944

Taking Off with Flying Trapeze

Some might say I swing higher and lower than the best of 'em. Hell, I sometimes say so myself. Penthouse to pavement, cornice to gutter, I'm out there, swinging away. But I don't think I've ever swung higher than the evening I hit The Flying Trapeze School at Bayfront Park, strapped myself into a harness, climbed up a rickety ladder, leaned out over an abyss, grabbed a pole and let myself go. But it wasn't until I dropped to the net, flipped to the ground and put my hat back on my head that I actually began to get the swing of things (somewhat anyway).

If you're a rookie like me, though, you also have to sign a waiver before ascending to your swing, a waiver that states in no uncertain terms that if you die it's not their fault. But with The Flying Trapeze School's utter attention to safety and the staff's obvious exemplary experience, only a nance would really think he was gonna fall from the sky and break his neck, which I suppose makes me a bit of a nance.

So sue me. I've faced off with a gang of cutthroats down a long dark alley and wasn't a third as afraid as I was up on that platform, rubbing chalk on my uncalloused hands and being held in place by a lass half my size. Really. It didn't matter that the lass obviously knew well what she was doing, it only mattered that she was letting it be done to me. That she asked me to lean out and grab a pole that weighed as much as one of my 22s didn't help. Neither did the comforting words that preceded the "hup" that means "go!" No matter how adept the instructor, how tight the harness, or how strong the net, this was the sky and I was not a bird or a plane.

Alas, each and every one of my classmates wasn't even an iota as shy about flying and they took to the sky with a grace and a glory I could only hope for. Which I guess is kinda the whole point: swinging with The Flying Trapeze School will not only bring out whatever grace and glory you have within you, it'll compound it exponentially.

Reserve your place in the sky at
www.theflyingtrapezeschool.com

  Add to Faves