Slacklining: Why is it so awesome?
Q: What the heck is this and why is it so awesome?
“This” (points to flat webbing spanned between two trees) is a slackline!
A sport originally brought to life in the 70’s by climbers in the Yosemite valley.
Unlike a tightrope or wire, a slackline is very dynamic and moves as you walk across.
Photo by: Sarah FJ
Awesome? Awesome! On a slackline your imagination and determination are the limit. It can provide the meditative focus of yoga and then the explosive dynamic action of gymnastics or skateboarding from one moment to the next. Some popular schools of slackline are: highline, longline, yogaline, and tricklining (my favorite).
Anyone who so much as touches a slackline develops an entirely new balance philosophy. Guaranteed.
Like other sports slackline has competitions and rankings and continues to develop as both a sport and way of life. Just last summer Gibbon, a major slackline company, put on a world championship here, in Central Park!
Photo by: Luc Campeau
Originally I first learned to slackline in 2011 while studying abroad in Seoul from two friends, Sarah, a Norwegian climber and artist, and Knuckle, Korea’s #1 pro-trickliner! Every weekend we’d setup by the Han River, and spend the day practicing and introducing it to any curious passersby as well as other friends. By the time I left we had formed a fantastic group of slackliners from various countries and slackline helped us across our language and cultural barriers.
As a result, it is only natural that practicing on a slackline in such a public, communal setting results in developing personal life/balance philosophies. For me this is the essence of slackline, it is something to both share with others and challenge them with.
-Josh
