Bouncing to fame

Freshman Slayton Spencer has accumulated over four thousand followers on his Instagram trampoline account.

“I never thought I could build this big of a following off of just doing tricks on my trampoline,” Spencer said. “I’m so glad that I was inspired to do this and stayed consistent with posting videos.”

The freshman began doing tricks on a trampoline in 2016, a few years before entering high school.

“I started doing it because it was super fun for me,” Spencer said. “I started progressing and getting better and that’s what gave me the motivation to keep pushing and doing new tricks.”

Spencer also began his account in 2016 and the quality of the videos and flips have gotten better ever since. His inspiration to make the account came from videos he watched on YouTube.

“I saw other trampoline YouTube videos and they really inspired me to start making my own,” Spencer said. “Those people really got me off the ground and start making my own videos rather than just watching theirs.”

Spencer had no clear expectations on how the account would progress and was just doing it out of love and fun he found when he did tricks on a trampoline.

“It’s really cool for me to be able to post something and get that much support,” Spencer said. “Working so hard for so long is something I’m proud of and the support that I get reminds me of that.”

He has also been to many trampoline events including the GT games in California that only 50 people were selected out of thousands of applicants.

“It was crazy competing against people that I looked up to in the trampoline world,” Spencer said. “To finally get to meet all of them was something that I’ll never forget.”

Ever since coming to De Smet, his following has grown to amounts he never expected. You can check him out on Instagram @slayton_spencer.

“Taking all this time to do the tricks and make the videos is something I find really cool,” Spencer said. “To get rewarded by having a huge following for hours and hours of training and practice is pretty awesome.”