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May 17, 2004

The Powerizers, two months into it

I have had my Powerizers for two months now. Time to do a review (and a couple of readers have asked for a review as well - must be responsive to my public).

I have actually now ridden them five or six times. The high level review is FUN FUN FUN! The details are a little more sobering. While not difficult to learn, you should take some basic precautions which I (being of small brain and big ego) of course did not. Immediately when I got them in the office, I strapped them on sitting in my chair and pulled myself up by the edge of my cube and took off walking! It is easy to start going, you just lean forward and pick up one foot after the other. Just like stilts actually. About 3 foot tall stilts. But you are not really getting any of the benefit of the jumping or spring. I wondered around the office peeking over cubes and scaring people for awhile.

The receptionists just shook their heads at yet another gadget I was trying out, unlike the segway, I didnt run into the wall with this one. So out of the box I was able to walk around with notrouble. To get them off, make sure you sit down in a chair as it is quite a way down. To get started, lean forward and walk like normal. Stopping may be a little tricky at first, but just don’t get going too fast.

The real fun started when I went outside to try the jumping. I just took them outside and sad down on the sidewalk and strapped them on with my jeans and tennis shoes. The first problem was getting up with these extensions on my legs. It is not a intuitive thing. The trick is to get on one knee then life the other leg up and put the “foot” on the ground, then press up on that one to bring the other leg up. So I take off walking then speed up into taking BIG MOON WALK strides. Very soon I am going too fast and I can’t get the feet pegs in the right place with every step and I plunge one of them off the concrete sidewalk into the grass. Immediate forward motion stop. If I were skiing you would call it a yard sale. Just like catching an edge. Down I went from a high height. Of course no gloves or helmet. Ouch! That was it for that day.

Back home the next week I was smarter and put on some leather gloves and a helmet and a long sleeve jacket. With a couple practice runs I got very good at jumping about 5 feet in the air and taking about 10 foot steps. It is totally fun! And quite a bit more of a workout than I thought it would be. Since then I have suited up for a run workout and gone out with helmet and wrist guards. After two minutes you are breathing heavy and having fun.

Lets me clear. These things have no practical purpose in life except to bring a smile to your face (and maybe some bystanders too). They are not a better way to get from point A to point B. They are tricky to learn, but not difficult for someone good at balancing sports. You need to be fairly athletic to enjoy them. But if you like the wide gaping childish grin of doing something so totally fun it should be illegal, order your pair today!

This entry was posted on Tuesday, December 5th, 2006 at 12:51 am and is filed under Uncategorized . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.