Building a Trampoline

During our trip to the east coast of the U.S. my wife used the trampoline or lack of it to keep our 13 year old daughter in line during our trip.

But when we returned home the trampoline was being trucked to our door. Of course, we had to assemble it.

Having put together many things like houses, car engines etc. over the years I thought this might be mentally easy although physically a little hard at age 61. So I decided to complete the initial circle of pipes with my 13 year old and enlist the help of my 35 year old son, 20 year old daughter and her 23 year old Boyfriend when they returned from their day of fun near the ocean. As I began to assemble it I realized my picture of what it was supposed to look like was slightly skewed. So I had my 13 year old print out the instructions from the internet including pictorial instructions. Sure enough, it was put together in some respects differently than my mental picture. However, there was another obstacle to overcome. One of the pipe arcs that makes up the 4 arcs that make the circle had been dropped hard on the ground or smashed in some other way during shipping. So I began, using some of the tools I inherited from my father and grandfather to try to make the piping circular on the end again. I realized that although I could make it close to a circular tube on the end again I couldn't, at least with the tools at hand make it perfect. So I realized that I could instead drive the connecting insert(a slightly smaller pipe section) into the almost perfect end and create the same result. But then I realized that the other section of pipe arc also had a smaller pipe section welding and screwed in place. And even after removing the screw I couldn't get it loose because I didn't see the spot weld because I didn't expect it to be there. But when my daughter's boyfriend arrived he noticed the spot weld and we decided to break the weld with a chisel because the smaller pipe I had driven into the other smashed but recovered pipe would never be removed now. Finally, using and old iron vice from the 1930s and a metal chisel we were able to break the weld and remove it and install that piece. The we began installing the springs on every 8th loop and groove until the mat was supported completely in a circle. Then we put in all the springs and the spring cover and we were done.

I was amazed that my 20 year old daughter's boyfriend could jump so high but understood he was a snowboarder that could do 65 foot jumps so had to have excellent balance to do that. I went on too and had a great time being the naturally fearless person I am. But at age 61 I realized I had forgotten how to stop a jump and to slow down and almost hurt myself because of this. My wife was upset because I weigh about 300 even though I'm 6 foot 5 inches tall and said that my feet in the bottom of a bounce were only 2 feet from the ground so this made her concerned. My 13 year old was in ecstasy from the trampoline because he friend also has one and was amazed how good her sister's boyfriend was on it because one of his best friends had had one during his teens when he grew up in Colorado.

However, a cautionary note for older persons like myself. I found that it did things to my body that I hadn't anticipated and the next morning when I jumped for a while again I had a had time keeping my balance walking when I got off it like one gets after having been sailing for a day. So be careful not only while jumping on a trampoline but also after you get off if you are over 50 or so. But it IS great exercise with low impact to the bottoms of your feet. However, it is stressful to your musculature and spine and balance, especially if you are not skinny anymore and over 50 like me.