You look at trampolines these days and it’s great to see we can learn from the past. Hidden springs, sunshades, netted, and round. Where were they when I was growing up??
One thing hasn’t changed. Even though they were fraught with danger, I had a trampoline growing up. Most of my friends did too. The standard rectangular one with the really big springs spaced wide enough to lose legs through. Of course we never followed the “Two at a Time” rule, and growing up in the tropics, we always had the hose on it.
We got busy when we became teenagers, and the bouncing stopped. It’s such a shame!
I was on the lookout for different ways to give my body some surprises while doing therapy down the coast, and noticed there was a Bounce a few doors down. I don’t know if you’ve ever been into one, but it’s worth it just for a look. Almost complete chaos with kids of all sizes and ages flinging themselves from tramp to tramp to try all kinds of tricks. And the tramps are HUGE. So big there are people using them to run sideways up walls, do triple twist double decker summersaults. And then some. Wow!
“I rope in a friend and roll on in. To my delight, it’s all wheelchair friendly. And they take companion cards….this is one I definitely need a companion for!”
The staff were great. They freed up one of the tramps for me so I wouldn’t have random balls of energy bowling me over. Parked the chair on the edge of the tramp that had a jumping platform that was the right gripping height, put my little non slip socks on and edged on over to the middle.
Those things are bouncy! I was pretty happy just standing there and bouncing as much as I could…while holding on tight! We had an hour…plenty of time for me to get braver. What’s the worst that can happen? Falling over on a tramp from standing? I think I can manage that. So the grip kept getting looser and looser.
Let’s not get too comfy though…my companion gets me into the middle of the tramp. You know, the really spongy bit. I stand for a while, holding onto her hands, even some tiny bounces. Then she’s gone. Not even on the tramp anymore?? What can I do? Free stand. It’s either that or fall over…I do that too. And roll around. And laugh.
In fact, I do that a lot. The few times I’ve gone to Bounce, it’s the middle of the tramp, doing as much as I can on my own. Even the falling over is fun. What’s funny about being in the middle of a tramp, with the chair out of view, is that the kids do not see the “disability”. So they come screaming across the tramp to get to the others. And I fall. I love that they don’t see it.
HOW HIGH?
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