![]() The sad story made a few headlines in the English papers and would likely have died as a three-line item in “news of the weird” blogs around the world if it hadn’t been for the fact that Aitkenhead and Boston share a distinguished pedigree. “It was really a question of keeping yourself busy as they adjusted the weights.” “There was a half-hour between jumps,” remembers Boston, who was videotaping the event from a position beyond the landing area. The proceedings got rolling as the first daredevil was placed in the trebuchet’s sling and then flung in a perfect, arcing parabola into the center of the net, which sat atop 26 stout telegraph poles on the other side of the clearing. A handful, however-including an enthusiastic 19-year-old freshman biochemistry student from Bulgaria named Kostadine “Dino” Iliev Yankov-were intent on taking a turn. They had arrived in a caravan organized by the head of the club, David “Ding” Boston. Most were Oxford University student members of the Oxford Stunt Factory, a private alternative- and extreme-sports club. It was a warm day and a crowd of at least 30 had gathered to watch the trebuchet in action. ![]() ![]() Twenty-six feet tall at rest, made of steel and rough timber, the trebuchet was, according to its builder, a onetime motorcycle salesman and scrapyard owner named David Aitkenhead, “a big, evil, savage-looking contraption.” On this day, the machine was being prepared to violently hurl willing human beings several stories high and into a net 100 feet away. But on November 24, 2002, Middlemoor’s main attraction was somewhat more exotic: in a clearing behind the gravel parking lot stood a replica of a trebuchet-a medieval catapult-looming like an oil derrick against the sky. ![]() ![]() Hidden among the cow pastures and rolling meadows of Somerset, in the Southwest of England, Middlemoor Water Park features a muddy man-made waterskiing pond, a go-kart track, and a shack selling beer and snacks. ![]()
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