The SkyCoaster

I think it’s safe to assume everyone has been on a swing.  Most people have been to a fair and seen those trampolines that have harnesses and you can do flips in.

Mix those two together and add some extreme.  You might get a general idea of what the CIMI SkyCoaster is like.

This year, the camp introduced the newest edition of CIMI equipment.  The SkyCoaster is essentially, a giant swing.  It stands about 30 feet tall (same as a tyrannosaurs rex) and is located behind the rock wall in the eucalyptus grove near campus.

There  is a pull crew and a catcher on the ground.  The camper straps into a full body harness, climbs a ladder, and is hooked in to a towline; the pull crew wear climbing harnesses with carabiners secured to the towline and pull the camper up 30 feet in the air.

A ripcord is attached to a pulley system and the camper counts to 3, out loud, so the pull crew can brace themselves before the drop jerks the towline. After pulling the cord, the camper falls 3 feet and swings 26 feet out and up into the air.

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When I Grow Up, I…

Life is an expensive sports car on the Autobahn. We are often caught up in the thrill of living, that adrenaline pumping feeling of exhilaration, that we often forget where we are going, or why we are where we are in the first place. Everything is just a blur. Colors, sounds, people all mesh into one, giant miasma of lights and din.

For these reasons, people sometimes forget what their aspirations are in life or where they want to be in 10-15 years. But sometimes people don’t spend enough time figuring out what they want. Sometimes people don’t know what they want and are stumbling along, playing life by ear.

I know what I want. Or at least I think I do.

When I grow up, I want to be an anesthesiologist at a well known hospital, helping save countless lives of people that won’t remember my name in a month and whose faces I will forget in a few days. I want to have a Cal Tech diploma under my name and have graduated with stellar grades.

When I grow up, I want to own a house in Northern California (preferably near San Francisco), up where the air is crisp with the hint of ocean air or in a clean beach in Southern California (so that would mean Santa Monica is out of the picture). My dream house would either be inspired by contemporary, sleek modern designs or by warm Spanish decor. The house would be complete with a beautiful kitchen, bathroom, master bedroom, and a roomy walk-in closet. The floors would be bamboo for environmentally friendly reasons and the view would have to include the beautiful ocean. The house must be big enough for 4 people but most importantly, it must be away from the noise of the city for privacy but close enough to a city for convenience.Read More »