| At A Glance | |
| Author | Paindreamer |
| Contact | Paindreamer@hotmail.com |
| IAM | Paindreamer |
| When | A month ago |
| Artist | Wings of Desire |
| Studio | Månefisken |
| Location | Oslo.Norway |
I had my mind set on coma suspension for a long time but did not have any opportunity to attempt it yet. I knew there would be a great opportunity to do it during the Summer Modfest 2005 since the best Scandinavian suspension teams were supposed to attend this event. One of them, which, by the way, is led by my suspension mentor, iam:bena , was ConcreteJungleTribe. Coma was his first suspension and he really recommended it to me. I also knew I would have experienced friends around me during this beautiful suspension.
As time came closer to Modfest, it was getting more and more obvious that this event was going to be canceled; eventually, to my disappointment, it got canceled. Not only did I not get the chance to meet old friends but also could not attempt my Coma suspension.
Everything changed when I was on a trip to Oslo for some mod work. I got the chance to talk to the organizer of the great Suscon in Oslo, Wings of Desire, iam:bleeding , who introduced his event to me. I told him I was very interested in attending the event but, since my economy is at minimum as I am a student, I was not sure if I would be able to do that. I told him about my and iam:Renegadedrumasshen´s new suspension team in Boras, Sweden (Urbanized Quality Time). I thought this event was not only a great opportunity to attempt my Coma but I would also get a good chance to learn from Scandinavian best suspension crews. Fortunately, everything worked out great thanks to the support and sponsorship of iam:bleeding himself.
While scheduling the trip to Oslo SusCon, I got a new perspective on my coma suspension although I had also set my mind on an even more beautiful suspension called "resurrection". As time came closer and closer to Wings of Desire, I started to think about my view on both suspensions and got the thoughts "what if I could make two very beautiful suspensions at the same time?!" Thus the idea was born – I decided to suspend in coma and follow it by resurrection suspension.
Thursday, August 4, 2005: I went, with Iam:Renegadedrumasshen (co-founder of Urbanized quality time), to the annual Suscon -"Wings of Desire" in Oslo, Norway. This would become one of the best international events I have ever attended to. I was one of maybe 45 participants (plus the crew members; maybe 60 people in total) who were going to be suspended this weekend at "Månefisken" in Oslo.
On Friday, August 5 , we all got together at "Månefisken". Not many people were present yet when me, iam:Renegadedrumasshen and iam:HARDCORE arrived to the location. Iam:HARDCORE is one of "Wings of Desire" crew members and that kind of explains why we arrived there as early as we did. While standing there and looking around I could notice a few familiar faces and went to say hello. The whole Friday was spent on hanging out and getting to know other participants. We also got information about the venue and the event.
Saturday, August 6: This was the day I was hoping to get confirmed that coma suspension was as good as I was told. I was very nervous as I was not sure if I was going to even get hooked for this suspension; I have never been pierced with hooks in the front before, my knees being the only exception. I told iam:bleeding about my wish and goal to attempt an 8-point coma to a 6-point resurrection; he told me that there would not be any problem; the only thing was that the rigging for this suspension is a bit different. So on the second day of Wings of Desire, after several hours of hanging out at the venue, iam:Muffe_Vulnuz walked up to me and told me it was the time. I went to the piercing room, thousands of tiny butterflies in my stomach. I took off my shirt, pulled up my shorts, jumped up on the table and laid down.
While lying on the table, my adrenaline started pumping up but, at the same time, it was kind of amusing as I have never looked into the eyes of people who were going to hook me before. I could see their facial expressions; all of them so focused on the task on hand. It was different from my previous experiences with the piercers.
Here they were: iAM: Muffe_Vulnuz, iam:Renegadedrumasshen, iam:frank_prov and iam:darkncrazy; people who were going to pierce me for this suspension. This was also something new, since half of this "crew" were Americans and they used a bit different technique from the one I am used to.
When the first 4 hooks were in place I got a huge adrenaline rush and it kind of felt as if I was going to pass out (though I have never passed out before, so I do not really know how it feels). Fortunately it did not happen. While I was preparing myself for the last 4 hooks I felt someone patting my head. It was iam:bleeding who wanted to show me his support and empathy. When Frank asked how I felt iam:bleeding was behind me and kept patting my head and showing me that he was there. It felt really great to know he was there, right by my side. I have never experienced such a close contact with anyone during suspension. I guess I have learned a valuable lesson about human emotion and that it is very important (at least for some people since I also know people who do not want/need to show their own emotions nor get support from others during suspension) to be in touch with someone we trust during this intense procedure. It really meant a lot to me.
When I entered the room where I was going to try to suspend, I felt huge relief; suddenly I was not nervous anymore. I do not really know why this happened since I tend to be really nervous until I have left the ground and hung for some time. To tell the truth, though, I did not reflect much over this phenomenon; I just grabbed a cup of coffee and laid down on the ground next to the rigg. I tried to imagine how my body would react and how the skin would stretch. iam:bleeding was rigging me up with help of iam:christiane. While they were doing their job, the only thing I could do was waiting until the rope was in place to start my journey up in the air. Once they were done with the balance and correcting the hooks, it was time to go up. They slowly started to pull me up, so I could feel how my skin began to stretch. After a few minutes I asked for the rope since I felt more comfortable holding it; you might think about it is a way to control my fear and pain. It was very difficult, though, because I had to hold my arms completely straight up and that was very uncomfortable. Eventually I gave up my attempt to pull myself up. I gave the rope back to iam:bleeding and asked for iam:bena's hand. When I felt his hand in mine, I felt secure and safe. My skin started to stretch, loud music was played in the background and I focused on the spotlight above my head and just let it go.
The sensation was amazing. I could feel my body leaving the ground but the pain was gone. It was there but I did not feel it. It felt as if I was dreaming but, when I focused on the spotlight in the ceiling, I knew it was real. I have never experienced such happiness in my entire life. This was so incredible that it felt unreal. After a while in the air I felt I had achieved my first goal in this suspension.
Time was relative. It felt as if I had hung for about 5 minutes but was told afterwards that it was, in fact, 45 minutes. Then I was ready to attempt my second goal. I told iam:Frank_prov, who was standing next to me, supervising the hooks, that I was now ready to remove the hooks from my knees. As I continued to prepare myself for it, I noticed that there were more people around and in front of me. Iam:Bena was holding my legs when the hooks from the knees were removed, iam:frank_prov watched the hooks and told me every detail about the status on the hooks which made me very calm and more secure about myself. Iam:christiane cut off the rope from the hooks in my knees and iam:bena slowly let my legs go down. Then iam:bleeding let my hand go and I hung by myself.
I felt free. I felt very intense sensation of pain in my stomach and back since I am not very flexible. This sensation was touching my emotions. I was almost at the edge of crying because of all those strong, intense feelings. I felt so incredibly happy; it was sheer ecstasy. I was free. This sensation was my own - I still had the support for my head and could not see any people while I was hanging, so it seemed that I was there entirely on my own. It was wonderful.
After maybe 30 seconds my back could no longer support my body and the pain was getting more and more intense. I forced myself to say I was done and wanted to come down. It was only when I landed on the ground that I felt how much this had affected my back. All of a sudden I could see that there where many people in the room.
When I was cut off from the rigg and sat up, people showed me their support. I felt very happy! This moment taught me that suspension is not competition; support of all those people witnessing my suspension made me feel warm inside.
My journey to Oslo and attending Wings of Desire proved to be my personal quest that taught me a lot. I learnt there not only "hands on" in suspension and how to help during "bleeding out", rigging and piercing but also could witness the emotional side of suspension and its individual and more "social" aspects. I think here about the emotions exchanged between people that have never met before. It is truly amazing to see, and experience, how people can get to know each other during one weekend, sharing one thing they have in common – love of the hooks and suspension.
This experience had changed me. I feel different, I feel resurrected. Was I in Coma before?
Thanks to iam:bleeding who gave me the opportunity to attend this event
Thanks to iam:Frank_prov for being a great support and to hook me up for this suspension
Thanks to iam:Muffe_Vulnuz, iam:Renegadedrumasshen,iam Darkncrazy for hooking me up
and, last but not the least, I want to thank my suspension mentor, iam:Bena, for support and inspiring me to do this suspension!
//Paindreamer