When I was a teenager, I had a lot of fun on my family’s trampoline. But when my children asked for one, I was worried about injuries. My husband and I finally decided to purchase a trampoline last Christmas, but we made sure to buy one that had an enclosure and a cover for the springs. We gave the children a few rules for the trampoline and then let them jump to their hearts content. The kids, and adults, enjoyed the trampoline without incident for about about four months.
One slightly breezy day my daughter and I were enjoying a nice Arizona spring day outside. She was jumping on the trampoline and I was watching. We left to go pick up my son from school and we returned to quite a mess. Check out the photos below.
A wind gust had blown the trampoline at least fifty feet from where it belonged. It landed upside down on my chicken pen fence.
The airborne trampoline left a path of destruction that completely shocked me.
Where the trampoline belongs. If you look closely, you can see the path of leaf debris left by the wind gust that lifted the trampoline.
The backboard it broke while in the air.
The garbage can, bbq grills, and other items it knocked over as well as a smooshed tree.
The trampoline also broke a rather large branch off of my ironwood tree. In addition, it damaged my propane barbeque so badly that it caught on fire the next time I tried to use it!
This was a trampoline risk that I had not expected. All I could think of was that my three year old daughter had been on it just an hour earlier. It was a terrifying thought. When I shared this story with other moms I found that several others had experienced trampolines that were blown away in a wind gust.
Our trampoline has been repaired and is useable able, even though it is a little cosmetically tattered. But one thing has changed; the trampoline is now anchored into the hard desert ground. If you have an unanchored trampoline, you might want to buy an anchoring kit, or do like we did and make one yourself.
Have you ever experienced anything like this? Feel free to leave a comment. Share and let’s talk about it.
About Janice
Oh, my, that's frightening! Another reason to give the munchkin for why we're not getting a trampoline. I'm a new follower from the Totally Tuesday hop. Hope you'll visit me at http://EverythingBeautifulInItsTime.com.
This is good to know! Don't know we would ever get one but have thought about it. How scary though!
Wow, I never thought about them blowing over. Glad that your daughter wasn't on it when it happened! Thanks for the tip.
Stopping by from the FMBT blog hop. You can check me out at either my personal blog
http://feliciaslegend.com
or my review blog at
http://dgrspot.blogspot.com
See you around
Felicia
I love trampolines and had a great time with the kids on it. To bad it is a little damaged. We will still have lots of fun on it next time I come down.
Scary! I actually survived a tornado in 2005 so I have seen a bunch of destruction. But even with just normal wind gusts I have seen this happen. Very good tip! I know a lot of people dont think of things like that especially in places that do not get big storms.
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That's pretty scary! I'm glad no one was on it and it didn't hit your house!
Oh my goodness! How scary! I'm glad no one was hurt.
OH wow who would have thought. I am so glad nobody was hurt.
How scary! Thank you so much for sharing so we can be aware of this issue.
well….. a good post for the parents..!!
I never thought of this either! Thanks for the warning and glad you're all okay.
Oh dearie my! My best friend had a trampoline growing up, but it didn't have guards on it. I am surprised none of us ever got hurt, considering how roughly we jumped on it.
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We don't have a trampoline, but I had never heard of this happening before. I stumbled this post. Thanks for sharing!
Ours+His+Mine=Nine!"
Frightening.
Our trampoline is in desperate need of repair. I'm going to make sure it's absolutely safe before the kids get back on it.
I gave your post a thumbs up on StumbleUpon so that more people are aware of the dangers.
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I will probably be putting a link up for August also.
I read your post, it's nice to see you have good knowledge about trampoline and it's uses. Thanks for guide people about trampoline.
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Crazy!! We have a similar style trampoline, but it's jammed into a wooded corner of our property and won't be flying away… lol Makes me want to secure it even better though…
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