Klask

When you get right down to it, there are really only 3 sports in which I have any interest at all, especially when it comes to participation.

1.  Basketball.

I don’t watch college ball much at all, but I do love the NBA.  I follow the goings on in the wider NBA through the exploits of my beloved Atlanta Hawks (whole nother conversation…) but when it comes to playing the game I’m pretty much washed.  I might put up some shots in a driveway, but that’s about as far as it goes these days.

2.  Badminton.

Weird, right?  I’ve always liked badminton.  It’s fun to watch (seriously, just follow #badminton on Instagram and you’ll see what I mean) and I’d play it if I had any idea how to get a game going.  And if I wasn’t so lousy at remembering who is supposed to serve when and what the score is (I am bad at remembering numbers).  I could definitely see myself eventually jumping face first into badminton as some kind of mid-life crisis.

3.  Klask.

Oh, you don’t know about Klask?  Well allow me to introduce you…

So, Klask is a magnetic board game that came from Finland.  Or Norway.  Wait, was it Iceland..?  I don’t know.  It’s from one of those Viking nations where it’s cold and they speak in languages that sound like someone casting spells.

All I know is that when I got it I took it right out of the box and started playing, I didn’t have any time to spare for any in-depth cultural study.

This is the board:

These are the guys:

I call them guys.  You use them to try to get buckets.  They’re magnetic and you control them from underneath the board.

These are the biscuits:

I think I saw someone online calling them biscuits.  The name works so that’s what I call them too.

The main way to score is by getting a bucket, putting the yellow ball into the hole on the other side of the Klask board.

If it spins around the hole a few times before settling in, it’s called a toilet bowl.  A toilet bowl is not worth any extra points, it just looks cool.

You can also score if the other person loses control of his/her guy and it ends up on your side of the board.

Or if two biscuits get stuck to the other person’s guy.

Or if the other person’s guy goes into their hole.

When this happens it’s called a “klask”, because in Finland (or Norway or Iceland or whatever) the word “klask” is an onomatopoeia for the sound it makes when the guy falls into the hole.

Anytime somebody scores, the whole board resets (biscuits back to their places in the middle) and you go again.  First person to six wins.

I love Klask.  I loved it as soon as I first saw it on Instagram.  I’d play it all day long if I could.

This guy has never beaten me once:

I’ve become a guy who takes Klask with him in his car whenever he goes to anyone’s house.

I don’t take it inside right away, but, if at any point during the party or dinner or whatever, I sense a lull, I’m probably going to say, “Wanna play a game?”  And then run out to my car and grab it before anyone can squeak out a, “No, not really.”

Sometimes I start to think I’m really good at Klask.

But there was this one time when Rebekah got this look on her face:

And then she proceeded to hand out a Klask-shaped whupping.

So I really don’t know if I’m any good or not.  I may, in fact, be abominable.  Who’s to say?

All I know is that it is fun and I really like it.  We should play sometime.

Cheers.