Anyone who says they enjoy doing chores is either lying or hasn’t ever spent their Sunday working through a mountain of limp, reeking laundry. Joy just seems to wilt and shrink into oblivion in the face of around-the-house efforts, and the worst of it is, the work never goes away.
The list of dour duties has plagued us for far too long. As soon as you make your bed and take a nap to recharge, your bed just needs to be made, again! Want a snack? Well, hopefully you also want to do dishes! People realized they needed a solution — an extreme solution.
We’ve come a long way since the days when all housework was a woman’s duty. If daddy spills the milk, daddy is going to clean up the milk. He can cry about it all he wants. But the truth is, mopping after a long day would make anyone want to cry.
Sharing in the monotonous labors of life certainly helps lighten the load, but it’s definitely not sparking any joy — sorry Marie Kondo. As much as we all need to forge a healthy work-life balance, the same goes for a chore-play balance.
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Unfortunately, without the incentive of getting paid to chore, it’s a little more challenging to set aside the time to iron your shirt for tomorrow. That’s when one man realized he didn’t have to. He could have his hobby and his fresh-pressed polo too.
In 1980, Tony Hiam, a resident of Yorkshire, England, took a note from his brother-in-law, John Slater, who was truly a proper English gent. Slater was a big camping enthusiast, but roughing it for him did not mean sporting a wrinkled shirt.
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That’s right, Slater brought an iron and board on all his camping trips and would actually iron from his tent. Tony Hiam couldn’t help but think this practice was outrageous; nonetheless, he decided to take it to the next level.
Tony started carrying an ironing board with him at all times. He would iron in crowded airports, on top of mountains, even off the side of the highway. Any opportunity to get bystanders to do a double-take, Tony would whip out his iron and get to work.
This practical joke, which Tony carried on for years, was meant to exaggerate the futility of our chores by framing them in bizarre contexts. As silly as it was, Tony never could have imagined how far his little quip would go.
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In 1997, Phil Shaw got home from a long day at a Knitwear factory in Leicester, England, where he worked. He knew he had to press his shirt for the next day, but he really wanted to go rock climbing. That’s when he remembered Tony.
Shaw knew right then and there what he had to do. Tony and Slater may have been the inspiration, but Shaw made it official. That night in his own backyard, Shaw combined rock climbing and ironing into a new extreme sport!
In 1999, Shaw — who now went by his Extreme Ironing nickname, Steam — took off on an international tour to promote this activity. He traveled from the United States to Fiji all the way to South Africa. But one stop would prove extremely fateful.
When Steam made his tour stop in New Zealand, he came across a group of German travelers who were blown away by this new and unusual sport. They were so inspired that they went on to form the “Extreme Ironing International” group.
Since then, extreme ironing has branched off to include more than just rock climbing. Ironists can participate in any number of activities including, running, biking, bungee jumping, and even sky diving, which is considered the “ultimate in the thrill of extreme ironing.”
The 1st Extreme Ironing World Championships took place in Germany and was covered in a documentary called Extreme Ironing: Pressing for Victory, produced by British TV Channel 4. That year British teams made their country proud by taking home Gold and Bronze placings.
Aside from Ironists trying to outdo one another with their level of extreme activity, the sport in general is also facing competition. Another group called Urban Houseworks has been battling to establish a rival sport of extreme vacuum-cleaning.
It might seem like the sport is nothing more than a joke taken way too far, but these ironists’ records are nothing to sneeze at. In 2003, John Roberts and Ben Gibbons took the sport’s altitude record when they ironed a Union Jack just above Everest base camp.
Perhaps the most impressive feat came in 2008, when a team of 72 divers set a world record for the largest number of people simultaneously ironing underwater. This one begs a lot of questions, but taking an iron into any water is not something we recommend trying at home.
Ironist pioneer Steam even came out of retirement in 2012 to run a half marathon. All while wearing an ironing board and pressing along the way, of course. Proving neither he, nor the sport, has run out of steam yet.
People continue to devise clever ways of merging the satisfaction of a freshly ironed shirt with the thrill of an extreme sport. While it might sound comical in theory, at it’s core, it offers something greater than just some reckless play.
Extreme ironing reminds us not to get so bogged down in the hum-de-dums of daily life. You don’t have to take your laundry to the top of an Alpine slope to spark some joy, but nothing is stopping you from blasting that guilty pleasure playlist while you Swiffer.
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If you’re going to clean up anyway, why not have fun making a giant mess before you do it! If there is one lesson we can all learn from extreme ironing it’s to: chore a little, live a lot. Oh, and that there are a lot of weird competitions out there.
