[chirping of birds]
[brrrrrrrr, click clack]
- Bowl coming!
- It's a little cannonball.
[ball skitters down road loudly]
- So when you say,
"I'm going to go chuck a cannonball down the street,"
people get really confused.
You have to Google it,
and once you do, you realize, "I want to do that."
Why not chuck a cannonball down the road?
It's exactly what it comes down to.
- That might live.
- On the backroads of La Crosse County,
Luke Seielstad and Brady Hoeth have come to play.
[metalic clack ]
- That'll do.
- Basically, it's a sport
that they do in Ireland on back roads.
[ball skitters down road loudly]
- Irish road bowling is a sport born during the Renaissance
and now enjoyed by these modern-day Renaissance men.
- It's a historic thing that happened in Ireland
all the way back to the 1600s.
There is a theory
that the Irish stole cannonballs from the English
and didn't want to carry them the whole way,
so they just threw them down the road.
- The weapon of choice these days...
- We call it a bowl.
That's why they call it Irish Road Bowling.
- B-O-W-L and it weighs 28 ounces.
- So, it's a 28-ounce steal and lead and iron ball.
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- On this particular evening...
- I gotta figure that out.
- ...Luke and Brady scout the course
for the 5th Annual Irishfest Road Bowling Championship.
- I'm really kind of wondering
if they're going to let us play that back section.
- The gravel? - That could be interesting.
- And these defending champions are ready for battle.
- When you talk a big game,
you have to be able to put up a fight.
- So let the championship begin.
? ? [Irish jig music]
- Think we're going to win?
- Absolutely!
- Better.
[ball wobbles and rolls metallically]
- Bowl coming!
- Once a year, I live for this game.
Just like Irishfest.
- The rules are simple.
As simple as propelling a two-pound cannonball.
- It's heavier than you think
and you want to chuck this two-pound ball
as hard as you possibly can,
as far as you possibly can.
It's exhilarating. It really is.
It's liberating.
- There ya go.
- Onlooker: Nice throw.
- Can't toss it overhand.
It's all got to be underhand.
- You can be gentle; you can be hard.
But the answer is,
you have to go across the set course
in the fewest number of throws.
It's kind of like golf in that respect.
- The gamesmanship is intense.
- Fellow bowler: Stop talking and start bowling!
- Another bowler: You gotta put some mustard behind it!
- That's a nice line.
Get that pull. Get that pull!
- This might look like chaos...
- Is it far enough or not?
- Yeah!
- ...but there is a method to Luke and Brady's game plan.
- I think Luke takes care of the long power shots.
- I thought it was going to wind up short.
It just kept going.
- It works out, having a partner like Brady.
He has the finesse roll.
He can make those curves, and things like that.
- Look at that too.
Dead on.
Dead on!
- Where it goes off the road, that's where you mark it.
Hey, you wrote 19, right?
So, this is 20. - Yeah.
- Between the two of us, we make it work.
- Perfect.
- Making it work isn't always easy.
One bad throw
[friction of ball on road]
- We'll find it.
- Other times, that's just how the bowl bounces.
- You could have a perfect shot,
and one little rock in the middle of the road
might just send it flying the other way.
- Stay up.
[exhaling in exasperation]
Mulligan!
- Then again, redemption lies in the luck of the Irish.
- Onlooker: Good roll, Rick.
- Told you about that side.
Aye! We'll take a kick!
That's what I'm talking about.
- The game also teaches patience and perseverance.
- Road bowling takes a lot of time,
only because you lose the bowl.
[tick, tack of bowl in gravel]
- Right off the edge? - Yeah!
- Didn't go that far either,
but I just didn't watch the exact spot it left.
- Thankfully,
there are a bunch of people there that are watching it
and that are willing to help you find it.
Otherwise, you spend a lot of your time
tromping through the grass,
and just trying to find your bowl so you can throw again.
- That'll do donkey.
- Both: That'll do.
- At the end of the day, with the battlefield behind them,
Luke and Brady win another championship
while sporting their Irish pride.
- We got a lot of Germans, Norwegians around here,
and they have all their festivals and stuff.
It's kind of cool to bring the Irish bit in.
- I hope people get excited about it.
I hope they see how much fun we have.
And I hope we bring more people into it.
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