Extreme ironing

History:

Extreme ironing was an idea started in Leicester, England in 1997. Phil Shaw from Leicester decided to turn his
ironing boredom into something a little less flattening to the spirits. He only went and took his ironing board out into
the garden, but this small rebellion against the stiff and straight world of conventional ironing, was enough to spark
the beginning of something even more radical than his freshly ironed laundry. It was the dawn of extreme ironing.

Since that fateful day back in 1997, the sport of extreme ironing gained momentum in ways that Phil never thought
possible: pressing on cliffs, flattening in the forest, steaming in seas. There was no end to the lengths that people
were prepared to go to get their ironing kicks. So far in fact, that in 2002 the 1st Extreme Ironing World
Championships saw 12 teams compete for champion extreme ironing status. The subsequent documentary, Extreme
Ironing: Pressing for Victory, gained the sport international attention, leading to breakaway groups in the US and
numerous extreme ironing world records. And in 2003, Phil Shaw even published the book Extreme Ironing.

Description:

Extreme ironing (also called EI) is an extreme sport in which people take ironing boards to remote locations and iron
items of clothing.

Extreme ironing has become something of a cult in recent years, with "ironists" taking their chores to places as
inhospitable as the Antarctic, the bottom of a Welsh bog, and in the middle of a go-kart race at Streatham Raceway
or skysurfing 12,000 feet (3,700 m) above the ground.

Some other locations where such performances have taken place 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;
underwater; in the middle of the M1 motorway; race; whilst parachuting and under the ice sheet of a frozen lake.
The performances have been conducted solo or by groups and the iron does have to be hot too, so it is a bit of a
challenge for the underwater ironing, as plugging it in underwater may be a shock!

Rules:

It requires a specific ironing board size, 1 metre long minimum, 30 cm at the widest point and it has to include legs.
You are now allowed to take plastic irons and the garment must be at least the size of a tea towel.

Competitions:

In June 1999, there was a worldwide recruitment campaign which involved America, Fiji, New Zealand, Australia
and Southern Africa.

This led to Extreme Ironing International which was when it was first recognized as a sport.

In 2002 the German Extreme Ironing Section organized the highly successful World Championships in the village of
Valley near Munich.

German ironist, Hot Pants, won the individual event and a British team won the team event.

The World Championships have lit the touch paper for the worldwide expansion of extreme ironing, with a number
of other nations including Austria, Croatia, Chile and Australia demonstrating a flair for the sport.