Amazing what you can find on the internet under skateboarding stories…

Again, I love remind folks that 50% of skaters are UNDER 11…The only wizards they know about have the initials HP.

“Wizard stick’ dangerous new drinking game
Posted By Elianna Lev, The Canadian Press
Posted 1 hour ago

VANCOUVER — A drinking game that’s making the rounds confers ‘‘wizard status’’ on anyone who consumes enough cans of beer to exceed their height, but a health expert suggests this kind of binge drinking is anything but wise.

The game is played at so-called ‘‘wizard stick’’ parties and the rules are simple. Every beer that is consumed is taped to the one before it. Eventually the beer cans stack up and form a walking stick, which is carried around for the night.

The person whose staff exceeds their height wins, and obtains ‘‘wizard status.’’ (When the sticks reach a certain height, they often curl over, resembling a wizard staff.)

New York-based photographer Patrick O’Dell has documented such parties on his popular photo website, Epicly Later’d.

He said he first saw the parties in a skateboarding video but has attended several in the last year, including one on a skateboarding tour he was photographing.

‘‘When everyone would gather around the campfire, we’d call it wizard’s council,’’ O’Dell said. ‘‘You had to get help to drink your beer by the end. Somebody would hold on to the end and lift it up.’’

A study conducted in Ontario between 1996-2005 by the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health found the demographic that tends to take part in wizard stick parties — males between 19 and 29 — appears to be the same as the group that is most likely to drink to excess.

That group had the highest percentage of people surveyed who admitted they drank more than five drinks on one occasion on a weekly or monthly basis.

‘‘It’s a particularly vulnerable group and I’m sure the drinking games don’t help,’’ said senior scientist Norman Giesbrecht with the centre.

In some cases, binge drinking can lead to serious problems like liver damage, permanent brain damage or death from severe dehydration.

Giesbrecht said he’s concerned about the social consequences of binge drinking like fighting, drunk driving, sexual violence and unprotected sex.

“All these things are related to heavy drinking and binge drinking,’’ Giesbrecht said.

In August, a 20-year-old man from Burnaby died after drinking 10 beers and then chugging a more than 550-ml bottle of whiskey on a bet.