Thursday, March 19, 2015

running away to join the circus

It's sort of happened in a round about way. I remember watching Circus of the Stars as a kid (remember that?)

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=NkX-mDRRTHY

And I was the kid climbing to the top of the tree. And hanging upside down from places I shouldn't. 
It might have been a weird thing to want, but the flying trapeze was something that I locked away in the back of my mind and knew it was something I'd like to try. 

Then about 10 years ago a former coworker moved to Montreal and I think the first update we got from her was a short clip of her doing just that. Trapeze. And then a couple years later a blogger I had been following from New York wrote a post on it as something her and her husband did as a date. 

It was getting closer...

Last year I went to a special event at the revitalized New Westminster Quay and who was flying above us? Inside? People on trapeze. I nearly lost my mind. 

So a couple months ago when I saw a deal on Social Shopper for a trapeze class for 2 at ANOTHER trapeze group in Vancouver area I immediately told the first friend I saw, mr CH and as I was uttering the words "who would ever go and try this with me..." I realized I was talking to that very guy. 

We booked our session, which normally takes up to 10 students in one class, but in the end it was just us 2 and 3 instructors to ourselves. It was only a 2 hour class and I knew there was a ground lesson, but I did not expect to be climbing up a 24 foot ladder, with a safety harness in less than 20 minutes. 

Seriously. 

Yep. Climbing that ladder. 

Forgive me, but I realized the gravity of what I had signed up for only when I was suddenly standing up there. That was the hardest part. Leaving the platform. 
There was one instructor up there attaching me to safety harnesses, holding me back (I realized after, only with their bare hands), getting the bar to me and an instructor on the ground manipulating the safety ropes when needed to control my fall and shout instructions. 

Seems like simple instructions, but the panic sets in and I felt like I was hearing nothing. Just follow their voice. 
NOW. And NOW. NOW. 

My first attempts I could not get my legs over the bar- note to self: the key word is momentum. 

The best run, it worked- not smoothly- but it worked. 
BTW believe it or not the dismount from the bar is a back flip. I thought they were crazy- it wasn't a suggestion, it was expected- and that it would be totally impossible, but that's what I'm doing there as I dismount from the trapeze bar. 
Oh thank you net!
And it felt so damn good. 

Once that basic was mastered, in less than an hour we moved onto the catch. One of the other instructors got up there too and the idea is if you do everything right- they grab you and off you go swinging with them holding you by your arms. They literally catch you in the air. For me, at this point I was running out of steam, and never quite got there, but CH got it on his 2nd attempt. 
Not bad. Not bad at all for less than 2 hours. 

Great and talented instructors. Cool space. Thank you so much to the team of high fliers!
In the adrenaline of it all we signed up for 2 more classes. In the adrenaline of it all I did not realize how sore I was. 

Not going to lie, I'm in pretty rough shape. Right now I'm at 48 hours later. I feel like I've been hit by a car. I think I sprained a toe on my last dismount- it's purple. I can't lift my hands/arms above my head- so I can't wash my hair or put it in a pony tail. I sneezed tonight and had to brace myself, and this evening sitting next to a 9 month pregnant lady who asked me to pick something off the floor for her I was no help. But, we will recover, and we will go again. 

Check them out:
West Coast Flying Trapeze
http://www.westcoastflyingtrapeze.com