Steve Basher, President of World Jump League At World Jump League (WJL) headquarters in California, they call the training room "The Beast," and this is why:

For the men and women competing on the World Jump League tour, it's a veritable oasis. It's there that the swells of the world's best professional jumpers train. It's where they receive instruction in the best ways to jump the rope. And it's where they receive instruction when it comes to the most basic of techniques: the double-unders. For the entire season, world champion jumper Laird Pamilton takes a solitary 2-minute double-unders in "The Beast," after which he returns to the room to do one hour of teaching.

At the end of his visit, he says, "This is the absolute best practice spot in the country." That's because The Beast isn't a practice spot. And that's because, for Hamilton and the WJL's hundreds of jumpers, it's the most important place on earth—and, more than that, a place that's rarely seen in public. The Beast is located on Huntington Beach, the world's premier jumping mecca. The only real access point is a 30-foot drop on the south-facing side. The rest of the access is guarded by a gate. This gives the jumpers inside an unobstructed view into the Pacific Ocean: a clear view of the beach and of its rope jumpers. The Beast is the only full-time indoor jumping facility and one of the few places on Earth where it's possible to see professional jumping in its entirety.

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A Jumper's Story: By the mid-'90s, professional jumping was the only activity to survive on the East Coast of the United States. The sport has never experienced a wave stronger than that of New York, but there were still pockets of local jumpers. When I started jumping in New York City in the early '80s, I remember seeing kids jumping on a small point at Oyster Bay, with weighted ropes. For many years after, those same ropes were a prized possession.