Trampoline facts & trivia
World somersault record
On 18th September 2003 Brian Hudson broke the world record for the most
consecutive somersaults completing an amazing 3,333 at the Jumpers Rebound
Centre in Gillingham. This broke the previous record of 3,025 by a considerable
margin.
 Nissen's kangaroo
After he had invented the trampoline (named after the Spanish word for diving
board - el trampolin) George Nissen set about publicizing it with demonstrations
to avoid hiring a sales force, by the 1950's however he got more ambitious and
he hired a trampolining kangaroo - on some occasions he even bounced along with
it:
For more about Trampolining history see:
For more about Nissen check out:
What common language?
Australians call a Straddle Jump a 'Split Pike', for clarification a Pike is
therefore called a 'Closed Pike' - just to smooth things along in 2006/7 BG
started to referring to it as a Piked Straddle;
In the USA they hedge their bets on these moves and have the 'Straddle Jump
Pike' and the 'Pike Jump'.
Paul Kitchen tells me there used to be a move in UK a few centuries back
called a 'backward and forward split jump' - ouch.
The Aussies also call Somersaults 'Saults' which links more etymologically to
the original term 'Salto'.
Alternative trampolines
 Not
content with simply learning 'standard' trampoline skills the proliferation of
backyard trampolines in North America has lead to the development of entirely
new sporting avenues such as 'trampoline wrestling', 'velcro jumping' and
'trampoline biking', not to mention the development of floating 'water
trampolines' (like backyard trampolines in very large rubber tyres).
Hoopersaults
Ken Kovach is a "Guinness World Record Holder"... on the CBS Live! with
Regis show Ken set a world record by performing 129 revolutions of a Hula
Hoop around his body while somersaulting for one minute - this happened on
18/9/2000.
Stick jumps?
The 10th skill in the USA Trampolining Level 1 & Level 2 routines is
"straight jump to a stick" - umm.
Star Wars
In Star Wars, the Empire Strikes Back, in the scene where Luke knocks Darth
Vader off the platform after jumping from the ceiling, Luke jumps down also.
Look closely at the bottom-left part of the screen you can hear a
boing and see Luke's head bob back up onto the screen. Apparently even Jedi
knights need to cushion their falls - in this case with an off-shot trampoline!
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