Jump XL

There are some of those occasions when it comes in handy to have kids. For example to participate in activities that are (unjustly) considered to be for youngsters only, like trampoline jumping. In these situations, there are two ways to go about. One is to pretend you’re a responsible parent watching over someone else’s kid. The other is to admit you’re just a big child yourself and wing it, like we did.

Jump XL is part of a large organization with trampoline parks in France, The Netherlands, Germany and Poland. In Belgium there’s only one, which is situated close to Place Bockstael in Laeken, Brussels.

When a friend of ours turned 22, she saw her chance to drag us all to the trampoline park. Given that it was her birthday, she knew we couldn’t refuse on grounds of being ‘too grown up for such a childish activity’. She had been brooding over this plan for some months with growing excitement, and if I’m honest, I was really thrilled about it too.

Jump XL offers all kinds of arrangements for birthday parties and other events. Their formula Jump Party XL, for example, includes a two-hour access to the park, a gift pack, Jump Juice, popcorn and (optionally) chocolate cake.

We skipped the snacks and went straight to business. Wearing our (compulsory) antiskid socks and colored bracelets, we were ready for some jumps.

The park itself is composed out of eight different areas: Battle Beam, Foam Pit, Ninja Course, Walk Wall, Climbing Wall, Jump Arena, Tumbling Lane and Waterfall Trampoline.

Although the facilities are available to practice your most impressive tricks, this is rendered difficult at best when kids are swarming all over the park. With some patience and caution it is possible though, as proven by our friend and former gymnastics practitioner, who showed off some of her moves without making (too many) casualties. We mostly limited ourselves to bouncing up and down, which we felt was quite intensive already :-)

After one hour, a supervisor whistled, which meant all the blue bracelets had to get off the trampolines and make room for the next group of kids, wearing orange bracelets. We were exhausted, but we had so much fun!

Practical information

• The address is Rue Tielemans 2, Bruxelles. You can easily get there by taking the metro to Bockstael.
• More information on the Jump XL website. Go online to book your timeslot beforehand.
• The price for one hour of trampoline jumping is 12 EUR, to which an additional 2,50 EUR applies for the compulsory antiskid socks (which you can keep afterwards).
• They also offer Trampoline Fitness classes, which I’m inclined to try out soon.

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