To say concentrate on "height" in my experience ends up to backfire on ya. 

Even with a decent run up to it?  Seems to me you would still have enough forward inertia to assist the rotation if shooting for height on the last plant.  I wasn't talking about an in-place forward flip after a few in-place bounces.  I would think those are tougher and pose more under-rotation risk with possible injury.

Nice example of how one should concentrate on mostly height after running up to and planting for a forward flip.  Very smooth.  You make it look easy.

Beware, there is a Boston in the UK, so don't get fooled by the various references in this forum.

If you need to fill the knee bar space a little, a local hardware shop should carry foam insulating tubes for household water pipes.  Buy the softest and largest diameter foam tubing you can find and attach it to the inner loop surface of the knee bars with some electrical tape.  Home Depot here in the States carries a nice super-soft dense rubber tubing that I simply place inside the loop when my daughter puts my stilts on.

Okay...  I had an appointment with my ortho surgeon today to seriously discuss the partial knee replacements for both knees, take updated x-rays, and get some cortisone shots for my poor knees.  The good news is, I will not be getting partial knee replacements.  Unfortunately, the bad news, is I will be getting TOTAL knee replacements.  X-rays showed the knees to be totally trashed and beyond any partial repair benefits.

NOTE:  My knees were already in bad shape before ever bocking.  This has just been a natural progression of deterioration over the past 30 years.

I plan on undergoing the "Bionic Man" transformation in 2 years due to the fact that my next 2 years will require traveling to many colleges to check them out with my daughter, teaching her how to drive, etc.  Just can't fit that major surgery in until I get all of that important stuff out of the way.  So, for now, I'll have to bock the best I can manage and rely on periodic cortisone shots to make it through the next 2 years.  My doc says I'll be allowed to jump on a trampoline after the knee replacements -- so it looks like it may be okay to continue bocking.  You KNOW I'm going to have to try.    Looks like I might become the first bionic bocker.  Heck..  maybe I should even reserve that for my screen name.  LOL.

Sorry to be negative but I think you are going to trash your stilts doing that much distance on a regular basis.  You're also going to have to shower when you reach your destination if you want others to work with you.      It may be fun to try, but I don't think that type of distance running on these is going to be fun for very long -- especially when dealing with hills and no coasting on the downs.  Your stilts do not have a low gear.  If you are going to try it, I'd suggest first doing the same route on a day you do not have work.

But I hope you can prove me wrong.  Good luck.

I don't care how long it is.  I could watch that for an hour and learn from it.  I find it extremely impressive that you can front flip onto a higher level.  Really nice acrobatics and gymnastics.

Getting back to the bent frame issue for a moment...

The real tricky part - once the frame is bent inward like that - is straightening it out.  The steel bushing halves have such a tight fit through the frame hole that any improper bend back to straight is going to cause the hole to warp ever so slightly and prevent the bushing halves from fitting through the holes again.  Trust me...  I nearly screwed mine up by trying to bend it back by using some pliers.  My advice for bending the frame back would be to sandwich one of the bent frame sides between two lengths of wood and squeeze it back into shape in a nice big table vice so that it is uniform and flat again.  Haven't tried the vice method myself yet, but I think it will work.

No no...  I'm just saying that my daughter commented a while back that the guy we saw on the commercial powerising for the Discovery Channel COULD have been me (wishful thinking on her part) -- and now I AM (will be) a guy powerising on the Discovery Channel.  Just a bit of irony.  No G-Word commercial about or segment has aired yet as far as I know.  Sorry for the confusion.

I haven't heard anything yet, but I am confident it will happen.  Based on previous experience it always takes longer than expected to actually air.  The last time we were told the DVICE segment would probably be online in December.  Turned out to be February.

It's totally Photoshop.  The perspective of the cuffs and stilts, especially the cuffs in relation to the perspective of the lower ends of the cuff tubes is completely off.  (Could have been set uneven, but they aren't) 

They were just too lazy (or cheap) to have a new photo taken of stilts with the cuffs and just added them onto the stilt from another image.  Cheezy.

I'm not sure why you all are giving the guy such a hard time.  He joined in March and from what I can see on his Ebay post he is telling the truth about the equipment's condition.  Looks like a pretty good price to me and I would consider buying it if I needed a pair.  Naturally, all Ebay sales have a high risk factor, but this one looks pretty good if you take the time to look at the photos IMHO.  People do buy stilts only to find that they aren't for them.

Oops.... Uh oh... I see he has spammed a number of threads with this.  My mistake.  Looks like spam.  Too bad.  Might have good stilts for sale, but is an idiot to post in so many threads.  You don't make any friends that way.

I was getting a click as I stepped with one of my '08 model bushings.  I finally figured out it was a tiny gap under the black plastic bushing cradle.  It wasn't sitting tight up against the frame -- so I just added a small piece of plastic under it and it is now quiet.

DK, I wouldn't spend a lot of energy on a design variation unless you research any existing patents out there that might conflict -- especially the Boeck patent.

http://free.patentfetcher.com/GetPatentPDF.php?f=Pats/US/67/19/US6719671.pdf

Go to the last part of the patent and read each claim.  If even only one claim can describe a part of your device, you will be infringing.  Size and shape does not matter.  The configuration and use that is described in each claim is the only thing that matters.

Aside from the Boeck patent, there are other jumping devices that have been patented.  Whether or not they ever made it to market does not affect a patent.  I would recommend doing some general patent searches using the www.USPTO.gov website and see what you find.

Pinhead ran into a problem because the Boeck's patent claims incorporate a strap for attaching your leg to the device.  As general as that is, it covers virtually any type of knee strap used to bind a leg to the device.  Though the Boecks believe that ANY accessory for their device falls under their patent, they happen to be wrong -- at least when it comes to U.S. Patent Law.  An infringing part MUST be described in at least one of the patent claims in order to infringe.  In other words, only an accessory that replaces an existing part of the patented device would infringe.  Pinhead's strap did that.

If you talk the doc's ear off about bocking during the surgery, they'll probably give you general anesthesia when you're not looking.  LOL

Good luck with the procedure.