Daniel Hazeltine was in Bathurst yesterday to have his car serviced.  While he was waiting he strapped on his ‘Power Riser’ stilts and went for a walk around the CBD. 

“I make friends wherever I go,” he said.

Daniel said that as a kid he loved going to the circus so much he started tumbling and clowning.

However, what he really wanted was stilts, but his family couldn’t afford to buy them for him.

Instead he made them out of cans and strings.

Now that he can afford the latest in high tech stilts he is determined to use them at every available opportunity. 

He said does it for his own enjoyment – there’s no money in it. That’s why he works in a bottle shop.

Daniel has only had his spring-loaded Power Risers for a couple of months. He said anyone can learn to walk or even run on these stilts, although their biggest hurdle is often their own self confidence.

“It’s just like standing up,” he said.

“A lot of people are restricted by thinking they can’t do something, but I’ve taught kids to use them.

“After the first couple of steps it’s easy. Anyone can do it.”

Because the boots and stilts weigh around three or four kilos walking in them is very good exercise.

Daniel said a person’s balance also improves. Now he can run on them.  He said some people can run up to 20km/h, although that takes a bit of practice.

He always leaves his stilts in the car because, he said, you never known when you might feel like a bit of a walk.

Daniel said Power Risers are the newest thing in stilts.

“It’s a bit like the unicycle revolution,” he said.

“Once you could just go backwards and forwards in a straight line on a unicycle. Now they have wheels that allows them to do tricks and bounce around like you do on a normal bike.

“These are the next step in the evolution of stilts.”