The sport of extreme ironing was born in 1997, when the British mountaineer, Phil (Steam) Shaw, was uncertain whether to stay home and do laundry, or go climbing, so he did both.
As a joke, he knocked off a few shirts at the summit, having toted his ironing board and iron with him. Word (and photographs) of the stunt spread quickly, and now the “Extreme Ironing Board” (the sport’s governing body) has branched into several countries.
Today, entries still flood in, from ironing on kayaks to underwater, to bicycling and hang gliding. Extreme cloth flattening seems to be a growing fad.
