The Cupertino Courier

Cover Story

Photograph by Jacqueline Ramseyer

Ball Hawk: Calvin Hawkes tries to tag one of his opponents during a dodgeball game at Sky High.

Spring Time

Trampoline center appeals to all ages

By Erin Hussey

Jerry Raymond and his older brother, Ron, started playing around with the idea of creating a unique kind of trampoline center last summer.

They bounced some ideas off each other and came up with Sky High Sports. Things have been jumping ever since.

Every month, more than 25,000 people throughout the Bay Area commute 5 to 60 minutes to jump, flip, exercise and play dodge ball at the center in Santa Clara, near its border with Sunnyvale.

"The draw is different for different groups," says Jerry Raymond, who never had a trampoline growing up. "For the kids ages 7 to 12 it's a place to bounce off the walls. For the older college kids it's the extreme sportness of it. For parents it's a place where they can come with their little kids and not just sit out and watch like at the park. And, of course, the AIRobics classes draw the exercisers."

The Raymond brothers are both working fathers with three children. They wanted create a company that that their families would enjoy.

"We're big on take your kids to work," says Jerry Raymond. "This was something that wouldn't matter if we spent longer hours at work because, hey, we can take the kids and have a blast."

Sky High Sports opened its doors last October with three trampoline courts, two big screen TV's and a snack shop.

"Everything out there is custom-made," says Raymond referring to the innovation trampoline system he and his brother developed.

The three trampoline areas:--the main court (52-by-120-feet), the dodge ball court and the foam pit court--are all made up of smaller trampolines bound together with springs and poles.

Unlike a typical trampoline, a layer of 4-foot-deep foam and padding cover the springs. The frame itself is also designed to give slightly upon impact to reduce possible injuries.

"I call it our safety frame system," says Raymond. According to Raymond, more than 99 percent of trampoline injuries occur when a person lands on the bar through the springs or falls off the trampoline.

"We've taken as much of that away as possible," he says. "We put up walls so you can't fall off; you just hit another trampoline, which you do on purpose."

For insurance reasons, all customers must sign a waiver that verifies their awareness and acceptance of potential risks.

"It's still a trampoline," says Raymond. "You're not just sitting in a chair; you're out doing a sport activity."

He adds that for the number of people that come through each month, the number of injuries has been extremely low.

"It's usually the people who are breaking the rules and not doing what they should be doing," he says.

Customers are required to either jump barefoot or with tightly tied tennis shoes. No socks, lying down, hanging, cell phones, food, gum or drinks are allowed on the trampolines.

Three-year-old Karlie Lema enjoys the "jumpie," as she affectionately calls the trampolines, barefoot.

"She loves it," says her father, David Lema. Lema and his girlfriend, Megan Curneen, have come to Sky High Sports on multiple occasions.

"It tires her out, and us," David says, wiping the sweat off his forehead.

On one of their recent visits, Curneen invited one of her co-workers, Deborah McGann, who also found an immediate liking to being on the trampolines.

"It's the best," McGann says.

McGann, who suffers from a heel injury, was pleasantly surprised when she found that jumping was not cumbersome.

"It's low impact on the feet but high impact on the heart," she says. "I'd like to come back and take the AIRobics class."

AIRobics, which consists of 40 fat-burning, cardiovascula- intensive minutes on the trampoline, is another Raymond creation.

"It's my little term," he says. The class is held on Tuesday and Thursday evenings at 6 p.m. and 7 p.m. on a first-come, first-served basis. Each class is limited to around 50 people, costs only $5 and usually sells out.

"On the weekends I don't get on the trampolines that much because we are so busy and I've got so much else to do, but those Tuesdays and Thursdays, I'm like nobody takes my class--that's my class,' Raymond says with a laugh. "I work them hard because I need the workout, too."

Chris Hewett, who swims regularly started coming to the class after her friend Peggy Land raved about it.

"I did it for the first time last week, and two days later my thighs felt like I was in a car accident or something," Hewett says. "You're using your micro-muscles. It's like when you're on a boat, your body is constantly trying to keep itself upright, so all of your micro-muscles are working to try and keep you vertical and you don't even realize it."

Land says that part of the appeal of the class is that although hard work, you can go at your own pace and most of the time don't even feel like you are exercising because of how much fun it is.

"I have a bum knee and my husband has asthma,, and it doesn't stop us," she says. While Land and her husband Dave are working out, their 10-year-old son Ryan is allowed to play on the other nearby trampoline courts.

"The whole family is here," Land says. "What's better than getting the whole family exercising?"

Patty Ruiz, who has been attending AIRobics for about a month, believes that everyone can benefit from the class.

"Almost anyone can get out here and jump on a trampoline," she says. "I go to a chiropractor regularly to keep my back aligned and this doesn't impact it at all; in fact it helps. I feel more flexible, which is a good thing."

Raymond says that each class is always made up of a wide variety of age groups, from teens to college students to people in their 40s and 50s to a handful of those who are in their 60s.

In addition to the organized AIRobics classes, Sky High Sports also holds monthly dodge ball tournaments. There are two age divisions, one for ages older than 16 and one for those younger than 16.

But even those not interested in AIRobics, dodge ball or merely jumping for the fun of it, the center offers other amenities such as wireless Internet, two televisions and a variety of magazines.

"We have this boy who comes in regularly for three hours a day," says Raymond. "His mom or dad will come in with him, pull out their laptops and get some work done."

Raymond is currently working on offering other services for adults such as chair massages on the weekends.

"We want to make it easier for parents to bring their kids so they don't go like this all day," says Raymond, pretending to play a video game.

All ages are welcome to jump, and at $9 an hour it's no surprise that most Friday nights and entire weekends sell out. The number of people per hour is limited to around 100.

"We don't do reservations except for parties and large group events," says Raymond. Among the most well known employee groups to experience Sky High Sports include Apple, Google, Cisco and eBay.

"I don't think I've had one corporate group come in that hasn't left saying this is the best off-site they've done," says Raymond.

To help alleviate frustrations during peak days and times, the center plans on setting up an online reservation system by the summer.

"We know it's a pain in the butt and are really bummed we don't have a better system in place, but there were only so many things we could get done before we opened," Raymond says.

The new electronic reservation system isn't the only thing the Raymond brothers have planned for Sky High Sports' future.

"We are hoping to have a second location open this year and possibly a third," Raymond says. The brothers have nine locations picked out, for a total of 10 Bay Area and Northern California locations.

"We wanted to get this one going and make sure we weren't going to go broke," Raymond adds. "We definitely didn't expect to be this busy this fast, and I don't want to say it caught us by surprise, but we're going as fast as we can to keep up."

Sky High Sports, located at 2880 Mead Ave. in Santa Clara, is open 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. Sunday through Thursday, with the exception of the main court being closed between 6 p.m. and 8 p.m. Tuesday and Thursday for AIRobics, and 11 a.m. to midnight Friday and Saturday. For more information call 408.465.4040 or visit www.jumpskyhigh.com.