Pogo experts bouncing at new level

location, doing 30 to 40 shows everytwo weeks.

The exhibitions they do are so in demand right now that Mr. Ryan spreads his 18member team out to different shows at the same time. Currently, this weekend, in addition to Pittsburgh, Xpogo has athletes performing at shows in California, Illinois and Philadelphia.

It can be a grind, like any serious athletic outlet is, Mr. Mena said, resulting in soreness and pain primarily in a pogoer’s shoulders, lower back and – primarily – their legs.

Still, he said, he wouldn’t trade performing for any job.

“During shows, I really push what I can do,” he said. “It’s motivating.”

He started pogoing when he was 13, and became a professional at 18, a move his parents wholly endorsed.

“They were just hyped I found something I care about,” he said.

Now he gets to travel the world, not only doing exhibitions, but competing in international competitions.

Behind it all is Xpogo, the company Mr. Ryan started eight years ago when he had just graduated from Carnegie Mellon University.

The company had been located in New York City, where it was close to many sponsors. But just last year he decided to move its headquarters to Wilkinsburg. It is housed in a former school there known as Community Forge, an organization that Mr. Ryan is also part of.

Thanks to Xpogo’s size and influence in the sport, Mr. Ryan said that, “It’s true now that Pittsburgh is the world’s capital for pogo because there’s just more opportunity to do it here now at a high level.”

He said he’d like to see the sport continue to grow, to emerge like so many extreme sports like skateboarding, snowboarding, BMX biking and others have over the last two decades, into broader use andacceptance.

And he’s banking on one big part of what makes pogo interesting enough that hundreds of people crammed the banks of the Allegheny River to watch two athletes fly in the air:

“At the end of the day, it’s just fun,” said Mr. Ryan. “People just like to jump.”