seems humans have become drunk on the thrills and can no longer be satisfied. We need the interesting so badly we can no longer bear the mundane.

In a sense, a pseudo-reversion is occurring here. In a quest for the interesting, we are turning back to the very thing we wanted to escape; after all, what is as mundane as ironing clothes?

Mix the extremely interesting with the extremely mundane and you have extreme ironing. It’s almost surprising we didn’t come across such a sport sooner.

And on that note, I’m off to find myself an interesting place to iron my shirt.