The activity of pole sliding is perhaps one of the greatest pursuits ever, not only for the fact that GOPSI and pole sliding originated together, but for the fact that pole sliding is a leisure pursuit, sport, way of life and art form. There is, without question, far too much about the art of pole sliding to detail here. However, hereafter follows a brief description of pole sliding and its techniques.
The principle of pole sliding is to place one's leg on the pole, and then lift the other off the ground, allowing oneself to make a descent by force of gravity, along and in line with the black pole, with the weight of the body exerted on it, until the bottom of the pole is reached, at which point the slider may get, jump, walk, hop or fall off (the latter being rather more dangerous than the other forms of dismounting, although it has on a number of occasions been attempted by members of Gopsi, normally accidently, many of who have succeeded dramatically).
However, although this may sound simple, the matter is in fact far more complicated than this due to the further techniques developed by Gopsians. These include stopping with one hand or two, jumping from the pole, sliding backwards and swinging from front to back (with hands). Perhaps the very most complicated of the further techniques is the leg swing (Gold award), in which both legs are swung from the wrong side of the pole to the correct side, with the use of hands. Neither foot must tough the upright section at the top of the pole. This is very difficult, and the number of people having completed this is very limited.