Well I've done a lot of crazy things in my life but for the most part, it was only crazy and stupid now that I look back on it with older eyes and a bit more common sense (OK, road surfing seemed pretty stupid even back then but that's a story for another time!).
Today's little trip to the past involves one of my all time favourite hobbies... Tree Jumping!
Now a little background for this uber dangerous but, oh so enjoyable past time. I was living in Grand Valley at this point in my life and was still going to the local public school. I suppose around grades 6-8 which would make me... 10-13 years old I suppose. I know what you all are thinking and NO! I did not get held back in school! I was your average, run of the mill kid! Now, back to the story. In Grand Valley we lived on the outside of town with a backyard that backed onto a farmer’s field. This in turn backed onto the river with a nice, wide swath of trees between the fields and the river. Mainly cedar trees closest to the field which is important and I'll get to it later.
hmmm...
Screw it, I'll get to it now.
Cedar trees are important for a pro tree jumper such as myself and my friends for 2 reasons:
1. Cedar tree's have a lot of bend to them. They don't just "SNAP" when a 12 year old repeatedly tries bending the top of the tree to the ground.
2. The outside cedar trees in a forest grow sturdy branches ALL the way up their sides to make use of all the available light. If you were to walk into a forest of cedar trees, the ones on the inside don't tend to have that many branches from the base until about 20 feet up.
Now you know the tree of choice, onto some stories.
My first recollection of tree jumping occurred one summer with a bunch of friends and I biking some trails in the bush. Like all boys our age, the inevitable dare came. This particular dare was to climb some flimsy looking tree to the top. I'm a little foggy on who made the dare (it was probably yours truly for even back then, I was pretty good at manipulating my friends with such crude tactics). The dare-ee was my good friend "Jess". Jess was a crazy little kid who lived on a farm outside of town but occasionally was able to ditch his chores and come play with us during the summer months. Like any kid that age, the dare could not go unanswered so he dropped his bike and promptly shimmied up the tree like a spider monkey. To our amazement, he made it to the top of this flimsy tree which could only be a mere 25 feet in the air. Then to our glee, he started swinging the tree back and forth, back and forth. This was the coolest thing ever to a 10 year old until we realized what Jess was trying to do. He had his sights set on another tree about 10 feet away. If Jess could pull it off... THAT would be the coolest thing to see! Jess swung that tree back and forth in a rhythm, like he was a part of the tree and a part of the wind all at the same time. Back and forth, back and forth. His finger tips just brushing the branches of the next tree. On his final swing back towards the target tree, he had prepared to jump seeing that the tree he was on was NOT going to bend anymore. He reached out with one hand and had bent his knees. We yelled and hollered at him to "DO IT!" and "JUMP!!". It was poetry in motion to us! And that's when the tree Jess was on snapped at the center and Jess dropped like a rock with half the tree. Jess was able to grab a few branches on the way down and the soft, loamy ground probably saved his life. Once me and the rest of the guys pulled half a tree of Jess, he promptly jumped up, said a few curse words in his parents native tongue, then picked out another couple tree's that were a bit closer together that would more "safely" allow a tree jump to take place. The rest of us guys, seeing that Jess was no worse for wear, promptly joined him and started our long journey on the mastery of Tree Jumping.
My friends and I spent a good chunk of our after-school time for the next few years in trees. Whether it was tree jumping, building tree forts, or even just seeing how high we could climb. I know people can analyze us being most at home in the trees when we were kids and try linking it to our ancestors in trees, having a natural predisposition to being safe up in a tree. Or they can simply say young boys and monkeys have a lot more in common then jumping on beds. But who really cares?
From those humble beginnings based around a dare, my friends and I discovered a great past time that I’m sure young boys still do today (without their parents knowledge!). I’ve got several more stories about tree jumping which I’ll share at a later date.
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