Kiikers gonna kiik. Eesti Kiikingi Liit/CC BY-SA 3.0.
Extreme swinging! Oh gods, that looks like so much fun! I was one of those insane swingers in my younger years, swinging is best when you’re upside down on the upswing, and I’ve wrapped a few chains in my time. I’ve always loved swinging, it’s always felt extraordinarily satisfying. I still love swinging. There was a set of swings across from the school here in town, and I’d always have to stop and have a swing. I think swinging is a particularly good activity for those of us with extreme stress problems – it gives you a comforting action, akin to rocking, and allows you to become fully focused on your physical self, and have complete joy in that. I wish I had a swing set.
…Meanwhile in Estonia, thanks to a cultural love affair with swings, going over the top has developed into a serious extreme sport.
Kiiking, as the sport of extreme swinging is known (“kiik” is “swing” in Estonian), is fairly young, having first been introduced in the early 1990s, but it has deep roots in Estonia’s cultural past. “Wooden swings are traditionally a big part of Estonian culture and all around Estonia you can find different wooden swings (they are called ‘village swings’) where all the people from surrounding places came together during celebrations or just to have fun while swinging and singing,” says Raili Laansalu, a kiiker since she was just 8 years old, and whose family currently runs the premiere website for the sport, Kiiking.com. To this day, communal wooden swings can be found in towns and villages across the country, so it’s perhaps no wonder that some Estonian daredevil would be the one to invent a way to go over the top.
[…]
As Laansalu tells it, a man named Tarmo Männigo attempted an arc over the spindle of both of Kosk’s swings. Männigo was able to conquer the first swing, which stood about 2.5 meters tall, but when he attempted to swing around the second, which stood slightly taller, at 2.7 meters tall, he couldn’t quite get over. It became clear that the taller the swing got, the more difficult it would be to complete a circuit over the spindle, which meant that there could be competitive accomplishments, and thus, a new sport was born. “We, who are kiikers so to say, like to say that “kiiking” starts when your legs are higher than your head, before that it is just swinging,” says Laansalu.
By 1997 Kosk had continued to refine his vision of kiiking as a pastime, and he invented a telescoping metal swing that could be raised and lowered safely, to allow for variable skill levels. The design has continued to be refined over the years, and the height of the swings increased. The spindly metal forks and system of support wires of modern kiiking swings are a far cry from Kosk’s original rustic inventions.
[…]
At least in Estonia, where kiiking is most popular, the rules of competition are regulated by the Estonian Kiiking Union (Eesti Kiikingi Liit). Kiikers set a certain height for the swing that they will then have the chance to try and round using just the momentum from their body. Should they swing all the way around at the stated height, they can try to go higher. “[For example], I set my first height at 4 meters. I make one spindle so I am allowed to choose a new height. For next one I choose 4.20 meters. I also complete that so I choose now 4.50 meters. If I do not complete 4.50m, my end result will be 4.20m,” says Laansalu. The competitor who can flip around the highest swing wins. According to Guinness World Records, the current champion kiiker cleared a 7.15 meter swing in 2015.
Indoor kiiking is also an option. Eesti Kiikingi Liit/CC BY-SA 3.0.
You can read and see more at Atlas Obscura.
I can’t swing anymore. 30 seconds on a swing makes me wanna puke. :( Ah, to be young again…
Oh no. Aging sucks in so many ways.
In the indoor picture, the roof beam (joist?) seems to come quite close. Could be a bit unnerving. Swings are fine when I power the motion myself, but I hate things such as “pirate/viking ship” amusement rides, which are, basically, motor powered swings.
Estonians seem to have used the other word for swing as the standard. Here keinu (noun) and keinua (verb) are standard language and kiikku and kiikkua are dialect.
Yes, the swinging has to be personally powered, that’s the joy of it, feeling your body causing the motion. At least for me.
I love swinging. I love swings with long chains, and getting them up to that horizontal swing bit.
I have, however, discovered that, while getting older, I have developed a fear of heights.
I would still try this, if only once, for the experience. :D
(By the way, that communal-swing bit seems to be a common cultural thing with the Estonians -- plus there’s the whole bit where easter is a festival of swinging, you have to swing in the summer, and the higher you swing the less bugs there will be that summer (scientifically proven method, haha). But the large platform group swings around, they’re awesome.)
rq:
That is just so wonderful. I adore the idea of communal swings, and swings not just being consigned to kids. Everyone needs to play, and that’s a great way to do it.
It’s also rrrromantic when your crush asks you to swing with them, that’s more of a folklore thing, but there’s still a vibe today.
Age be damned, under no circumstances at any point in my life would I have ever tried this. AFAIK I was born afraid of heights. As well as high-speed collisions.
What do you think are the G forces at the bottom of a loop like that? Could it be a simple answer like 2 Gs, complementing the 0 Gs at the top?
If my back-of-the-envelope calculations are correct, the centripetal acceleration ac = 4g at the bottom if drag and friction are ignored and the swing is much lighter than you. The potential energy at the top is Ep = mg*2*r and the kinetic energy is Ek = (mv²)/2 and the centripetal acceleration is ac = (v²)/r. Thus if all the potential energy at the top is converted to kinetic energy at the bottom. 2mgr = (mv²)/2 4gr = v² and thus
ac = 4gr/r = 4g.
The symbols which I used in order to make an equivalence symbol between 2mgr = (mv²)/2 and 4gr = v² were eaten by WordPress, because I’m stupid.