Ten best “Extreme Ironing” stunts from around the world

by Gadling Staff on

Sometimes questions are better left unanswered. Like how a sport called “extreme ironing” has circumnavigated the globe, fascinating folks from France to Fiji. Described on the official website as the “latest danger sport that combines the thrills of an extreme outdoor activity with the satisfaction of a well pressed shirt,” it’s an activity that is as much a sport as it is a hilarious performance art. Here are the most unique incarnations of this increasingly popular international craze. Get ready to be amazed and amused as participants from around the world make a new name for this mundane household chore:

1. England: Multi-Disciplinary Extreme Ironing
Since the thrilling sport of extreme ironing was born in the United Kingdom, it makes sense that they’ve mastered the art. This guy has more than one trick up his sleeve when it comes to finding ridiculous places to get the wrinkles out of his duds. I’m just not sure they always score that high when it comes to productivity…

2. Japan: Speed Ironing on a Mountain Board

Short and sweet – this guy knows how to get the chores done. In speedy fashion he gains ground heading down a grassy hill, iron in hand, and takes a bold turn right in time to graze the shirt awaiting him on his ironing board. Who says you can’t extreme iron in a city park – at least that works when adventuring in Japan.

3. USA: Ironing in Transit, on Road and over Water
At first you think these crazy guys are just tied in to the side of a moving van attached to a soldered ironing board, but after they round a few curves the “van” takes to the water… Magically, this dual-purpose craft allows for two extreme forms of ironing, and to these Massachusetts pranksters that means double the pleasure. I know the state has much more to offer than this ironing activity.


4. Scotland: Street Level Emergency Ironing
Apparently in Edinburgh there are circumstances under which emergency ironing is necessary. But luckily this popular pastime has quite a following in these parts, including this fellow who’s one call in case you need him to run down the street after your dress clothes, iron in tow. Just try and block out the corny chase scene music track.


5. Austria: Rappel-Ironing
I made an exception for this Austrian guy who didn’t have a video camera – the video collage he got his friends to help him make shows just how much time they’ve got on their hands. Extra points for the matching spandex outfit and brightly-painted house off which he rappels. I’m assuming he likes to chat with neighbors passing by while he irons shirts, but I can’t imagine he wears suits much at all.


6. England: Sky Dive Ironing Championship Training
You can sky dive in England, and you can iron, but you can also to both at the same time. In fact, there are leagues dedicated entirely to the sport and regularly compete on points of style and creativity in extreme sky dive surf ironing, or whatever the league calls themselves. Watch as the teams prep for the big dives, there are a lot of clothes ready to hit the board. On your next trip to the UK look out for local Extreme Ironing competitions, they actually exist and can be attended!


7. Egypt: Ironing Underwater in the Famous Blue Hole
It isn’t at all the first thing I’d think of when talking up Egyptian travel, but the famous Blue Hole, an incredible geographic asset in the middle the desert, has more possibilities than meets the eye. To this gal it was extreme ironing, and she succeeding in reaching her goal of being the first and only diver to iron at the bottom of this aquamarine-blue body of water.

8. England: Extreme Ironing Skydive
You think these two are just jumping out of a plane with snowboards attached to their feet, but before too long you see they’ve got other plans, to use the bottom of the board at the ironing surface for their own form of extreme ironing. I’m sure if you get in a few jumps on your next extreme sports adventure to England, that the instructor might let you try out some of these moves if the spirit moves you.

9. New Zealand: Extreme Ironing on a Mountaintop
I can picture these Kiwi guys arguing all the way up the mountain about who would carry the ironing board, but however they managed to drag it up there, it is one incredible place to iron. The view of snowy crags and a sea of rocky peaks makes for a nice ambiance, I’m just not sure it would be my first choice of activity after mountaineering to the top of this exquisite New Zealand Peak, but hey, that’s just me.

10. USA: Extreme Ironing on a Bike
I’m not sure how this guy justified assembling this very complex rigging in order to conquer his ironing while rolling through New York’s Central Prospect Park. I can only assume from his hilarious video that his thought many others would be interested in his design in order to replicate his fanciful strapping of a gasoline generator to a mountain bike and an ironing board. At least one of these extreme ironers actually ended up with a wrinkle-free shirt!

Vienna’s secret noontime ritual

by Annie Scott on


Every day at noon, folks in-the-know gather in front of the Anchor Clock (above) in Vienna, Austria.

There is no exciting maritime story behind this clock’s name; Der Anker just happened to be the insurance company to which it is attached. Back in the early 1900s, Derk Anker had bought themselves two buildings which were right next door to each other and wanted a meaningful way to connect them. What could be more meaningful than an animated clock? (Don’t answer that.)

That’s right, it’s animated. This clock was built by Franz Matsch between 1911 and 1917 and it features 12 full minutes of extremely slow entertainment. The character you see in front of the clock face is one of many historical figures, and they rotate all day long, very slowly, each at his or her own appointed hour. At noon, they all cycle through once while classical, Viennese-composed music plays for twelve minutes. From what I hear, even the music is the same as it was over a hundred years ago.

Here’s a two-minute snippet of the rotation:
You get the idea. It’s not exactly like watching paint dry, but it’s closer to that than, say, watching Die Hard.

It might have been a lot more exciting a hundred years ago, but it’s still fun to gather with the crowd and watch the Anchor Clock.

My visit to Vienna was sponsored by the Vienna Tourist Board and Cool Capitals, but the opinions expressed in the article are 100% my own.

Get weird at Obscura Day this weekend

by Jeremy Kressmann on

We spend our travel lives hunting down the world’s most famous sights like the Eiffel Tower and Machu Picchu. But did you ever consider the amazing sights right in your own backyard? That’s the idea behind Obscura Day, an international event taking place in 80 cities worldwide on March 20th.

Obscura Day is dedicated to celebrating the strange and interesting sights found in our hometowns. In San Francisco, a tour will be visiting the Musee Mecanique, a museum devoted to antique coin operated carnival games. In Detroit, the tour will bring visitors to the Heidelberg Project, and “outsider art” project made from found objects. Meanwhile, in Brooklyn, the tour will bring visitors inside the Atlantic Avenue Tunnel, a 170-year-old subway tunnel Gadling visited last year. Those living outside the U.S. will find plenty to do as well, with events taking place from Canada to Iceland to Japan.

Want to investigate the weirder side of your own home town? Head over to the Obscura Day event page and see if there’s a tour near you. Hurry though, tours are filling up quick!%Gallery-72634%

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Be sure to check out Episode 5 of Travel Talk TV, which features a Santa Cruz beach adventure; explains why Scottish money is no good; shows how to cook brats the German way; and offers international dating tips!

Airplane safety applies to everyone, even Willy Wonka

by Annie Scott on


So, I was flying Sun Country Airlines a few months back and happened to be seated in the exit row. Though I’m normally one of those jerks who doesn’t listen to the safety presentation (frankly, I’m often asleep by then), when I’m in an exit row, I feel obligated, so I pulled out the airplane safety card and read along. Much to my surprise, I encountered the characters in the photos above and below. What the devil are Willy Wonka and a ballerina doing on the airplane safety card?

They were subtle — I almost didn’t notice them. I laughed and showed my boyfriend when I found the ballerina, and he found the guy in tails, whom we immediately assumed was Willy Wonka. I reported the findings on Twitter, and some of my more observant friends commented that they had seen Willy, too. I had to investigate. I contacted Sun Country, who put me in touch with Trisha Carper-Ferguson, president of Interaction Research Corporation, the print and design company behind SafetyCards.com. I interviewed Carper-Ferguson via e-mail.

Gadling: What’s the story behind these characters?Trisha Carper-Ferguson: It is always our goal to educate and inform as many passengers as possible about aircraft safety and security. We believe what we do saves lives. At the same time, it is difficult to get the average passenger to pick up a briefing card and spend the few minutes exploring their aircraft information. In 1997 we created a way for a few airlines to make the passenger briefings (both oral and illustrated) fun and interesting with the hopes that it would attract more attention to the information. We created the character cards as a Where’s Waldo type of project. We encouraged the carriers to make it a game onboard the aircraft. Obviously we were limited by copyright and trademark, therefore we needed to come up with universal characters that people from all over the world would be entertained by.

G: Who drew them?

TCF: Our team of illustrators drew them. Specifically Linda Goff and Krista Dunk who were two of our graphic artists at the time.

G: What other products do you make, and do you include this same sort of whimsy?

TCF: We produce (both design and print) passenger safety briefing cards and videos for airlines all over the world. We also have a full commercial print company in-house which produces all types of business printing needs and signage. Not all of our work has a whimsical feel, but if it draws attention to important information then why not? :-)

G: How long have they been like this (and how long will they be like this)?

TCF: The “Character Cards” were only picked up by a handful of our carriers, starting in 1997 with Canadian airlines. I believe Sun Country Airlines is the only carrier currently using them. Thanks again, what fun this has been to revisit.


So, there you have it, folks. Fly Sun Country Airlines and you’ll get a special surprise. Carper-Ferguson and IRC definitely achieved their goal — I’ve looked carefully at every airplane safety card since.
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Kazakhstan tries to sell its freezing capital

by Annie Scott on


As I write you from my parents’ home in the sub freezing winter wonderland of Minneapolis, I am pleased to report that this weather now apparently qualifies for envy.

Kazakhstan’s President Nursultan Nazarbayev made his annual speech yesterday, and attempted to lure diplomats to move to the country’s capital city, Astana, on the basis of its face-breaking cold weather. “It only strengthens our spirit,” he said, on a day when the temperature was -22°F.

Nazarbayev (above right, with Nicolas Sarkozy, in front of the Astana skyline in October 2009) went on to praise the sanitary effects of the frigid environment, saying: “Even germs can’t survive in this weather.”

Astana is the world’s second coldest capital city (after Ulaan-baatar, Mongolia), but with all that oil and mineral money, you can bet they’re toasty warm inside their gold-tinted (seriously!) buildings.

[via Reuters]