The one issue we had was with the safety netting around the jumping surface. Though we didn’t notice any gapping or problems with the areas where the net meets the metal framework, the netting itself felt less sturdy than some of the higher-end trampolines on the market. It’s soft and malleable, but if you live in a climate with rain and snow, we could see it getting worn out down the road. It likely wouldn’t stand up to too much roughhousing with older, heavier kids, but we still felt comfortable with the younger, lighter kids bouncing each other into the netting repeatedly. Made especially for tots, Skywalker’s mini trampolines provide 360-degree padded support handles.
For the most part, the instructions were clear and concise, and the entire process took about three hours from start to finish. We probably could have finished sooner if we’d avoided one major issue, which forced us to remove all of the springs and the netting and start over. The Game Boy was Nintendo’s second venture into handheld video gaming, and it found immediate success by selling over 1 million skywalker trampolines units within weeks of its 1989 release. The small gaming system, which came packaged with the wildly popular Tetris, combined elements from Nintendo’s NES gaming console and the Game and Watch, the original 1980 handheld from the Japanese company. Although it was less advanced than competitors from Sega and Atari, the 30 hours of battery life started a craze that has sold over 110 million units.
Honestly, if I had to choose between Skywalker and Springfree, I’d choose Springfree any day. As a safety-freak of a parent, I can easily see how the standard trampoline dangers exist in pretty much every trampoline except for Springfree trampolines. And that’s because the guy who invented Springfree is a safety-freak of a parent himself (or at least his wife is). Too many customers have complained about the trampoline being whisked off by the wind, springs breaking only one year in, a bad mat, and other safety concerns.
Sportsoul aspires to provide every user with the freedom to enjoy basketball without limitations. This trampoline from Beast Inc. is a comparable 15-foot round trampoline with a netting enclosure and similar safety features. Both boast high ratings and feature extra-thick coil springs, galvanized steel framework, and similar T-sockets. Kids of all ages got the sensation of driving around the neighbourhood just like their parents—albeit at around five miles per hour—when Pines of America brought Power Wheels to the masses in the early 1980s. Kids could choose from an All-Terrain Vehicle, a monster truck, or a convertible before the first of many Jeep models debuted in 1986. The Pogo Ball is a Saturn-looking jumping device manufactured by Hasbro and the cousin of the Pogo Stick, the latter of which is now an official extreme sport.
That model is relatively small, though, and the cords are liable to snap after several months of use. Skywalker’s trampolines put the springs outside the net, which means your kid can’t hit them unless yorin trampoline the netting is decayed. If the netting is strong, it will slow the kid’s flight and steer him away from problem spots before he actually hits them, reducing the benefit of thicker padding.