If you happen to see some unusually tall creatures bounding around Massapequa Park this Friday and Saturday nights, do not be alarmed. They are part of a community of 'jumping stilt' owners who will be using the town this weekend as their staging location for a regional get together in Manhattan called BockNYC. Members of the group range in age from 14 to 54 years of age and include some professional acrobats as well as professional stuntman Henry Holloway who recently used his jumping stilts to flip over a New York City taxicab on the Late Night with David Letterman TV show.

Jumping stilts (or spring stilts) is a new type of exercise and recreational equipment that is strapped to a person's legs and feet. The spring-assisted stilts give an experienced user the ability to jump 9 feet into the air and run upwards of 20 miles per hour. Television viewers may have seen them featured in a Zurich Insurance commercial this past year. The equipment is sold on the Internet under a number of brand names, such as Powerisers, PowerSkips, and Velocity Stilts, and costs between $400 and $2000, depending on the model. The sport of using jumping stilts is called "bocking" in tribute to the German inventor of the device, Alexander Boeck (pronounced "Bock").

"Bocking provides a great cardiovascular workout that basically makes you feel like a superhero with above human abilities," said Massapequa Park resident and jumping stilts owner Bill Cicio.