| At A Glance | |
| Author | psychonautje |
| Contact | psychonautje@bme.anon |
| IAM | psychonautje |
| When | A week ago |
| Artist | Kor, Rule, Bart, Harm-Jan |
| Studio | Truth Seekers Syndicate |
| Location | Venlo, The Netherlands |
Colin is at the door, to pick me up. Together, we drove to the train station of Venlo, where everybody would meet. Several people were already waiting there. Soon, more people showed up. When everybody had arrived and paid, we all drove to the meeting ground, which was situated in a village nearby.
The meeting ground was a backyard that had a huge lawn; and further to the back there was a little wood. In the wood, the suspensions would take place. The atmosphere was wonderful, I saw several people go up, and the day passed quickly. Then, Kor came to me and asked if I was ready, and that it was time to get my hooks. I would be doing a 4-point suicide suspension. Kor and I walked to the little tent where the hook throwing took place. Rule and Bart were already waiting there for me; I took off my top and Rule started marking my back. Several people came to watch and I was so excited – I couldn't stop chatting and joking.
When Rule was done cleaning and marking I laid down on the reclined chair. While Bart (my opponent) squeezed my skin together for the first hook, Rule took me through the breathing routine (big breath in... big breath out) and threw the first hook. I had prepared myself for the worst, because the first time I got hooks was pure agony. This was ok, however. Just a painful burning feeling and a whole lot of pressure. The second hook followed soon, and was not much different from the first one. The third and fourth ones were a little more painful, and Rule had to struggle to get the fourth one through.
I got up and walked around the grounds with Kor, for the "pre-suspension-nothing-happens-until-you-say-so-talk" and getting used to my hooks. The first three hooks settled pretty quickly, but I kept feeling the right hook. It was a slightly burning feeling. We had Rule check up on it and he adjusted the skin a little, I walked another round and even though that hook kept feeling a little painful I decided it was time and walked to the rig.
Rule attached the ropes to my hooks and adjusted them until the pressure on all four hooks felt equal to me. The right hook kept hurting a little; it was kind of uncomfortable. Slowly the tension on my hooks was increased and I started hanging to the front and bending my knees alternately to put more weight on the hooks. This felt good and since I had promised myself (and the audience) that I would swing like a maniac I started running back and forth. When most of the weight was on my hooks anyway I simply lifted my feet off the ground, which didn't feel too weird actually. I got pulled up a little higher and I happily swung back and forth about 3 times. Obviously I had overestimated myself because I started feeling nauseous. I asked Kor to stop me from swinging so that I could hang silent for a while, but this didn't help and I remember warning Kor that I was going to faint...
A little while later (a matter of seconds) I felt thousands of thoughts raging trough my head (that's what I always get right before I wake up after passing out). Then real consciousness kicked in and I found myself sitting in Kor's lap, knowing that I had fainted. I was soaking wet as somebody had thrown water over me, and Rule was fumbling with my hooks. I felt like I failed horribly, even though that really wasn't the case as I got from the ground very easily and swung around for a bit, which is more than a lot of other people manage to do when they first suspend. Still, it felt like failure. One of the first things I blurted out after announcing: "Oh hi, I'm back" was that I was going to try again. Kor and Rule told me to take it easy for a while and that we would see in about half an hour if I could go up again. I was sure I could.
My hooks were checked in the piercing area, and I sat down quietly for a while and drank some energy drink. After a few minutes I walked back to the suspension area, where I watched Steffen going up. He did a 6-point knee suspension, which was very impressive. When he was done, I felt ready to go up again. Rule readied the rigging for me and I got hooked up again. The rigging was adjusted again until the tension was equal on all four hooks. This time, I would just stand silent and come off the ground first before swinging around. The tension was increased little by little, I could signal myself when I needed some more. I actually planned to just leave my feet flat on the ground until they came loose anyway, but Kor told me I could stand on tiptoes if I wanted to and I did. I don't think I will do that next time though – of course there was less tension immediately, which felt weird and had to be built up again.
By the time most of my weight was on my hooks again, and only a little left on my toes, my feet started cramping horribly. I figured I had two options: either come down, or simply lift them from the ground. I decided to go with option number two: I first lifted my left foot, and pretty much right afterwards my right foot followed. I was off the ground again! I was pulled up a little higher and hung there for a while, moving my arms and legs a bit. No nauseousness this time! I felt happy. I was flying! Moving my arms felt weird since I couldn't move them around as far as I can when not hanging from four flesh hooks. Also the movement of my shoulders was restricted, I felt like I wasn't hanging straight because my shoulders where so far up.
When I was totally accustomed to the feeling, I started swinging around. Rule and Kor helped me by pushing me around. Soon I reached a natural high and I had a big grin on my face. I happily swung around for a while; the time-stamps on the pictures tell me it was for about 8 minutes. I tried swinging myself around by kicking off my feet from Kor's hand, but that kind of hurt. When I had enough I announced that I'd like to come down – Rule misinterpreted this and gave me an extra push, but Kor stopped me. Slowly they lowered me. It was really weird to go down again, realizing that I would soon touch the ground again. I felt slightly scared actually, because I expected it to feel weird and I was afraid I might faint again. Touchdown did feel weird, it was definitely the strangest part of the experience. Rule unrigged me and me and Bart walked to the piercing area.
I laid down on the chair again and Bart started lubing up my hooks. He warned me that it might be difficult to get them out because they were in there for so long, and perhaps had crusted up a bit. The first two hooks were a breeze; they slid out with no problems or pain. The third hook wouldn't budge though. After a few attempts Bart removed the most right hook first, which wasn't very easy either, but after three attempts or so it came out. Bart lubed up the third hook some more, and with a lot of force it came out. There was no pain, just some pressure. My most right hook was bleeding a little – the blood ran over my shoulder onto the chair. Bart wiped it off and then started massaging the air out of my back. There was quite some in there and pushing it out took pretty long, but felt nice. And it is funny, all the farting from your back. He bandaged me up and I walked back to the suspension area, to see Marisa's spontanuous suicide suspension.
After Marisa's suspension, everybody hung out for a while and slowly people started to leave. Marisa and Dan were kind enough to drop me off at a train station. I felt a little stiff but I had no problems with falling asleep that night. The next morning, my right shoulder was kind of stiff, and when I touched it I felt that there was a huge air bubble around the wounds of the right hook. It was a weird feeling, especially when touching the area and hearing and feeling the air moving around. My boyfriend gently pushed it around for a while until it freaked him out. The stiffness dissappeared after a day, and the air got less and less until there was none left after four days.
All in all, this was a fantastic experience in an excellent atmosphere and lovely people to share it with. I got my kick and natural high, and kept it for a few days, too! This was definitely not my last suspension!
