The Art of Folding Tarps

watch out for Russian bears - take time to sit on beach - use tarp folding methods on bed sheets for a neater linen closet

Adelaide was an interesting city. I lived on the beach, literally. My house was just behind the sand dunes and the living room was always filled with sand. Great place to live.

The air came onto the porch minted fresh in the Antarctic. I’d sit on the beach at night, look at the ocean and think about the South Pole. I decided I wanted to go there, this last wilderness, the dangerous trek, but I never did.

My friend Martin got me a job working at the Moscow State Circus as an electrician. We showed up in a field and after an hour the trucks showed up as well. We set the whole circus up from dirt field to selling pop corn in eight hours. Incredible.

The crew chief was a guy named Tony Sparrow and he taught me how to fold a tarp. It’s an art. Later, I worked some other jobs where I had to fold tarps. I always knew what to do. Tony made me a master tarp folder.

Before Tony Sparrow did that however, he had me put fluorescent lights up in the bear tent. I had to go into the bear tent before there was light, my only of experience being in the dark with four Russian bears. Bears don't like fluorescent light, in case you're wondering. When I finally switched on the lights this one bear gave me a pissed-off bear look and snapped at me in bear growl. I was happy to get back to hauling 3-ought cable all over the field.

A circus tarp is a big tarp. It covers the entire area where the ring is set. It took about eight people to unfold it and eight people to fold it up again.

At baseball games they use a big crew for giant tarps. Tarp action is what makes rain delays fun, and I always make sure I’m in my seat to watch and learn, but we had a different goal with our circus tarp. We had to fold ours into a square to pack it into a truck.

Here’s Tony’s great tarp folding secret.

“You don’t fold it in half, you fold it in thirds.”

Anybody who’s ever worked in theater has some beloved method of tarp folding, but Tony was so precise in his technique, I can produce a neatly folded tarp every time. It works for bed sheets as well.

Here’s video of tarp surfing. I’m not sure what’s the point of tarp surfing, but I can help them fold it up when they’re done.