# What was this carnival ride? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [August 21, 2025, 6:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-this-carnival-ride/1022352 "2025-08-21T06:39:25Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![pkbites](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pkbites/32/204_2.png) [@pkbites](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pkbites)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2025, 6:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-this-carnival-ride/1022352/1 "2025-08-21T06:39:25Z")
I only saw this once, at a carnival in the parking lot of a Shopko in the mid-70’s. It was a series of cages that swung, back and forth. One or more occupants standing would use their arms and legs to pump the cage and get it to swing, eventually swinging all the way around. I don’t believe there was any machinery involved. The ride operator would give the rider(s) a head start by pushing the cage a bit in the beginning. I didn’t go on it as I didn’t think working myself into a sweat at a carnival seemed like a fun time. Apparently others agree as I’ve never ever seen this ride at any other event that has a midway. ---
**Author:** ![pjd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pjd/32/3009_2.png) [@pjd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pjd)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2025, 8:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-this-carnival-ride/1022352/2 "2025-08-21T08:08:18Z")
Like this sort of thing …? [![](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/BDLVFEz5iPc/hqdefault.jpg?sqp=-oaymwEmCOADEOgC8quKqQMa8AEB-AH-BIAC4AOKAgwIABABGGUgZShlMA8=&rs=AOn4CLC_OiA2SO_0nHRVE-J41ZvIWdMQBg "Dennis Barber Swinging Gyms Hanbury Steam Rally Stoke Prior Fair 19th September 2009") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BDLVFEz5iPc) ---
**Author:** ![DPRK](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/4491bb/32.png) [@DPRK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DPRK)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2025, 9:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-this-carnival-ride/1022352/3 "2025-08-21T09:13:26Z")
> **[Kiiking](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kiiking)** > > Kiiking (.mw-parser-output .IPA-label-small{font-size:85%}.mw-parser-output .references .IPA-label-small,.mw-parser-output .infobox .IPA-label-small,.mw-parser-output .navbox .IPA-label-small{font-size:100%}Estonian pronunciation: \[ˈkiːkiŋ\]) is a sport which involves a person making a swing gain increasingly more momentum, to pass over the spindle with the longest shafts possible. It was invented in Estonia by Ado Kosk in 1993; in Estonian, kiik means a swing. > In a kiiking swing, the swing arm... > **[Village swing](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Village_swing)** > > Village swing (Estonian: külakiik, Finnish: kyläkeinu, Võro: külähäll) is a large swing designed for multiple adults,: 14  traditionally built on village communal land, in Estonia and Finland. In Estonia this communal land is called külaplats (village square, conceptually the same as village green) or kiigeplats (swing square). > The practice of swinging has been with Estonian culture for a long time, its origin is not known.: 12  The prevalence of village swings was noted by Estophile August Wilh... ---
**Author:** ![Cervaise](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cervaise/32/16693_2.png) [@Cervaise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cervaise)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2025, 10:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-this-carnival-ride/1022352/4 "2025-08-21T10:07:57Z")
I’d never heard of these, but based on this video, I pulled up this informational page. > **[Swingin’ Gym – Amusement Ride Extravaganza](https://www.ride-extravaganza.com/intermediate/swingin-gym/)** Sounds totally crazy. ---
**Author:** ![pkbites](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pkbites/32/204_2.png) [@pkbites](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pkbites)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2025, 10:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-this-carnival-ride/1022352/5 "2025-08-21T10:11:08Z")
> [@pjd](#): > > Like this sort of thing …? That’s it! According to Ride Extravaganza site it was _“one of the mst dangerous, unsuccessful rides ever produced.”_ Which explains why I’ve only seen it once in my nearly 65 years. _ **Within a few years there were all too many reports of riders getting slung over to one side, battered and bruised by their very own momentum with riders sometimes ending up unconscious, with broken bones, split heads, grazes etc.** _ I was about 14 or 15 the only time I saw it. It just looked too much like work to be a good time. Those were the days every ride only took one ticket and tickets were 25 cents each or 5 for a buck. I was just at the state fair and tickets were $1 each and rides took anywhere from 4 to 8 tickets. A family of 4 would spend $32 to go on a 5 minute roller coaster ride. Insane! > **[Swingin’ Gym – Amusement Ride Extravaganza](https://www.ride-extravaganza.com/intermediate/swingin-gym/)** ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2025, 11:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-this-carnival-ride/1022352/6 "2025-08-21T11:00:04Z")
I used to see these in several places when I was a kid. They had them at Palisades Amusement Park in Cliffside/Fort Lee back in the 1960s, when I rode them. I don’t recall them being particularly dangerous – you were contained in a complete cage and couldn’t hit anything. As noted, the passenger powered the ride by pushing the swing (therefore teaching the occupant about the physics of harmonically-driven oscillators). It was a ride that let you answer that age-old childhood question “Is it possible to swing so hard that you go _over_ the top of the bar?” The answer is “yes”. This site says they WERE dangerous, resulting in multiple injuries, but I don’t recall it that way. Possibly because most kids couldn’t succeed in getting the cage to go sufficiently high [https://www.ride-extravaganza.com/intermediate/swingin-gym/](https://www.ride-extravaganza.com/intermediate/swingin-gym/) [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palisades\_Amusement\_Park](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palisades_Amusement_Park)