“First of all highlining is not for beginners. If you are a beginner, you shouldn’t be doing this.” says Nathan Zukoff. He tried his first highline two weeks ago in Yosemite. And he still remember the feeling of standing there on the line 20 meters above the ground.

He went to Yosemite with a lot of Slackliners. Almost all of them was there trying highlining for their first time. But two of them have done it before and knew how to set the line up.

“You should having access to someone else who knows what they are doing”, he says.

Highlining takes training and proper equipment to do safely. “Therefore we also used an extra rope just to be sure. Taking the sport up high is dangerous. You could be fully educated, trained and do everything right and still end up falling to your death.”

It was Nathan Zukoffs plan to stay there for the whole weekend and practice the highline, but after just an hour he was completely exhorted. “Physically because I was sore from all the falling. Even though you have a harness to catch you it hurts to fall, and I’m blue on the inside of my legs now because of that. And mentally because it is so dangerous and challenging to walk so high above the ground”, he says.

Therfore he decided to leave the high lining camp after only one day.

“I think I need some more practicing on the normal slackline before I will try the highlining again”, he finish.

The First Step

I’m siting in the grass at Dolores Park and watching the slackliners practicing different tricks on the line. Some of them are trying to walk backwards on the line. Others are trying to stand with closed eyes on the line or with only one foot on the line. One of the guys Dat Phan calls me up and invite me to try to walk on the line. I’m willing to try even though I don’t have high expectations to my balance skills.

The first step up on the line is so much harder than I have ever imagined. My feet shake and get the line to sway from side to side. It is unlikely that I ever will be able to stand on the line and totally unrealistic to be able to walk on it. The fear in my face is clear. And two of the other slackliners are now trying to help me. Dat Phan and another guy are standing on either side of me and hold my hands and elbows to help me up on the line. When I finally stand on the line and have it under control they let go of me. After almost a second, that feels forever, I fall down.

Practice Practice Practice 
I repeat the exercise for an hour. Me attempting to come up and then I fall down .. I’m just about to give up completely. But finally succeeds. I take a step. feeling of success gives me courage to try again. This time I am better. Three quick steps before I am down to earth again.

It goes quickly now. After another hour of training I’m able to walk more than ten steps on the line. I’m exhausted, surprised, and proud of myself. And I’m excited to try out slacklining again.

Next Goal
Today I have tried slacklining more than ten times. I can walk on the line, and also turn around and walk backwards on the line. My next goal is to jump on the slackline, I have tried to bounce on the line but I’m still not fealing brave enough to jump on it other than very small jumps.

Styles of slacklining

Urbanlining

Urbanlining or urban slacklining combines all the different styles of slacklining. It is practiced in urban area, for example in city parks and on the streets. Most urban slackliners prefer wide 2-inch lines for tricklining on the streets, but some may use narrow (5/8-inch or 1-inch) lines for longline purposes or for waterlining on the beaches. Also see the other sections of slackline styles below.

Tricklining

Tricklining is the most common type of slacklining because it can be set up between almost any two secure points. Tricklining is done low to the ground, and as such it is also often called “lowlining.” A great number of tricks can be done on the line, and because the sport is fairly new, there is plenty of room for new tricks. Some of the basic tricks done today are standing, stand start, walking, walking backwards, turns, drop knee, opposite turn around, and bounce walking. Some intermediate tricks include: moonwalk, throwing a disc around with someone from line-to-line, sit start, Buddha sit, mantle start, sitting down, lying down, jump start, cross-legged knee drop, surfing forward, surfing sideways, and jump turns, or “180s.” Some of the advanced/expert tricks are: back flip landing on the line, jumps referred to as “ollies”, tree plants, front flip dismount, back flip dismount, doing push-ups, tandem walking, the tandem pass, piggy-back rides across the line, jumping from line-to-line, and 360s.

Waterlining

Waterlining is simply slacklining over water. This is an ideal way to learn new tricks, or to just have more fun. Common places to set up waterlines are over pools, lakes, rivers, creeks, between pier or railroad track pillars, and boat docks.

Highlining

Highlining is slacklining at large distances above the ground or water. Many slackliners consider highlining to be the pinnacle of the sport. Highlines are commonly set up in locations that have been used or are still used for Tyrolaens traverse. When rigging highlines, experienced slackers take measures to ensure that solid, redundant and equalized anchors are used to secure the line into position. Modern highline rigging typically entails a mainline of webbing, backup webbing, and either climbing rope or amsteel rope for redundancy. It is also common to pad all areas of the rigging which might come in contact with abrasive surfaces. To ensure safety, most highliners wear a climbing harness or swami belt with a leash attached to the slackline itself; however, unleashed walks of highlines are not unheard of.

Yoga slacklining

Another form of slacklining is yoga slacklining. Yoga slacklining takes traditional yoga poses and moves them to the slackline. More challenging than traditional on-the-ground yoga, yoga slacklining combines balance, focus and core work in a new way.

Freestyle slacklining

Freestyle slacklining (a.k.a. “rodeo slacklining”) is the art and practice of cultivating balance on a piece of rope or webbing draped slack between two anchor points, typically about 15 to 30 feet long and a couple feet off the ground in the center. This type of very “slack” slackline provides a wide array of opportunities for both swinging and static maneuvers. A freestyle slackline has no tension in it, while both traditional slacklines and tightropes are tensioned. This slackness in the rope or webbing allows it to swing at large amplitudes and adds a different dynamic.

See Wikipedia for more informations here:

Demonstrating tying a waterknot out of a length of 1″ tubular webbing in order to make a slackline sling

Using a line-locker with a slackline, in place of a clove or girth hitch.

There are several methods of tree protection that function on two principles: eliminating abrasion, and redistributing load over a wider area. The most effective means of tree protection is a wrap of vertical blocks strung together by drilling a small diameter hole through the center and running cord through them. Blocks are spaced evenly to prevent the anchor slings from contacting and abrading the outer bark and the length of the blocks distributes the load vertically as opposed to horizontally compressing a continuous line around the trunk. The addition of a carpet square between the block wrap and the outer bark is considered ideal among the founding community of slackliners.

Using carpet squares or cardboard even, by themselves, only addresses abrasion, leaving the load concentrated on a small area of the tree. These methods in combination with 2″ anchor slings would be adequate for occasional use, but one who slacklines regularly should take every precaution to protect the life of the tree.

See Wikipedia for more informations here: 

This page is being updated. Soon there will be new tricks and many fine pictures and movie clips.

A starting line:
Begin a 5-6 m long line, no higher than 20-30 cm above the ground when you stand on it. It should not be too tight so Shank points can be made in approx. 1 m in height.

Basic Position:
It can be difficult to come up on the line the first few times, then get someone to help you. It is much easier with bare feet! When you come up on the line, you must initially “just” finding the balance. Stand with your feet parallel to the line so that both toe and heel are in contact with the leash. Focus on a fixed point in front of you. As carbine in the anchorage point. Hold your arms out to the side, perhaps. your help shoulder. Bend your knees slightly and find balance. It is easiest to start in the middle of the line

Up on the line without help:
To get on line without help, you must place one foot on the line (ft A), without putting weight on it. Put the weight on the foot on the ground (base B). Fasten your eyes on a fixed point in front of you (as the basic position) Makes a jump at the foot B and place it behind the foot A. Decreasing soon as possible because the position, with knees bent, feet parallel on the line and look forward.

The first step:
Once you find the balance you’re ready to start walking. Add slowly the weight of the first foot. Move the bagreste foot forward and find the line. When you tag line lie right under the feet spread the weight back equally on both feet. Repeat until you reach the end of the line. It may be advantageous to be able to stand on one leg before starting to go.

Turn on the line:
Before you start to turn it’s a good idea to try to stand around with your feet on the straight of the line. Here is a good chance of landing on your back so get a friend to stand behind you. To turn on the line is to rapidly find a fixed point with eyes. So stand with good balance twist your body and your feet and find the anchorage point with eyes. Find the balance and try to get your feet parallel to the line again. Then you just go back.

“In basic terms, slacklining is the art of balancing on a length of webbing tensioned between two anchor points it can be two trees or anything. Being a relatively new and progressive activity the boundaries of what’s possible on a line are consistently being pushed further and further… from simply balancing you progress to walking, turning and simple ‘static’ tricks, and from there you progress to bouncing, jumping, flipping, and combinations of tricks. The possibilities are endles”, he says.

It seems that everyone who comes along get hooked pretty quickly and there’s a lot of interest. But it also looks as pretty hard work up there on the line, and I recognize slacklining as a good form of exercise.

“Slacklining is incredibly good excercise, it builds core strength, balance and mental focus and is recognised to build lateral stability in the knees. These things make it an excellent cross-training tool for other sports. It’s actually surprising how much it does exercise the body. It uses muscles you probably don’t even know you have.

For the more adventurous out there, there are lots of tricks you can pull off on the line. Where does the inspiration for these come from?

As different people from different backgrounds get involved, tricks and styles are becoming more varied. Some of the more basic ‘static’ tricks are essentially yoga postures, the more advanced moves are drawing inspiration from gymnastics, trampolining, even breakdancing. Now, slackline tricks are starting to develop organically as people become more familiar with the line and how it works and the progression of trick development is one of the most interesting and exciting aspects of slacklining, with new ‘firsts’ being claimed regularly.

Initially it can feel very daunting trying to stand on a thin, wobbly line, but with a couple of hours practice most people can start to get a feel for balancing. Once you’ve pushed through those early wobbles and trepidations and it starts to feel comfortable then the real fun can begin! Don’t expect to be doing backflips on your first session and enjoy learning the basics at your own pace.