Hello,
Me again, this is just a rough guide I've typed up for jumping stilts. This is the first draft, the updated version will be in my powerbocking thread. Look for it there!
Tips from my personal experience
Shopping for stilts
So you're considering purchasing a pair of jumping stilts? GREAT! But wait... please bare in mind there are several different brands on the market, and several different online dealers. In order to insure a smart purchase please do some research before hand. I will attempt to assist with some basic knowledge.
The original brand of jumping stilts was made by Alexander Bock. Called PowerSkips, He has patented these stilts, and it's good to make sure the brand you are purchasing is following the patent laws.
Now his brand of stilts is the most pricey, costing upwards of a thousand dollars. Made more for the extreme user in mind. But there are several other dealers that follow his patent, and are much more affordable. A company in china called flying locust offers identical stilts under different names, Fly Jumper, Powerizer, PowerStrider, and Projumps. Many consider these sub par stilts. But for someone just learning they may be ideal.
Poweriser is considered among the best brands of affordable stilts, ranked under 7 leagues.
The stilts to watch out for are Skyrunners, as they do not pay Alexander Bock royalties and are illegal in patent protected countries. Many also claim that they are horrible quality.
That being said I personally ended up buying a pair many have told me were most likely skyrunners. I originally didn't do much research in my purchase and ordered from www.powerjumperz.com Many online power bocking communities warn about these stilts. Claiming they are just rebranded skyrunners. However, I personally testify that I have had no issue while using them.
Recommended sites to look at-
http://www.powerskip.de/order.html
http://poweriser.co.kr/eng/shoplist/shoplist.html
http://www.xphub.com/
http://www.getjumpingstilts.com/
http://www.xtremestilts.com/
http://www.xkixs.com/
http://www.7-leagueboots.co.uk/
Things to do after you purchased, and are awaiting their arrival
Watch instructional videos, read guides, research, research, research! I recommend watching many different videos of jumping stilts on youtube so you can get the basic idea of how movement should be handled.
I personally watched all the instructional videos from expertvillage starting with this one. Basically develop an understanding of things you'll need to practice on later. Their are many different videos out there to help you with this. Just look around, or hey ask here.
I also recommend you go out and purchase the following things. Wrist Guards, Elbow Pads, Knee Pads, and a helmet. I've found that all the safety equipment I have purchased has saved me thus far. I'd highly recommend it.
Also go out and buy a couple rolls of tape. See my tire socks section below to get an idea on why.
Things to do when you get your stilts
Now I know you want to throw these on straight away once you get them. I ended up doing it myself, but before you get to involved in these. Let me give you some good tips to keep your stilts in great condition for some time. It's a good idea right? You DID just throw down some serious change for these babies. Let's keep them nice.
First things first if you haven't already. Go out and purchase some Hockey Tape, Electrical, or Duct Tape. I personally used Duct tape.
Taping the spring, and knee bar
Why should you wrap the spring and knee bar? Well from my personal experience. I have found while the included covering does help somewhat. It is not perfect, and adding some extra protection can keep the stilt looking nice. See as you jump and bump around, the springs can sometimes come in contact with say, your other spring, the ground, your face... Given that these are made of Carbon Fiberglass. Any nick or ding could affect the springs lifetime.
But why else? Well by wrapping the spring you have a chance to customize your bock. Make it your own. Many people use different colored tape, making different patterns on their bocks. Personally I did a black and white pattern, with orange XD marking the backs, and an orange flame coming up the back.
How should you do it?
Start with a really tight base, keep your wrapping really close together. Starting at one end and spiraling up. Go around with at least three layers of tape. I found that doing it in alternating directions worked fine. After the third layer I personally did a layer of tape straight up and down the front and back. To kind of give it a clean no tape lined look.
After the duct tape, I took electrical tape to add some custom flare. Which is where I did the white strips, and orange lettering. I also ordered a flame decal from www.unicycle.com if you happen to be interested.
You can view a picture of my stiltsBack, And Front. But I urge everyone to do theirs however they see fit.
Now not only should you wrap your spring. But your knee guard as well. I found that on my first intentional fall to practice getting up. It was real easy to rip the foam covering of the knee guard. I quickly fixed this by wrapping it up just like I did my springs. Bow the foam is protected, and I don't have to worry about it ripping.
Tire Socks*
What is tire socks? Well tire socks are an easy affordable way I found to preserve the life of the jumping stilts rubber hoof. Consider this, after say a months use your hoof wears through it's rubber and you must replace it. Buying a new hoof costs around 50 dollars, plus you have to put time in taking the stilt apart to install the new one.
Now consider spending 8-12 dollars on a bike tire, 4 dollars on house clamps. Cut the tire in half, wrap it around the hoof and secure with clamps. Now a month or so later, you wear through the tire and not your hoof. Replace the tire for another 8-12 dollars.
Which seems better to you?
I thought so. Now let me explain the best way I found to do this.
I personally find that regular bike tires made for ROAD use works best. First off I bought BMX tires thinking that they'd handle abuse more. But quickly found out they wore down after two weeks of regular use. Road tires seem better equip to handling pavement. Which is where you'll most likely be bocking. So far I've made it a full month on one side with just a sign of wear on them.
I ended up buying a 22 inch regular road tire. I took it and cut it in half, then those pieces in half. It only costed 12 bucks, and you get seemingly two sets (four tire socks in all) out of it. A good deal.
With your tire portion. Wrap it around your hoof as tight as possible. Hold it steady, and take one hose clamp around the portion of the stilt closest to the hoof but not actually on the off. Clamp it down tight, take another one a couple inches above that. Clamp it down tight, basically until you can't move either anymore. While you do this, insure you have the tire as tight as possible against the bottom of the hoof. It should move barely at all. This may require you to constantly yank and pull at it during the clamping process. But trust me it's worth the stability.
Now take your tape and wrap it around the hose clamps. I did it as tight as I could, to help the clamps out. But really the main goal here is to keep the lose metal bits from bouncing around and hurting you or your bocks.
Now there are a few instructional videos on this process to give you a better idea. I personally watched this One(Click the 2nd video).
*Please note that many powerbockers claim that 7 league boots don't require tire socks due to their thickness and quality.
First Steps
It's really difficult to explain how to walk in these. You basically have to learn on your own. All I can basically tell you is ways I found to be easiest.
First find something tall to sit on. Many people stress that you need to learn to get up from a fall right away. But I found that I needed to learn to stand and hold my balance before popping up to my feet from the ground. So I found something tall to sit on, put my bocks on and then stand. First it was difficult just to stand, so I held myself up on a nearby wall.
What you need to do is just hold yourself there and get the feel of the stilts. Basically with these it's impossible to stay completely still. You need to stay constantly moving to keep balance. You'll learn in time to hold yourself without even thinking and remaining still longer and longer. But right off you're going to be all over the place.
Just move one foot and then the other back and forth. Slowly getting to where you can take your hands from the wall. As you find you can do this longer and longer. Start slowly walking up and down the wall. DO NOT try and jump at this point. Just focus on staying upright.
As you progress either get a friend to walk out with you. Or stay with the wall until you feel comfortable.
Personally it took me a good 20 minutes to learn to stay up, and then half an hour to get to the point of walking unaided. Everybody differs though, don't worry about it and be safe.
Pogo Jumping
Pogo Jumping is just what I like to call one legged jumps. It's a vital skill to learn to get yourself started in the bocking world. Now that you've learned to walk you'll want to learn to jump. But let's start with just one leg. Trust me, it's better to get this down first.
Essentially a pogo jump is you putting weight down on one leg, launch yourself up, then landing on that leg and letting the spring propel you in the air and finally landing again. Bam pogo jump. Remember to center your weight in your heel. It really helps in balance and getting the most bounce.
Pogo Bouncing
Pogo Bouncing is really just a continued Pogo Jump. You launch yourself into a jump, land, go up, land again and continue. You do this all with one leg, you can switch legs to spice things up and help keep your balance. It's good to learn how to do it every which way. Getting this down is really great for your confidence, the fun factor and is a great way to wow your friends as you learn.
Learning to run
Now that you've gotten down pogo bouncing from one leg to another. Utilize those basic skills and learn to run. Or in bockings case more learn to bound. Running with bocks is unlike running without them. So prepare to unlearn what you know, and relearn how to on stilts.
Essentially you put weight down on one leg, launch yourself forward and land with the other. Repeat this process by quickening the pace, and lengthening your stride. It takes a while to learn, but eventually you will learn how to let the stilts propel you forward. Just remember, put your weight in your heel and talk wider and wider steps.
Want to stop? At first just stick to slowly taking closer and closer steps. But eventually start utilizing pogo bouncing to stop your momentum. The best method to stop quickly is to exert all your forward force into upward momentum in a kanga jump. But get that down as time goes on.
Kanga Jumping
Kanga Jumping is really just like Pogo Jumping. Except it uses BOTH stilts to get the max power out of them. This personally took me sometime to get down. As using both stilts will at first unbalance you in the air, and on your landings. Due to it using more power, and requires the timing of using both legs as one.
In my experience I started by just jumping in place. I would launch with both feet first, and just practice on jumping once. Until I became confident in my landings. I recommend doing it near a wall, or something to incase you need to fall forward.
I learned by jumping from one point to a wall or my car. As I became more confident I eventually went further and further away until I stopped using aids altogether. To get the best jumps, launch yourself from a pogo jump into a kanga jump. Essentially, you jump with one leg. Land on that leg, propel upwards and land on both legs, which launches you for high air.
Kanga Bouncing
Kanga Bouncing like pogo bouncing is just the continued Kanga Jump. Once comfortable launching yourself in the air once. Begin to learn to do it over and over. Doing this is great fun, and really helps you learn to throw your weight into the stilts and get higher and higher air.
I find that when you launch yourself once. The best method to keep going is to throw your whole body into each landing. Throw your arms up as you go down. It really helps get good results.
Gaining serious height
Gaining serious height takes confidence and guts. You have to commit yourself completely to it, you have to throw all your weight and not second guess yourself. I've found that utilizing a chain of all jumping techniques works best. Start with a pogo jump, go to a kanga jump, use your whole body.
For best results I've always started from a run, then leaped into a kanga jump and continue leaping in a forward motion. It can be done in place, but takes practice to get the same height.
Tricking
I'm admitingly still learning this myself. Right now I'm working on tucks, and in air rotation. I'll update as I get these down~
~DJ Bothwell
 XDvandalDJ · Tue Sep 16, 2008 @ 06:11am · 0 Comments |
