Ever wondered how it would feel to throw a pole over a long distance to determine the winner? Well, why not try it? Yes, that’s right, there is a sport that makes you do just this.
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Welcome to the world of caber tossing. It’s played in the Scottish Highland Games. The pole is called a caber. It’s almost 6m tall and weights 79 kilos. The term ‘caber’ derives from the Gaelic word cabar, which refers to a wooden beam. The person tossing the caber is called a ‘tosser’ or a ‘thrower’.
How did it originate? Lumberjacks who had to throw logs over streams used to do it a lot. From there it developed into a sport.
The distance is not important, just that the caber falls away from the tosser in a perpendicular position. It’s not easy a one has to balance it upright and toss it in a way that it falls in a certain position. Think you can give it a go? Try it, what have you got to lose?