In the 140 yeas since the first St. Paul Winter Carnival, plenty has changed. In 1886, there was no Vulcan Krewe in red running suits to battle the king then known as Borealis; there was no medallion hunt nor Klondike Kate. In 2026, several-hundred-member toboggan clubs no longer line up to race dow n purpose-built slides. But one tradition has not changed: the blanket bounce. In fact, the legacy now carried on by the St. Paul Bouncing Team represents one of the only annual activities that has existed continuously since the carnival’s first days. The St. Paul Bouncing Team performs during the 2022 King Boreas Grande Day Parade, Presented by Hamernick’s, along West 7th Street in St. Paul on Saturday, January 29, 2022. (John Autey / Pioneer Press) Today, the Bouncing Team consists of three ‘bouncing girls’ and an alternate, plus a roster of ‘pullers,’ 14 of whom are needed around the blanket for any given bounce. They count “One! Two! Up she goes!” and swiftly pull the blanket taut, launching the acrobat some 30 feet in the air. The blanket bounce stems from an Alaskan Inupiat tradition called nalukataq, still part of community celebrations and sport competitions today. And in early Winter Carnival parades, bouncing “units” were as common for social organizations to have as drum and bugle corps and flag brigades and floats. During the 1887 parade, the Daily Pioneer Press noted that “there was not a bouncing blanket that was not in active operation.” Eventually, in St. Paul, many bouncing units eventually either folded or consolidated under the St. Paul Athletic Club, which had introduced the modern aerialist “bouncing girl” format in the 1930s and was the only game in town by 1950. After the Athletic Club abruptly declared bankruptcy in late 1989, the blanket bunch bounced off on their own and formed the St. Paul Bouncing Team. To celebrate the 140th anniversary of the Carnival — and with it, 140 years of bouncing at the Carnival —  the Bouncing Team is holding a public exhibition showcase by present and past bouncing girls from across the decades. The event runs open-house-style from 6 to 9 p.m. on Jan. 30 inside Landmark Center. “Once anybody joins our team, they’re literally part of a family for life,” bouncing girl Lindsay Ferris Martin said. “And the crowd support is so, so energizing. One of my favorite things to do is watch the little kids standing with their parents, and all their jaws just drop. It brings so much joy.” The blanket toss is among the St. Paul Winter Carnival's oldest continuous traditions. Here, a team of "pullers" launches a "bouncing girl" high into the air amid a crowd of downtown spectators in January 1917. (Pioneer Press file photo) ‘It just looks like a ball of fun’ A good bounce starts with a good blanket. In the early days of the blanket bounce and even into the post-Athletic Club era, teams used rectangular blankets, usually wool. Today, the Bouncing Team uses custom-designed round blankets, made of two layers of nylon canvas with a layer of criss-crossing straps sandwiched between them, Appleton said. The Bouncing Team owns two, and stores them with a level of security befitting the country’s nuclear codes. “There aren’t any other ones in the world; these are the only two that exist,” longtime puller Mike Appleton said. “So a quirky thing we do is, for safety’s sake, we keep them in different places in case something happens.” Then, each of the 14 pullers is matched up with another puller directly across the blanket who has a similar height and grip strength, so the bouncing girl is launched directly upward and not at an angle. Finally, the bouncing girl tumbles onto the blanket and prepares for takeoff. Lindsay Martin of Forrest Lake took to the air with the St. Paul Bouncing Team during the Vulcan Victory Torchlight Parade, part of the 2025 St. Paul Winter Carnival, on Saturday, Feb. 1, 2025. (Craig Lassig / Special to the Pioneer Press) Although many prospective bouncing girls have experience in gymnastics, cheerleading or aerial acrobatics, the powerful and sudden upward momentum on the blanket is a completely unique sensation, Ferris Martin said. It’s not uncommon for candidates to have to try out for the team multiple times before earning a spot. Ferris Martin herself auditioned for the first time in the mid-2010s and didn’t make the team till her third try, in 2024. “You learn on the fly, pun intended,” Ferris Martin said, laughing. “There’s no other experience like it, so there’s really no place to practice beforehand. I know my first faces were probably just pure terror, but being able to lose that fear in your face for smiles really counts for a lot.” There’s no specific rule that bouncing girls must be women, nor that they be a certain weight or height; they just have to be over 21 years old. However, the upward thrust force of the blanket launches smaller people higher, and those who typically get the most altitude — and therefore have the most time for flips and toe-touches and other crowd-pleasing maneuvers — tend to be younger and more petite women, organizers explained. “We’ve had Jesse Ventura on the blanket. The pullers can handle it,” Appleton said. “But Jesse Ventura doesn’t go as high as Lindsay does.” Even so, he said, everybody gets air: “I’ve been on the blanket, and it’s astonishing, feeling the amount of horsepower that’s underneath you.” Although the Bouncing Team is most closely associated with the Winter Carnival, their busiest months are actually July and August, Casserly said. The team travels around the state on the summer parade circuit and makes appearances at special events including, in 2018, the Super Bowl. And earning one of the regular spots on the blanket is competitive. Typically, the Bouncing Team holds tryouts once a year, during Winter Carnival, and only one new spot is made available. This year, the team is not holding tryouts at all: Ahead of a busy 2025 summer schedule, early tryouts were held in May and the roster filled up, team president Joe Casserly said. He expects the regular January tryout schedule to resume next year. The team is still actively looking for pullers this year, though. Prospective pullers can contact Casserly either online at stpaulbouncingteam.org/contact-us or via the team’s Facebook page and, if possible, should plan to attend the Jan. 30 exhibition, he said. “I think it’s pretty much everybody’s goal on the team to make sure that we’re around 140 years from now,” Appleton said. “And what do we have to do now to make that happen? We need people to help us out with that and maintain the tradition.” Although the bouncing girl flying up in the air is the most visible performer, the blanket bounce truly is a team sport, members said. And across 14 decades, Bouncing Team leaders say, every single person who has been bounced up has landed safely on the blanket. “We are athletes, although you would never think about it that way because it just looks like a ball of fun,” Ferris Martin said. “And it really, really is. But beneath that, it’s the grit, it’s the family, it’s the brotherhood and sisterhood, and it is that continued Minnesota tradition.” Bouncing Girl Sara LeBlanc holds 7 year-old Emme Arbuckle, from St. Paul, as she takes a turn on the blanket during the St. Paul Bouncing Team tryouts at the Landmark Center in St. Paul on Friday, February 5, 2016. (Pioneer Press: John Autey) Related Articles Winter Carnival is a family affair for Queen of the Snows — and her dad As the St. Paul Winter Carnival’s 89th Boreas, Peter Kenefick strives to be the ‘all-in king’ St. Paul Winter Carnival: King Boreas Grande Day Parade canceled today 2026 St. Paul Winter Carnival Royal Family announced Winter Carnival outdoor kickoff, ‘Day of Good’ postponed because of extreme cold ...read more read less