Odd sport combinations that just seem to work

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March 20, 2024

By: Kaja Antic, Sports Writer

American Ice Football

In a video circulating various social media platforms recently, there appears to be a form of American football played on ice in Germany. Combining elements from hockey and American football, the Germans seem to have created a perfect concoction of two very popular, yet very different, sports from across the pond. The field mimics a typical American football field, but is completely made of ice. Adding to the entertainment factor, each player is dressed in hockey gear with football helmets and shoes instead of skates, causing them to slip and slide all over the place.

The tournament took place before Super Bowl LVIII, with four teams competing on the icy adapted field. Teams had eight players a piece, consisting of former athletes and celebrities from across Europe. The game still included the typical American entertainment factors such as cheerleaders and light displays during touchdowns, captivating both German and international audiences. While this may not yet be an official sport by any means — though I wish the International Olympic Committee would consider it — it’s certainly entertaining with its whimsical mix of both popular sports.

Chess boxing

Yes, this is a real sport. The match begins with a chess board placed in the middle of the boxing ring. The chess portions last four minutes each before switching to a two-minute boxing round. Winners are determined by a knockout, referee decision, checkmate, or an opponent move that lasts over 12 minutes of the allotted chess time.

Originating in England in the 1970s, chess boxing seems as fictional as can be, but the sport is very much alive and well. Combining the brains associated with chess and the brawn associated with combat sports, the athletes competing in these events seem virtually unstoppable. The sport became official in 2003 when Dutch artist Iepe Rubingh organized its first match after being inspired by Enki Bilal’s 1992 comic book Cold Equator, which heavily featured the then-unofficial sport.

There are two current governing bodies for the sport — the World Chess Boxing Organization (WCBO), which was founded with the help of Rubingh in 2003, and the World Chessboxing Association (WCBA), which split from the WCBO in 2013 to expedite the growth process for the sport. There are national chess boxing federations on all continents excluding Antarctica, and the sport is continuing to grow internationally.

FootGolf

Probably the least surprising combination sport in this piece, FootGolf combines golf with association football — known as soccer in North America. Formally invented in 2008, FootGolf has garnered attention worldwide since its inception with courses in over 50 countries. There was even a FootGolf World Cup in Orlando which ran from May 27–June 6, 2023, with France taking the men’s team title, Argentina taking the senior men’s team title, and Japan earning the women’s team title. Highlights were broadcasted by the highly popular sports channel ESPN in August 2023.

The first I had heard of FootGolf was a May 2021 video from the UK YouTube group, the Sidemen, where they played the sport with the winner earning money in this “impossible challenge.” In the scope of the Lower Mainland, there was a designated FootGolf course in Surrey that ran events in the summer of 2014, but the main golf course has since been brought under new ownership, and the new country club does not feature the footgolf adaptation. There are still six courses throughout BC, with three on Vancouver Island and three in the Okanagan, so if you’re interested in this sport, you might want to book a road trip.

Jules Sherred makes cooking accessible in Crip Up The Kitchen

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Peak Web

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March 20, 2024

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A photo of the hardcover book with the title “Crip Up the Kitchen.” — PHOTO: Jin Song / The Peak

By: Alex Masse, Peak Associate

Jules Sherred’s Crip Up The Kitchen is a debut cookbook with a twist — it’s written by and for disabled people, giving them the tools to prepare food for themselves and others. The book contains dozens of recipes, as well as advice on everything from shopping to kitchen safety.

Sherred’s love of food goes back to his youth, which he spent in what he calls “a very multicultural environment,” giving him the chance to fall in love with a broad range of food, as well as a wider understanding of food as hospitality.

“All of these great world cultures were what I grew up with,” Sherred said. “[My] comfort food is very much flavour, and spice, and things that warm you up.”

His disabilities, though, interfered with his ability to work in the kitchen, which he calls “the most ableist room in the house,” and a “place of beauty” that prioritizes “aesthetics over function.” For example, even though Sherred’s kitchen is up to code, his wheelchair cannot comfortably navigate inside it. Additionally, due to his mobility issues and chronic pain, his days of cooking for “five-plus hours” are now behind him.

Enter the Instant Pot, an automated multicooker that made cooking accessible again. While initially skeptical, Sherred soon discovered Urvashi Pitre, who lived with rheumatoid arthritis and used the Instant Pot herself.

“As I was watching her cook, I was like, oh, now I get it,” Sherred said. Presently, he estimates about ninety percent of his cooking is done in his Instant Pot.

With the disability experience being incredibly varied, encompassing mobility issues, chronic pain, cognitive symptoms such as brain fog, and more, it can be daunting trying to find a solution that is accessible for everyone. Sherred, though, who experiences all three, states that the Instant Pot accommodates him perfectly: “No matter what type of brain day, pain day, or mobility day [ . . . ] I can just throw stuff into a pot, put on a lid, [and] walk away.”

Additionally, Crip Up The Kitchen builds on the theories and language of disability writers before Sherred: throughout the book, he employs spoon theory to outline how strenuous recipes may be to undertake. Spoon theory, a concept coined by Christine Miserandino in 2003, explores how many disabled people across diagnoses find themselves with less energy than abled people — abled people have “cups” full of energy, while disabled people only have “spoonfuls,” which are easier to spend and harder to replenish. Sherred uses this familiar language in Crip Up The Kitchen, with recipes getting a range of spoon counts, from one to “all your spoons.”

The cookbook also contains dishes from a range of cultures, which Sherred states was incredibly important for him to represent, citing how the recipes many people of colour grow up making and eating are often mocked and exoticized. To him, everyone deserves accessible approaches to their comfort food, regardless of background.

“I have a duty to use my white privilege,” Sherred said, “making sure everyone is included . . . I have an intimate understanding of what it’s like to be erased.”

Currently, Sherred has two new manuscripts in the works. One is a coming-of-age novel about reproductive rights, featuring a transgender protagonist, and the other is a successor to Crip Up The Kitchen, which will focus on baking with an air fryer. To get the latest updates, including future calls for recipe testers, which will be coming “very, very soon,” sign up for Sherred newsletter on his website. Crip Up The Kitchen is available now directly from Torchwood Editions, as well as your local bookstores, including Massy Books, Iron Dog Books, and more.

It shouldn’t be this hard to get fragrance samples in Vancouver

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Peak Web

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March 20, 2024

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Sample fragrance bottles — PHOTO: Scentll co / Unsplash

By: Michelle Young, Opinions Editor

I love fragrances. I spend most of my time working or studying at home, so I primarily wear them for myself to smell throughout the day. However, even a 50ml bottle can cost upwards of $100. You might think that because you like the smell of “cherry blossoms” — and that’s listed on the bottle — you will like this smell in perfume form. Unfortunately, that’s often not the case due to a variety of factors. The same perfume will smell different on different people, and will smell different to different people. You might not end up liking it at all. When bottles are so expensive, and last for multiple years, you want to make sure you like what you’re getting. This is where the importance of “sampling” comes in.

The idea is you should try a certain fragrance on your skin for a prolonged period of time to really make sure you like it before purchasing the whole bottle. Small samples are occasionally sold individually, but are more often sold as sets. The issue arises when you live in Canada and want to sample anything beyond mainstream fragrances.

New York and Los Angeles are known to house multiple in-person stores and locations with a wonderful variety of niche fragrances to try out and sample. However, I’ve noticed Vancouver is very limited. Stores like Sephora, The Perfume Shoppe, and Hudson’s Bay do carry some interesting fragrances you can spritz on yourself for a day, but that’s not the same as a sample bottle. It’s better to get a sample to have a better sense of longevity and how the environment might affect the scent. This is especially important when being mindful of scents that can trigger someone’s scent allergies in public. I personally have a hard time smelling anything in the mall due to the constant mixture of perfumes, and you really shouldn’t be spraying yourself more than once or twice. If I can’t venture out to smell these myself, the logical step is to purchase them online. The problem is that online shopping for samples tends to be absurd.

Usually, sample sets make for a pretty good experience to get a sense of what you like. However, sometimes I’m just not interested in five out of six of these fragrances, and paying $30, or sometimes much more, for one tiny 1.5 mL sample (plus shipping) is unreasonable. When trying to order anything from outside Canada — where the majority of niche perfumeries are — shipping can easily double your $40 order into an $80 order. Part of the blame lies in rising shipping costs, and that’s not the fault of perfumeries. However, at that price, you almost might as well buy a full bottle, which defeats the purpose of sampling altogether. Most sample-based websites like Scentbird are based in the US — which also leads to expensive shipping costs.

The times I’ve snatched a sample set for a reasonable price has shown me how important it is to try it on yourself first. Commodity Milk sounds and smells lovely — until it’s sprayed on my skin and turns sour. I know that fragrance is ultimately a luxury and not a need. Spending $10 on a miniscule sample can at times, also be too expensive to justify. However, especially in Canada, fragrance doesn’t need to be as inaccessible as it is — I just want to purchase a sample!

Yes, your healthcare concerns are valid

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Peak Web

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March 20, 2024

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A woman crouched on a couch — PHOTO: Polina Zimmerman / Pexels

By: Saije Rusimovici, Staff Writer

Content warning: mentions of medical trauma.

No person’s mind or body is the same. As individuals, we all have diverse healthcare needs based on sex, gender, and sexual orientation. It can be intimidating enough to arrive at a doctor’s office, fearful of being judged or medically gaslit when talking about issues like sexual health and intimacy, options for birth control, or mental health. I remember arriving at my doctor’s office bracing myself for judgement when I wanted to discuss options for birth control. On a similar occasion, I found myself hiding or downplaying symptoms of my obsessive-compulsive disorder because I was fearful of how my intrusive thoughts might be perceived. Thankfully, that didn’t happen and I’m grateful to have a family doctor that is knowledgeable and kind with a progressive attitude toward modern healthcare. Yet, for many other people this is not the case.

Women experience dismissal by doctors far too often. Gender bias in medicine is a huge problem in the healthcare system. According to The Washington Post, a woman was called “dramatic” because she asked for a brain scan after experiencing severe headaches — that pain was a result of a tumour growing in her brain. The article also points out that in comparison to cisgender men, women with severe abdominal pain were 25% less likely to be provided opioids for their unbearable discomfort. And get this: women experiencing symptoms of heart disease are twice as likely as men with the same symptoms to be diagnosed with a mental health condition first. Too often, women are not trusted to be familiar with their bodies and their symptoms are brushed off. There are even reported cases of women who experience extreme pain with an IUD (used to prevent pregnancy), and doctors ignore their requests to stop the insertion. This is a complete violation of patient consent.

Absurd? Unbelievable? Yup. And it happens way more often than you think.

For 2SLGBTQIA+ patients, the fear of being judged or mistreated by healthcare professionals is also very prevalent. Around 9% of these individuals noted their doctors used harsh or even abusive language during treatment. And no, it’s not as easy as “finding another doctor.” In BC alone, there are nearly 900,000 patients who don’t have access to a family doctor — and it’s hard to get one.

Trans adults also face challenges in the healthcare system, stemming from the increased likelihood of developing chronic health conditions including mental illness, substance use, and early onset disabilities. In fact, 60% of trans adults reported having poor mental health at least one day a month in comparison to cis adults at only 36%. Trans people often lose access to treatment because of mistreatment by healthcare providers. This ripples into other negative health outcomes, as 40% of trans adults avoid going to the doctor because of discrimination (54% percent of these patients being trans adults of colour). Trans adults frequently face discrimination by healthcare professionals, who refuse to accept them as patients or deny them gender-affirming care. This is essential care that trans people lose access to because of a healthcare professional’s inability to respect and adapt their practice in order to meet their needs.

This obviously needs to change. The doctor’s office shouldn’t be a place you are wary of, but rather a place where your concerns are validated. Gender bias has been an ongoing problem for centuries, as studies focus on cisgender men and so-called “women’s issues” are boxed into their own category. Endometriosis, for example, typically affects the internal reproductive system, but can also appear in cis men. While that shouldn’t be the sole reason to pay more attention to it, it demonstrates that health issues are not binary. We should be listening to patient concerns, not dismissing them. Everyone deserves the right to feel safe, respected, and cared for in a healthcare environment.

SFU professor dives into the depths of global shark extinction

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Peak Web

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March 20, 2024

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This is a photo of a Shark in the ocean. — PHOTO: Gerald Schömbs / Unsplash

By: Eden Chipperfield, News Writer

SFU marine diversity and conservation professor Nicholas Dulvy has studied over 500 shark genus types. Through his research and engagement with experts around the globe, 60 species of sharks are at risk of extinction because of overfishing practices.

“As the high seas and coastal waters are becoming depleted in many countries of the world, we’re incentivizing fishers to fish offshore, and it’s become technologically viable to fish up to a kilometre deep,” said Dulvy to SFU News.

Sharks are caught for fisheries to sell their meat and oil, which are valuable in global trade. This has led to the decline of shark populations globally. Their fatty liver is precious for supplements, cosmetics, and even vaccines. According to an eight-year study, “one in seven species of deepwater sharks and rays are threatened with extinction.”

The International Union Conservation of Nature categorizes the extinction category for endangered species. Criteria include the rate of population decline, species in small restricted areas, and geographic range.

Sharks have similar lifespans and lower reproductive rates than other mammals like walruses and whales. Ocean creatures have historically been, and continue to be, hunted and harvested for their oil. These characteristics make sharks extremely sensitive to extinction because of their long life cycles and breeding patterns.

“Some species may take 30 years or more to mature, and possibly up to 150 years in the case of the Greenland Shark, and only produce 12 pups throughout their entire life,” said Dulvy. “Many deepwater sharks and rays can only withstand very small amounts of fishing pressure.”

The study calls for a 30% increase in protecting the world’s oceans before 2030. This would include the deep ocean, where 80% of the threatened species would receive “partial protection across their range.” A fishing probe 800 metres into the sea would cover a vertical refuge for “a third of threatened deepwater sharks and rays.” Fishing 800 metres deep creates a safer area for deep water sharks and rays who are at risk of extinction.

“There’s been great success in regulating the shark fin trade. Now, we need to turn our attention to regulating the international trade in liver oil,” said Dulvy.