Quidditch really surprised the shit out of me, words I never thought I’d type.

First, the play is way more physical than it’s possible to truly comprehend without seeing it firsthand. Think rugby with a broom between your legs.

And secondly, there’s crying in Quidditch. Crying?! There’s no crying in Quidditch!

Yep, I saw it all recently at the Quidditch World Cup outside Orlando.

Ok, I’ve seen one or two Harry Potter flicks, so I sorta remember them playing a game with balls, baskets and, oh yeah, flying brooms. But I wasn’t taking notes. It wasn’t like I thought it’d ever become part of my world of Weird Sports™.

Needless to say, no levitation here, Holmes. And no costumed athletes, which surprised me some. Though the Florida heat would have destroyed them in short order.

The very basic of descriptions (poached from their web site): “Quidditch is a co-ed, full-contact sport that combines elements of rugby, dodgeball, and Olympic handball, with four balls (plus a human snitch) and seven players per team vying for control of an elliptical pitch.”

Eighty teams, hailing from across the States and as far away as Australia, France, Canada, the UK, and Mexico, competed for the championship title.

The squads battling it out the final day of play were largely large college powerhouses, such as UCLA, Texas, Texas A&M and LSU, all programs known for football and hoops, and less for fantastical make believing.

Here’s the thing: these teams, these players put everything they had into Quidditch. Passion. Blood. Sweat. Tears. That – and the Florida heat – left me slightly stunned and very impressed.

Without doubt, Quidditch is one of the best team sports I’ve ever shot, also words I never thought I’d type.

As with all great weird sports adventures, I was joined for the visual goodness by dear friends from the TBT. Thanks Melissa and Eve for being as photogenic and weird as Florida.

Spring Break. Spring Break Forever!

Last time I went to LA, shit got SURREAL.

That’s when I got my first taste of ladies arm wrestling Hollywood Style.

For better or worse, there are many things I will never forget, things I can’t unsee.

I had many fond flashbacks to my time with Extreme Pencil Fighting up in Seattle. Same energy, same crassness, same wonderfulness.

To read more about my trip to LA, check out my article for Wired. To see more photos, keep on scrolling.

Weird Sports, holla.

Thanks again to everyone with LA LAW for making weird photos and weirder memories. I had a blast and am thankful for the friendly harassment from Howie to get my ass down to capture this fun.

A few weeks ago, I shot lingerie basketball in the City of Angels.

(Sometimes I wonder if I even need words for my posts.)

The Lingerie Basketball League had been on my radar for some time. Most of their games are held in a dark dungeon. But before their season, they play an exhibition double-header on the famed courts of Venice Beach.

Blue skies and money light for basketball? Done and done.

Sandwiched between a couple gigs in Portland, I literally flew into LAX like a rock star for 7 hours before returning home.

The games were delayed by some of the worst (men’s) street ball I’ve ever seen. Painful to watch. And it dragged on waaaaaaay too long. Didn’t they know I had a flight to catch?

Ironically, the women played a much better brand of basketball. Not saying they’d beat the guys, but they were competitive, skilled and played with smarts, if not tons of layers.

For obvious reasons, I had some flashbacks to shooting lingerie football a couple years ago. Honestly, it felt a little creepy photographing women in lingerie in a public setting. And it’s difficult for me to know which photos work on their own, or if they’re solely dependent on the visual gimmick. Or if it even matters.

I’ve shot a few hundred basketball games over the years, so I feel very comfortable around a basketball court. Though I’ve never really had such amazing light like this before. Part of what I was looking for was a photo that looked very much like regular basketball action. And I was also searching for some irony. I look forward for Mike Davis editing this take, because I’m not sure what really works – and how well.

Many thanks to my good friend Kevin Sullivan for joining me in this very, um, brief day of weirdness.

This past spring, I drove up to Seattle for one of the happiest weird sports I’ve ever witnessed: The Color Run.

Thankfully, I was accompanied by one of the happiest photographers I know, Smurfette aka The Erika Schultz.

We laughed the entire day. And for several days afterwards, I’d get a text from Erika saying she still had blue boogers.

My feature finally ran in my Wired column, so I thought I’d post some of the outtakes.

Weird Sports, holla.

There are a handful of Weird Sports on my radar that I consider imperative to have for my next book. Flaming Tetherball is definitely one of them.

I shot it recently in Seattle and waxed poetic for my weekly blog on WIRED. Below are some of the outtakes.

Flame on, yo.

A couple weeks ago marked the 3rd annual Prom Dress Rugby exhibition, which coincided with Pride Weekend in Seattle’s Capitol Hill neighborhood, a perfect opportunity for some fun cross dressing.

Two Seattle rugby squads faced off against each other: the men from Seattle Quake Rugby FC vs. the women of the Seattle Breakers Womens Rugby Team.

The gents wore dresses. The ladies sported tuxes. Naturally.

The event is not just fun. It’s also a fundraiser. Spectators could affect the game by paying for penalties or change of possession during the game. Fifty bucks would give a team “a try” (think touchdown). But the most popular – by far – cost just $25: a change of costume with an opposing player.

Proceeds from the match went towards supporting Seattle’s Pride Foundation. This year, they raised $500, which isn’t a surprise after witnessing – and photographing – so many costume changes.

I have had prom dress rugby on my radar for years. In fact, awhile back I had planned a trip to UCLA to photograph their women’s fundraiser. But the university originally wanted to charge me $2k in location fees. Really? Something in the water in LA, which is the only place I’ve ever been hit up for cash – multiple times, mind you – to photograph weird sports. I’m trying to make you famous, and you want to charge me?

School officials realized later they couldn’t enforce that, but I was already looking for a more positive program. Found one in Wisconsin, but then I heard about this cross dressed version in Seattle. Slam Fucking Dunk™, people. Caught the tail end of the match last year, and vowed to return for more.

The Quake was founded by 8 gay men who wanted to bring gay men and men of color into rugby. Members also include straight and married men. This annual exhibition is a chance to raise money and recruit players of all experience levels to play rugby.

Weird Sports doing good work. Holla.

I did a short phone interview with Diego, who plays for the Quake. “The thing about playing against women in rugby: they’re out to prove they can hold their own. And they can,” he told me. “They might be small, might be delicate, but don’t let that fool you. They have no problem taking you down.”

Diego’s mom called him after seeing some photos of him in drag on Facebook. “She was a little shocked,” he said. “It took her awhile. “‘What does your wife think about this? I assume she’s OK with it.’” He laughed. “Mom, she’s the one who picked the dress out.”

Diego told me his team is a very close knit group. “These guys will go out for beers and drink you under the table, then go out with your wife shopping the next day.” (Weird Sports Quote of the Year nominee)

I had originally planned to have this post featured on my weekly WIRED column, but alas, no dice on that platform.  For now, these photos go old school, back on my personal blog.

And I imagine there’s a very strong possibility (probability) one of these images makes the 2nd volume of Weird Sports.

Please do not for a minute think that I believe what I do is normal.

Normal people wouldn’t fly cross country into Boston for 36 hours just to photograph musical chairs.

BREAKING NEWS: I am not normal.

And after that short PSA, here are some of my favorite images from my post on Wired about the Musical Chairs World Championships.

Grab a seat, yo.

And special thanks to Andrea Wise for joining me for this weirdness. Do yourself a favor and check out her killer vid, yo.

 A few months ago, I wrote a post for wired.com about my adventures photographing the Nuclear Cowboyz, a post-apocalyptic motocross heavy metal opera with fiery explosions and go-go dancers. Yes, go-go dancers.

Today, I thought I’d post some of the outtakes. And yes, there are more photos of go-go dancers.

Party like it’s 2150, people!

I achieved a miracle of sorts this past week: I had a blast in Texas without losing 5 lbs in sweat. Who knew Austin could be so awesome in April? (Not me.)

Photographing unicycle football was in itself great. Hanging with great friends like Julia and recent Portlandia immigrants Emily & Caleb was a wonderful bonus, as was gathering for a couple Texas-style barbecues with new peeps.

Below are my favorite images from game day. To read my über witty prose on Wired.com, do the right thing and click here.

Austin, you’re totally weird. I thank you.

Photographing Weird Sports is really an excuse for me to travel and have fun. But who says there isn’t fun right down the street on Hawthorne? No one, not after witnessing pudding wrestling firsthand at the Mt. Tabor Theater the other night.

To read my witty post about the first-ever Pudding Wrestling Massacre in PDX, simply move your cursor and click here. Outtakes from that night are posted below on this here blog.

Portlandia, holla.