Published 2006-04-01T00:00:00Z”/>

Paul Wellersdick

Chico State students are warming up for the snow season.

While forging friendships with a trampoline and a board through what fans call trampboarding, a phenomenon is taking place in backyards around Chico.

Senior Mike Giannattasio shares a yard and a trampoline with his neighbors.

An eight-year veteran of the trampoline, Giannattasio started trampboarding when a friend got a trampoline.

“It was just the first thing that popped into my brain,” Giannattasio said. “It seemed like a good challenge, so I brought over my decks.”

As the name implies, trampboarding is a sport where people have adapted their favorite board sports to a trampoline.

Skateboarders, snowboarders and wakeboarders use trampolines of 10 feet in diameter or larger as practice fields for their sports.

People come to Giannattasio’s backyard to hop on the trampoline and practice.

“The neighbor’s friends dropped the tramp off one day and they come over hella late night and bust,” Giannattasio said. “It’s kind of dangerous, too. I saw these two girls get launched and go through the springs and hit the ground. I’ve seen people get launched all the way off.”

Chris Walker, a veteran trampboarder and a Chico State senior, has sustained injuries from the sport.

“I nutted myself once,” Walker said.

These types of injuries have not stopped Walker from pursuing the sport he loves. Walker and his friends almost encourage injury. They play games like “crack the egg” and “royal rumble.”

Crack the egg is where a few people get together and bounce on a trampoline while one person is curled up in a ball and gets bounced around. The object is to not uncurl and break your fall with your arms and legs.

Royal rumble is a game where a few people jump on the trampoline and try to knock opponents off.

“My friend broke his ass when he bottomed out,” Walker said.

The dynamic of the sport changes with the seasons. Jumping on trampolines starts at the end of winter and goes all the way through summer. When school starts, trampboarding begins as a conditioner for snowboarding, Walker said.

“You can try stuff you’ve never tried before,” he said. “I busted my first back flip last winter.”

Walker’s friend, David “Steezy” Taggart, agreed.

“It’s a great way to practice for the real thing,” he said.

The trampboarding season revolves around the snowboarding season for the two friends. They attribute a lot of their skills to trampboarding.

Walker and his friends got pretty serious about the sport for a while.

“It’s like a part-time job,” Walker said.

His part-time job, however, turned into trampoline parties.

“We’d have parties with two trampolines and like 20 or 30 people. We started doubling up the springs to get more pop,” he said. “We’d wake up sore. Sounds kind of lame, but it’s a workout.”

Paul Wellersdick can be reached at

<a href= “mailto:[email protected]”>[email protected]</a>