I’ve often wondered about the sanity of sports. Basketball makes sense. It’s fun, it’s good excercise, and there is enough competition to keep it interesting. Football is a little harder to justify. The chance of injury is a lot higher and it requires a lot of organization. For football you have to have 22 people, organized plays, pads, helmets… Sure you can play touch football with a few friends but that’s really only fun for the fastest sprinter in the group.
Climbing, mountaineering and especially ski mountaineering are even harder to justify but still it kind of makes sense. There is something understandable about setting a difficult goal and then striving to accomplish it. It’s a big bonus if achieving that goal has some excitement and adrenaline involved, like skiing does.
Nonetheless, some sports just don’t look fun at all. Tower Jumping is one of those sports. The New York Times has a very interesting video about this obscure sport. Watch it here.