Flying Trapeze

Unlike many of my other friends, and myself, Lael usually plans some kind of physical activity for his birthday. For his 30th it was paintballing (no thanks) and this year it was Trapeze. He had gone earlier this month for another birthday and enjoy it so much he decided that's what he wanted to do for his birthday as well. Great :( BUT, since I skipped out on the paintballing, I figured that I'd take part in the trapeze. Mind you, I was terrified about the idea of jumping off a platform 25 feet up and swinging through the air but thought this would be a good challenge for myself. Although I knew I'd probably enjoy myself, and be glad after the fact that I went, I was so nervous all last week :(

Saturday arrived, Claudia came over to get ready at my place after her training, and Lael picked us up about 2:00 to head up to Vallejo, where we were meeting Lael's GF Jen who would be taking us the rest of the way to Sonoma. Once we got into Sonoma, we took this little, windy road up into the hills to SkyFarm Trapeze. Even though I was nervous, I could still appreciate how beautiful it was up there-- the trapeze was outdoors in a grove of oak trees. Once there we were met by some more of Lael's friends and our trapeze instructors for the day: Marek, Hope and Darrel.

The first thing they started out doing was teaching us the "Knee Hang." This is the same thing that we used to do when we were kids on the jungle gym... it's a little harder to do as an adult :D They had a trapeze bar set up closer to the ground and we all practiced grabbing on to the bar, swinging our legs up and onto the bar, and then letting go with our hands and hanging there. This was one of the things I was nervous about doing... I wasn't sure that I could get my not-too-flexible legs up to the bar. It wasn't the prettiest or most graceful thing, but I did it. Lael, Jen and Kelvin, who had all done this before, got to practice a different "trick": The Bird's Nest for the boys, and the Splits for Jen.

After we had all tried the Knee Hang, it was time to get into our harnesses. I had been warned that these things were tight, but I had no idea! He cinched... and cinched... and then cinched it some more until I felt like I couldn't breathe anymore. At that point I think I almost had a panic attack because it was so hard to breathe! Once we were strapped in like sausages, Marek taught us what we were going to be doing once we got up to the platform. Feet at the edge of the platform, grab on to the pole with your left hand to anchor yourself, "pee pee"out (stick your hips forward over the edge), grab the bar with your right hand, then with your left, and then 1, 2, "HEP" and JUMP!!!

We let the experienced three go up first and then after the next two bravest, it was my turn. AHHH!! First we had to climb up this little dinky ladder to the platform 25 feet up. I was already shaking and nervous about falling off before I even got to the platform! Once up there I chalked my hands and Darell clipped me in. I grabbed the pole with my left hand, grabbed the bar with my right but when he told me to let go with my left hand, lean out there and grab the bar with my left hand, all of my survival instincts told me NOOO!!! But I did it and was totally freaked out leaning out over the platform with only Darell's hand through the back of my harness keeping me up there. But then an amazing thing happened... Once they yelled "HEP" and I jumped, all my nervousness disappeared! All you're thinking of is this sensation of flying through the air and concentrating on getting your legs up and then hands off the bar. Even hanging upside down wasn't scary... since you're swinging back and forth, and the net is below you, you can't really see how high up you are. After a couple of swings they told me to put my hands back on the bar and then they talked us through a little flip, and we just dropped down to the net. No biggie! (You can also watch the first video in the post below).

All of us took turn practicing our knee hangs, and then it was time to practice a "Catch" where one of our instructors would be up there swinging upside down on another trapeze bar and he'd try to catch our hands as we were swinging upside down. Unfortunately, by this time I was getting really tired. You use a lot of your core muscles to get your legs up and hooked on the bar, and after a few practice swings, I could tell it was getting harder to get my legs up. After Marek talked us through the catch on the ground, we all got two turns to get it. It didn't get it either time :( On my first try I just couldn't get my legs up... and then the second time I got my legs up, but I wasn't swinging high enough for him to gran my arms-- we only managed to slap hands :) (That's the 2nd video in the post below). Despite not getting a "catch", I still had a fun time and I'm SO glad that I did it. Boy do I have the bruises and sore muscles to show for it though! I have bruises on my feet, shins, and the back of my knees... I've got a mark on my stomach from the harness, and the sorest muscles I've ever had! Today it's 4 days since we went and I'm STILL sore!!

After our Trapeze class we all headed back to the square in Sonoma and had dinner at Mary's Pizza Shack. After that crazy workout, we were all pretty hungry and managed to save some room for ice cream afterwards!