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This article is going to be the first in a short series of posts about my experiences at the 11th annual Wings of Desire Oslo Suspension Convention, which was held over the weekend of 19-22 July 2012.

I went to Oslo, knowing only a few members of Wings of Desire, and that a few members of the North American community would be there, and with the knowledge that I’d be suspending while there. This would be the first time I’ve suspended in “public” in at least 6 years, possibly longer, so I was more than a bit nervous. Once I was at the space, working alongside so many talented practitioners, my anxiety subsided and gave way to excitement and even eagerness. Initially, I’d said I wanted to suspend on Saturday evening, but I changed my mind and decided to suspend earlier in the day. My chosen position being “superman”, since I’ve never done one before and also because it’s a position that really requires giving up control. Most of my more recent (and by recent, I mean “in the last few years”) have been variations on vertical back suspensions or knee suspensions, which allow for me to be in control of most elements of the experience. Not so much with superman, as piercing, rigging and lifting are all in the hands of the team, and even getting off the ground is different as it’s basically “you’re up or you’re not”, no tippy toes, no shoulders still grounded…

I’m not certain who my team was, other than Håvve was my team leader and Allen was there piercing, along with two others. Before we could down to hook placement, I had the pleasure of having most of my back shaved, along with patches on my legs, so that the bandages would stick afterwards. With that out of the way, the discussion as to where the hooks should go started up, and Håvve decided pretty quickly that they should use Sea Demons (the larger of the standard fishing hooks) for me since my skin doesn’t pinch up too well. The thought of receiving ten 6 gauge piercings was a terrifying one, so I expressed my concerns and it was decided that they’d instead use six Sea Demons in my back, and the normal 8 gauge hooks in my legs. Still worrying, but not quite as bad. The moment of truth came and I had the first four hooks all inserted at the same time, three in my back and one in my calf. It burned a little, but wasn’t unbearable. The next set was about the same, but this meant that eight hooks were in, leaving two more to follow. The two remaining, which happened to both be my upper thighs, which is tight skin, that doesn’t pull or separate terribly well, so I knew they’d hurt, and I was right! That didn’t matter though, as I was finished and ready to go.

There was a table already set up for me to climb onto and my rigging was basically all set as well. I did my best to relax and just enjoy A Silver Mount Zion playing through my headphones while the team connected all the hooks to the rig. That set, pressure was applied to balance the lines, at which point, my calves were burning terribly, so Håvve removed some pressure from them; a cycle we repeated twice more. After the third calf adjustment, I felt really good, so I just didn’t tell the person on ropes to stop, and in a few seconds, I was clear of the table, awash in a fresh flood of emotions and endorphins, and was hanging freely.

Photos courtesy of Stephan Strestik

The suspension was a remarkable success, lasting over an hour, and could have easily went for longer, however I had a presentation to give, which had me a little anxious, so down I came. However, I absolutely succeeded in my goal of letting go of control and trusting in a wonderful team of suspension artists. Thank you again to Wings of Desire and all the lovely people I met while in Oslo.

For more pictures from the event, check out the Oslo SusCon Google+ page.

On September 5th, ihung got together with some good friends and went out to the top of a hill and hung one another from a tree.  It was a knee suspension sort of day, with three of the five suspensions that day being variations on knee suspensions.  Our friend Chase came up from West Virginia and showed us a thing or two about rigging into trees, well actually he showed us how to use an ascender and a grigri to get into a tree, and then we got down to business.

First up was none other than Chase with a 2 point, single knee suspension.  Now, I’m terribly paranoid when it comes to knee suspensions at the best of times, and when he told me his plans, I was worried, for sure, but he assured me he’d done one not too long ago and wanted to revisit it to see if it went better.  I’ve been around single knee suspensions, and so I know how awkward the hanging is, and how much pressure is on the hooks, so I was somewhat prepared.  Chase showed me where his old hooks were and explained that he wanted these in the same spot.  This is the point where I became a little more worried as his old hook placement was drastically different from where I place knee hooks.  His were on the sides of the knee joint whereas my placement is more alongside the kneecap.  Again, Chase assured me that this was good for him and he liked it and that it held last time (never a guarantee it’ll work again) so we went with it.

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Needless to say, he hung great and enjoyed this suspension much more than his previous attempt, and best of all, the hooks were rock solid!

Next up was Kelsie, who was super excited to hang from her knees again as it had been a while. She was also concerned with comfort and skin tearing, so to minimize the chances of tearing and maximize her comfort, we went with six hooks, three per knee. My usual placement for these is two alongside the kneecap in a V shape, and one horizontally above the kneecap. This distributes the person’s weight across all six points fairly well, although care must be taken to not overload the top hooks before they go up as the tension on that one will increase more than the others.

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Once again, the hooks all held just fine and the suspension was a roaring success!

Third up to bat for the day was Jesse, and this was his first knee suspension. He’d spent the day waffling between knees and vertical back, but finally knees won out, with a little peer pressure encouragement from Kelsie. He was more confident in his knees and trusted us completely when we said that 4 hooks would be great for someone of his build. Hooks went in great and before long Jesse joined the ranks of people who have had awesome knee suspensions. His hook placement was identical to Kelsie’s, aside from no hooks across the tops of the kneecaps.

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This post is by no means meant as any sort of instruction on where to place hooks, it’s merely to show that there’s no “right” spot for hooks. The location of the hooks depends on many different factors, and although most of us go based on what worked last time (ie recursion), it’s sometimes nice to step outside of our comfort zone to see how someone else works.