Almost olympic
Hi!
Back in the days when I had no gray hairs, I used to go to the local forest to play on a rope swing with my buddies. The rope was attached to a tree which was on a slope, probably of about 75 deg, and the branch on which the rope was tied was over a little stream that came down from the local reservoir. Very picturesque.

We had several methods of swining on this rope, one of which was running along the slope, holding onto the stick, and swinging tarzan style over the stream, and back up behind the tree. Brilliant fun! Another was to climb up the slope, jump onto the swing and just swing, sitting, to and fro, like a hypnotist's watch. Excellent fun.

One day however, I thought I'd be clever. I went for the tarzan style jump (we called it "Jesus christing") but thought I'd put a spin on it. Up I went, over the river I went, back towards the tree I went, face first INTO the tree I went. I dropped there and then about 6 ft into a small marsh, with no elegance or grace at all. Hurt like hell, but not nearly as bad as what happened to my mate...

Feeling just as adventurous as I was (and not smart enough to see that this day was a Day Of Injuries), he decided to take the swing up the slope, and jesus christ STRAIGHT DOWN the slope. So, he did it. All looked like it would be fine, until he reached the apex of his swing. He somersaulted backwards maybe twice before landing on both wrists on a large boulder at the other side of the stream. it was obvious that either he'd become incredibly camp and limp wristed, or that he'd smashed both wrists. the latter was true.

Poor guy had to have his sisters "hold him" while he peed and "clean up after him" while he did the other.
(Louis Cowan, Thu 2 Sep 2004, 13:34, Reply)