at last, sumo for the masses! (fwd)

[osumo3@native.usc.edu (Luigi Manna)]

|----- Begin of redistributed message -----
|From: Richard Webb <webb@phys3.physics.wsu.edu>
|Subject: at last, sumo for the masses! (fwd)
|Date: Wed, 27 Oct 1993 11:03:29 -0700 (PDT)
|
|Hi all,
|
|I came across this one and although it has been mentioned before, I
|thought many of you may find it interesting.
|
|> Shamelessly copied out of today's Merc:
|> 
|> Calling all wimps: If you've ever dreamed of crushing and toppling
|> 
|> foes, of becoming a 500-pound warrior, wish no more. Head instead to
|> 
|> Sharky's Beach Bar & Eater and check out what has become one of
|> 
|> Seattle's trendiest bar games.
|> 
|> Forget billiards and darts, even Velcro wall-jumping. The game to try
|> 
|> these days is inflatable sumo wrestling.
|> People offended by ethnic lampoons and fat jokes may want to avoid this
|> 
|> one. Sumo wrestling is a revered national sport in Japan. Interest
|> 
|> spread to the United States earlier this year when Chad Rowan of
|> 
|> Hawaii, wrestling under the name Akebono, became the first American to
|> 
|> be crowned yokozuna, or the sport's grand champion.
|> 
|> Plastic Sumo
|> 
|> Inflatable sumo wrestling, though, has nothing to do with the sport. In
|> 
|> this bar game, players slip into a rubberized plasic suit that zips up
|> 
|> like a sleeping bag. The approximately $2,400, flesh-colored suit,
|> 
|> which features breasts and a thong-like diaper, is pumped with an air
|> 
|> compressor.
|> 
|> In one instant, the suit produces thunder thighs and a monstrous gut. A
|> 
|> helmet with a black wig cut in a blunt chop with a pigtail on the crown
|> 
|> is put on.
|> 
|> Rick Kirkland, managing directory of the Napier, New Zealand, company
|> 
|> that created the concept, said the genesis of the suits was "almost
|> 
|> accidental."
|> 
|> He said they started out as safety suits for a different  game --
|> horizontal bungee jumping, in which people are flung sideways by
|> 
|> elastic cords.
|> 
|> "Then someone said, hey, it sort of looks like a fat guy!" said
|> 
|> Kirkland.
|> 
|> Belly Bumping
|> 
|> After the suit is on, players hop and waddle on a wrestling mat, where
|> 
|> they bump bellies and bounce off each other. Some get seriously
|> 
|> airborne. When a player is down, he or she can't get up without the
|> 
|> help of two assistants.
|> 
|> "It feels like a nurse is doing a blood-pressure check on your whole
|> 
|> body," said Kevin Caldwell, a 23-year-old Seattle work-release prison
|> 
|> counselor, who had just wrestled his friend and won.
|> 
|> "It's like your surrounded by a trampoline," he added. "I hit him (his
|> 
|> friend) and I automatically flipped and did a 180 in the air."
|> "It's very popular now, the way karaoke was the big thing for a while,"
|> 
|> said Mark Eckardt, bar manager of H D Hotspurs, which features the game
|> 
|> every Wednesday night.
|> 
|Also, in advertisements for Warren Miller's latest ski film ("Beyond
|Black Diamond" or something like that) there is a clip showing two
|individuals doing this 'sumo' on snow skis.
|
|Richard Webb
|webb@phys3.physics.wsu.edu
|
|______________________________________________________________________
|Department of Physics                          Office:  (509) 335-7012
|Washington State University                    FAX:     (509) 335-7816
|Pullman, WA  99164-2814                        Home:    (509) 334-6256
|______________________________________________________________________
|
| 1955-1975: 36 Elvis movies.
| 1975-1989: nothing.
|-- Tom Neff
|----- End of redistributed message -----

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