2~10~01
With The Greatest of Ease
I finally ran away, joined the circus, and became a trapeze artist.For a few hours, anyway. Steve and I took a trapeze class here in Byron Bay, Australia. It was two hours of training on my favorite circus act.
Ever since I was little, I've always been most drawn to the trapeze acts at the circus. Not only did they perform tricks that looked very difficult, but they looked so graceful doing it. I've always secretly wanted to run away and learn the trapeze.
And, surprisingly, it is not as hard as you might think to get started. We began by hanging by our knees on a static trapeze close to the ground, and by the end of the day, I could swing through the air with the greatest of ease, fly from my trapeze and join hands with someone else on a second trapeze.
The first try on the real trapeze was the hardest. I had to climb up a very skinny ladder to the platform above the net. The platform, like the whole trapeze apparatus, looked kind of flimsy but was actually quite stable. Then, I was assisted by one of the performers (staff) to get hooked into my safety lines (one on each hip).
Then, she directed me to reach for the large trapeze with my right hand while standing on the edge of the platform and holding on to it with my left hand. Being shorter than most, it was quite a stretch for me, but the performer held the back of my safety belt to keep me up.
I was standing, barely balanced, on a platform high above the safety net, about to jump off and try to put my other hand on the trapeze while dropping. I was a little nervous.
"Hup!" yelled the performer, which was the cue to jump. She also gave me a big push from behind, and I was swinging! I put my legs up on the bar, hung from my knees, and let go of my hands as we had been instructed, swinging upside-down briefly before righting myself and then dropping to the net. It was so much fun. I had been thinking along the lines of bungy jumping, etc., and instead this was like playing on a big swingset. I couldn't wait to go again and enjoy the pull of the centrifugal force on the trapeze.
Once I had mastered the first trick, they told me to try a back flip as I fell to the net. I couldn't quite visualize how it would work, so I said I'd try it next time after I had seen someone do it. One of the other students managed one and said it was pretty easy, so I did it next time myself. It was perfectly easy, especially since the guy hanging onto the other end of my safety lines lowered me slower than gravity would have.
After a few more tries, I was deemed ready to try "the knee hang catch." This is where I do the first trick, but instead of dropping to the net at the end, I join hands with one of the performers on a second trapeze (while I am hanging from my knees). It looked very hard.
I climbed up, jumped off, and hung from my knees just like before. Suddenly, the other performer was just in front of me with outstretched hands. We grabbed each other easily. Since it was my first time, I waited an extra second to make sure she had me before letting go with my legs - causing a painful tug at the backs of my knees. All the same, it was much easier than I expected.By this time, I had an open blister on on of my palms, and both hands were quite sore. I rested longer between each try and watched the rest of the students. Steve did quite well on the trapeze, too. By the end of the day, he had accomplished the knee hang catch. Aside from Steve and I, there were two Canadian women, an Aussie woman, and a ten-year-old girl. One of the Canadians did the same tricks as me; the other was afraid of heights and only managed a few tries of the knee hang (without the catch) before giving up. The ten-year-old girl was as naturally graceful and agile as most kids are and managed a knee hang catch by the end of the session.
There was one more trick for me (and the Canadian woman) to learn, however. Braving our burning palms, we were taken one at a time to the static trapeze to rehearse the "splits." Basically, you end up hanging upside down by your hands, with one leg extended on either side of the trapeze.
My sore hands could only manage two more attempts on the real trapeze, and I blew the first by forgetting in the middle which trick I was doing (resulting in a silly-looking, but perfectly safe, landing on the net). On my last attempt, I nailed the splits, and as an extra bonus, also nailed the "splits catch" - releasing from the splits position and grabbing hands with a performer on the second trapeze. It wasn't as easy, mentally, as the knee hang catch because I was further away from the other performer. But by then, I was confident in the safety lines and the net, so I was able to let go and was surprised to find myself in the performer's grasp.
All in all, it was an amazing morning. In only two hours, I learned tricks I would have never expected I could do. If it weren't for my hands hurting so much, I'd go back tomorrow to progress further. Despite my lifelong interest in aerial acrobatics, I never imagined it was something that was possible for me. Maybe if I find another circus school when we stop travelling, I may see just how good a trapeze artist I can become.
~ * ~ I also learned another new trick in Byron Bay: how to surf. Steve and I took a four-hour surfing lesson the other morning (the day before the trapeze class).
We used very large boards, because they're more stable for beginners, and so I struggled with mine all morning. It was heavy to carry, and difficult to maneuver through the breaking waves on the way out. I got frustrated at times when I'd get my feet knocked out from under me by successive waves.
But the surfing itself wasn't bad at all. In our class of four, everyone was able to stand up on the second try (after some drills on the beach). We surfed fairly small waves, and the instructor gave us a push, but we all were able to stand up and ride. Usually, once I was standing on the board, staying up there was easy. 
It was a fun and exhausting morning which forced Steve and I to enjoy massages in the afternoon.
Steve also did a lot of boogie boarding in Byron Bay
