Be your fool?

“Being there is everything!” – “The main thing is, it’s fun!” Not a sporting Competition without assurances like these. They often seem a little cynical, if you look in the cramped, sweaty faces of the athletes. Faces, where you look at the unconditional will to victory – or the desire that everything may already be over.

While professional athletes plunge again and again in grueling duels and mutually want to trump, many normal citizens since the Federal youth fairs play of such forces deterred.

But there is a third group: people who let their game engine and in the most adventurous disciplines compete against each other. You build manned boats out of cardboard, to fight for the championship title in the snow, throwing a ball or driving with sledges, from which they are grown out of. However, they are not only themselves a lot of fun, but also bring many viewers to laugh at the bet.

The principle is always the same: maximum seriously of a crazy task. This results in a great frolic, a bond in the absurdity. Here we present three competitions in which the fun is actually in the first place.


World champion in the snow ball throwing

Self-consciously, the organizers call their Event the “snow-ball battle-world Cup”. “We must not be smaller than it is,” says Thorsten Kramer, the mitkonzipierte the event five years ago. Created originally to lure younger viewers to a Biathlon Event at the Schalke Arena in Gelsenkirchen. Snow is a managed approach to it anyway in masses, why not make it?

And this is how it works: A team consists of three players with a maximum of two substitutes. Always two teams throw balls at each other with self-rolled-up snow. Each hit is a point, the Team is winning, according to five minutes on most points.

Too small, the organizers do not have to make, in fact: In the Finale, the snow ball throwers fight in front of up to 45,000 spectators, dimensions, which are otherwise known only from the football.

The next snow ball battle world championship will take place on 29. December 2018 instead. Basically, anyone can participate who is at least 16 years old. The entry fee is 50 Euro per Team. Only the title defender from the previous year have a guaranteed place in it, otherwise, first come, first served basis. Click here to log in.

A mandatory protective equipment: goggles and a helmet. Apart from that, the participants are allowed to wear what they want, and so one always sees the snow ball thrower in imaginative costumes.


Plastic ass

The Mini, Zipfelbob, is a plastic sled for kids. However, even among adults, the vehicle has a lot of followers. In the South of the middle of the forest, Bob founded-lovers even have a club to indulge their Hobby.

Each year on Pentecost, to throw the approximately 20 young men in their Lederhosen and deliver a Mini-race to the Dammkar in the Karwendel mountains. On the seven km long and very steep downhill you can ride this time of year, only one section of snow, then over boulders.

“But this is just as well,” says Christian Sailer, one of the club’s founder. Bloody scratches on the knees and ankles you need to take in purchase, just like a muscle soreness on the next day. “Especially in the thighs, from the feet up.” And in the belly, from Laughing.

Worse does not happen normally race at Pentecost. “But very cold will: The leather pants is just up to the knees, there’s a lot of snow coming in,” says Sailer. “But the adrenaline, the rapid departure you will notice this. And after a subsequent liquor in the dammkar hut quickly becomes warm again.”

Also club loose plastic sled-Fans can sometimes come at your expense. Last February was held at the Dammkar for the first time, a “Zipfelbob Gauditag”. Everyone who had the pleasure and trust, could not rush with its own or borrowed device, the slope down. For skiers, the descent was blocked on this day. More than 100 participants took part.

On his Facebook page, the manufacturer of the Minibobs informed about similar Events.


In paper boats

Who is presenting the paper boat race at the lake Starnberg in a way that quickly folded to DIN-A4 piece of paper push against each other the bet is quite wrong. In fact, it is manned ship travel, with up to twelve people on Board. The sailors have to paddle 150 metres to capsize without.

Families, clubs, kindergartens and schools build days on meter, paper water vehicles. May use nothing more than paper, cardboard, package, string, Wallpaper paste and emulsion paint. Paint is prohibited, the would caulk the boats and so the voltage out of the race.

Before the contestants go on the water, reviewed by an expert panel of the boats. In July 2018, the construction, the architect judged to be a boat Builder and the superstructures, an author associated with the cultural influences, and a painter considered for the artistic value.

Then the moment of truth came: The Teams had to prove that their designs are seaworthy. Previously, they were not able to test it, otherwise the boats would be soaked before the Start. This year, four sank out of 21 boats in the lake.

The idea for the paper boat race the culture of a pedagogue Petra Bezdek had. Inspired by a similar Event on Spiekeroog, you called it in 2009 in Starnberg. “That you may do something Crazy, without a real purpose, like as a child, which excited many of the participants,” says Bezdek.