Wheelbarrow Freestyle

It was the turn of the century. A few enterprising Englishmen gather to create a new X-game - one requiring as much grace and death-defiance as skateboarding, and yet, because of certain cultural stigma and the apparent refusal of major sporting chains to carry the required equipment, doomed to a short, but spectacular existence. They called it: "Wheelbarrow Freestyle." Yes, yes, the very concept of a sport based on wheelbarrowing of any sort is, at best, difficult to entertain as X-worthy. And yet, as these gentlemen show, with practice and devotion, it can reach the very extremities of X-ness.

For example, there's the "Pop Jump (with optional Fly-over)" where you "Sit with your barrow for a moment, check your mood, become calm. Feel your barrow's mood - encourage it. Hold the barrow gentle and loosely in both hands. Keep hold of the handles but push the barrow away from you for full arms length - KEEP HOLDING ON - then quickly and sharply, before the barrow knows what's happening, pull back and push down ever so slightly. The front of the barrow will now flick up. To retain height lift the back end up to meet the front and thrust forward to hold it even longer."

As silly as it may seem - and as silly as I often am - to me, Wheelbarrow Freestyle epitomizes the spirit of junkyard sports. It manages to embrace silliness and seriousness so closely together that it becomes something very much like a paradigm for the Playful Path.