Can't Run Off To Join The Circus? You Can Still Join Wyoming's Only Trapeze Club.

The Big Horn region just south of Sheridan boasts the Big Horn Equestrian Center, where polo ponies and riders compete. There are farms with gardens, and ranches in the foothills with recently mowed hay.

And in one couple’s backyard there is a 68-foot-long, 32-foot-high flying trapeze rig that allows people to get the thrill of flying, mid-air somersaults and cool tricks like the “shooting star.”

It’s all done with a safety harness, if need be, and always a big net waiting below.

Patty Tobi, 61, co-owner of the backyard, said her decision to learn how to become a trapeze artist came about 13 years ago and she “talked her way” into a circus school in upstate New York. 

One of her coaches was Tony Steele, a trapeze artist listed in the Circus Ring of Fame.

“There’s not a specific reason that I chose flying trapeze that I know of,” she said. “I did my first somersault three years ago. The older I got, the more willing I was to try things.

“Mostly, adults don’t want to try things because they don’t want to look stupid, and it turns out that trying things that you are not good at and looking stupid is pretty liberating.”

Once the now-retired anesthesiologist understood that flying trapeze could be liberating 13 years ago, she had to travel to find places to work on her skills and improve.

Birthday Gift

Husband Steve Tobi stepped up 11 years ago and helped Patty pull off the nearly impossible feat of finding and installing the huge professional trapeze rig in their back yard.

“It was a birthday gift for my 50th birthday,” she said.

Patty Tobi said they had no clue how to build one, but they finally convinced one of the coaches at her circus school — who spent most of his career with Ringling Bros. and Barnum and & Circus — to help.

Though initially opposed, he finally consented when he saw their plan as and commitment to do it right.

Since its installation, dozens of people have experienced flying through the air with the WyFly Flying Trapeze club, which they launched.

The club boasts 12 members who this summer can be found at the rig multiple times a week working on new skills and tricks.

As a girl, Patty Tobi said there was no high-flying persona she was trying to emulate, but she remembers a lot of dreams about “flying.”

Steve, who played hockey and skied for much of his life, said for the first summer after the rig was set up, he let his wife do her thing while he stayed on the ground.

A friend from Denver with trapeze experience would come up and fly with Patty until one day, Patty’s late father told her that his insurance agent wanted to learn how to fly.

Reba Johnson, 70, now retired from her insurance gig, came and took a leap of faith and continues to be part of the club and spend time on the rig.

During a Cowboy State Daily visit, she easily climbed the 28-foot ladder to the landing for the flyers. Standing on the flyers’ platform, she swings out to practice a flip into the net to warm up.

She said she enjoys the community that has developed among the club members.

“These people that I play on the trapeze with are just awesome, supportive, fun and sometimes a shoulder to cry on,” she said.

Shooting Star

The biggest thrill for Johnson is when she masters a trick using the safety lines and then can take away the lines and perform it correctly, although the safety net remains below.

She said the shooting star trick is her favorite, but she can also do a straddle and a return to the board, among others.

The shooting star involves flying out to the catcher and while holding the bar swinging out driving high with the legs, then opening the legs so the body and arms go through them to be caught by the catcher.

After the first year, Steve Tobi asked his wife what she wanted for her 51st birthday. The rig would be a hard gift to top. She said she wanted a catcher.

They convinced a friend from Sheridan to go to Seattle and get training to become a catcher, and Steve Tobi also decided to join his wife on the rig. He sought training to swing and fall without safety lines and then also sought training on the West Coast to learn to receive the flyers after they launch off their trapeze swings.

Timing is all-important in the role, and it is the catcher who signals the flyer when to start a leap and swing out.

Steve Tobi said he has learned that each flyer responds to his word signal to launch differently, some immediately leaping, some taking a pause before the leap. Those fractions of a second matter in the art of trapeze.

The goal for the catcher is for the flyer to meet him at the peak of both of their swings together so the catch of person is made in the fraction of a second when they are still before the downswing.

“If they are doing a flipping trick, the catcher has to arrive just as they finish the rotation,” he said.

The swing for the catcher on the rig is shorter than the swing used by the flyers. Steve Tobi said he can speed up his swing to adjust a little by crunching his abdomen or delay a little by stretching out.

Patty Tobi has progressed to being able to do a single somersault and be caught by her husband. A couple other members can do double somersaults but none of the club catchers have caught one of those yet — but visiting catchers have.

Steve Tobi said being able to do that remains a goal.

Steve Jackman of Sheridan, a member of the club for the past nine years, also serves as a catcher. He laughed about the first time he arrived and tried the trapeze rig.

“I did terribly,” he said. “The first time after I left, Patty looked over at Steve and said, ‘We’re never going to see him again.’ And now it’s seven years later.”

New Members

Patty Tobi said each year they have open houses and new people show up and ask to join. Several have been members in past years but for many reasons like elbow issues and pregnancies, people move away.”

Membership costs $400 a year and the couple says that cost is much cheaper than other flying trapeze rigs that can be found around the West.

Davis King, a Florida State University student who spending part of his summer visiting his dad, said he enjoys coming over to the Tobi home and getting some airtime.

“It’s the freedom. You can fly, you can drop — it’s pretty free to be up there,” he said.

Sheridan resident Amy Walters, another member, said she started doing trapeze in 2017.

As a young girl she enjoyed gymnastics, and she thought about becoming a circus performer. She has attended some circus schools and has spent some summers working at camps and teaching trapeze.

“I’ve also worked at a summer resort where people come on vacation and they get to try trapeze,” she said.

Valerie Hovland, 52, a Sheridan resident for the past three years and before that California, said she has had about 10 lessons since joining the club more than a year ago.

The retiree, who also teaches water aerobics and dance classes, said she enjoys “doing something hard and figuring it out.”

“As you get older you want to try different things,” she said. “And this is hard, but it is a lot of fun and everybody is really nice.”

Hovland said she enjoys “flying through the air” and “feeling like a bird.” She encourages others to give the activity a try.

She has started working on her upper body strength to enable her to improve.

Safety First

As a retired doctor, Patty Tobi said she is adamant about safety on the rig.

During Cowboy State Daily’s visit in late June, she watched the dark clouds coming over the Bighorn Mountains, listened to occasional thunder, and paid close attention to a weather app before calling the session to a halt.

Being on a 32-foot metal trapeze rig is not the place to be when there is the potential for lighting, she said.

Over the years, having the trapeze rig means their backyard can get filled.

The Tobis shared that in 2019 they planned a backyard circus for their extended family and a few friends, but when word got out, they had more than 400 people arrive for the event.

“We had fire spinners and an emcee, someone making popcorn, flying trapeze and a ‘wild’ animal show,” she said. Part of the “wild” animal show was their pet dog dressed up in a lion outfit.

Their trapeze hobby has now garnered them friends around the world and this summer they are expecting visitors to arrive from around the U.S. and Europe.

An Italian friend who flies trapeze and lives in the Netherlands is expected in the next couple of weeks.

A First Session

Patty Tobi said for any new member, a first session involves signing a release and using a safety belt connected to lines the entire time. There is even a safety device for climbing up the ladder to the landing where trapeze flyers launch.

The wanna-be flyer would be shown from below what it looks to take off from the board where the flyers launch and the person would receive instructions. There would also be instructions on the doing the first “trick” which is a “knee hang” from the bar.

“Most people within a first session can learn how to hang by their knees, release with their hands and be caught by the catcher,” she said. “All of that is done in safety lines.”

For those who think they are too old to learn new tricks, Patty Tobi tells the story about her late father who would come and watch until one day he decided he wanted to try it himself.

“It went very well. He was small and spry and could still do 10 pull-ups at 90,” she said. “He just said, ‘I wish you had started doing this when you were younger,’ meaning that we should have started doing it when he was younger.”

Dale Killingbeck can be reached at dale@cowboystatedaily.com.