House Design

GRAND RAPIDS It feels like Im flying, says Emily Daum of the zip line she got for her 9th birthday last fall.

And that made it something every parent searches for: one of the coolest birthday presents ever.

The popularity of zip lines or canopy tours at vacation spots in the United States and overseas has created a growing market for at-home versions, said Aaron Sleadd, sales and marketing manager for Sleadd Adventures, in Grants Pass, Ore.

We hear from a lot of people who go on vacation and say, Hey I would like to have one of these in my backyard, said Sleadd, who sells zip line kits and safety equipment at Ziplinegear.com. Prices start at $150, he said.

Laurie Daum, mother of Emily, who will be a fifth-grader at St. Paul The Apostle Academy, has seen zip lines in action on YouTube, with crazies grabbing on for a half-mile ride that takes them plunging 30 stories down the side of a mountain and over treetops at more than 60 mph.

Dont let those videos scare you, Daum says. You dont have to go that fast, she said. We havent had any issues with it, its safe, and Im comfortable with Emily out here in our backyard with her friends.

She thinks it is a practical gift and safer than a trampoline.

Her friends have one, and she would go over and play with them, and then one day, she came home and asked for one, Laura Daum said. Our neighbor has a trampoline, and we have the zip line, so the kids can go back and forth.

The zip line runs about 60 feet between a pair of trees across the Daums backyard. Thats where Emily, the youngest of the Daums four children, most likely can be found, now that summer has arrived.

The zip line isnt available in stores, but kits can be purchased online. The Daums purchased a kit from Sleaddventures LLC at ziplinegear.com for $120.

It included the cable, and tools to anchor the line and adjust the tension. Zip line riders strap themselves into harnesses and let gravity and a pulley slide them from one end of the line to the other.

Nathan Sleadd, who is the president of Sleaddventures, which is based in Grants Pass, Ore., says Sleaddventures outfitted more than 2,000 zip lines around the world last summer.

We have seen a continuous increase in sales for the last five years, Sleadd wrote on the companys website. I think one reason for that is that people go on vacation to Hawaii, Cancun, Costa Rica, and they get a chance to experience it. Then they come home and say Whoa, I can put one of those in my backyard?

Once one person in the neighborhood has it, then the other children want it, too. Word of mouth can be explosive.

A variety of companies sell zip line kits and the equipment to install them. Installation requires tools to anchor the line and to adjust the tension. The key is getting the cable tight. Sleadds company sells the tools and refunds customers money if they return them in good condition.

Backyard enthusiasts usually stretch the steel cable between trees, Sleadd said. The length of the line determines the height at the start. Sleadds company sells a lot of 150-foot and 200-foot lines, which need to be installed at least 15 feet above the ground.

Sleadds staff is available for consultations if needed, although Tim Daum, Emilys father, said that wasnt necessary. It only took about two hours for him to install it.

There is really nothing to it, Tim Daum says. You have to make sure you have an appropriate lane, and you need to have a slope to work with. You dont need much slope because you pick up speed quickly. Gravity is a good accelerator.

There are brakes that you can purchase to stop your child. You have to keep in mind you are hurtling your child at a stationary object, but the slope we have is so reasonable that you can drag your feet to a stop.

Sleadd says customers have shown plenty of imagination in setting up their zip lines.

We have harness setups where people can go Superman-style like youre flying, Sleadd says. People have put them over big swimming area where you can drop in, and they are used on paintball courses and over corn mazes. There are a ton of fun different ways they are used.

The Associated Press contributed to this story.

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