#01 Flying Trapeze

#1Trapeze - Completed 26 June
Having woken at 5am a little nervous and due to some change of plans, I found myself arriving early to the site on my own and got a glimpse of what I was installed for - OH MY GOD was I nuts? turned out that I wasn’t. Sort of.

Next to arrive was our resident photographer Sarah, who unfortunately had to pull out of the session due to injury, bringing me a T-shirt with “Kaz’s 40 things before 40” on the back very cool! Kerry and finally Janine (with a massive hangover in toe) this was going to fun!!! After a quick warm up and training session (J was already a bit green by this stage) it was time to climb up.

In a nutshell the description of what we needed to do was - climb up the ladder, turn around the ladder once past the net, keep going to the top, step on the platform, hold the bar with right hand, while the guy holds you completely, let go of left hand to hold the bar, once ready to go, jump back and swing out, bring knees up over the bar, then let go off arms and swing upside down, bring hands back up to bar, take legs off and let go. That’s it. Are you kidding me? Looking back I see this was a big ask for first timers like me. BUT who would have thought it was actually possible; to add to this by the end of the session they said we would be doing a full catch. Yeah right.

So the first guy goes up, a young guy who says he’d never done it before - completes the first stage like he was born in a circus, amazing! Eventually it was my turn. Climbing up the ladder was worse than I thought, I don’t usually have an issue with heights, this climb was way harder than I imagined, must be the fact I was holding my body weight as I climbed. By the time I got to the top I was shaking, badly. The guy waiting up there was so nice, asking about the '40 things’ (he’d seen the t-shirt) obviously trying to get me to forget about what I was about to do. After fixing all the safety gear, I was then expected to put my complete trust in him to hold me so I could hold the bar with both hands. It’s time for me to jump. I jump off and realise that my hands haven’t gripped the bar properly and it’s all feeling wrong. Then the nausea hit, oh god I want to get off..trying to yell out I want to get off above the music and the trainers yelling instructions is really hard, so I just let go. opps, they weren’t ready for me and I face planted the net, how embarrassing. Trying not to vomit at this stage I get off as fast as possible, the girl was nice in trying to give me advice, but I was done, that was terrifying and I wasn’t doing it again.

Kerry was up after me and poor thing had the same issue with her hands, she could feel herself slipping as she tried to move her legs at all and like me didn’t manage to get her legs over the bar, at least Kerry had a more graceful landing than me!

Janine, Janine, Janine - what a legend, seriously hangover she manages to climb up, swing off, legs over the bar, lets go, swings and gets her hands back and legs down - brilliant!!! Eventually it comes back to my turn, I have calmed down a bit by this stage and feel that if I don’t give it another go I’ll never really know if I could do it. So turning on the positive voice in my head I climb up the ladder and make it to the platform in one piece. I told the guy I just wanted to swing out and get a better feel for what I was doing, not to aim to bring my legs up, I got a great grip on the bar, jumped back and swung out, Man that was awesome!!! as I was swinging back I realise I was feeling a bit off again and basically wanted to stop, yet again, the landing wasn’t so good (I seem to lose all control once I let go of the bar) another face plant on the net!!, oh well at least I tried! Janine has a few more goes and actually did finish the session off with a full catch - just amazing!

Jesse arrived (with her hangover) just as we finished and joined in all the laughs. While all these people in our group were complete strangers it was fun to support each other and yell out - of course us five being the loudest - but hey we were there to have fun! All in all it turned out to be a fun morning, definitely going back when Sarah and Laura are up for their sessions - my aim next time is actually not face plant the net and land gracefully.

One down, 39 to go.