Ninja Mah-jeek!

Some of my friends and I went out to one of our favorite swimming holes late tonight. This place really is the classic example of a "swimming hole": it's hardly more than a pond but it's clear and deep and it's got an awesome rope that you can use to swing out into the water.

One of my friends is able to a backflip off of the rope, which is about the coolest thing you've ever seen. I was curious to see if I could do it so I asked him to teach me how. He ran me through how to swing and tuck yourself to do it properly, so I decided to give it a go.

I climbed up to the highly specialized rope launch pad. It's a log. My friend and instructor handed me the rope and I prepared myself, mentally running through the technique in my head a few times. Either that, or I was trying to overcome the puss-out factor.

But I was up there, and there was no way I was going back after having come this far. So what did I do? The same thing any man does before he's about to do something stupid, dangerous, and potentially harmful. Nuts up and does it.

Grit teeth. Jump. Swing. Reach top of arc. Tuck legs. Throw head back. Let go.

The world spun like a mad beast. There were stars and ground and water and trees flying every which direction. All of a sudden I feel myself coming upright and my feet hit the water. Glorious splash! Bubbles and water and darkness. I swim back towards the air and am already whooping and screaming when I break the surface. The people having a fire close by probably thought I was crazy.

But who cares? I did an epic backflip off of a rope swing and it was sweet. Now I just need to perfect it before I move on to the backflip-and-a-half or the double backflip. Or, you know, death.

But before I die doing something stupid, I've included this handy-dandy tutorial (possibly influenced by Hyperbole and a Half) to teach all those interested how they too can do a backflip off of a rope swing. See below: