Extreme Ironing

Extreme Ironing

Extreme Ironimg on Rivelin Needle
Sheffield, United Kingdom

Extreme Ironing (EI) is an outdoor sport that adds the complication of ironing clothing to the outdoor activities many of us already enjoy.  EI affectionados have combined their laundry efforts with hiking, caving, rock climbing, bouldering, scuba and free diving, surfing, wake boarding, hang gliding, bungee jumping and more.

The sport was started by Phil Shaw in England in 1997.  Shaw needed to iron some clothes but wanted to go outside.  He decided to combine the two activities and the sport was born.  Since then the sport has spread around the world with hot spots in Germany, Britain, South Africa and, most recently, the Hudson Valley in New York.

As with most sports, EI quickly became competitive.  In 2002 the First Extreme Ironing World Championship took place near Munich, Germany.  The competition involved five sections:

  • Urban– ironing in/on/around a broken down car.
  • Water– A fast flowing river was the location for this station. Competitors could use surfboards, canoes or rubber rings to help them.
  • Forest– Ironing at the top of a tree.
  • Rocky– A purpose built climbing wall, which ironists had to climb and iron a t-shirt.
  • Freestyle – The section where “anything goes”.

Three teams from Britain plus teams from Austria, Australia, Chile, Croatia and Germany competed.  The British dominated the team competition while German and Austrian competitors picked up the individual prizes.

A similar sport, Extreme Cello, attracts those more interested in music than ironing.

Be sure to like the Extreme Ironing Official Facebook page.

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3 Responses to “Extreme Ironing”

  1. Amanda says:

    Nice site full of great information.

  2. Jill says:

    Hilarious – I seem to spend my entire weekends ironing, so doing it on the top of a mountain is really appealing!!

  3. Terry says:

    This sounds great fun. Something I would rather see than particpate. Thanks for sharing

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