Stilt safety.

I stiltwalked proffessionally for about 3 years and have performed in clubs, festival, parades, shoping centres... etc..

In that time I fell twice and both times I had no injures (except pride) falls happen so practise them but you can hit a wet patch mid step and be down in a split second.

Peripheral vision & hearing: for some reason joe public thinks you can't hear them or see them if they are a couple of metres away because you are higher than them. So use your senses to there extremes you must know what is going on around you (including behind) at all times and what is coming up.
The number of times I heard someone say to there mates "what happens if..." at which point I'd turn around and say quietly in there ear "you'd get 13 stone falling on top of you".
If your working in crowds you learn to spot the trouble makers before there get to you, most people it's is just jest and a hand on the stilts although disconcerting won't make you fall off.

For clubs use dura's because they give you greater stablity or have a long walking stick as a prop. One of the main dangers in clubs (apart from people) are bottles & glass on the ground so an extra eye on the ground all the time.
And nothing is going to protect you from the nutter who rugby tackles you (have see it happen).

I recommend having a spotter so why not incorporate them into the act so you can then charge more cos there's 2 or 3 of you and it will make your life safer.

Don't have an aggressive costume as you will get aggression back, sounds a bit odd but we had costumes that had ray guns and the amount of hassel we got was huge compared to when we uses the same costume without the guns.

Don't run before you can walk::-
There is alot of experiances been given out in this thread by people who have done the hard work of learning as you go, which will give you a bit of a clue of what to expect but only by doing it will you learn how to do it.

Once I was being chased by something very mean and scary so my strides got bigger & bigger & faster & faster till I managed to escape at which point my brain caught up with what by body was doing I was running on stilts, bugger how do I stop?
Fortunately it wasn't as hard as I thought but it was an interesting few seconds.

I have been stilting for 10yrs. I started on 18inch STILTZ and progressed 2 years ago to 2ft aluminium pegs and earlier this year 3ft aluminium pegs. Bill(Stretch)Coleman calls me eccentric because I stilt for pleasure going cross-country looking for that BUZZ and adrenalin rush when getting into difficulty especially descending steep, muddy or icy hills. Hence I fall regularly (probably around 200 times in the past year) and to date have not experienced so much as soreness.
When I was taught to stilt, my tutor taught me to fall before I could walk. He taught me that I should always use extreme skateboarding knee pads (the sort that fit right round your leg and do not slip). He then said that you fall forwards to you knees, using your knees as a pivot sit back on your thighs keeping you back upright. Putting your hands forward to break a fall not only risks a wrist injury but is more likely to break your collar bones. Falling sideways is painfull everytime and a backwards fall must be avoided at all costs as it usually ends in brain damage or death.
I recently tried to come down a flight of 4 concrete steps to a tarmac carpark for the first time on my 3ft pegs and missed the top step. I landed the way I was taught on my knees, sitting back. The fall was probably around 6ft in all and apart from the shock of the fall there was no injury or after effects

On the subject of stilt safety when performing, it is advisable to employ a spotter on the ground who can deter a would be stilt assassin. When performing I would advise you to check the ground where you intend to work before putting on stilts. You should look out for the following:-
Working in doors -
low doorways, steps or stairs, steep ramps, low light fittings and check for items which will cause a slip or slide. These include fast food outlets as a stray potato chip or discarded saucy salad make excellent launch pads for a rubber tipped stilt. Also if it is raining outside a wet footprint on a polished wood floor is lethal.
Working outdoors -
low trees and bushes, if on grass soft ground that you could sink into, at shows and fairs check for low slung electric cables and again discarded fast food, wooden duckboarding or wooden walkways are lethal when wet, cobble stones especially wet ones, kerbs, wet metal grates and wet painted road markings.
Working during the hours of darkness -
ALL of the above plus unseen holes in the ground.
If in doubt about your personal safety, see your employer and refuse on safety grounds to perform. Afterall although many people wonder what it is like to see stiltwalkers fall no-one wants to see an injured stiltwalker. Safety comes first EVERYTIME

The Easter bunny?
Father Christmas?
Bernard Manning?

This is scary that this kind of advice is still being postulated, while the technique described above might be ok'ish for around 1 foot stilts maybe a little taller, you are risking serious damage to both your hips and spinal collum. Please check back through this thread for a full description of a more appropriate falling protocol.

mark

As a stilt Walker of a couple of years it takes practice just like everything else. i started out on a pair that were 50cm high. i Started to learn on these. a couple of weeks ago i did a full costume act on 65cm stilts that i had been walking on for 4 days. i had knee pads tights tied around the straps in case they broke and i had to spotters. this is about as much as u can optimize safety u can a bit more but i didnt have any wrist guards. i was doing it as part of the "big look see" festival. i was wearing the costume for Colin Webster-Watson. he wore the costume many years ago.i hav been stilt walking for about 2 or 3 years and im now 13. i also do fire staff but not on stilts yet though i have been practicing. al i can say is wear protective gear hav spotters and practice practice practice. :-)

Nice thread I have to admit that I took a head-on start with Dura-Stilts (easy as a piece of cake) walking around at a carnival celebration mid-city. The only probs came for two reasons:

1) fatigue
2) fools

Nothing happened, though.

Later I had the opportunity to receive some professional training at the "Escuela Nacional de Circo" on 1.70m conventional stilts. I picked up pretty fast (maybe a "natural"), however one day I practised walking backwards and (whilst looking for the girls) missed out on that 2 ft brick wall behind me. Fortunately I was able to make a 180 in mid-air (who knows what would have happened otherwise) and slammed my wrists on the concrete floor.

They should have been shattered, but I was extremely lucky with my physique (thanks mum and dad)... it still took about 4 month to recover.

IMO (apart from being) an "accident" on stilts happens for a few reasons. Apart from the one mentioned above comes:

3) frivolousness, as in
3.1) poor attention to areal conditions
3.2) lack of training (poor control)

You don't necessarily have to break your wrists, but IF you are likely to break a bone once in a while... I can only say that I have been extremely lucky and never broke a bone in my entire life, even though I had craploads of close calls.

Accidents DO happen, sooner or later. The only thing you can do about it is be prepared - and at stilt walking it means awareness. (*walks off, humming "the higher they come, the harder they fall"*)

I support the theory of when you fall, drop onto your knees and sit back onto your legs/stilts. Going cross-country I fall regularly, sometimes several times a day and have never suffered so much as a bruise landing on my knees. I even missed the top step of a flight of 5 concrete steps and landed on my knees at the bottom on a tarmac carpark in the dark and did not feel a thing. The only damage was when one day on a particularly steep muddy hill, both stilts launched together and I landed on my hip. The bruise and stiffness lasted about 5 weeks. Using skateboarders kneepads I have fallen off 3ft pegs onto my knees with no damage - not even a bruise. I am told by other stilters that this method is preferable for any height up to 5ft. Over 5ft any fall will hurt and could be damaging no-matter which way you hit the ground. Over 7ft tall, find someone to fall on or do not fall at all.

Roy

I think the advantage of droping to the knees when done properly is that as you lean back bending from the knees you fall alot slower. But i find even if you do this you should still try and minimise the complete impact on you knees, ie catch some of your fall with a push up once you get close to the ground.

Simply put, fall through your knees, continue with a forward motion, arresting your residual momentum with your forearms (not your hands or wrists) thus preventing you headbutting the ground, final resting postion should be prone, practise this until you have it well rehearsed. dropping onto your knees then sitting back is potentially very damaging to the hips,

professional stilt walker

mark

It has been very frosty for some days so looking for adventure, I went to a flat area I know of where there is often smooth sheet ice. The site is a large ash carpark and I was pleased to find the ice there as expected. Getting up on the 20inch pegs with the new mountain bike tyre feet, I set off onto the ice and promptly fell flat. Using my car to get me upright again, I tried again using very short steps to keep the stilts vertical, but afer only about 4 steps I went down again. I then took off the bike tyre feet and went back to the quad-skate toe stops. I set off onto the sheet ice again using very short steps and managed about 30 steps before a gust of wind sent me flying. After a long crawl back to the car, I tried that again and managed to get right across the ice to safety. Coming back to the car I had gone about 20 steps when either through loss of concentration or a particularly slippery bit I fell yet again. Enough for there today. The result of that adventure is that although bike tyre feet may be good on mud they are impossible on ice. I must devise a way of changing the feet to suit the terrain about to be walked. Stats for today.

After that adventure, I then went back to my old hill, leaving the quad-skate toe stops on the feet. I found while walking my route the frost had made the path surface hard but with sticky mud just under the surface. I put on the stilts and set off down this very steepest of hills, finding the grip quite good with only very gentle attempted launchings. I got to the point of my heavy fall 2 months ago and the adrenalin started pumping and apprehension set in. Very gently I placed the stilts going down sideways as before as it is far too steep to try going down forwards. Suddenly the lower stilt launched down the hill and I staggered, arms flailing wildly to try and stay upright, but I was unable to control the slide and had to drop onto my knees. Using a nearby tree, I got vertical again and continued down the hill avoiding the place where I fell. With my heart pumping hard and whole body shaking gently, placing the stilts safely was very difficult. After several more "nearly but not quite" moments I reached the bottom, and set off back up the hill. All went well until I reached the spot where I fell and I found that the spot was actually so steep that it was unstiltable and placing a stilt anywhere on the path was causing a launching. So I avoided the area and went up the grass, then back onto the path and back to the top.
A great day at 2 different sites with 2 different obstacles. I really enjoyed the adventures. Total time up high about 2 hours. 6 falls but no injury. Falling by dropping onto my knees is by far the easiest and least damaging

yer crazy man. Welcome to hop.

I recently took delivery of a new pair of wooden peg stilts, this time 24inches high with my foot over the stilt instead of hanging off the side. I am thinking that this will give me better balance and adhesion. However when they arrived I found that the stilt leg is knot free hard wood and is 30mm square. Now I am used to 50mm square or 40mm dia alum tube. I have been out on these new ones for the first time today. I was amazed how much more concentration I need to stay vertical without wobbling with this slightly smaller stilt foot.
After about half an hour on smooth concrete, adjusting straps and foot placing, found what I thought was the best position and screwed my boots onto the footplate. I then practiced for another half hour on dry smooth concrete until I felt comfortable, then headed off for the mud and hills.

After a few days of snow, now melted, my favourite path was very greasy. I set off along the level only to have a major slide after about 20ft and caused my first fall of the day. Having got vertical again, I tried again, trying to keep the stilts on the very narrow path which is about 6 inches wide mud with grassy boarders. The path again got the better of me after only 4 steps and I found myself on the ground again. My 3rd attempt got me to the end of the path to the point where the steep hill starts after several anxious moments, only to find that while turning round I had a major sinking, and the silt would not come out the ground. I then had a couple of minutes extreme difficulty trying to maintain balance while I took the other stilt off which brought me level with the sunk stilt. Having pulled the sunk one out of the ground, I leant against a tree while I put them on again.
Setting off back to the other end of the path, I had almost made it when an enormous slide sent me flying again. Enough for today, I must wait for the ground to dry out a bit.
Stats for today. About 90 minutes on stilts. 3 falls, one involuntary dismount and a steep leaning curve - no injuries.
I am already longing for my next outing.

lol

off road stilting.

I have never used metal stilts and have only used the wooden ones you have described, so I imagine our positions would be quite reversed were I to get the kind you are used to.
Do you know what kind of wood yours are?
My brother and I are embroiled in a debate in different kinds to try with the new sets we are about to make.

I can honestly say, I've never wanted, nor thought to, stilt in mud. Very brave indeed! lol