Sports photographers travel around the world to chronicle the odd and wild world of sports through their photos. While basketball, soccer, tennis, swimming and car racing are among the most popular sports played by sports enthusiasts these days, there are actually several less popular sports events that can offer not just means for individuals to keep themselves fit but even more so, avenues through which they can see sports in a whole new dimension. These sports are now gaining popularity in several parts of Europe and the United States and are played by the toughest and most fun-loving individuals in both corners of the world. Here is a list of the ten oddest sports photos taken by some of the most world-famous sports photographers. These photos feature some of the funniest and weirdest actual sports and game scenes in the world.

Photo Source: http://solneelman.photoshelter.com/image/I0000MGrDt5SB_oE

An annual sports event played in knee-deep mud, the Mud Bowl is a highly amusing sports event normally held at the Hog Coliseum in North Conway, N.H. This sport is also known as “the championships of mud football” and is commonly participated in by teams made up of clans and several grand marshals from New England. Families engage in zany games such as the Mud Bowl as part of their annual festivity called “The Tournament of Mud Parade.” Participants in this fun sports event join to raise money for local charities in New England, the most common of which are the North Conway Day Care, North Conway Community Centre and the Carroll County Retired Senior Volunteer Program.

Photo Source: http://om911.com/the-most-unusual-kinds-of-sport.html

Every year, 30 countries around the world participate in the World Urban Golf Day—an event that promotes Urban Golf as a sport. This international event is held in a “live aid” style of format and has been one of the most exciting street sports since its inception six years ago, especially in Australia. Australian golf enthusiasts participate in the annual Urban Golf Australia to raise thousands of dollars for several charities, particularly Father Chris Riley’s Youth Off the Streets Program. Normally, golfers who take the streets to take part in the annual World Urban Golf Day are clad in their fun golfing attires and bring with them their own pitching wedges and golf balls. Sometime in the past, however, a photographer spotted a woman who participated in the sports event and pitched a tennis ball, not a golf ball.

Photo Source: http://www.frogcitycheese.com/east-dublin-georgia-2010-summer-redneck-games/

Since its inception in 1996, the Summer Redneck Games has been an annual major event in East Dublin. For the last decade, about 95,000 individuals from the United States have been participating in the one-day event, which features a host of fun sports such as the Hubcap Hurl, the Bobbin’ for Pig’s Feet Fest and the Redneck Horseshoes. More than pleasurable and energy-sucking, the Summer Redneck Games is known for being among the dirtiest sports event to have ever been incepted, akin to Mud Bowl. Participants in the sports event under this banner enjoy a silly time adhering to the mechanisms of each sport for a prize, only to end up grimy. This photo features the mud pit belly flop, the highlight of the Summer Redneck Games in East Dublin.

7. Water Hockey

Photo Source: http://news.discovery.com/adventure/extreme-sports/slideshow-extremely-unusual-sports.htm

A non-contact sport that was invented in 1954 by four sporty individuals who sought to have a means to stay fit even during winter, underwater hockey is pretty much like ice hockey, except that players of this sport compete underwater. Underwater hockey players are grouped into two teams and compete against each other in maneuvering a puck across the bottom of a swimming pool until they arrive at their goals. The puck is a sports equipment made from vulcanized rubber and usually serves as a ball, especially in conditions when the use of a ball is unfeasible. This photo features four female divers trying to get hold of the puck during an Underwater Hockey event in America.

Photo Source: http://www.wired.com/playbook/2012/05/cardboard-tube-fighting/

If one is to create a list of the oddest sports events that exist today, the Cardboard Tube events certainly won’t miss a spot. Every year, the Cardboard Tube Fighting League (CFTL) spearheads sports events that are based on cardboard tubes, of all sports equipment there are. The cardboard duelling event happens every year in several parts of the world, including San Francisco, California, Sydney, Australia and Seattle, Washington, above all. The cardboard tube events are held during summertime in public parks and encourage participants to crack down on fun over competition. This odd sports event was started by Robert Easley, who used to love hitting his enemies with cardboard tubes as a child. This photo features a cardboard tube duel in Seattle, where kids wrestle with one another just to win a customized cardboard tube.

Photo Source: http://www.solneelman.com/blog/2010/05/13/grab-life-by-the-ball/

Dodgeball is a sport participated in by two teams whose fundamental objective is to throw large balls against their opponents without being hit by the balls their opponents throw to them. Typically, this sports event is played by kids 6-12 years of age, though it has evolved into a popular informal game played by people of all ages in not-so-formal recreational settings such as playgrounds and barren lands. The normal number of balls used in an episode of a dodgeball game is three. Sometime in the past, however, the largest dodgeball game, which featured larger than life figures, was held in Manhattan, USA. This photo features the most massive dodgeball game to have ever been held in history, featuring 600 balls and 712 players.

Photo Source: http://pdnphotooftheday.com/2012/12/17960

Dubbed as “the dirtiest race,” Dirty Dash is a race that lets people look at race events in a whole new dimension. It is a mud run obstacle course where, according to its organizers, “military boot camp meets your inner five-year fantasies.” Because of the backbreaking and grubby stunts involved in joining dirty dash, this all-fun event is said to transform boys into men, and men into swine. Participants, normally boys, race through a long, extremely dirty and exigent obstacle course until they finish the race stinking after dipping into a pit of mud. This photo features a woman who once joined the dirty dash, leading through a six-foot wall—one of the first hurdles in the course.

Photo Source: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/07/nyregion/07outhouse.html?_r=0

Every year, thousands of people come out to witness what is known today as the oddest sporting event in the upper Peninsula—the Outhouse Race. This race happens along the snow-covered Main Street and is held under changing themes every year. In this sports event, participants go on head-to-head races under different divisions, normally depending on their age and height. Watchers of this special festivity often shout out the names of their bets all throughout the competition, so it is always raucous right the way through the end. This photo features teams of male players who joined the amusing Outhouse Race in the Washington State.

Photo Source: http://www.solneelman.com/blog/2011/07/04/the-king-of-chessboxing/

Considered as a hybrid sport that fuses chess and boxing in sporadic rounds, chess boxing is a not so popular sport that was introduced in 1992. Invented by French artist Enki Bilal in a comic book that he once wrote, chess boxing requires players to be good at playing both chess and boxing at the same time, as this can be won either way. For a specified period of time, both players box at the boxing rink, then go down the rink to play chess. The first real sports event of its kind was organized in 2003 in Denmark, until its thrill has become viral among the people of Berlin, Germany and London, United States. This odd photo features two players in their boxing attires, playing chess beside the rink following a round of boxing match. The sports event only ends once one of the players beats the other either through a knockout or a checkmate.

Photo Source: http://lens.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/03/28/the-weird-world-of-sports/

Fondly known as the most taxing one-day survival ordeal in the world, the Tough Guy Competition is an extreme challenge that has never been finished by anyone since its first staging in 1987. Because of the tests involved in joining this arduous sports event, many people describe it as “the toughest race in the world.” It has been staged 25 times since 1987 and has suffered two fatalities throughout its history. The odd thing about this sport is that it is held during freezing winter conditions and involves a cross-country run and an “assault course.” This photo features the dirty participants of a Tough Guy Competition held in Staffordshire, England.