One of my favorite aspects of being a zip line guide is being able to participate with our kiddo zips.  Taking kids out as young as 4 years old may seem like a daunting task, but being able to watch their confidence grow throughout the experience is really rewarding.  When the children first arrive you can see the hesitancy on their faces (sometimes the parents too!).  The gear up processes is usually filled with questions, asking about each piece of equipment as well as the obvious “Will I fall?”  Then we move down to our ground school and this is where the change begins.  Getting to experience how the harness and zip will actually feel, before moving on to the bigger lines, does wonders.  Instantly the questions are done and all you can see is a big grin spread across their faces.  With ground school behind them they are ready and can’t wait to get to the main event.
Once we get to our kiddo line they get to see just how far and high they will be going and some of that hesitancy returns, but once I tell them that at any point if they don’t want to go any higher all they have to do is let me know and we can stop there.  As the guide I have a rope attached to their trolley and I am literally pulling them up the line from the ground and thus have total control of how high they go.  This is very reassuring for the kids and adds just a bit more confidence which really empowers them to try the zip out and not give up.
The first zip is the one that truly makes the experience.  We usually never make it all the way to the top of the line as the kids really start to see how high they are going.  I’d say 95% of the time they say they are high enough and so I stop pulling and let them zip from where they are.  After that first zip that big grin is right back on their faces and now all they want to do is go higher and faster.  The next two zips I get to take them all the way up, and by all the way I mean 35 feet in the air!  The rest of the zip is just smiles and laughter and the hardest part of it all is when the zips are done, but the kids just want to do more.  Gone is the fear and in its place is confidence and a new sense of adventure.  That look of confidence on a little kids face is the most rewarding experience for me as a guide.
-Nathan Shearer, Empower Course Manager