Schwingen

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Last Saturday I spent the day in Frances, Wa., the eastern most town in Pacific County, covering the 44th annual Schwingfest. Frances is home to the largest Swiss club in the United States, and Schwingfest is its main event, where men do Schwingen, a traditional form of Swiss wrestling.
This was a blast. I've been wanting to do this for years. My wife's parents live in Chehalis, and everytime we drove to their house we'd pass Frances and I'd think about getting out for the event. This year it just happened to work out.
It is such a low key event, very cool. No commercialism at all, which is so fresh to see (or not to see as it were) these days, where everything is sponsored by something it seems. In fact, if you didn't know what and where it was, you wouldn't find it, as there are no signs on the road advertising it. I think the only thing that was disappointing — other than the fact that I had to drive home before they did the stone throwing event — was that there was no ethnic Swiss foods to be had — the kitchen was only serving up burgers and fries unfortunately.
The Frances Swiss Club also hosts a Swiss bowling event in the fall at their Oktoberfest, I definitely want to find myself there in a few months for that. Go HERE to find more on the schwingen event

If you're interested in other unusual sporting events, like me, you should definitely check out my pal Sol Neelman's new blog, The Wild Weird World of Sports Now that he's a "free agent DH" photog, he can truly commit himself to his life's passion — finding some of the oddest sports you can think of!

-DKM