by Matt
 |
| Exerseeing in Porto, Portugal |
Anyone who watches ESPN 3 at 2am knows that the sport of ultimate frisbee has come out of nowhere to replace the Scottish games and competitive eating as a featured sport on late late sports television.
Why the dazzling rise in ultimate frisbee's popularity? Because it combines the heroic diving catches and burst athleticism of football with fluid action more like soccer. Throw in the rugby tradition of drinking out of a piece of your sporting equipment (rugby: your boot, ultimate: a frisbee) and it's clear that ultimate is headed for prime time.
Inspired by ultimate frisbee, Carson and I have melded two activities into one to create the next great sport: Exerseeing.
The idea struck us while looking at old buildings in Dubrovnik. While old buildings can be important vehicles for learning about history, they typically just sit there and look impressive, yet impassive. They don't insult each other, hook up, or brawl, making them less appealing to the youth (aka thirty-somethings) of today. They also start to blend together in the old-stone-building section of the brain. Sightseeing could stand to be more interesting.
At the same time, on vacation--especially vacations where time is spent gawking at old buildings--it is difficult to get exercise.
In response to these challenges, we developed the sport of Exerseeing through a process we are calling athletotouristic syncretism. Exerseeing makes it possible to exercise while viewing old buildings and improves memories of each building viewed by associating it with a specific physical activity.
Exerseeing is like the decathlon in that players compete in multiple events. It's also like Calvin Ball in that events are made up and require only whatever you have on hand and your imagination.
A few examples of events from the global inaugural exerseeeing competition:
Running ancient stone stairs, with hand weights:
Buildering on weird communist sarcophagi
*extra view points were awarded here, points deducted because there was no actual climbing, just gaping
Upright crunches with a view:
*Points awarded for number of crunches, and for the quality of the view
Stonewall Yoga
*Think yoga isn't a competitive sport? Check this. Weird.
Gaper Diving:
*similar to leisure diving (don't miss awesome link) Gaper Diving is inspired by Ultimate. Competitors dive or "layout" while gaping at major sites and beautiful scenery.
A Note on Officiating
*regarding the officiating of an Exerseeing competition: Ultimate Frisbee seeks to contain the Big Refereeing industry by having players call their own fouls, then resolve the inevitable disputes with long discussions and incredulous gestures.
 |
| Ultimate players making their sport unwatchable |
Similarly, Exerseeing also eschews official referees. Only if there is a dispute that can't be resolved by 5 minutes of kvetching amongst players, can a referee be sought. In this case, players must find the closest German or Swiss tourist, explain the infraction, and ask for him/her to make a call, in German, or Switzerdeutch. Instant replay from the German's hiking pole mounted Go-Pro is admissible.
No comments:
Post a Comment