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Xpogo?  Extreme Pogo?  What is that?  I’m here to tell you…it is something you should not miss if your are planning a trip to the State Fair of Texas.  Our trip to The State Fair of Texas this year was perfect.

We had perfect weather, it wasn’t too crowded, and I got my Fletcher’s Corn Dog!  I wait for this every year.  I’m always so excited for the State Fair of Texas.  I have been going since I was a small child, and now I’m having fun creating new memories with my own kids each year at the State Fair.

What is Xpogo?

One of my favorite memories from this year’s visit, is our time watching Xpogo, a team of guys who do “Extreme Pogo.”  I know I know…what in the world is extreme pogo??  Who even knew there was such a thing?  Well…now I know, and I was fascinated by these guys and totally impressed.  So were my kids…

In fact, Zach was so impressed that he has decided that he needs a new pogo stick for Christmas.  Not just any old pogo stick, but a pogo stick that he can do Extreme Pogo on.  Oh my…  Once you see how these guys totally defy gravity, you’ll understand why I’m going to try to steer him away from the sport of Extreme Pogo!

Xpogo Extreme Pogo

No…you do not need to rotate this picture. It is NOT upside down. This is one of the many pictures I got of these guys from Xpogo doing flips on their pogo sticks! Crazy, right?

The pogo stick they were using at the fair is called the Vurtego V4 Pro.  And of course, this is the pogo stick that Zach wants.  At first, I thought this would make a perfect Christmas gift for him.  Unbeknownst to me, this particular pogo stick costs around $400!  What?

That’s crazy, right?  So I’m pretty sure that Santa will not be delivering one of these on Christmas Eve.  Sure would be fun to be able to try one thought.  Don’t you think?

If Extreme Pogo is going to be your sport, you might want to consider a Vurtego V4 Pro.  Here is what they say about it:

  • Age Range: 10 and up – Teens and Adults
  • Weight Range: 75– 400 LBS for experienced riders / 100 – 300 LBS for all levels of riders
  • In-A-Sentence: The Vurtego V4 Pro is a powerful big air stick that uses compressed air to provide jumpers a killer workout, extreme air, and serious trick opportunities.

The part that says “uses compressed air to provide jumper a killer workout,” definitely intrigues me, but I think I’ll stick to walking in the neighborhood for now.  Or maybe I can just jump really high over and over on our trampoline?  Not a bad idea…

If you visit the XPOGO Website, you can see all of the guys who make up the team, and you can read their tagline which says:  XPOGO IS 10 PROS AND 2 NICKS.  THESE ARE OUR POGO ADVENTURES ACROSS THE GLOBE.  The group was founded in 1999, and on their Facebook page it says We’re pushing a new sport and getting in trouble along the way.  Sounds like fun, right?

The website goes on to say Okay there are few more people involved as well…but generally we are a group of people bound together by the love to Extreme Pogo and an interest in spreading the sport across the world.

We do a lot. We produce hundreds of Live Events a year, we make crazy Videos from all corners of the globe, we sell the best Pogo Sticks and Pogo Gear you can find, we run a summer Competition we call “Pogopalooza,” we hang out with famous people sometimes…but we try not to take it all too seriously.

Check out the video below from my YouTube Channel (click to see more videos).  This is just one of the many snippets we captured of Michael and Tone doing their cool tricks.  And it was so great, because we had a front row seat.  Morgan even got a high five from one of them after he did a cool flip!

After we watched them perform at the State Fair, we had the opportunity to chat with them (and get a picture).  Zach wanted to know more about the pogo sticks they were using and whether or not they had a YouTube Channel.  They were such nice guys.  We talked with Michael Mena and Tone Staubs, but came to find out that there are several people involved with Xpogo.

Zach & Morgan (and Mark) were so excited to get to meet these guys who could defy gravity!

Zach & Morgan (and Mark) were so excited to get to meet these guys who could defy gravity!

I was quite impressed to learn that they have founders, co-founder, directors, managers, and many other people running Xpogo!  This was much more than just a group of guys bouncing around on pogo sticks.  This was legit!  And guess what…Zach was thrilled to learn that they do have a YouTube Channel!

As I was reading up on these guys from Xpogo, I decided to find out a little bit about pogo sticks.  Can you believe there is a website devoted to pogo sticks?  Actually, there were several, but the site I liked best was the About Website.  On it, they had a link to a page called The History of the Pogo Stick.  This is where I learned about the pogo stick legend.

What is the Pogo Stick Legend?

Xpogo Extreme Pogo

Many of their tricks that they do remind me of those crazy things you see kids doing on skateboards! I so badly wanted to ask to try one of these Vurtego pogo sticks. What fun!

There is a legend that, “either George Hansburg or an anonymous German was traveling through Burma when he met a poor farmer with a daughter named Pogo. Pogo wanted to go to temple every day to pray, but couldn’t because she had no shoes to wear for the long walk through the mud and rocks.

So the poor farmer built a jumping stick for her, and when George Hansburg or the anonymous German returned home, he made and sold a similar jumping stick of his own.”

This is simply a legend.  As far as we know, it is not true.  But…it is a fun story, right?   What is true though is that George Hansburg did patent the first pogo stick in 1919.  Can you believe they have been around that long?

Many people believe that the pogo stick got its name from the two German inventors who patented the pogo stick in Germany in 1920.  Their names were Max Pohlig and Ernst Gottschall.  It is believed that they took the first 2 letters from each of their last names, combined them, and came up with “pogo”!

A boatload of these wooden pogo sticks from Germany was shipped to a the Gimble Brothers Department Store in 1919 in the U.S.  On the trip over, however, the wooden sticks rotted and warped.  One of the Gimble brothers asked George Hansburg, a toy and baby furniture designer in Illinois to improve the design of the wooden pogo sticks.

What Hansburg came up with was an all metal, enclosed spring pogo stick.  He manufactured them in Elmhurst, New York at a factory.

In order to promote pogo sticks and get people talking about them, George Hansburg taught the Ziegfeld Folllies girls how to pogo!  The roaring twenties proved to be the height of popularity for these pogo sticks.  There were all kinds of pogo stick stunts and publicity tricks happening all over the place.

 

When Did Extreme Pogo Get Started?

In the 1990s, inventors got to work on making a pogo stick in order to begin the new extreme sport of Xpogo.  Robotics engineer Ben Brown developed the BoGo and licensed it to Razor in 2010.  The BoGo by Razor is described as a new twist on an old classic! Razor took the pogo stick, an all-time favorite, and gave it some extra oomph. The secret is the patented bow-assist spring, a cutting-edge innovation that delivers way more bounce for the buck.

With an aircraft grade aluminum frame and durable foot pegs, the Razor BoGo pogo stick will keep your kid entertained and bouncing for hours. This pogo stick can handle kids weighting anywhere from 40 up to 140 pounds. Helmet, elbow & knee pads are recommended for safety.

They also have a very affordable version of a pogo stick called a GoGo described as The radical new way to ride! Bounce it, Wing it, drift it, spin like crazy. Standing or sitting, these awesome machines produce a crazy ride style that’s easy to learn. You’ll be freestyling in no time. Rip it up with a Razor ride-on!

We took the pogo stick, an all-time favorite, and made it foldable and more portable. With an aluminum frame and folding footrests, the GoGo pogo is a new twist on an old classic. The GoGo Pogo is recommended for ages 6 and older and offers a maximum weight capacity of 140 pounds.

Physicist Bruce Middleton developed the Flybar pogo stick for SBI Enterprises. The company signed up World Cup Skateboard champion Andy Macdonald to test and promote the Flybar.  The Flybar is available on Amazon, and they describe this pogo stick as THE ORIGINAL POGO STICK COMPANY- Flybar has been in business since 1918 and continues to be “the standard by which all pogos are measured.”

You can be assured that everything we make is the best of the best.  FOAM COVERED GRIPS AND FRAME: We covered our Master Pogo Stick in foam not only for a comfortable cushion grip, but to keep your pogo looking great.  WIDER STANCE BOUNCE TIP: Not only do we want you to have fun, but we want you to be safe. The wider tip provides a more stable and consistent pogoing experience!

SHOW OFF YOUR TRICKS: Flybar’s Master Pogostick features stable, non-slip foot pegs to help riders do tricks with ease!  The Flybar Foam Master Pogo Stick is meant for kids ages 9 and up, and is able to handle weights from 80-160 pounds.

Bruce Spencer, an aerospace engineer and retired firefighter, developed the Vurtego (see link above) and totally impressed David Letterman by jumping over a taxicab on his show using the Vurtego. They launched sales of this pogo stick in 2006.

All of the pogo sticks mentioned above are available on Amazon.  These are not the only brands to choose from.  There are many…  You can find pogo sticks for beginners, and pogo sticks for kids like Zach, who are interested in trying extreme pogo, but not quite ready for a $400 pogo stick.  So, just click the link below to see many different kinds of pogo sticks to choose from.

 Pogo Sticks Available on Amazon

Like I said at the beginning of this post.  If you can make it out to the fair to see these guys, it’s worth it!  We had such a great time watching them perform and meeting them. I can’t wait to see what tricks Zach tries first on his old, beat-up pogo stick!  Hopefully, he will find a new extreme pogo stick under the Christmas tree this year.  Y’all have fun, and send me videos of your extreme pogo tricks!  Until next time…

 

See more pictures of this crazy, cool Xpogo team below in the image gallery.  All of the pictures in this article were taken with my Sony RX 10 II Point and Shoot Camera.  This was my first real outing with this camera.  I was quite impressed with the shots I got!  I can hardly imagine what kinds of crazy shots I could’ve gotten with my Canon!!