h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Or rather, why weren't trampoline parks a thing before?

Bowling alleys have been a thing for decades, which is understandable.

Laser tag arenas didn't become a thing until the technology was there to make them good.

Paintball didn't become a thing until the guns got good enough.

Trampolines haven't, to my knowledge, recently experienced a leap in technology, availability or price. And yet, in the space of just a couple of years, we've gone from trampolining being something obscure you see happen every four years in the Olympics to being something you can go and do at your local light industrial/retail park for an afternoon with the kids.

What happened?

When I was at school it was a regular sport that we did in gym. If it is any consolation, trampoline parks aren't a "thing" here in Germany, AFAIK. It's all rope climbing parks and bouldering.

Trampolining in the States widely stopped being taught in schools due to liability.

We had trampolines in my high school, but we never got to use them. The legend was that just a year before I got there, the trampoline coach broke his neck trampolining after hours.

I'm glad to hear trampolining is making a comeback, but what I want to know is why isn't Kosho a thing?

http://youtu.be/NTqAfJYWe58

We had a Council trampoline park on the promenade in Leven when I was a kid. Basically big holes in the ground with an iron frame where every summer they strung up trampolines and charged kids to use them. Loads of barked shins from falling through the gap between the springs and the iron frame but all good fun.

https://danny61.files.wordpress.com/2015/02/img_0177.jpg?w=869

http://danny61.files.wordpress.com/2015/02/img_0177.jpg?w=869

That link again

What happened? I suspect marketing happened. It sounds like someone's invested in trampolining. Follow the money.

Oh, and in case anyone here is thinking of investing, remember your returns can go up and down.

There seem to be seven such parks in Massachusetts.
http://www.trampolineparkguide.com/trampoline-parks-massachusetts/

Plus, some health clubs and schools have trampolines.

I think that tehcnology and availability *did* play a role, though with a long latent period. According to Wikiwhatever, mini-trampolines became popular from 1981 through 1984. Why facilities with full-sized trampolines didn't catch on until thirty years later I don't know.

Just about everyone with a garden and a couple of kids have invested in a trampoline round here in recent years.However I note that after a few cyclone type windy days they have been abandoned..Possible a trampoline park is a good substitute because kids really love trampolining..

I took a trampoline class in college, but on the last day I came down wrong and sprained my ankle. I'm never going on one of those things again !

There were (and are) little sets of trampolines at seaside resorts, where the kids can pay a pound to bounce for five minutes or whatever. And I'm familiar with trampolines from school/uni, where they always seemed terrifying. My ex had one for her kids, a massive monstrosity that filled the garden and killed the grass. That's been a "thing" for at least fifteen years.

What's new is the idea of taking the same sort of space as a 20-lane bowling alley and filling it, wall to wall, with trampolines. It would seem to be an insurance nightmare.

The reason I ask the question is: these things have not gradually got more popular, like, say, "Go Ape"-style high rope courses. Rope courses started small and have got steadily more popular and more of them have appeared around the country. Trampoline parks seem to have gone from zero to ubiquity in about six months, like pulled pork did about three years ago. Is it an internet thing?

Will you be in Nashville between September 13th and 15th 2016? The International Association of Trampoline Parks conference and trade show is billed as the largest gathering of indoor trampoline park professionals in the world. I'm sure they will answer your question.

More info on this page - see alo the Exhibitor Prospectus linked document:

http://www.indoortrampolineparks.org/exhibitors


As you say, it's growing exponentially. I sense a lot of people are getting on the bandwagon, and I predict an imminent crash.

A bouncing bubble?

" I predict an imminent crash." [Icy North]

If enough people literally crash on the things orthopedic surgeons will become rather busy.

We had a little seaside trampoline area in my home town in the 1980s that closed in the 90s, but now there's one of those trampoline parks in the industrial estate. They do seem to suddenly be springing up all over

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It was this that I thought was nuts..Underground bouncing.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2659044/Worlds-largest-underground-trampoline-open-enormous-cavern-Welsh-slate-mine.html

Ooh - you get to it by train - presumably a narrow gauge former mining railway? Now that sounds fun.

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