Whoa...

Nod to Keanu.


I sent this text out to some people last night, right after I got into my car from Gleason's.

"I flew"

If ya read her stuff, MD had already taken part of the madness that is wire fu. Not being one to miss the bandwagon, I figured I'd better see what all the fuss is about. So I went. And it goes a little something like this.


I got there around 8-ish and had to wait while they got the riggings up in the rafters (Which took them a good 30-45 minutes) Then the get the harness on you (Like a climbing belt, but cinched lower to account for ride-age) I noticed the snug-factor right away, and I tried to avoid making snarky "package" comments. ("Oooooooo male camel toe Oooooooooo Saddle Bags Oooooooo")

You go through the basics first: Getting used to walking around (It's a weird feeling) and taking mini-jumps, letting the counter weights pick you up (You get a goodly amount of air with just the 25 lbs counters)

Then they pull you up to see if you can lean back and stay flat on your back while being supported in mid air. (You start on the floor on your back, then they sloooowly bring you up) Next, they do the same with you lying face down. I started doing the full body flips right away so we moved on to "Level B"- Where they pull you straight up and you do 1-2 flips before they let you down again. (These were tricky. My impulse was to try and "jump" when they pull you, when you should just let the wires take you up. Also, when you do the flip you have to keep your body straight. I kept doing a "leg and arm tuck" out of habit.)

Crotch was chafing at this point, but I was having too much fun to care.

The cool stuff was next. (You know it'll be cool when the instructor guy says "Did you want to try some cool stuff?") Which entailed:

Big running start and jumping 15-20 feet and landing in a fighting stance/Getting pulled back (like I was punched/kicked) 15-20 feet and landing in a guard stance/ Tornado kicks 10 feet off the ground where you keep spinning and spinning and spinning/ And then we did the flying.

Just pure flying. And sure as f##k I got my ass tangled in the harness.

More than once I landed in a Spidey pose.

And I won't lie. It was cool to be surrounded by female gymnasts. ("Jace, is this guy here new? Is he here for the wire kung fu? gigglegigglegigglegigglegiggle")

It's not all glamour.

The guys let me guinea pig a new rig for them too. (The launched me at the school owner, who through a nerf football to me in mid-air. Awesome.) I didn't get home until 11:15ish. It was really fun, and I can't wait to go back and try it again. Brilliant.