One Day Space Hopper Pyramid

On the 19th of May 2007 Will Nash and Jon Buck, with the assistance of a number of Brighton University Design students, constructed the worlds biggest (and probably first) Space Hopper Pyramid.

The pyramid was built for the Bounce your Balls for Cancer campaign to raise some money for testicular cancer charities, and encourage more men to bounce their balls!

The equilateral pyramid stood 4.8 meters high, it was built in a little under two hours, using a light steel frame to secure the base, the upper hoppers were tied together into groups of three and built up like bricks from above using a cherry picker. We used a total of 298 Space Hoppers. Once the pyramid was completed we gathered together all the volunteers for a bouncing group photo, as we were hopping up and down for the press photographers; a huge gust of wind blew the top of the pyramid off! The job was done, it took us another two hours to knock it all down, deflate the hoppers, and tidy away.

All in all it was a valuable and constructive day, to design and build something that big and silly takes a lot of planning and a large number of dedicated people. We hope to encourage pyramid builders everywhere, and to build a bigger pyramid ourselves in the near future.

Glen Poole, the brains behind ‘Bounce your Balls’ said:

“The idea for Bounce Your Balls for Cancer came from the growing number of fundraising events that bring women together to raise money for breast cancer, and I was surprised there weren't similar high profile events for men. I decided to give men the chance to show that they're prepared to come together to tackle testicular cancer. Our aim is for the Space Hopper to become synonymous with testicular cancer in the way that the pink ribbon is synonymous with breast cancer.”