At the place we met up with other Austin slackliners who we got to know a few days earlier at the longline action. The night before the rig, we 'scoped out the place so we could prepare the necessary gear for the action. The highline is located next to the pedestrian bridge running under one of the main highways. The line was rigged between two massive concrete pillars, which turned out to be more difficult to sling than previously thought. We had to use two slings per side, a 10 and a 4, equaling 14ft. spansets. It took a while to while till finally the other person caught the end of it on the other side of the pillar.
Faith and Janek rigging ...
When we had our anchors ready the rest of the rigging went quite smoothly. We used Type-18 webbing with two slackPro! line-locks and 9.8mm diameter Beal rope as the back-up. We had separate tensioning system with the lineGrip attached to it. The line was a bit loose but really nice to walk on.
The crew ...
After Faith taped the webbing and back-up rope together the line was ready to walk. We measured it later and it is 30m long and about 12m above the water.
Janek had the first ascent sending the line OS&FM in a swami.
Faith Sent the line after Janek also OS&FM in a swami. Jordan managed to borrow kayak for free and got some awesome footage from below. Unfortunately our battery died soon after. Tar Zen made to much footage of Faith taping the line.
Faith doing double drop-knee
Before Jordan came back Faith and Janek both walked free-solo. It was our first Deep Water Solo Highline (DWSH). I really want to go one day to Majorca or Thailand and establish some new lines higher than this and walk them with water as the only protection.
Here is some nice GIF file Jordan made from photos shot from a kayak:
When Jordan came back he sent the line OS&FM in the swami doing some crazy tricks on the way like korean butt-bounce and nice surf.
Jordan surfing the line
Till the end of the day local slackliners where trying there first highline ever. Maybe it was a bit too long for the first one, but all of them did really well (some of them never did a chongo-start on the slackline). Big props guys and girls (and Tar Zen got the best whipper of the day)!!
Tar Zen flying down ...
We stayed till late evening hour and finally took the line down. It was pretty cold night and some of us were not prepared enough.
Gibbon Tree-Shoes? (made by Jordan)
Peace & SlackOn!
Janek
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