Tom Grundy's Wanderlust 2013 Trip Page

Wanderlust Colorado

On my way back west in July I was able to stop off at the Wanderlust Yoga and Music festival at Copper Mountain, Colorado. This made for a nice break from the driving. There I met up with a heap of YogaSlackers and helped teach slackline and balance classes. Instead of getting there early to help set up I picked up Jordan at the Denver airport and we drove up that night.

The first day we had one 2 hour class and then we prepared for our part in the Wanderlust Spectacular - an opening show that highlighted a number of the teachers and groups there including Shakti Sunfire hooping, a few different AcroYoga performers, Quixotic dancers, Cameron Shayne - Budokon, MC Yogi, DJ Drez, and us, the YogaSlackers. Really quite a lot of talented people that I am honored to get to share the stage with. It is always a little exciting learning something new that you are going to perform on stage that night... The first time I tried one of the moves I bonked Mia's head onto my nose - luckily not TOO hard. Eventually we had things mostly sorted out and did a few runs on the stage to figure out our placements. It involved some acrobatics and then hoisting Raquel into the air on a slackline held by people at each side - and then Sam in Peacock pose. The actual performance went without any major hitches - another moment on the edge of the limelight for my limited performance CV. Hopefully I can post a link to a video at some point.

Wanderlust Colorado Spectacular - I am the second from right base

Jordan flips across on our feet and hands - my feet are next

Sam, Myself, Mark, and Jordan anchoring one side of the slackline...

... with Raquel on it

and then with Sam - All these pics were poached from Facebook

The weather in Colorado was quite changeable. It seemed we were always taking off or putting on layers, and the sunscreen was a necessity since the area with our lines had very limited shade. Still, it was nice to have at least some cool temperatures after the steamy hot east coast. I was also noticing the altitude, especially during the "YogaSlacker conditioning" we did each day. We were conveniently centrally located for almost all of the free samples though - lots of cocnut and almond ice cream among other things. Wanderlust continued with lots of slackline teaching and playing as well as taking a few other classes and taking the chairlift up the mountain one morning to take pictures up there. Then it was time to continue on west back to Bishop.

Jordan when the sun shines

Jordan when it is rainy

flying Mia in a shoulder stand from the slackline - we didn't balance this for long.

Josh flying on Sam - definite role reversal

Josh in his usual role - hoisting flyers to great heights

3-headed dragon and hand to hand

a free headstand - this one also didn't last, but my Pentax takes 7 frames per second

Mark and Jordan

Colin does a backflip with Garret's help

some YogaSlackers and friends

Wanderlust California

After a bit of time in Bishop working on my place I took off up to Squaw Valley near lake Tahoe for Wanderlust California. This year we were set up in a little courtyard sort of area that had the advantage of a number of trees which made the slackline set up a lot easier plus provided some very appreciated shade. The downside of this spot was that it was sort of hiding and not everyone walked past it or even knew it was there - in some ways that was an advantage too, but it was harder to rally people for conditioning.

Once again we were part of the opening night Wanderlust Spectacular. This time after our YogaSlacker performance which was similar to what we did in Colorado we teamed up with a bunch of the other groups for a final "number" among other things Tom and I and then Daniel (an AcroYogi) formed a plank stack which Cameron dove through - while others were in various acrobatic poses behind - the one picture is from the side of the stage just as Cameron starts his dive.

Wanderlust California Spectacular - Raquel on the line

Cameron starts his dive through - Ali Kaukas photos poached from Facebook

Wanderlust California seemed to have a lot more people than Colorado, plus there was more of a Prana presence with Beaver and a bunch of other folks I have met before here. (Thanks for the place to stay too). Unfortunately I didn't have a pass to take the gondola up to high camp to play in the pool complex up there. It would have been nice to work on hand to hand stuff with a safe water landing. Also the YogaSlackers that were there were all people I had met before, so it was fun to catch up (in Colorado it was fun to catch up with the old friends and meet some new ones).

we had some YogaSlackers temporary tattoos finally - they make your biceps look bigger.

teaching some kneeling ground work before moving onto the lines

Caravan Palace put on a good show

Caravan Palace lead singer

I was feeling a bit sick at first - I attributed this to breathing too much dust doing construction work, but maybe it was something more. My throat got very dry and my voice wasn't it's normal self. Just about when that was getting better I managed to mess up my knee in a double slackline acrobatic mishap - ouch. I think it will be ok, but it was enough to keep me off the waterline the next day and to limit my slacklining to only the most basic demonstrations.

Tom on the rodeo line in a very odd interview with Jesus

Sam and Dan getting crazy on the slackline - (a counterbalance going wrong)

Kathryn starting the waterline

Kathryn walking on the waterline

sometimes the waterline ended with a wet slacker

sometimes not - Ray was hooping and he remained dry(ish)

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