24 February 2013 - Slacklining

When my bestie Sarah was first describing her new "slacklining" hobby I was unsure what to think. What I visualized was something simplistic and potentially boring and/or pointless as a past-time. I doubted her relentless enthusiasm for the sport which she assured me was an adventure with "limitless possibilities  (while my cynical brain thought - we are just talking about walking on a slightly unstable surface right?).

But the more Sarah spoke about her experiences the more I opened up to the idea, if for no other reason than I trust her wisdom - in the 26 years we have been friends she has held a pretty impressive track record of presenting good ideas for activities. I had some of my best childhood crafting sessions thanks to her.

And then I saw this video and realized there aren't enough positive adjectives around to even describe how cool it looks. I was completely sold.



Today Sarah tackled the long commute to my house with her newly purchased Slackline Kit in hand. She pointed out an extra benefit to owning country acreage that I hadn't realized before "There will be so many good tree's at your place to set it up!" As we assessed the yard and discussed the merits of various locations we could use I realized she was absolutely right about the good trees. I must remember this advantage when it's time to sell and point it out to potential buyers that are hopefully also closet slacklining enthusiasts (or easily able to be converted with one viewing of the youtube video).

Minutes later it was up and ready for use and I watched Sarah as easily stepped up onto the line and took several steps forward. It looked simple enough and I was sure in no time I'd be triple somersaulting my way to slacklining victory.

I confidently placed my right foot onto the line then watched as it dissolved into a quivering mess, before I'd even lifted my other from the ground. I couldn't even bring myself to try putting weight onto the wobbly limb and narrowed my eyes at Sarah suspiciously thinking of the ease with which she'd just performed the same task. I was assessing the likelihood of her ingesting performance enhancing drugs during the train ride over when she assured me she'd started out with the same difficulties I was having.

And so I persisted. And so did she. After an afternoon of practise we'd both reached new milestones in our slacklining careers. Sarah had taken many steps walking both forward and backwards, completed turns, bent to a crouch and stood back up and jumped up onto the line from a distance.

I had successfully balanced on one foot for more than a few seconds.

And it was EXHILARATING. I will be doing this again.