DCHP-3

barrel-jumping

DCHP-2 (Oct 2016)

Spelling variants:
barrel jumping, Barrel Jumping

n. — Sports

a sport in which ice skaters jump over a row of barrels attempting to go the farthest (see Image 1).

Type: 5. Frequency — The sport of barrel jumping is both a recreational and competitive sport with world championships. After gaining speed by skating around a rink, competitors propel themselves feet-first over a number of barrels laid out on the ice. Athletes are scored solely on distance. The maximum distance is twelve barrels at the competitive level, with a maximum of three attempts per distance (see Encyclopedia of World Sport, s.v. "barrel jumping"). The sport has been described as a combination of "speed-skating, high jump and long jump" (see the 1989 quotation). Although barrel-jumping is a competitive sport, it also appears to be a common form of entertainment at winter festivals or carnivals (see Canadian Encyclopedia, s.v. "Winter Festivals"), such as Ottawa's Winterlude Festival (see the 1947 and 2011 quotations). Canadian attestations suggest that the sport was popular in Canada long before the first World Championships were organized in 1951 (see the 1896 and 1908 quotations). The term is most frequent in Canada (see Chart 1).
See also COD-2, s.v. "barrel-jumping", which is marked "Cdn", and OED-3, s.v. "barrel jumping", which is marked "chiefly N. Amer.".

Quotations

1896
It also hoped that Champion McCulloch will do some Fancy Skating and Barrel Jumping.
1908
Morris Wood, former amateur ice skating champion, who recently turned professional, gave two remarkable exhibitions at Chicago [...] One of the features of the meet was the exhibition of barrel-jumping by Wood. He leaped over seven barrels at a distance of 25 feet.
1914
CALEDONIAN RINK - LAMY BROS. Wizards on Steel Blades. CHAMPIONS OF THE WORLD. TONIGHT! TONIGHT! Fancy Skating - Fast Skating - Barrel Jumping GENERAL SKATING 9 P.M. Admission 25c A Wonderful Exhibition BAND IN ATTENDANCE
1923
These include figure skating, barrel jumping and numerous novelty stunts.
1933
Saturday evening's program in the arena included figure-skating by Miss Joyce Gurney [...] and barrel-jumping and other acts.
1947
Mr. Jim Robinson, son of Mayor and Mrs. Robinson, of Wainwright was seriously injured in an accident which occurred during the barrel jumping contest at the annual W.H.S Carnival on Saturday night last. Jim had cleared the 12 barrels, which were 12 nail kegs, and on making the jump over the 13th barrel lost his balance and snapped his back trying to regain it.
1961
Events of the evening will start with chuckwagon races followed by novelty events. These will include barrel jumping; canoe races (undertaken on a toboggan with ski poles,) slalom races, waiter races and a boat race.
1978
Alain Bilodeau of St. Damien, southeast of Quebec City, won the Canadian barrel jumping championship yesterday, jumping 15 barrels for a distance of 25 feet, one-half inch.
1989
''What other sport combines speed-skating, high jump and long jump?'' he asked. World-famous Canadian jumper Yvon Jolin led the field Saturday, successfully clearing barrels. Jolin believes barrel-jumping is a growing sport.
1999
For the last decade, Canadians have dominated the sport, and they consistently win the Culligan World Cup, an international team award added at the 1978 championships. The Canadians have emphasized age-range competitions to extend both the participatory base and longevity of barrel jumpers. They have instituted Pee Wee, Bantam, Midget, Juvenile, and Senior competitions as well as female divisions and have record lists of winning performances on natural as well as artificial surfaces. In 1971 the Canadian barrel jumping clubs regrouped to form the Fédération de Saut de Barils du Quebec Inc. In Canada, at least, barrel jumping's future is secure.
2007
Voltaire represented the reasonable person's attitude to winter quite succinctly when he dismissed Canada as a few acres of snow, and there's only so much barrel jumping, ice fishing, sugar-shack visiting, ice-sculpture admiring, ugly-tuque wearing, ice-floe clambering and earlobe thawing you can endure before the giddy winter-carnival spirit wears out its icy welcome.
2011
Live entertainment includes daily barrel-jumping demonstrations and Sunday musical shows featuring Arthur l'Aventurier (Jan. 23), Les Petites Tounes (Jan. 30) and Boogie Wonder Band (Feb. 7).

References

Images

Image 1: Norval Baptie in world record jump of 20 feet (1916). Source: http://www.sportshall.ca/ [Canada's Sports Hall of Fame]

Image 1: Norval Baptie in world record jump of 20 feet (1916). Source: http://www.sportshall.ca/ [Canada's Sports Hall of Fame]

Chart 1: Internet Domain Search, 14 May 2014

Chart 1: Internet Domain Search, 14 May 2014