By Glyn Goffin
Flips and twists are proving to be popular at this year’s Winterlude.
But it’s not first-time skaters falling and flipping on the canal- rather it’s the Extreme Trampoline Show at the Gateway to Australia exhibition outside City Hall.
“This is a good way to bring people into the sport,” says Spencer Courtis, the Toronto-based organizer of the exhibition. “Trampoline’s a small sport and we want it to continue to grow.”
The demonstration attracted more than 200 people to each of Saturday afternoon’s three shows. Most people walking by seemed to stop and watch the athletes jumping just below the large Gateway to Australia kangaroo banner.
At the Summer Olympics, Canada won two bronze medals in trampoline. One of the medalists, Karen Cockburn, was performing with two other high-calibre athletes as part of the demonstration.
“It’s important that people don’t forget (about the sport). We’re riding a high right now that we want to continue,” says 20-year-old Cockburn.
To help tie trampoline and winter together, the athletes add snowboards and skis to the normal routines.
They also try to encourage as much audience participation as possible, to get people cheering and to warm everyone standing under the shadows of City Hall in the freezing temperatures.
The “oohs,” “ahhs” and cheering from the crowd seemed to show it was interested in the performance.
“We have to keep the show exciting both for the crowd and for us,” says Courtis, who mans the microphone to explain the performers’ moves and encourage the crowd.
But heis not the only one interacting with the crowd.
Ben Snape, a 22-year-old national team member, was often on the edge of the trampoline raising his arms and yelling encouragement out to the crowd.
“It’s not like a real competition,” says Snape.
“Instead of being in a quiet gymnasium having to perfect moves, we’re outside just having fun.”
The form and rigidness of trampoline competitions is abandoned in favour of moves that will impress a crowd, says Snape.
“Using the snowboards is a way for people who haven’t done trampoline to recognize some of the skills,” adds former national team member Daniel Chretien, 31.
But these different elements add new factors for the athletes as well.
“The key to the show is self-preservation,” says Chretien. The show lacks the safety features that are normally at competitions so the athletes say they just want to stay in middle of the trampoline and not take many risks.
“We don’t jump as high and sometimes if I recognize I can’t complete a move I’ll just stop and protect myself instead of risking injury,” says Chretien.
The athletes want to show the elements of trampoline that people might not be able to do.
“Being here allows us to spark up a dream,” says Chretien.
“It happened to all of us. You see a new move and then can go and learn how to perform it.”
But the main thing Cockburn, Snape and Chretien all want to show in their two-week Winterlude show is that their sport is fun.
“This sport is fantastic and as the audience can see we’re having a lot of fun and we can always tell that they are too,” says Snape.