Straddle technique straight, and head and trunk pass the bar at the same time. Charles Dumas, the first high jumper to clear 7 ft, and John Thomas (silver medal at the 1964 Olympics) used this technique. Valeriy Brumel (gold in 1964) dove a little bit, his head going over the bar before his trunk. Probably the most extreme exponent of the dive straddle was Bob Avant, who cleared 7 ft. in 1961. Avant's technique was close to a pure dive, with just a small knee lift on his lead leg. The last world record jump with the straddle technique was Vladimir Yashchenko's
Straddle carrier special pallets known as carrier blocks; the carrier would then straddle the stack, grasp and lift the carrier block, and drive off with the load. Because a straddle carrier is open at both front and rear, it can transport lumber much longer than the carrier itself, over in length. The Ross Carrier Company (now Northwest Caster & Equipment) was founded in Seattle to manufacture and market the carrier, and similar designs were later manufactured by Gerlinger, Hyster, Yale, Caterpillar, and other companies. These "straddles" or "timber jinkers" were a common sight in seaports around the world until the 1970s, but