I have no sense of self-preservation at all when it comes to
climbing. I’ve always been a climber.... I like climbing. I used to climb trees
and walls and things as a child without hesitation. Then I grew out of it for a
while. Then I took up climbing a few years ago as an adult, and –
unsurprisingly I suppose –took to it straight away.
I went twice a week for a long time, and got pretty good
pretty quick. I have tried to continue in that vein, but promotions and work
commitments ate into my time and it dropped down to once a week, then once a
fortnight. I pretty much keep to that, and still love it. I can do some pretty
tricky moves and walls and climbs now- and the occasional thing that I think “Oooh,
I must look way cool doing that!”
And I’ve done Go Ape! a couple of times too, with friends
for birthdays and things. I love it, and am equally fearless. I didn’t see
myself as fearless until this point - only when my friends commented that I
have no sense of self-preservation did I notice.
It’s because I completely trust the equipment. Experience is
part of it, definitely, but I suffer no concern at all that it’s high up or dangerous
or I might fall. I can’t fall- I am tied to the top with string. Other people
were in a state of shock when I leapt off of things in a crazy fashion, or ran
full-pelt across tiny rope walkways, falling off and screeching along half way
across, or when I let go and dangled off the side of a platform, or shouted
down to the supervisors “Are we allowed to jump off, no hands?”
Apparently we were.
So I did.
And you know what? It’s
about letting go. If you jump off a few things, low down if need be, you learn
that the rope holds you. It will catch you. You can’t fall because you are tied
to the wall. But people don’t like to. But then they never learn how safe it
is.
Let go. And trust in your equipment.
Let go. Then you learn how safe letting go is.
No comments:
Post a Comment