4 minute read

After the 500m Slanghoek highline, a 1.2km long, African record, highline in Waterval Boven was the main goal for our South African trip.

At our campsite for the project, Mountain Mayhem, we were pleasantly surprised to discover hot showers and a covered kitchen. These were welcome luxuries as we waited out a long weekend of rain, wind, and clouds. Most of my conversations with Cary, Audrey, and Leighton were about the feasibility of the project. The spot is known for daily thunderstorms and rain this time of year. During those rainy days we discussed rigging something smaller. Meanwhile the JoBurg crew seemed content to wait for the forecasted weather window and not worry too much about contingencies.

In preparation for the good weather we got the first cord, fishing line, across the gap during the last cloudy evening. The plan was to fly fishing line across the gap using a drone. It was a stressful, cold evening. We had to wait for gaps in the clouds for each attempt to fly the drone. At one point the drone spun wildly out of control and the tag line had to be dropped. Thankfully, Leighton had the foresight to build his own release system so the drone could drop the fishing line and escape any issues. In the end Leighton successfully piloted the drone with skill and nerves of steel to get the line across. It was so cold and windy I didn’t even make it to the end of the tagging and went back to ‘check on’ the fire earlier than the others. When I got back to camp I found a warm and cozy fire.

After that night it was smooth sailing. The sun came out the next day and there was no chance of thunderstorms. I stepped back from leadership on this rig and my friend Audrey from Quebec stepped up. During the rig I focused on a few specific tasks and shared my knowledge with people who wanted to learn. It was one of the smoothest rigs of a 1k highline I’ve been apart of. We were done and people were walking the line by that evening!

That was Tuesday and we had the line up until Saturday morning. Around 20 people got to experience the line. My friend Cary and his friend Leighton sent the line and claimed the African record for longest line sent on the continent. In slack lingo, sending is crossing without falling. As locals it was a very proud moment for everyone on the team. For Leighton especially this was a huge accomplishment that came after a ton of planning and pressure. He’s one of the strongest slackers in SA and there was a lot of expectation for him to send.

Between resting my body after some strange pain in my hip flexors and letting others get their chance, I didn’t take a crossing until Friday. I made it about 750m blind folded before the wind knocked me off. That session built my confidence that a blindfold send might be possible.

The morning of derig Leighton gave his final session to me and I got to go for the blindfold send again. The first half of the line I cruised. Then the wind started and I was in for a fight. As the first gusts picked up, I reminded myself that every step would be a fight, but also some of best slacklining I’d ever done, if I could just stay on the line. I thought I might last just a few more steps but I kept walking another 500m or so until I was only 70m from the end. Finally a sharp gust knocked me off before I could finish the send. This was the most impressive, focused session of my life. I was walking the webbing and riding the wind. The sustained challenge from the varying, gusty winds was incredible. Walking blind collapsed my focus to only what mattered. Staying balanced and taking the next step. My dhristi, the focus point as the call it in yoga, was my center of mass, in between my pelvic floor and navel. As long as this point was centered above the line, I could handle the changing forces on my body and on the line.

This session got me stoked for the 2km highline we were about to rig in Moab. I think that with good conditions I can send it.

During our time at Mountain Mayhem we ate well. Audrey, David, and Natalie are vegans so we prepared a lot of soy mince and seitan based meals. While these were very tasty and well spiced, we were missing meat and curious about about all the different local cuts the South Africans were braii-ing (don’t call it BBQing) over the fire. Luckily Martin took care of us and got us some T-Bone steaks and boerewors, a kind of farmers sausage with spices.

In the end two reporters came out and the line got featured in a local Afrikaans newspaper as well as an Argentinian and Spanish newscasts. I think they were excited to share the store of ‘adrenaline junkies’ from around the world collaborating on such a project.

Checkout the reports here

If you want to read a proper record of the project, Laurence, a new friend from SA made a great post on his blog, Riding the Highline.

Updated:

You May Also Enjoy