My son went repelling today - pics -

[Stylerod]

My son is going to a day camp at Oak Ridge Military Academy. Today they repelled down a 30 foot wall.

The 3 kids before my son all got too scared to do it so the instructor asked if anyone would be willing to come up, hang over the edge with no hands and turn himself upside down. My son jumped up and said he would.

I'm pretty sure he didn't hear the whole thing. He just heard "who wanted to come up."

Here he is about to go up.




Getting roped in




I guess he was making sure I was taking his picture.




His first step off.




The instructor said "Ok, let go of the rope." My son said "What!!!???" After a new back and forths my son did it.




Then he asked him to hang upside down with no hands. There is a little conversation about that one as well. But again, he did it.




Whole view of the tower. The top is 60 feet. Zack said he needed to do 30 feet a few more times before he thought he could do 60.
















Maybe some day I'll get to try repelling....

[JaJae]

Repelling is a blast. I saw an Army Ranger run down a wall like that without the harness (just a rope through an ring attached to his belt). He wore one glove on his right hand and literally ran down the side full speed letting out a battle cry. When he got to the very bottom he grabbed the rope behind his back with his hand that had a glove on it and he must have grabbed it so hard that he stopped himself short causing his body go to into a back flip. He landed on his feet and ran after someone watching and blood choked him unconscious. Then let out another scream and ran away. One of the coolest and funniest things I had ever seen.

[Stylerod]

Originally Posted by JaJae

Repelling is a blast. I saw an Army Ranger run down a wall like that without the harness (just a rope through an ring attached to his belt). He wore one glove on his right hand and literally ran down the side full speed letting out a battle cry. When he got to the very bottom he grabbed the rope behind his back with his hand that had a glove on it and he must have grabbed it so hard that he stopped himself short causing his body go to into a back flip. He landed on his feet and ran after someone watching and blood choked him unconscious. Then let out another scream and ran away. One of the coolest and funniest things I had ever seen.

Oh hell! Well, when my son got to the bottom he didn't run after someone and choke them he fell to the ground thankful to be there.

[Dispatcher]

Holy Gravity Batman, your kid's got guts.
The only thing like that I ever did was climb the ladder on the outside of a grain storage tank once. I made it to the top (about 60 feet) and my legs were shaking so badly I thought I was gonna fall.

[Stylerod]

Now with video!

He looks much more graceful in the pictures

YouTube Video

[motivez]

Haha, cool pics, he looks like he had a great time.

I've driven by that place a few times.. never really knew if it was some kinda place they sent problem kids or what

[7960]

Originally Posted by Stylerod

Maybe some day I'll get to try repelling....

My kid has gone horseback riding, canoing, kayaking, done archery, etc, etc, etc.

I wish I was a kid right now. I remember I got to do the "cut/split/stack 10 cords of wood" and "hand-rake the lawn then over seed it" camps

[motivez]

Originally Posted by 7960

My kid has gone horseback riding, canoing, kayaking, done archery, etc, etc, etc.

I wish I was a kid right now. I remember I got to do the "cut/split/stack 10 cords of wood" and "hand-rake the lawn then over seed it" camps

That doesn't sound like a very fun camp!

I had all sorts of fun camp experiences when I was younger. The best by far was a two week stay at a ranch way out in West Texas.. horseback riding, shooting, swimming, we had our own rodeo, barrel riding.. roping, all sorts of fantastic stuff

We'd take the horses for 2-3 hours of riding out into the middle of no where, camp out under the stars, have a big fire.. cook out, tell ghost stories with the camp leaders.. one of them they even set us up with some guy dressed like the ghost in the story we were telling (old farmer with an oil burning lamp)

It was really amazing.. if I ever have kids when they're old enough I'm definitely sending them there if it still exists.

[avsp]

Originally Posted by 7960

My kid has gone horseback riding, canoing, kayaking, done archery, etc, etc, etc.

I wish I was a kid right now. I remember I got to do the "cut/split/stack 10 cords of wood" and "hand-rake the lawn then over seed it" camps

seems like you may be well trained for the 'creosote the repelling tower' camp

either way i dead jealous of both zach & his dad, ..., tho those boots clearly need a bit of work on them

[Stylerod]

Originally Posted by motivez

Haha, cool pics, he looks like he had a great time.

I've driven by that place a few times.. never really knew if it was some kinda place they sent problem kids or what

I wasn't sure about the place either. I took my (then) 14 year old Godson there to see about maybe signing him up for High School there. He's a sweet kid but has a tendency to get in trouble. I pretty much found out that the school is for kids who are already above average academically, which he wasn't.

They have a 100% graduation rate. Since 1990 they have had a 100% college acceptance rate to the college of the students choice. And a LOT got free rides to college, I forgot the number.

The Colonel that runs it is working on his 3rd PhD.


Zack desperately wants to go to school there and it would be great but it's $8000 a year for a day student. Yikes.....

[Stylerod]

Originally Posted by motivez

That doesn't sound like a very fun camp!

I had all sorts of fun camp experiences when I was younger. The best by far was a two week stay at a ranch way out in West Texas.. horseback riding, shooting, swimming, we had our own rodeo, barrel riding.. roping, all sorts of fantastic stuff

We'd take the horses for 2-3 hours of riding out into the middle of no where, camp out under the stars, have a big fire.. cook out, tell ghost stories with the camp leaders.. one of them they even set us up with some guy dressed like the ghost in the story we were telling (old farmer with an oil burning lamp)

It was really amazing.. if I ever have kids when they're old enough I'm definitely sending them there if it still exists.

Man that sounds fantastic. No, no camps for me when I was a kid. My summers involved bb gun fights in the woods. Dirkbike riding. And really, just hanging out with friends.

[Rouger2]

Great thread dad and your kid did great my over coming fear thing was playing football. When I first watched football games as a kid I could not believe that I would be able to hit like that and be hit, but I did and was proud of it.