some windy dunes
_2:37
Jumping off the dunes with a tarp
One day, awhile back, some friends and I were playing frisbee on the top of a sand dune. When all of the suddon the frisbee didn’t come down. It just kept floating and floating till none of us could see it.
As you all know today in Michigan it was a pretty windy day. With winds coming from the Southwest at 36+ mph it was a great day to travel over to the dunes once again with these same friends.
The idea we had in mind was to jump off the top of this huge dune with the tarp we had and just fly away - just as the frisbee did not more than a year ago.
It probably wasn’t the smartest thing to do but at the time we couldn’t see ourselves not trying to accomplish this task. We gathered up everything we needed and were off.
The hike to the dune is never bad but the hike up the dune is horrible. Plus - once we got to the top of the dune I swear the winds had to be close to 50 - 60 mph. I know that’s alot of wind and we agree. We were getting blasted with sand and it hurt bad.
After trying to figure everything out we finally had things set up. We tied it all together and had the tarp set up so a person only had to grab one little handle type deal.
While this person was getting a good grib, 2 other guys were holding the tarp down and waiting for a really big gust of wind (which had to come ever 15 seconds). Once that gust of wind came these 2 guys would throw the tarp in the air and yell — “JUMP!!!”.
When you heard this you jumped up and you shot away from the top of the dune so fast you felt as if you’re arms wouldn’t be there much longer.
However it was the greatest feeling ever flying a min of 30 feet from where you started. The only bad part was having to hike back up the dune to give the tarp to the next person.
I never had so much fun and we ended up doing it a couple times. One time my friend Ethan was actually drug up the hill for a good 15 feet when the tarp opened.
After all that we went back to Ben Doornbos’s house where his parents luckily had a great big pot of soup waiting for us.
It was a pretty crazy work out but well worth it and we were all happy nobody was hurt :-)
Have you ever tried to fly?
that little girl from Texas Says:
Nothing this spactacular - but being the imaginative little girl from Texas that I was 10 years ago … I used to sit on my blanket and have my sister pounce me off the bed - there were a couple of times I could have sworn I was flying … one time I even made it to her bed - which was on the other side of the room :-)
I also used to have what we like to call “Jodi’s Peaceful Tree” - I would forever disappear to this tree to play house or woods or something crazy and girlish like that - one time I was on the highest branch doing the gymnastic hanging stuff and I let my legs go thinking I was like a cat - that I would land feet first. yea … that was a lie.