The end of Leap

One of Athens' hidden gems has flown into the sunset. Leap trapeze, a flying trapeze business on Collins Industrial Ave., closed operations in November.

The business operated for 4.5 years and taught attendees flying trapeze tricks—the circus style tricks where you fly through the air and get caught. And while you can be 20 feet in the air, there's a nice bouncy net under you.

Leap was run by two local couples—Shain and Kara Dyckman and Kaz and Larissa Stouffer, who have decades of trapeze training between them.

The email to clients said:

Our lease is up in November, and we will not re-open in the Spring...We have been running Leap on evenings and weekends, in addition to working our full-time jobs and raising our families. We are not able to run the rig in the manner that we would like to be able to, and while we are all sad to let it go, it is time. 

I heard about Leap last summer. A girl at my gymnastics class told me I should try it. I filed it away and put it on my Athens bucket-list. At $45 a pop, it was a special occasion class.

I finally decided to do a class for my birthday and invited five of my bravest girlfriends to come fly with me.

By the end of your first class, you would have learned a knee hang, and a backflip and then be caught by a catcher hanging upside down from another trapeze bar. The catcher will catch your wrists, swing you and toss you gently into a bouncy net.

Does this sound like the most fun class ever? Because it is.

After my first swing on the trapeze, I was hooked. My family asked me if I was going to run away and join the circus. I went back as often as I could and learned how to swing, a good number of tricks and catches. This fall I got serious and got to take a workshop—a weekly series of classes. And I'm even more hooked now.

The instructors were fabulous (and internationally recognized) and the people were nice and welcoming. The classes stayed booked up and I was hoping they could expand soon and offer even more classes.

But Athens, haven of all things ecclectic and artistic, is losing this gem. The flying trapeze rig in Atlanta just closed too.

Athens, consistently ranked of the fittest places in the country,  is the perfect place for this activity. It's perfect for adventure seekers, those ticking off a bucket list, circus aficionados, couples looking for a fun date, gymnasts, acrobats, or just people who like fun.

And yet, so many people I talked to had never heard of it. They thought I was talking about Canopy, which teaches static trapeze. Flying trapeze is completely different. It's 100 miles per hour. It's adrenaline and callused hands. And the people are so supportive.

I love how eclectic and artistic Athens is—that there are so many options for arts, fitness and adventure. And Leap fits in so perfectly with this. I'm heart broken that it's closing. It was one just another reason Athens is such an awesome place to live.

Leap, I'm sorry to see you go.