Flying Trapeze Lessons!

Today I took a Flying Trapeze lessons! It was AMAZING!!!

I realize I am an adrenaline junkie. Today I crossed one more adventure off my bucket list (though I may return for more!). Ever since I saw Cirque Du Solei, I was jealous of the trapeze artists, the contortionists, and those who obviously got an earlier start at doing such awesome things with their lives. A few years ago, I decided I am NEVER too old to try new things, thus I started Gymnastics, and making a mental list of all the things I needed to do.

Learning to do the Flying Trapeze was NOT on the list, because I had no idea you could even take lessons! But thanks to Living Social Deals, I found that the lessons DO exist, and they exist right here in Austin, TX.

So today I went, and I learned, and I was cold and scared, and exhilerated!

1st off, I was late. I had to drive all the way south to Slaughter Lane and Manchaca, which is about 45 minutes away from me. I made, though, and after I signed the waiver, the teacher got right into the lesson, teaching me how to swing my body and get my legs over the bar so I can hold on with my hamstrings and calves. It's hard to explain. It was nice, though, cause the teacher kept commenting on how light I was! Made me feel good about myself.

Then we had to climb this ridiculously huge latter, hang half of our feet off the edge, arch our backs and pop our hips out, and hold the bar straight, and then jump. After the jump we were supposed to get our knees in the bar, and let go and then do a backflip off the bar. It was pretty terrifying, but it was so awesome. Here's my 2nd try at it:

In the end of class, we tried to do catch and releases. I never actually got to the catching part because I kept messing up the knees part due to some of my gymnastics training working against me, and some of my fear keeping me from keeping my eyes on my hands like I was supposed to. Here's the 2nd video (my last turn on the bar):

I feel so ALIVE!!!!! Class was from 4-6pm today, so I've only been out of class for 2 hours now, and I just stopped shaking! Mostly I was shaking because I had so much adrenaline going through my veins, but I was also freezing in there! It was so cool, I may just have to do it again!

And finally, a picture of me with my instructor and the people who made sure I didn't die.