Extreme ironing is a chilling adventurous sport in which the participants carry their ironing boards to extreme and remote locations and then iron the clothes. The Extreme Ironing Bureau describes it as the latest dangerous sport which includes an extreme outdoor activity, full of thrills that end up with a pure satisfaction of a well-pressed shirt.
Today, media have also shown a lot of willingness to cover the events of extreme ironing and question its existence, whether it is a sport or not.
The locations to conduct extreme ironing include a forest, a canoe, during skiing at extreme cold condition, underwater of a chilly river, in an M1 motorway or the bottom of an ice sheet.
Extreme ironing can be performed individually or by groups. The ironist iron the cloth perfectly at extreme and inhospitable conditions. The more incompatible be the condition, the more score is achieved by the participants.
A series of executives, judge the whole event. The participant with the highest score wins the match eventually. The participants are judged based on their creative ironing skills and also on the creases in the clothing.
The participants should also seriously consider their iron and ironing board state and dressing as there are prizes for the best dresses ironed and ironing board in some competitions.
History of Extreme Ironing
The sport of extreme ironing was introduced by Tony Hiam in the year of 1980, in Yorkshire Dales National Park, near Settle, England. Although some referred that extreme ironing was originated in 1997 by Phil Shaw in Leicester, England.
In June 1999, Shaw started promoting the activity with a nickname "Steam". He did this purposely during the international tours so that most of the people could connect with him.
In 2002, the first Extreme Ironing World Championship was organized in which 12 teams from various countries participated to become the champion of extreme ironing. Meanwhile, a documentary was shot that gained a lot of popularity.
In 2003, with increasing popularity, Phil Shaw published a book named Extreme Ironing. In 2003, a lot of records were made by the participants who ironed in challenging and harsh climates. At that time John Roberts and Ben Gibbons with Christopher Allan Jowsey ironed the Union Jack (the national flag of the United Kingdom) above the Base camp of the Everest.
This was the first record in the highest altitude of 5,440 meters above the sea level. In 2003, the first Rowenta Trophy was organized by the SEB Group from France.
A new world record was set in March 2008, where a team comprising of 72 divers simultaneously ironed the clothes underwater. Later in 2009, the record was broken by a team of 86 divers.
On March 28, 2011, a new world record of extreme ironing underwater was officially set by the Dutch diving club De Waterman. The team consisting of 173 divers performed the task in an indoor swimming pool.
In 2012, extreme ironer Steam took retirement and undertook a new challenge where he ran the popular Hal Marathons of Hastings while wearing an ironing board where he pressed the garments on the way. Popular freediver Roland Piccoli ironed a t-shirt in a pool with a depth of 42 meters in Montegrotto Terme, Italy on June 16, 2018.
This led to creating the world record of ironing in the world's deepest pool (Y-40). Today, Extreme ironing is popular worldwide and has been liked by millions of sports enthusiasts.
