Trapezing!

Yesterday morning, I received perhaps one of the more random calls of my life. It was my cousin Natanya asking if I wanted to go to trapeze school after work. Uhhh..... Well, never one to turn down an adventure, I hopped on board and excitedly scooted over there to meet her. Given such short notice, I did not have time to form many expectations but I did assume my $55 for a two-hour lesson would be good fun...something I could say, yeah, whatever, I tried that once. I did not expect to actually get my money's worth. Within 2 minutes of being there, we had already met our instructor and been told that on our first run, we were going to hook our knees up over the bar, hang upside down, then back flip off. Yeahhhh, ok. Can we maybe just try swinging for a couple seconds first?!

So we climb up the stairs and wait our turn on the platform. Which is the part they don't tell you about. And the hardest, scariest part. So, there's a size 2 girl up there "spotting" us - they use a hook to bring the bar "close" to you. You are supposed to just bend 45 degrees out over the platform, trusting this girl to hold your harness with her bare hands while you grab the bar. Because your body has to be fully extended at 45 degrees or you cannot get a good grip on the bar, my lack of trust in this tiny girl resulting in me barely grasping the bar my first time out. They called at me to lift my legs up over the bar, but as I was barely holding on, there was no way I could further exert myself with my light grip. I swung out a couple times, then just dropped to the mat below. Fail. I got better as I did more runs, and did successfully hook my knees and swing upside down. Which, I am very sad to report, is just not as much fun as I thought it would be. I love swinging, I love heights - this should have been just a magnified playground. But I don't know if it was the lack of momentum or lack of experience or what, but it was really just kind of "eh." My favorite part of the experience was when I'm dismount from the mats, the instructors would always say "You seem to hesitate after you hear our calls, try to work on that." I'm thinking they don't remember their first time, but it's a little intimidating to just let go and fall.

My cousin and I were having a decent time and we were glad we were doing it, but we kept watching the clock to see if our 2 hours were almost up. How sad is that?! Finally, as we neared the end and were getting comfortable with our tricks and starting to loosen up, they're like, oh yeah, now this 100 lb little dude is going hang upside down on the other side to catch you when you release your legs from the bar. Oh, is that all?! So I launch off and as they call to me to hook my legs, I think to myself, "Self, does that even sound fun?" So I just don't hook my legs, swing a few times, then drop. These poor instructors were baffled why someone would not want to do that with a stranger, and kind of tricked me into trying again. They said the worst that happens is he doesn't catch you and you don't release your legs. Yeah, ok. So I jump out, finagle my body upside down, wait for the catcher to sync up to my swing (which got off because I took too long assuming my position :) ), then stick my arms out and fly. Miraculously, he catches me and it doesn't jerk my arms out of their sockets like I expected. He says something hilarious like 'fancy meeting you here," flings me a few times, then down I fall to the mat.

All in all, I'm glad I can say I did it and I'm glad I can tell the story. But the upper body strength and the amount of skill they try to teach you in 2 hours makes it seem like it was not a beginner's lesson at all. I heart me some mediocrity and I would have liked to just get to swing about, right side up and upside down, get some good momentum as on a real swing, then call it a day. But it was fun, and now that it's over, I maybe wish I would have tried a bit harder to make more of it. I would recommend it if it's something you've ever wanted to try, but if you're on the fence even a little about the height or trust or fear factor, I think it's safe to sit this one out.