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Thrills and spills of a first-time Segway rider
(by Rebecca S. Rivas - January 01, 2001)
Anna Spector, West End Word photographer, raised her eyebrow at me and asked, “Can you meet the challenge?”
I gave her a wink and told her, “You first.”
Spector’s assignment was to photograph me riding the Science Center’s Segway, a two-wheel electric transporter that is most commonly used by security guards. However, she ended up becoming my fearless tag-team partner.
Neither one of us had ever stepped on one of the scooters before, which look as much like podiums as anything else and are activated by five gyroscopic sensors underneath the platform on which the rider stands. To move forward, the rider leans slightly forward and puts weight on the toes. To move backward, the weight shifts to the heels.
We were both looking pretty wobbly at first, but after 30 minutes of basic training, we were riding over fake bridges and two-by-four planks with no problem.
Our instructor, Jeannie Young, manager of the Segway tour program, said we might be cut out for the challenge course, which was not part of the original plan.
When exhibits such as Body Worlds aren’t set up in the Exploradome, riders can take the 11-section course, which includes a teeter totter, the Pit of Doom and the “Jesus bridge,” a warped, bumpy bridge made of plywood.
The course won’t be fully set up again until March 14, so we only had the opportunity to try one section of it — a bridge elevated about a foot off the ground with bumpy tiles, pipes and two-by-fours on top.
But it was enough for me to chicken out on going first.
Spector secured her helmet, stepped on the Segway and started slowly gliding toward the bridge. It looked like she was going too slow to get over the first bump, so I gripped the table behind me and held my breath.
Young must have seen it too and said, “Commit. Dead possums didn’t commit!”
Spector leaned forward and sailed over gracefully, saying, “Whoo, I know why they call that the Jesus bridge. You just want to say ‘Jesus!’”
Then it was my turn.
I had this eerie thought — the kind that you try to push out of your mind when you’re trying to focus: “What started off as a story about Segways has left one reporter with 20 broken bones.”
How embarrassing would that be?
Young assured me that no one has ever been injured so severely on a Segway, at least not at the Center.
I bent my knees and leaned on my toes to make the machine go forward.
“Commit,” I said and gritted my teeth to get over the first plank.
I was a little off center and started going too close to the edge. Eeek.
I adjusted. Phew. Going over the pipes, my whole body started to shake and I could hardly focus on the last obstacle. But before I knew it, I had caught a little air on the last plank and was safely on the way down.
“Yeah!” Spector and I exchanged high-fives and then each rode a couple more times. Young told us we are ready for the whole challenge. The record was 15 seconds, set by a volunteer in her 40s.
“It’s not just for people in their 20s, it’s really for everyone,” Young said. “It’s addictive.”
Spector and I started talking about our next big adventure on a Segway. But the real challenge course is navigating the city of St. Louis’ laws that govern where you can and cannot ride a Segway without getting a big, fat fine.
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