Sport allegiances out on the Great Barrier Reef
One of my favorite hobbies when out and about is to look at people’s shirts, hats, jackets, backpacks and scarves to see what sport teams are represented. It can be really interesting. (Clothes say a lot about a person at times. And sport related clothing can to. Why people wear things can involve a conscious fashion decision, because they visited the place where the team is based, because they want to be affiliated with the team or a city, in order to have conversations, because their team is winning, etc.) In Canberra, you’re just as likely to see a Hawthown Hawks as you are the Brisbane Broncos or the All Blacks as you are to see the Canberra Raiders or ACT Brumbies. It makes the game of sport clothing watching a bit more fun.
Yesterday, I went out on the Great Barrier Reef. (Went out with Quicksilver based in Port Douglas. They have a trip that does not require snorkeling or scuba diving. Boat holds 440 people. Not a small sample.) The variety was rather interesting with no repeats. The only team represented that seemed out of place was South Africa’s football team and I was wearing that shirt.
That said, the following teams were all represented once:
- Melbourne Storm
- Hawthorn Hawks
- South Sydney Rabbitohs (the guy wearing it immediately hit the bar after getting off the boat)
- Hong Kong Rugby 7s
- Cabonne United (Rugby league team from NSW)
- USC Trojans
- South African national football team
- Boston marathon (Not a team but still a major sporting event)
- Canberra Raiders
- Boston Red Sox
- X-Games (not a team but a sporting event)
- Chicago Bears
After I got out, I spotted a kid in the marina wearing a North Queensland Cowboys shirt. I couldn’t tell if he was on the boat or not so on my list of places I have seen jerseys, I put it with the marina rather than the reef. Anyway, I’m not sure exactly what to make of this list. I know there were Kiwis and Dutch and Germans and English and Spanish speakers and Koreans aboard. I could hear their accents and see them reading printed material in the language or some one would ask them where they were from and they would say. I just didn’t see sport clothing. I don’t know if the Western Australians and South Australians weren’t on board or just weren’t wearing sport related stuff for their teams. I thought the Victorians were supposed to be more sport mad but not really represented here. The USA was represented with a fair representation of teams and events.
