Water running over people. Hard.

[Robb]

:D

In the nearby town, we have water fights every Fourth of July. They've been doing this for close to 100 years; here's a photo of the fights from 1935:



You get the idea. It's evolved into four fights, Junior Men's, Women's, Mixed, and Senior Men's. The last is the big diameter hose, but they're all pretty intense. You win by the other team quitting.

I had a good spot. You can see the line of squatting judges. These are very serious men, because the waterfights are very serious business. :D



Looks pretty tame until you see how the water can get through the jackets, body armor, helmets and what-not:



These two just lost the hose:



The women's event was exceptionally cool, and went on longer than any other fight. Kids, really. Teenagers with firefighter families:





You can see how they brace one another. There's a lot of technique, they even switch positions mid-fight to conserve strength:



And it really hammers on them. Here's the mixed division:



Then, the seniors. The big guys. Grudge matches that go back generations.



In this case, the challengers beat the reigning champs. Below, the judges are manning a huge clamp on each hose, because as soon as those guys lose it, the thing could whip around and take someone's head off. Here he's yelling into the ear of the rear guy that dropped the hose, asking if he's going to pick it up or if it's over:



It's over.

[NV Whino]

1. Great photos

What a weird sport. But possibly no more weird than the wine pour-offs or the forklift rodeos that we have here.

[NashVegas]

2. Cool

I especially like #3.

[Maestro]

3. Unique event.

I like number 3 too!

[DS1]

4. looks like fun