Sliding the Scare Factor

Sliding the Scare Factor by Andrew Lozano I have spent my life thus far exploring its many different avenues. I have been into the arts and music since an early age. As a result I’ve pursued the theatre Arts, and musical arts as an opportunity to discover who I am as a human being. This philosophy then caused me to realize to never be afraid of other possibilities and to step out of your comfort zone. It wasn’t long till I discovered the amazing world of the haunt industry and what it had to offer. My first experience ever with a haunt was with The Queen Mary‘s Shipwreck (now known as The Dark Harbor) in 2007. After my first year out in the field as a maze monster I became totally hooked and had so much fun creating scares and bringing what I had to the table. However it wouldn’t be until 2011 when I joined Scream Team Productions that I added another scaring tool to my world. That tool was the Art of Sliding which can be described as a quick smooth athletic maneuver on the ground to surprise the unaware stranger. Being observant and good timing are essential into pulling off a successful slide. If done right patrons are left with a memorable scare and will later talk about it to their friends. At first when I bought my sliding gear I was highly enthusiastic and couldn’t wait to start learning. I remembered working with the Queen Mary and how their sliders would have so much fun sliding. When I came to Scream Team Productions and found out they offer slider training to their elite monsters I knew I had to give it a go. It became clear to me shortly after how much training and dedication must be put into being an elite slider. For example, sliding takes a lot of lower body strength, physical endurance, and cardio endurance. This holds especially true during training sessions and more importantly during an actual event. Giving everything you have into a single slide and holding nothing back was a main thing to consider when going in for a scare. An out of shape person would not be able to handle a night of sliding and maneuvering as compared to a person who trains in the categories mentioned. My time during training sessions were at times stressful and at other times fun memorable moments. A typical sliding session would start off with a warm up run and then we would work on exercises that targeted the lower body muscles. This was necessary to build up the body’s strength to the hardships of sliding, as I found often working late nights performing on your feet takes its toll. While I had previous experience before Scream Team Productions knowing how to handle long hours. What I learned in my sliding sessions only brought me to next level. And it’s at moments like that I realize a person should never doubt themself greatness. They should always strive each day to get better than they were a day before. And I saw that philosophy engrained in the leaders of Scream Team Productions and I applaud them for that. The certain sliding exercises involved a run-down of a cone obstacle course. Requiring you to stop in an instant, and slide between cones without hitting them. We had other exercises involving committing to a slide while a partner walks ahead of you. This got us used to what it would be like in an actual haunt environment with patrons moving and blocking angles left and right. Those who look to first get into sliding won’t start out with exercises like these until a few weeks into the training season however. When it came to me first learning how to slide I actually found it a little easy. The hard though part was learning to control speed and momentum and quickly stopping. I wouldn’t let that dissuade anyone from trying this though as once you get comfortable it’s an awesome feeling. As I ended my 2011 season with lots of screams and frights I took with me another memory of my first active sliding scares as well. Getting such compliments as “You were the best monster out of the whole place” really brighten my night. I learned to slide and evolved my scaring game to another level. And Scream Team Production’s wonderful sliding classes helped me achieve that. But of course the next season awaits and I’ll be sure to be ready for it. So on that note, On to the next scare!