Longboard Hockey: They Use a Beer Can as a Puck

Still on a bit of a buzz after writing about pato, Argentina’s indigenous hybrid of polo, basketball, and soccer, I found myself wondering: What will be the pato of the 21st Century? In other words, what sport will crossbreed a timely transportation technology (as pato did with the horse, frontier Argentina’s ride of choice) with put-the-rock-in-the-basket scoring?

I’ve written a bit about the phenomenon that is bike polo, and I’ll have more to say about that excellent sport in this space soon. But let’s dig a little deeper into the sporting underground.

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Of course. Longboard hockey! This looks fantastic: A game so new, it doesn’t even have a Wikipedia page yet—nor even a mention on the general entry for longboarding (i.e. long skateboards) itself. And yet, longboard hockey exists! Or, at least, so the rather mesmerizing video evidence suggests:

[vimeo][/vimeo]

Judging by the uninformative websites, aging feature stories, and out-of-date Flickr sets associated with the sport, longboarding hockey doesn’t seem eager to break big. And that’s cool and all, but this game sure looks like it deserves a wider following. Not only are these guys playing hockey while mounted on the skate-world equivalent of Humvees—they’re using a Sapporo beer can as a puck! “The toughest beer can on the market,” they say. And who could possibly figure out—let alone consider—which beer can is the toughest, and therefore best suited to service as a hockey puck? The Canadians, of course. And when Canadians are involved, you know there’s going to be awesome hair, lost teeth, and a total disregard for physical safety.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xaCJLwbtdfM

Can I be the first to call for longboard hockey’s inclusion in the 2020 Olympics?

Photo (CC) via Flickr user kk+