We decided to invite some family members to go to the wind tunnel with us for some additional fun. It was good to share the experience with some additional people. Two of us had been in the wind tunnel before and we knew what to expect. The other two were in for an unexpected learning experience that they would not soon forget. The instructor gave everyone a briefing on the basic positioning as they do for any other first time participant in the wind tunnel and then it was time to get in and get the fans fired-up.
I started off in the hope of making it look easy to maneuver around inside of the tunnel. My first three minutes were pretty good and I had remembered most of what I had gone over in previous trips. My girlfriend was next and did a solid job as she typically does early on in the tunnel. Her flexibility tends to require her to use more muscle in order to maintain the positions rather than natural tendon resistance. She did really well, which helped to boost the confidence of the others joining us that day.
My girlfriend’s brother was next and he jumped in full of confidence which led him to flail all over the place losing his positioning and causing the instructors to come to his aid and get him calmed down. He had a giant smile on his face as the reality of a new domain set in as he started to simply try and maintain a steady position within the tunnel. He tended to drift toward the wall without much control, which is quite natural for people that enter the wind tunnel for the first time. He thought that all of his skateboarding experience as going to make it easy. It probably made it easier for him but it did not make it easy as it is a completely different sport. He exited a bit high when he left the tunnel and received a little bit of counseling from the fitness instructor on safety etiquette.
Next up was my girlfriend’s sister in law, who is quite small so they turned the wind tunnel down so she simply did not fly away. She was a little unsettled from watching her husband fly all over the place uncontrollably but seemed to get the hang of things quite well due to her caution. She had difficulty maintaining the position within the tunnel but had good body position and tended to listen more to the instructors than her husband.
We all had a great time and were hungry as could be by the time we were done. It was time for a barbeque and we could not wait to get the grill going. The two novices could not stop talking about their experiences all of the way home. My girlfriend joined in the conversation when we could; otherwise we just smiled at each other.
Tags: arizona, fitness, health, sports, wind tunnel