Planking is the new craze sweeping across Australia which sees people lying flat on their stomachs with their arms by their sides pointing their hands and feet. Usually someone takes a photo and posts it on the social networking sites, such as this Facebook Page which at the time of writing has over 102,000 people who have ‘Liked’ the page.
I gotta admit it when I first saw a story on planking on the Channel 10 news I was laughing out loud at some of the pics they were showing. The creativity of some of the plankers was great and very inventive.
Later that day I took a couple of photos of my kids in planking positions. Here they are.
The Single Plank
The Double Plank
As you can see, both planks are very safe.
Then someone had to take it to the next level and he fell from a 7th floor balcony and died. This happened yesterday. What a tragic way to die. Apparantly there was alcohol involved. Planking or not, heights and alcohol and stupidity are never a good mix, let alone trying to lie flat on the narrow ledge of a balcony railing.
There has been outrage since with even the Aussie Prime Minister speaking out against the new ‘sport’.
Just hang on a second. There are always going to be a small amount of people who will take activities like this to the extreme but for the vast majority they are going to be safe while doing it. Let natural selection take care of the others. If they are that stupid to go to the extreme and put their lives in danger all for a photo then that is their choice.
My kids and I had a laugh on Friday when we took the planking pictures but since the accident yesterday, I have explained that they need to be safe if they decide to do more planking.
So my advice is plank away but do it safely. It should be some harmless fun and hopefully the fun police will let it remain that way.
So how about you? Is planking some harmless fun or do you think it is stupid? What is the best planking photos you have seen?
Related articles
- Planker tries new craze and plunges to his death (theage.com.au)
Can’t see the humour in it. Seems a pointless thing to do, but each to their own. Can see the potential for neck injuries, accidents resulting in kids being left paraplegic, etc.
You’re right there is potential for injury, but there is potential for injury in EVERYTHING.
Providing you know your limits, then this can be nothing but a little bit of fun.
Took me awhile to catch on regarding the whole planking thing and yes I did find it funny in its stupidness. There are always going to be people who take things to the extremes and I don’t believe that we should have to constantly to pay the price for peoples stupidness. It is very sad but maybe Julia should just simply say Plank when your not tanked.
Planking is a form of photography – even self portrait. People die eating soup, driving to work, watching TV – its unfortunate but planking seems to be taking alot of blame, but it is not the cause.
I admit – a plank in the middle of the road, or on a moving car is a bit risky.
Safe planking only!
Exactly anyone can get injured doing anything, it’s really pathetic how some people act over this.