DEPARTURE LOUNGE // WINTER 2018
Wild
Winter Sports
THE THOUGHT OF A SKI HOLIDAY A BIT TOO TAME TO TICKLE
YOUR FANCY? OK, DAREDEVIL, WE’VE GOT YOUR BACK…
BY REBEKAH FUNK / ILLUSTRATIONS BY GAVIN THOMSON
EXTREME SNOWBALL FIGHTING
We can think of few winter sports more
entertaining than Yukigassen – basically, a
huge snowball fight invented in Japan. The
mission? To capture your opponent’s flag
without getting pegged, ducking behind
shelters as you go. This is no walk in the park
– players wear helmets with face shields to
ensure they don’t get seriously hurt.
SHOVEL AND RACE; REPEAT
The technique is simple: participants sit on a metal
shovel and race down a snowy mountainside. Seems like
a winter sport that emerged from someone fed up with
shovelling snow! Now there’s a snow-shovelling world
championship held every February in New Mexico, USA;
some of the fastest racers reach speeds of 110km/h!
CLEVER CURLING
Perhaps the strangest sport at the Olympics,
curling consists of two teams hurling a granite
rock down the ice, sweeping all the while to
help it reach its final target. But did you know all
curlers wear two different shoes? One is called
the “slider”, made with a Teflon sole (the same
material as your non-stick frying pan). The other,
with maximum traction, is called the “gripper” and
prevents curlers from ending up on their behinds
while sweeping. Clever.
12 // MAKE MEMORIES FOR LIFE