A day out at AirSpace. Free style jumping!

I’d been anticipating it all week, I’d like to say ‘with excitement’ but it all honesty..I was petrified. Having never, and I really do mean never, stepped foot on a trampoline before, going to one of the UK’s first trampoline parks was a big step, or should I say ‘bounce’ for me.

I was invited a few weeks ago to attend the opening, talking about it all over my social media as It’s the first event I’d been invited to review free of charge but life happens and I had to cancel last minute. Luckily the wonderful PR lady I spoke to booked me and Tom in for whatever day suited us, so I thought “hey, two birds, one stone” and booked it for his Birthday.

Super skrimper is me!

I had spent all week stretching out my legs and skipping workouts to save all my strength for the trampoline park, admittedly I was being lazy and kind of expecting me energy saving to propel my inner trampoline expert. Needless to say, it didn’t work.

First impressions;

There were a tonne of kids! I’m not anti-children at all, but I’d expected it to be really adult based. I was told that there were no under sevens going ( I have a 6-year-old nephew who loves fitness) Well, he kind of has too with an awesome aunt like me) but I was told he couldn’t go for the safety of it, which is fine but very disheartening when I arrived to see very young children there, It’s extreme trampolining and ninja run courses so It really surprised me that so many kids were there.

Out of around 60 people that were in the active space, participating on the activities, I’d say around

• 10% were non-parent adults over 20
• 50% were teens from 14-19
• 30% were children under 12
• 10% were parents with their kids.

There were a few people wearing matching sports hoodies, I was convinced they were training for some sort of Olympic thing, Tom said they’re just part of a sports club. Damn it!
Check-in was quick and friendly, we stated our time slot and given a safety sheet to sign. Nothing too scary, it just explained the risks, we were then asked if we needed the safety-socks.( A sports sock with plastic grips on the underside). Tom was crossing his fingers for the orange socks, his face was a picture when she passed over the blue ones. Haha!

We were given some purple wrist bands and motioned to the back corner of the landing area, where we could put the socks on and watch the ‘Jumpsters’ below. 

The waiting space on the landing was really nice; modern, clean and it included a lot of seating, including a very reasonably priced cafe! Not to mention the super comfy sofas, which were a godsend after bouncing around for a good hour! We were soon called into the de-briefing room, which felt super comforting to see the group of people we’d be going in with, who were all really friendly too. 

There was a safety video played and reiterated by a member of staff but as the group we entered with were older the safety message felt more like a comedy talk and everyone really bonded over it, laughing at the silly slogans etc etc. Safety isn’t to be laughed at all, especially not in such an activity but for adults who understand safety it was nice to have a light-hearted joke before going in.
We were ushered out to the activity area, which is all cushioned and springy flooring, there were shoe-hole lockers on entering but no doors, so everything was on a trust basis. Not great for me with my £200 vlogging camera but great for people who want to quickly whip off their shoes or chuck in a coat.

The main areas

Extreme jump area; Two long trampolines with tight springs for higher jumps or flips, 6 ‘falling’ trampolines for wall-walking and tricks and around 4 staff members  to advise you on how to perform certain tricks. I watched tentatively and all staff members in this area were amazingly supportive.
The ninja run; Just like in ninja-warrior it’s an activity not for the faint hearted..or under 10’s but it’s perfect for the competitive person. Me? No, never… Yeah ok, well,of course I went on it twice. The Ninja run has Quintuple steps, a trampoline wall to climb over, a sideways rope climb, a bag swing, monkey bars and rope swings. Not for the faint hearted or weak-armed.
Air bag? Not really sure what to call this but it’s a huge inflatable platform with trampolines, high jumps and low jumps where you can perform tricks into a cushioned area. Or just fall forwards like Tom did.
Parkour; A block-based arena with bars, jumps and climbing activities, it’s a shoe-zone so grippy trainers are a must-have, even if you think you only need socks! Tom tried this out for around 5 minutes but after 90 minutes of bouncing he was worn out!

Dodge-ball and Netball; Both big open spaces with several long trampolines, you work in teams like normal Both big open spaces with several long trampolines, you work in teams like normal doge and netball but it’s on a trampoline? Everything is so much better on a trampoline!!

Main-Space; This area has everything you want in it, it’s like your cup of tea. Comforting and homely. With around 20 trampolines in a squared off area you can bounce from space to space and wall to wall. There’s several long trampolines too for the tricks or stride-jumps. We found ourselves drifting back to this area a few times as you can go at your own pace really, just relax and play around..or in my case just jump up and down!

Prices & Facilities

The prices of the activities don’t really vary much from day to night time jumping but they move with age and length of trampolining, I think you get the best bang for your buck with the longer sessions as it’s only £2 more for an extra 30mins, up to 2 hours. I’d go for the 90, it’s enough time to make the most of all activities they have.

The building itself is huge, so there’s a bit of a problem with hydrating, especially if you’re on the trampolines, there were two water fountains but one was out of use and as you can imagine the kids were all over the working fountain. I’d definitely take my own water next time or buy something from the cafe which, like I said reasonably priced. Toilets, water fountains, cafe and lockers. were all kept to a reasonably high standard considering how busy the place was!

They offer a tonne of other activities throughout the week like fitness classes and clubbing time slots you can browse here. Not all activities are child-friendly, so potentially you can stay on the hardcore activities and not see any kids, if that’s what you want. But as an aunt to 5, It seems like a great place to take the kids, not all of them mind you, it’d cost a fair bit to take them all.. but for in a while treat it’s great value for money for such a healthy and fun activity, and that after all (in my opinion) is worth way more then saving £3 and taking them to the cinema.

End of the professional review…At the risk of sounding like I’m being paid to write this (I’m really not, honest!) I’d happily go back there, time and time again. Taking my friends, brothers, sisters, nephews and parents (my mum was gutted, there were such things when she was younger!).
I mean,I stepped onto the trampoline not even knowing how to bounce forward, my body just wouldn’t do it, I was stuck on the spot for a good 10 minutes until I walked around the edges, It took me the full 90 minutes to bounce from trampoline to trampoline and by the end I’d almost got the hang of jumping onto my bum. Victory!

I wish I had been able to confidently use the trampolines when I arrived as I wasted the time just learning the basics but If we’re able to go again (it books fast!) then I’ll definitely try out the parkour/dodgeball and extreme jump area. I want to do everything they have there! I hope that I was informative enough and you really understand what it’s lke to go to a place like this, it’s really like nothing I’ve heard of before.. and I hope I didn’t ramble too much, I have a habit of that.

Have a great week,