haha! yeah i hear ya... I have some full on goth mates that walk like they're on bocks too. It's weird but I've seen loads of goths do it; they have a really long stride and inherant bounce to their walk. Must be the platform shoes ;-) (oh and before I get loads of goth hate male, that's more of an observation than a criticism!)

I guess power bocking is probably the most generic but it sounds kind of American to me... I refer to them as jumping stilts or bocks... ah hell I dunno, just make up a completely different name every time you refer to them... "I'm just off out on my BUNGLE JUMPERS" :-)

cool, thanks for that Athoul, I'll let her know :-)

I'm thinking about it yeah, I'm gonna be in Cheltenham seeing some mates for that weekend so I'm just persuading my missus to trek off to London on the Sunday... I think she's a bit worried about being the only one not on stilts! Anybody else taking some "ground crew"?

try "ride the hill" http://www.ridethehill.com/Shop/frmset_shop.html - they've got loads of wrist guards and knee pads and elbow pads etc. at pretty good prices :-)

Good job guys, cool to see people so passionate about raising the profile ... even the bail helps - the fact that you fell from that height and got up ok is also re-assuring! (checked out the radio too - well presented!)

I once saw a monkey that walked like it was on bocks ... oh wait, weren't we talking about nuts? Yeah, that's it - mine's a cashew if you're going to the bar.

Thanks guys! I'm kind of blown away actually; this is one of the nicest, most welcoming and supportive online communities I've found. I guess bocks just attract a certain type of fun loving folk... Glad to be part of the scene :-)

Hey all, made my first post in the poweriser stories section so kinda missed this one... (read it here if you're interested - http://www.PoweriserPages.com/forum/profiles/rubberglover-u1390.html;sa,showPosts ).

RUBBERGLOVERS' BOCKING FACT OF THE DAY: I managed to walk up a flight of 16 stairs yesterday, albeit very slowly as they were about 3 inches wide. Don't really know why I shared that; nothing particularly rad about stairs... ho-hum... :-)

I recently turned 28 years old. This was a little strange for me because I have the mental age of a 14 year old. In fact, I have the mental age of a retarded 14 year old who has the mental age of an 8 year old. You can imagine, therefore, my delight at waking up on my birthday to see my loving girlfriend sitting at the end of the bed, grinning, and stroking a huge ... (oo-er) ... box covered in wrapping paper with my name on it.

Like a mole completing it's maiden voyage through the surface, I rubbed the dust from my squinty little peepers and began tearing at the paper, clueless as to what was inside. My hands were weak from sleep so it took me a disproportionate amount of time, but eventually I removed the paper to reveal the word POWERIZER. I literally couldn't believe it, and was instantly dumb struck by a combination of the most extreme excitement and gut wrenching, debilitating fear.

Alas, this was a work day, so I had to leave my beloved new toy at home to go earn my keep. Luckily I'm a web designer by trade, so "work" entailed a whole day surfing the net watching poweriser videos, adding fuel to the bouncy fire in my stomach. I came home clued up on all the terminology, all the different makes, all the best mods and tips (thank you poweriser pages), and strapped myself in...

I decided to find my feet (pardon the pun) in my house, as I could walk around freely but hold onto the ceiling at any point should I feel like I was going to fall. Whilst this may seem like a good idea, looking back I probably should have just gone outside, as my house was full of furniture (I'm civilised like that) and bits of computers and empty beer bottles and lots of other things that could kill you if you fall on them. But fall I did not, so I ventured outside.

Like most, I was initially too embarrassed to go out on my own in public as whilst I felt comfortable walking around, I looked like a giant weeble on slim fast; I wobbled but lacked the inherant pear shaped stability required to "not fall down". Now, my method of dealing with the embarrassment was a little unorthodox; fearing the general public I went and found a quiet field full of cows and bounced around with them instead. Yep... cows. It was the only place I could find where no one could see me, and I grew up in the country so I have no beef with cows, er... so to speak. Looking back this was probably also a little stupid, as if I fell over I would have had trouble getting up again, and I could have been trampled to death should the cows have thrown a benny. Imagine that on the tomb stone eh?

"Here lies rubberglover... trampled to death by a herd of raging cows, in a field, on his own, wearing a pair of bouncy stilts"

Not cool... not one bit. But I didn't fall! I survived to tell the tale! This tale to be precise. There was a moment of mild panic where I got back to my big yellow van and realised that my keys must have fallen from my pocket whilst bouncing in the field, and so I got to know the cows a little better as I frantically scrabbled around looking for them. Thankfully they were found. Imagine that phone call eh?

"Hi honey... yeah I've been using the powerizers! Yeah they're great! Uhuh.... yeah, slight problem though; I've been bouncing around in a field in the middle of nowhere with a load of cows, I've lost my van keys, and it's getting dark. Yeah... cows. No seriously I'm surrounded by cows. Yeah if you could bring the spare keys that'd be great."

The moral of the story? Falling over and / or looking like a bit of a tit is not that bad a thing, and is made easier still if you have a mate with you. First time out, get someone to help you find your balance, and make sure you're somewhere accessible should anything go wrong (eg. lose your keys, hurt yourself, get trampled by cows etc.). On the whole, I love my powerizers, I'm completely addicted, and I filmed my first steps in the house so I'll upload the video asap :-)

Hope to hear from some of you soon!