Berkeleyan

Four neophytes bound through the air with the greatest of ease on the Recreational Sports Facility’s new SkyZone. In addition to fitness classes like this, RSF is offering two weeks of special activities designed to introduce the basketball-court-size trampoline, fashioned from 34 interlocking trampoline beds.(Peg Skorpinski photo)

Gravity’s passé in RSF’s ‘SkyZone’

14 October 2004

Earthlings are airborne these days at the Recreational Sports Facility, where SkyZone — a basketball-court-sized trampoline playing surface — has been permanently installed on the second floor and a two-week open house is now in motion.

Made of 34 interlocking trampoline beds and 45-degree trampoline walls, SkyZone is the first full-size playing surface of its kind in the world, following its prototype in Las Vegas. So to introduce the campus to its pleasures, Recreational Sports has organized “SkyMania,” a cornucopia of special offerings from Oct. 11 to 24.

The open house includes extra “SkyFit” classes, an Oct. 23 to 24 family weekend, and a free-form noontime “Lunch and Bounce” on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays.

“This is one time we want the campus and community to bounce off our walls,” says Joe Watz, Rec Sports marketing director, who was in on the decision to add the SkyZone to the facility’s portfolio of exercise equipment. “SkyZone provides an element of fun that transcends traditional ways of working out.”

Rec Sports regular Gia White-Forbes, MSO at the Institute of European Studies, took her first SkyFit class this Monday (after pre-registering at the RSF front desk) and pronounced it “a great cardio workout, exhausting and exhilarating at the same time. I was told that as one becomes familiar with the movements, the exhaustion part diminishes,” she added hopefully.

New enthusiasts can sign up for SkyFit classes or the Inaugural 3D Dodgeball Tournament, played the evening of Friday, Oct. 22 (pre-registration required; free agents and teams welcome).

In fact, the possibilities are boundless. “It’s great for rentals,” says Watz. “For staff team-building events, holiday parties, Greek mixers, family events, birthday parties….” The list goes on.

For SkyZone fitness-class schedules and to pre-register for SkyMania events, go to calbears.berkeley.edu. and click on the SkyZone link.