Swing Guy

Swing History

Swing 1: In sixth grade an arborist left a rope hanging from an oak tree in our back yard. We tied a board to it for a seat with a few feet of rope hanging out from underneath. One of us would sit on the board while another held the rope, ran, and slung us as high as possible. At one point we figured out it was just long enough that we could jump off the roof of the garage, landing our legs on either side of the rope and onto the board, swinging across the house and looking into my upstairs bedroom window.

Swing 2: College, a winch, pulley, vice grips, plywood, and an inflatable lounge chair. I didn't build this one, but I did swing on it. It provided inspiration for future swings.

Swing 4: The Maxon Ave hackberry in west Nashville, 2011-2012. This was the first trapeze-style swing I built. It would have lasted longer, but we only rented that house for a year before moving to Crieve Hall where we didn't have a good swing tree.

Swing 5: We moved to Shelby Avenue in 2013 and in 2017 hung my first skateboard deck swing from one of the hackberries in the front yard. Unbeknownst to me a neighbor across the street was regularly streaming my swinging on Facebook live. I found out when a mutual friend came over and referred to me as "Swing Guy," showing me all the posts. It was a bit strange not knowing I was being watched by so many people, but I got over it after seeing all the positive reactions online. Then sadly, the tree broke, and I had to quit.

Swing 6: After taking a break for shoulder surgeries in 2018 and 2020 (likely due to swinging) a new swing went up in our backyard black walnut in 2021. This one was much like Swing 4 but was much higher, too high in fact. The long arc made it difficult to maintain momentum.

Swing 7: After a few years staring at the other hackberry in our front yard and imagining an artificial limb, I finally built one and put it up in 2025 with help from my older brother, Weston Heflin, and Andrew Ferrin (i.e. Ferrin Ironworks who provided rigging equipment and extra muscle to hoist the beam.)