Extreme Ironing
Extreme Ironing (or EI) is an extreme sport in which people take an ironing board to a remote location and iron a few items of clothing.
Extreme ironing locations include a mountainside of a difficult climb; a forest; in a canoe; while skiing or snowboarding; on top of large bronze statues; in the middle of a street; even when snorkeling, though this possibility defeats the purpose of ironing. The ironing itself has variations: either solo or in a group; ironing in existing formations or freestyle.
EI supposedly combines the excitement of an extreme sport with the satisfaction of freshly-ironed clothes. Though it seems a parody or hoax, many extreme ironers take their sport quite seriously. The Guardian said of extreme ironing that it carries on a tradition of British eccentricity. Many organised EI events are now sponsored by the household appliance manufacturer Rowenta.
The sport was started in Leicester, East Midlands, England by resident Phil Shaw in his back yard. EI, however, is no longer localized to Great Britain. In June 1999, Shaw, who goes by the EI nickname "Steam", embarked on an international tour to promote the sport. The stops included the United States of America, Fiji, New Zealand, Australia and Southern Africa. An encounter with German tourists in New Zealand led to the founding of Extreme Ironing International (now the Extreme Ironing Bureau), and the German Extreme Ironing Section or GEIS.
In September of 2002, the first World Championship for the sport took place in Valley, Germany, near Munich. Organized by the German Extreme Ironing Section, the 1st Extreme Ironing World Championships were considered a success, drawing international media attention. Competitors from Austria, Australia, Croatia, Chile, Germany, and the UK participated. The competition included eighty different teams from ten different countries.
Since the sport's invention, there has been the formation of an alleged breakaway group, Urban Housework. This has been considered unethical by some Extreme Ironers, as it alters the environment, disrupting the natural decay of plant matter to help re-fertilize the earth.
A documentary, appropiately entitled Extreme Ironing, was filmed for Britain's Channel 4 in December 2002.
In 2003 the Rowenta Trophy was won by a group from South Africa by ironing across a gorge at the Wolfberg Cracks. Later that year, Phil Shaw brought out a book, also entitled Extreme Ironing.
In 2004, the EIB traveled to the US on the Rowenta Tour to recruit additional ironists and ironed at Mount Rushmore, New York, Boston and Devil's Tower.
Suggestions of Olympic eligiblity
Following the 2004 Summer Olympics, five-time Olympic gold medalist Sir Steve Redgrave backed extreme ironing to become an Olympic sport. "It is a fantastic sport. It's a little bizarre in some respect, but in a few years' time, rowing could be chopped from the Olympics and extreme ironing could be in!"
Extreme Ironing founder, Steam adds: "Although, Sir Steve obviously wasn't really proposing the demise of rowing as an Olympic sport, it's still fantastic to get the backing of arguably Britain's finest ever athlete. And you never know, it might see the start of a new style of extreme ironing with competitors balanced on rowing boats."
References to EI in popular culture
On the August 2, 2004 episode of EastEnders, EI was referenced. According to the EIB, the characters made reference to the current altitude record holders.
- "As the party loving Kat and Zoe Slater are preparing to go out, they are invited to the launch party at Angie's Den by a couple of "media types". The pair say that there'd be celebrities in the shape of the Hot Plate Brothers there."
Extreme Ironing has been featured in news stories on CBS Sunday Morning, in the New York Times, The Sun, Sydney Morning Herald, Calcutta Telegraph, The Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, Toronto Star, TIME Magazine, ESPN.com, Financial Times, and many other places.
