Comments on: Extreme ironing, an adventure sport for people who like laundry

By: anthony

anthony — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Shoot. I thought the link would lead to a gigantic chess board where boxers took the place of chess pieces, and knocked each other over at the whim or strategy of the chess masters…

By: cinemajay

cinemajay — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

This is my kind of sport. I come from a long line or ironers.

By: urabus

urabus — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Reminds me of Grey by Jon Armstrong (http://www.nightshadebooks.com/cart.php?m=product_detail&p=3) Where Ironing was a sport

By: justONEguy

justONEguy — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

This is way better than the Extreme Irony festival in Brooklyn where everyone just stood around and snickered.

By: Teapunk

Teapunk — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Where can I send my laundry? I really, really hate ironing.

By: Antinous

Antinous — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

No sky-roning?

By: DavidMichaelMalloy

DavidMichaelMalloy — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

They’re serious!

By: muteboy

muteboy — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

From the London Metro:
http://www.metro.co.uk/home/article.html?in_article_id=2688&in_page_id=1

By: Steamfunk

Steamfunk — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

I can’t believe how excited some people get about ironing! Am I missing out? I was reading about the World Ironing Championships today – maybe I’ll take part! (You should too, if you know how to iron a shirt!)

By: ivan256

ivan256 — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

#2: Actually, I’m pretty sure that these guys were the winners of the Brooklyn Extreme Irony festival.

Or were you being ironic? ;)

By: ADavies

ADavies — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

I’m not really familiar with “ironing”. Do these “irons” usually need to be plugged in?

By: Felton / Moderator

Felton / Moderator — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

By: Felton / Moderator

Felton / Moderator — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

I prefer byroning, the more sophisticated art of ironing while reciting Romantic poetry.

By: EyeSpy Guy

EyeSpy Guy — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

This iron seems like one that an Extreme Ironer would covet, the butane successor to a Kerosene Iron.

I’m impressed.

Butane Clothes Iron

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Perhaps a Trophy is in order.

http://nakedfabric.blogspot.com/2011/01/extreme-ironing.html

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Yes, Ivan, numerous skydivers and BASE jumpers have already tried their hand at Extreme Ironing. Google it and you’ll come up with lots of pics and video.

By: ekricyote

ekricyote — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

This is what Silicon Heaven looks like for Kryten.

By: opposablethumb

opposablethumb — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

I was much surprised to see this more-or-less for real. Jon Armstrong describes an extreme ironing contest in his novel Grey, which I discovered a few months ago through a BoingBoing link.

By: xoe

xoe — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

I’m wondering about that whole “plugged in” thing, myself. Do they have battery powered irons now or something?

By: Jake0748

Jake0748 — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

How does Iron Man fit in with all this?

By: The Unusual Suspect

The Unusual Suspect — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Oh, the iron-y of it all!

By: WA

WA — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Xeo, such irons do apparently exist; a search for cordless irons gives quite a few results.

However, I must also take issue with the assertion that these people are “ironing with finesse.” In most of the photographs I’ve seen, they aren’t ironing at all. The irons aren’t powered, and the clothes in many cases are positioned quite oddly. In most of the videos I’ve found, the ‘ironers’ simply seem to wave the iron around randomly, and press it against clothes in ways that wouldn’t be at all effective if one were actually ironing.

I can see this as an amusing joke, but it does seem odd that despite the practicality of actually doing what they claim to be doing*, few, if any, really do iron.

* Except for the bog one, which simply wouldn’t work.

By: anthony

anthony — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

I’m into extreme starching, myself.

By: Bill Basso

Bill Basso — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

These photos offer a cathartic chuckle to the stress I felt trying to look civilized while living in a tent. I think this is my new favorite sport.

When I lived in the bush years ago as a young lad, I heated my iron on the camp fire which was extreme ironing in itself since you had to be careful not to burn the fabric.

Later I got a gen set and was able to use an electric iron with a rheostatic thermostat. It was like heaven to have a cotton setting.

I don’t know what’s with the unplugged cords in the pictures. I don’t see how you’re going to get a nice crisp pleat that way. But I guess you have to understand these guys are professionals and know what they are doing. It must take years of dedicated practice to be this good.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

#5, #7 and that is indeed where I lose respect for this sport. There do indeed exist irons that don’t have to be plugged in http://terrence.marsh.faculty.noctrl.edu/lantern/iron.html But these farbs mostly use electric irons with the cords cut off. They lose major style point in my book.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

who will be the first to iron on Everest’s summit…..

By: David Voss

David Voss — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Nah, not even in the same league as chess boxing for weird-ass sports that need to be in the Olympics

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chess_boxing