Ironman with an Aluminum Can
Flicking through the channels on a Saturday night, I happened to catch an amazing documentary on Spike TV: The Outdoorsmen: Blood, Sweat, and Beers. Its about an annual event that takes place in Washington state; basically a bunch of guys get together for a camping weekend where they compete for the Outdoorsmen championship title. Players arrive on Friday for camp setup, socialization, and Opening Ceremony. At the Ceremony, players are paired off into teams and learn/refresh themselves on the rules of the games. Basically teams compete for points. The team with the most points at the end of the games is declared winner. Oh yeah, and beer drinking is involved. A lot of beer drinking. I mean a phenomenal amount of beer drinking. In fact, drinking beer is an integral part of each event.

Hungover from the night before, the players rally for the Saturday morning 730AM start time for the kickoff of the games. They compete through the day with breaks only for lunch and Bonus Beer rounds. Here are a few brief descriptions of some of the events:

4 Beer Chug: Teams must immediately pound 4 beers (two apiece). Points are awarded to the fastest teams.

Beer to River Run: Teams must drink a beer and then run across a river full of rapids. On the other side is a beer which they must drink. Once finished, they must run back across the river where their partner pounds his first beer and proceeds across the river to his second. Fastest teams are awarded points.

Blind Man's Beer: In this event, each member of a team is blindfolded, spun around, and let loose in a roped off circle where they must crawl their way around in search of 6 placed beers. When each team member has 3 beers apiece, they can then remove the blindfolds and proceed to pound the beers. The fastest teams are awarded points.

Other events include: Hatchet Toss, Log Carry, Log Toss, Tug of War, Rock Toss, Tire Toss, etc.

Bonus Beer rounds are held in between events and are opportunities for teams to gain extra points. A player from a team (who has elected to participate in the Bonus Beer round) must consume a full beer in under 8 seconds. In later rounds the time limit is 7 seconds.

The documentary is entertaining and also disgusting (you see a lot of guys puking up their beers). After 14 events the final Iron Man round is played (where the championship is decided between the leading teams). Teams must pound 6 beers (3 apiece) and points are awarded to the fastest team. After this round, the games conclude, points are tallied, and accolades, awards, and trophies are distributed. Indeed, fitting with the spirit of the Outdoorsmen games, a celebratory beer is drunk from the trophy cup.

I was horrified by what I saw, but I was also greatly entertained by it. Check Netflix for the DVD when it becomes available.