Today I had a chance to pop in, and although I’d planned to buy 100 or 150 feet for trial purposes, I soon discovered it was $.60/foot (OUCH!) and adjusted my plans. Being the broke slackliner I am, I bought just 15 feet instead, which should make enough for a break test or two and a belt or short sling.

It also appears it’s not just my local REI (their “flagship” store) carrying it, but REIs nationwide. The climbing department employee there couldn’t tell me anything about it, other than she was confused why they would carry it (given the expensive price) and that it didn’t seem to be selling well at that price. Their web site as well as internal sku lookup show a 19KN strength, which is slightly above standard mil-spec.

I will update this post in a few weeks when I have a day off (and it’s dry out!) to break test the webbing with my own results. So far I have had little luck finding it anywhere else on the web.

The inside of the tubing appears to be a light honey blond color, the same as the lightest color in the pattern. That is, the lightest color in the pattern is actually the natural color of the webbing. The webbing has three barely visible tracer stitches.

For the line lockers I own, some are a few years old, and covered in ‘dings’ but still in good shape. Why is this? Because they are forged aluminum. I use only steel line lockers, or forged aluminum. Sometimes I meet people in parks, or at the beach, and they want to know about my rigging. Often they ask about my line lockers, and I show them how they work, and they usually agree the locker method is quite elegant. I explain where to buy them, and to be certain to buy a forged one with a 20kN rating stamped on it.

Occasionally I see these people later, and occasionally some of them have a non-forged locker. This might be because REI was out of stock of the Omega Pacific rappel rings they sell, or it might simply be because they were cheap and wanted to save a dollar. Either way, it is NOT SAFE to use a non-forged alumimum descending ring as a line-locker. They were not meant for this, and the deformation strength is too low. This is obvious to me just by looking at the ring, and especially by holding it (it weighs maybe a few grams).

I was at REI the other day, helping a friend build a slackline setup, and when they were out of the Omega rings, an employee there told her that the SMC ring would be safe. I told him it wasn’t. He said he uses it all the time in his slackline. I decided it was time to do a test.

If you watch the video below, you’ll see that the ring begins to deform at around 1200lbs of tension. Keep in mind, this is a brand new ring (with the tag still on it!). That is way too low of a number. Leaving aside the fact that I often tension a line to over 1000lbs by myself, without the use of a pulley system, it shouldn’t take much imagination to see how a line at even 500 or 600lbs could cause the ring to fatigue by way of repeated riggings and occasional jumps, bounces, surfings, and so forth.

By 2500lbs the ring is severely deforming, beginning to wrap around the steel Omega Pacific carabiner we used. At 2800lbs the webbing we used blows, which is probably all that kept this ring from deforming any further. This was suspected to be defective webbing (part of why we were using it). Had we used Type18 webbing, the ring would have become more of a pretzel before finally snapping into fragments.

Will you ever put 2500lbs of tension onto this (or any?) line-locker? Probably not. But I can see how the locker could become very fatigued through just repeated riggings that might see 700 or 1000lbs of peak tension. Not a good idea.

Bottom line: don’t use aluminum lockers unless they are forged and rated for 20kN or better. Also, I don’t advise using SMC’s cylindrical forged lockers unless you use a sleeve or other spacer.  Saving one dollar on not buying a forged ring is in no way worth the risk of something blowing out explosively.

My safety motto: overbuild your system, inspect your gear, don’t do dumb things.

I taught myself to Chongo before I knew what it was, and without any real guidance. As a result, my first attempts weren’t so great. I tried to bring my second foot to the line while both hands were also on the line, which causes a lack of stability. Later I learned to get both hands off, for balance, before bringing up the second leg. The video below demonstrates both methods, and should make abundantly clear why I prefer the latter. I found it easiest to learn on a line that was 5 or 6 feet high (over sand) so I couldn’t cheat and touch the ground with my other leg while trying to mount, but a person could also learn on a lower line if the height is too intimidating.

I think if you give it a dozen tries, you will find you’ll master it quite quickly. Also, if you’re very intimidated, have a friend crouch on the other side (the side you’re facing) as a spotter, in case you fall forward hard. I actually prefer learning stuff like this up higher, say on a 6-ft-high slackline, so when things go badly I have more time to recover before hitting the ground, and if I can manage to catch the line on my way down it will be guaranteed I don’t hit the ground; with a lower line there is less reaction time, and line-catching doesn’t assure you won’t have a meeting with the dirt.

At 70ft, made of Type18, and with around 700-800lbs of tension the line was fun but challenging for most to walk. The distraction of the water and flow of adrenaline were the two biggest obstacles, although the adrenaline at least seemed to calm down after the first fall or two into the water.

Click through to the full post for a short gallery and rigging beta…

Rigging beta:
The footbridge is a multi-hundred-foot long span made of giant box-tube steel, and thus makes a great anchor for the line (and the box tubes are rounded on the corners, so the slings need no padding). A five foot sling is perfect for wrapping the large box tube. Five feet will wrap it twice — just barely — so I use two 32KN rings and a steel carabiner in a method similar to this. If you wrap the tube at the pedestrian level of the bridge, the line will be easier to step out onto, but also not perfectly level with the dock. Because the bridge side will be higher (unless you wrap the tube at the bottom of the bridge), the step-out zone will have approx an 8ft fall into the water (somewhat intimidating), versus the 4ft fall on the dock-side.

The dock-side of the line is rigged to the southern-most cleat (big metal thing used for mooring boats). After scoping this location many times over a period of several months, and never seeing a boat docked near the southern end (it would have to be a tiny boat), plus with mooring by “appointment only” and knowing that the bridge itself makes boats going this direction an impossibility, we decided it was safe to rig this line here. Over five riggings we have now fielded zero complaints (from pedestrians or boaters), and in general everyone loved the line (onlookers have even stopped me to say thanks for rigging such an interesting spectacle!). The southern-most cleat is an especially burly one, and will require at least a four-foot sling. Using a five-foot sling (or longer) will put your gear out over the water. I have now custom-made a 4′2″ sling that (in the method described above) terminates (when rigged basket config) just over the dock. If you are super into safety I would pad either the sling or the concrete edge to avoid cutting of your webbing, although with the tension we have used I have yet to have anything rub (buttbounces and other dyanmic tricks might). Unless you soft-point the rigging side, you will have a couple feet of pulleys or other gear out over the water (making stepping off the line onto the dock an impossibility). We chose to use a pulley system to tighten the line. For the line we used Type18 on the first rig (which is the only one in the video), but standard slackline webbing works too. For standard webbing, we used 62ft of webbing (from locker-to-locker) with around 8-9ft of stretch, and this is now being rigged one column to the right (west) of the places shown in photos to allow a little more length and an easier step off from the bridge (previously you had to squeeze through a small nook).

This line could be rigged with a “primitive” setup as I’ve described it, but it would be difficult to do so without getting the line soaking wet in the process (making it slippery and less strong). We elected to use pulleys so as to keep the line and all the gear dry during the rigging. One additional option would be to use the bridge-side as the rigging end, which would allow slackers to walk out from the dock (lower, less intimidating). Unfortunately, this would involve possibly annoying pedestrians on the bridge during the rigging, plus would have little room for several people to pull on a rope at once, so we decided against it. Lastly, I’ve now rigged this with a softpoint (pulley system removed), so the pulleys-by-the-dock stuff is no longer an issue, but it is very taxing to walk out from the dock-side because of some shallow water on one side that would pose a risk of injury if a fall was sustained in the first three feet of walking. Our first day’s rigging took about 45-60 minutes, day two took around 25-30, and without prepping the gear ahead of time it takes about 20 minutes now to rig it. Unless you measure and prep everything ahead of time, three people + pulley system is the minimum requirement for rigging this while keeping all the gear dry. With prep in advance, perhaps two people could do it. I can think of a way I could rig it all by myself, but it would be a major pain and take a long time.

Just as bicycling has many different disciplines, so now does slackline. I’d like to write a quick beginner guide so that someone getting into slackline can figure out what is best for him or herself. To figure out what is best for you, I think it is smartest to decide what you’d like to do.

Slackline walking? [Cost: $50-100] This is the purest form of slackline. Balancing, walking, sitting cross-legged, maybe doing some yoga, this is what you find most climbers engaged in at their base camp. Most traditional slacklines are rigged with the simple “primitive” method, and can be made yourself at a climbing store for around $40-70 in gear.

Tricklining? [Cost: $80-200] Tricklines are usually 2″ wide, although sometimes 1″, and are invariably tightened as much as possible to provide a lot of ’spring’ for tricks. Gibbon is the undisputed leader in tricklining, as their products have literally revolutionized the sport in the last three years. Two-inch lines are infinitely easier for tricklining. If you want to get into doing jumps, spins, butt-bounces, even flips, I would highly recommend a Gibbon line. The Classic line is about $80, and the other lines go as high as $120. (Gibbon’s site explains the difference.) I’d be happy to let anyone try my various one and two-inch lines before you commit to buying, just ask. I may also produce a “how to get into tricklining” video series soon, if there’s enough demand, so stay tuned for that. Also, one last benefit of a Gibbon or other trickline is that they are initially easier to walk.

Because of the lower height you can set them at (due to less sag from high tension), and the reduced lateral movement from the high tension (a movement your body is very confused by, at first anyway), people tend to be able to walk a Gibbon line in a matter of minutes, rather than the traditional hour (or more) it might take for a normal one-inch line. On the other hand, 2″ lines tend to be sort of boring to simply walk, since they are not very ’slack’ and present little challenge, so they are mostly preferable for this category — tricklining — as opposed to general walking and balance challenges. Without actually becoming a slackliner first it is hard to say whether walking loose lines will appeal to you, or bouncing and doing tricks on tight lines, and so this is why I recommend you hook up with someone who already has a line (or come to one of our meetups!) and try it all out for yourself. I personally enjoy both by like the dynamic nature of a one-inch line better.

Longlining? [Cost: $400-2000] Longlines are typically greater than 100′ (30M) in length, and it’s really at this range that the feel of the line begins to shift drastically. Suddenly wind, the weight of the line itself, and the dynamics of the material are all a factor. As you introduce a “wobble” into the line, you can watch as the sine wave of this wobbly heads down the line, hits the anchor at the other end, and bounces back at you, possibly making you wobble even more! Longlining is great fun, but takes a lot of equipment (to get the proper tension) and dedication. If you’d like to get into longlining in Seattle, drop me a line, as I need more longline partners. Single tubular lines work great up to 150 or 200 feet, but going beyond 200 feet is difficult due to tensile strength limits of the line. This can be circumvented by “threading” a 9/16″ or 11/16″ line inside the one-inch. Other types of webbing now allow for lines up to 2000 or more feet long. See my webbing page for info on webbing types, strengths, and costs.

Highlining? [Cost: $400-2000] Highlines are typically any line rigged beyond 50 feet in height. Midlines are in the 20 to 50 foot range. Most highlines are walked using a climbing harness and a “leash” of climbing rope, although swami belts (a hand-made belt of 2″ webbing) and even unleashed solo walks are not unheard of. Highliners have two main impediments: first they need to have a place to rig their line, second they need all the gear and knowledge to rig the line safely. Rigging highlines requires a lot of gear and knowledge, and the golden rule is: backup, backup, backup. Nothing should ever be depended upon such that if it failed a death could occur. This means the leash from the highliner to the line has two ropes. The leash ring is actually two leash rings. The line itself has a backup (if not two). The rigging hardware is backed up. When possible even the main anchor points have backups in case they fail. My best advice for getting into highlining is to find someone who is already a competent rigger and approach her to see if she’ll let you tag along on her next rig and explain her gear and rigging processes to you.

The only upside in cost for highlining and longlining is that a lot of the gear overlaps. Because of safety issues involved in both disciplines, it makes sense to have really strong gear, so highliners often use the same gear for a 40ft line that a longliner might use for a 400ft line. So if you want to get into both disciplines the cost may not be so prohibitive!

The competition stretched across three days, and followed a standard bracketing format. In the end Ellie Schulte from Germany took third place, Andy Lewis second place, and “Alpha” Mike Payton first place. The judging was incredibly hard on the third day, as all of the final round competitors were razor sharp with their skill sets — it’s amazing to see how far tricklining has come in just a couple of years, and even more amazing to imagine where it’s going.

About 40 of us were staying in a house in the suburbs of SLC, which make for lots of hijinx after each day of competition. I managed to have my first Chipotle Grill burrito (something many of my fellow slackers couldn’t believe I’d missed out on) after competition on the first day … officially I gave it an 8.5. That night a midline also was rigged at the house, around 1am. In photos below you can see Alex taping the line, and then Damien walking it.

I spent a good amount of time hanging with Jan, one of the founders of Gibbon, and I can tell you for sure he is a stand-up guy. Mid-way though my stay I found time to sit down with some of the Gibbon USA folks and talk about where the company is headed, and without getting too wordy here, let me just say that I think not only are they doing a lot for this sport, but that their products are only getting better and better. The days of taking a hand-written list of ‘random stuff to buy’ at your local climbing store so that you can ‘build’ a slackline are probably coming to a close in the near future — which, honestly, is great, because Gibbon can reach way more people than I can with my how-to videos and lists of things to buy at REI. So I look forward to working with Gibbon in the future, and seeing what products they have in store for the US market, especially their one-inch products (since I am more a fan of one-inch lines than two-inch).

A spokesperson for the Seattle Parks and Recreation agency sat down with me last week and we had a chat about our mutual concerns for environmental responsibility (aka: tree-friendlies) and safety hazards. The result is that slacklining is now not just legal, but officially sanctioned in Seattle parks. I will update this post SPR’s with ‘best practices’ policy for slacklining when I receive it from them in the next few days.

Also, I’ll be designing a small (quarter page) handout and attempting to work with REI to get this handout (or any similar information) disseminated to new Gibbon owners, since about 80% of the slacklines I see not padding trees are Gibbon kits that have been recently purchased. Gibbon did a great job designing a kit that doesn’t even require most people to read the directions in order to set it up, but the downside is that any info about tree protection also goes unseen.

If anyone has questions or continued access problems, please let me know!  Thanks.

I think this basic advice should apply to 99% of the municipalities in the United States: pad your line where it attaches to the tree, and pad it well. Be respectful of the community, and be careful that your line is not rigged such that it could hurt someone (e.g. a bicyclist, jogger, etc). If you do that, it’s a good assumption that your setup is 100% legal and you will never, ever have a negative encounter with anyone, let alone a park employee.

For those who have had a negative encounter and need some help, this page is very much a work in progress right now (August 10, 2011), but I’d like to get the framework up and then see how much I can fill in. As I see it, concerns over slacklining break down into a few main categories:

DANGER. This is a big issue for some. (1) Maybe you fall and get hurt. (2) Maybe someone sees you on the line, decides to get on it when you’re not looking (or setup their own) and they get hurt. (3) Maybe someone doesn’t see the line at all and guillotines his waist.

Issue one could certainly happen. In many states you would not be able to sue, however. For instance, in WA state, RCW 4.24.210 states that as long as the Parks Dept (or any other lawful landowner) does not charge a fee then it shall be held immune in cases of lawsuit for ourdoor recreation (including but not limited to hanggliding, paragliding, hunting, and so on). In CA, CGC Section 831.7 says that public entities and employees are not liable for hazardous recreation outcomes. It is my belief that many if not most other states have similar laws.

Issue two could happen too, but again, the laws cited above would apply. Other helpful logic to employ would be to point out similar activities that exist already that pose more harm. For instance, throwing a baseball could certainly harm someone (let alone a bat-propelled baseball) but I have never seen people ejected from a park for playing ball. Many parks also have ‘intense’ playground equipment … some Seattle parks have very long (and fun!) zip lines, for instance, so if you can point out a local park that has obviously risky equipment (how many fingers and patches of hair have found their way into zip lines over the years?!), that may help.

Issue three could also happen. Keep in mind though that most slacklines are typically mounted very low so there is minimal risk of injury or “clothesline” type strikes. Listed below are the primary playground hazards according to the Handbook for Public Playground Safety published by the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC). The hazards are grouped by their applicability to slacklining, with appropriate recommendations and considerations where necessary:

Most applicable to slackline:
• Tripping hazards: Play areas should be free of tripping hazards (i.e., sudden change in elevations) to children who are using a playground. The two most common trip hazards are anchoring devices for playground equipment and containment walls for loose‐fill surfacing materials.

As you can see, slacklines are compliant with consumer safety standards for playground equipment; it would stand to reason that if slacklines can be safe for five- and six-year-old children, that they would be safe for general park users. A minimal amount of research will show that they are endorsed by municipalities all over the United States. Santa Monica is one municipality I can personally speak for, and although they had some concerns at first, a reasonable policy was easy to draw up. Seattle Parks and Recreation has also recently followed suit.

TREE OR PROPERTY DAMAGE. This is also a very real concern. Trees have a circulatory system just undernearh their bark, and damage to the bark and underlying biologic structure could permanently harm or even kill the tree. In theory. I have yet to see this happen. Slackliners have been operating for decades without tree padding and I have yet to hear of a credible instance of a tree dying.

I always use tree padding, if for no other reason than to protect my equipment and to send a good message about our sport. I recommend you also use tree padding. I prefer towel strips, but carpet and foam work well too.

My first point here would be to iterate that Yosemite park for many years has had an access policy for slacklining. If tree padding is in compliance with National Park Service guidelines for acceptable use then why should it not be good enough for your local city park?

My second point would be to show actual real-world studies of the forces required to damage trees. I will fill this section in soon.

My third point would be to show my own real-world tests of rigging on trees without padding for extended periods. I am considering seeking permission from a forest owner to a rig a couple of permanent lines on some different species of trees to prove once and for all whether prolonged tension/abrasion will kill a tree. For now, please accept this image as proof that some trees can withstand significant scarring. While I would never reccommend causing that sort of damage to a tree, it’s proof that at least palm trees can live through almost any level of abrasion. The coast of West Africa is peppered with such still-living trees (in every fishing community I’ve seen), where boats are tied to trees and circumferential rub-marks are made as the tide comes in and goes out. Remember though, even if this doesn’t kill the tree, it obviously can cause visible damage, which is not a good thing from an aesthetic standpoint, so I think padding is still a must.

My fourth point would be to post a formal opinion paper that has been authored by trained arborists, ecologists, or foresters. I am in the process of inquiring with such experts from my local university.

EXISTING LAWS PROHIBITING SUCH ACTIVITIES. This is the section I can least help you with. My basic strategy is to figure out what your state laws are called (in Washington they are RCW … revised code of Washington). Then what your county laws are called (e.g. King County Code). Then your city laws (e.g. Seattle Municipal Code). Then find where they are posted online and search for permutations of “attach” and “rope” and “tree” and “damage” and so on. Most databased will allow boolean searches. That means you can search a phrase like: attach AND tree … and it will return only results with this two words. For me it took about 2 hours of searching and reading to be certain that no local laws applied to me. A reader of the site pointed out that Municode might be a good place to start looking if you can’t find your local legal database.

Although I can’t help much here with specifics, I can give you some basic advice. If you’re told your slackline is illegal, don’t be rude, but also don’t give up. Ask, politely, what law it violates. Offer your name and express right away how your main goal is to be respectful of the environment and of the law and you weren’t aware you were breaking and laws/rules. Explain that in order to let your other friends know it would be very helpful if you could figure out, ever so briefly, what the specific law is that you are violating. If you’re told you’re ‘damaging the trees’ you’ll need to use logic and wit to explain the issues mentioned in the last section (i.e. this is compliant with Yosemite guidelines, trained arborists say it’s safe, etc). If you’re told there’s a specific law against attaching ropes/wires/etc to trees, get the EXACT specifics of this law.

If such a law does exist, it’s time to lobby to change the law. You’ll need to round up lots of other local folks who have a stake in this (other slackliners) and try to get the local media involved. I will post my thoughts on this later, as it’s a Doozy. Perhaps I’ll wait until someone in this situation writes to me and expresses they need help. If that’s you, let me know!

On July 24, 2011, while slacklining at Cal Anderson park, I had yet another run-in with a park employee. This time it was a security officer, who asserted that the Park Rangers work for him (implying he is the ultimate authority). He stated unequivocally that I require a use permit, my line is illegal, is damaging city property, and I would be cited. In response to an inquiry of whether persons have already been cited by Seattle Police, he said yes. Countering my comments about Yosemite guidelines, he responded that SPR is a city agency, not federal, and thus the tree padding guidelines are irrelevant. Eventually when I could see he wouldn’t be convinced, I asked that we call the police to commence the process of getting a ruling on whether this was a citation-worthy offense. When the police arrived, in the space of 90 seconds he went from asserting to them that it was “illegal” to a “gray area.” Police confirmed, “There’s no type of violation that I know of.” The full episode is available in video form below:

So, as I said at the top of our slackline legality page, I am attempting to work with SPR officials to come up with an acceptable use policy. Intimidation and harassment from parks employees is not a desirable outcome, nor should our sport be involved in wasting the valuable time of Park Security, Park Rangers, or Seattle Police. As I point out in the video, Cal Anderson is a haven of drug use and public alcohol consumption — within 30 minutes of this incident several men were gathered less than 100 feet away drinking alcoholic beverages openly in the park — so we’d all rather that slackliners can safely and responsibly enjoy their sport, and the Parks folks can focus on other priorities.

The Rangers in the video, who were both quite friendly, gave me contact info for someone who handles use policy at Seattle Park and Rec, and hopefully in the next few days we can have a policy in place.

Just before we left for Ghana I was on the hunt for spare webbing to make slings and such from, and on ebay I came across 100ft of really cheap one inch tubular. That was all the auction said — no specs whatsoever, and so I took a shot. When the webbing arrived it was apparent just from the feel and weave that it wasn’t milspec webbing. We went to Ghana and I figured I’d find a use for it when we got back.

It was windy and cold today, not great for the first day of spring, but still we wanted to do something slackline related … what better than to break test this spare webbing. See the video off to the side.

So what have we learned? Well, this webbing is stronger than I’d have thought. It saw peak loads of 2400lbs or so during the pulling, and 2000+lb sustained loads before it finally broke. As sketchy as this webbing looks, I’d say it’s probably safe for beginner short lines (20-30ft), since I sometimes use 9/16″ webbing (which is rated to 2200lbs). Again I find that I am overly pessimistic, which probably isn’t a bad thing when it comes to safety. Nonetheless, be wary of deals from random vendors that seem too good to be true, you may end up with shoddy webbing.

Below is a pic of the sheared piece of ‘mystery webbing’ sitting next to some REI milspec.