Slacklining

Slacklining, definition according to Wikipedia:

Slacklining is a balance sport that uses nylon webbing stretched tight between two anchor points. Slacklining is distinct from tightrope walking in that the line is not held rigidly taut; it is instead dynamic, stretching and bouncing like a long and narrow trampoline. The line's tension can be adjusted to suit the user and different types of dynamic webbing can be used to achieve a variety of feats. The line itself is flat, due to the nature of webbing, thus keeping the slacker's footing from rolling as would be the case with an ordinary rope.

Well, as you may have guessed, this is Gavin's new sport! I have pictures (hundreds of them) dating back to February 4th, marking his first attempt at standing on a slackline. The idea was to get good enough to rig up a "highline" over a canyon in Red Rocks. In the midst of visitors and vacations, we spent a great deal of time in the public parks, borrowing their trees to practice this slacklining (strong trees are difficult to come by our here in the desert). This sport is more difficult than you might think, and Gavin has been practicing hard. Here are some picture from that beginning day up until yesterday.

Day 1. He could barely stand without holding onto my shoulder.

Slacklining can lead to some crazy falls. But, if you roll out of them, you'll be just fine.

Lots and lots of falling involved in learning this sport.

But not me. I never fall. I always look perfectly poised and peaceful, posing in front of beautiful mountains such as these. Kidding, obviously. It is a miracle that I can even stay on long enough for a picture to be taken.

Getting better, and the line is getting higher.

More practice.

My balancing abilities are actually digressing.

I love this picture because it looks like he is walking on top of this family. What is also fun about this sport is how many people stop to watch this "crazy" person. And ALL of them feel lead to tell him that he is "crazy." Many people want to know if he is with Cirque du Soleil, or some other act that performs on the strip. Almost everyone will stop and watch for a while, look at us like we have lot our minds, and then wish us luck or ask to pray over us for the healing of our minds from the Lord Jesus. Not really that last part, but you can tell that they are really scared for him!

As I said earlier, the whole point of learning to slackline was to be able to highline (taking the slackline up high, as the name implies). So, what do you do when you have a dream? You make it happen, right? Here is Gav drilling holes for bolts to attach a highline out in Red Rock Canyon National Park. Don't worry, we are pretty darn sure that it is totally legal to go drilling wherever you please in this particular national park. Bolting for slacklining is the same thing as bolting for rock climbing, but it must be done very carefully. So, Gavin learned himself in the area of bolting, and here we are.

Blowing the sand dust out of the hole to make sure that the bolt fits as snug as possible.

Random side note: Teddy Grahams are a hiking favorite of ours.

Here is a picture of Gavin rigging up the highline for attempt number 1. An important note about highlining: he uses a climbing harness and a leash that attaches to him and to the slackline, so that he will be caught in the event that he falls. It would be the exact same thing as taking a 4 or 5 foot fall on a climbing rope. This is not any less safe than that, just more scary.

This was about a month and a half after he started slacklining. Don't worry Judy, as I said before, this is just as safe as rock climbing.

Standing up, and surfing the line.

After he fell... crawling back to the side. It was a pretty scary fall! I added the video of this fall to the bottom of this post.

This is the face or frustration and defeat! After a fall too close to the side of the rock that nearly took his head off, he decided to call it a day. More practice was needed.

More practice.

Even more practice.

I'm still digressing.

Here he is, back for attempt number 2 (this was yesterday, 4/12), and very determined to make it all the way across this time!

AHHH, he's walking it!

This was so awesome! I was so excited! Somewhere around 3/4th's of the way across, he said that he cracked a smile, and then the smile made him lose his concentration, and then he fell!

Pretty darn pleased with himself! He didn't make it all the way across on attempt number 2, but it was definitely a victorious day! We will be back after more practice I'm sure.

This is what he is doing while I am sitting here typing this. He said that all the nerves and anxiety have carried over from yesterday and made him sleepy. I guess this is how people who never have anxiety respond to it. To that I say, if I were to get sleepy from anxiety, you would never see me, I would be sleeping all the time!

Gavin's fall on first attempt to send at Red Rocks.