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Extreme Jousting: Like A Head-On Collision With No Seat Belt
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Some people would call getting rammed in the chest with a block of wood torture. But Charlie Andrews loves it, and he wants it to be a professional sport.
Andrews is a jouster, which consists of mounting a horse wearing 100 pounds of armor and slamming a solid wood lance at an opponent, trying to knock him or her to the ground.
Jousting has long been a staple of renaissance fairs. But it's now the subject of a National Geographic show called, "Knights of Mayhem," which Andrews jousts on.
Andrews says that getting hit in the chest with a solid wooden lance, "feels like a head-on collision with another car and you don't have your seat belt on."
Andrews has broken ribs and fingers and once suffered a near-fatal pulmonary embolism. But as he tells Here & Now's Robin Young, he does jousting "for the love of the game."
"I love going out there and jousting, I don't care if I get hit, I don't care if I get knocked off, I always want to get back on, I always want one more pass," he said.
- YouTube: Charlie Andrews Explains Extreme Jousting
- National Geographic: Knights Of Mayhem
Guest:
- Charlie Andrews, an extreme jouster
This segment aired on December 9, 2011.