Riverboarding

A riverboarder floats down the Kern River at about 4,000 cfs

Riverboarding is the North American name for a boardsport in which the participant is prone on the board with fins on his/her feet for propulsion and steering. This sport is also known as hydrospeed in Europe and white-water sledging in New Zealand. Riverboarding includes recreational and the swiftwater rescue practice of using a high-flotation riverboard, designed for buoyancy in highly aerated water.

Origins

Riverboarding is believed to have originated in the late 1970s. It is claimed to have originated in France, when raft guides stuffed a burlap mail sack with life vests and went down rapids. Soon, riders adapted a personal submarine shell for their molds and the plastic version of the riverboard was born. Sometime in the late 1980s, Carlson began running rivers in California using an ocean bodyboard and ended up making his own board that was bigger, thicker and handles.

Collection of Stupid sports

Oina

Oina is a Romanian traditional ball sport, similar in many ways to baseball

Oina was first mentioned during the rule of Vlaicu Vodă in 1364, when it spread all across Wallachia. It originated as a game played by shepherds.

In 1899, Spiru Haret, the minister of education decided that oina was to be played in schools in Physical education classes. He organized the first annual oina competitions.

The Romanian Oina Federation was founded in 1932, and reactivated at the beginning of the 1950s.

Today, there are two Oina Federations: one in Bucharest, Romania and another one in Chişinău, Moldova.

Rules

There are two teams, one that is "at bat" ("la bătaie") and one that is "at catching" ("la prindere").

The game begins with the team "at bat", with one of the players throwing the ball while another player of the same team has to hit it with a wooden bat ("bâtă") and send it as far as he can towards the adversary field. After that, the player has to run the "back-and-forth lanes" (culoarele de ducere şi întoarcere) that are to be found in the adversary field before the adversary receives the ball from his co-players.

Kilikiti

Equipment

The ball is made of a very hard rubber wrapped in pandanus. Players are not protected by any padding or masks, and will often wear only a lava-lava. The sennit-wrapped wooden bats, which are shaped to individual players' likings and can be over a meter long, are three-sided, which means that the path of a hit ball is extremely hard to predict.

Rules

The rules of kilikiti are flexible. Indeed, the majority of reports written on the game simply say that the rules can only be known by those playing.

Similarities to cricket

There is a batting team and a fielding team, and a pitch (sometimes of concrete). The bowl alternates between two bowlers, one at each end of the pitch; accordingly, there are two wicket keepers (this as opposed to the single bowler and wicket keeper in cricket).

Major points on which kilikiti differs from cricket

There is no limit to team size, and teams are made up of whoever turns up regardless of gender or age (tourist accounts referenced below mention that strangers are often welcomed). Players are typically all-rounders. A kilikiti game is a multi-day community event full of singing, dancing, and feasting. Entire villages will compete and everyone will be involved, whether as player, cook, or spectator. (According to one source (see India Engineers Cricket Club in "External links") the only universal rule is that the host team forfeits if it cannot provide enough food.)

Standardization

The New Zealand Kilikiti Association (NZKA) is working to standardize the rules of kilikiti. In 1999 the NZKA started a national tournament, called the Supercific Kilikiti Tournament, and in 2001 it introduced the international World Cup Kilikiti Tournament. Games have been cut to a television-friendly 70 minutes (2 innings, the first being 30 minutes long and the second bowling the same number of balls as the first). The NZKA has also added the scoring of 4's and 6's.