On of the slackliners, Levan Tsivadze will show you what is Highline and how can you start excercising. Beginner in highlining, Kate Poniatowska will share her first impressions and emotions from the line.

Yet another meeting of slackliners took place in Tskhrajvari, Georgia on 1st-2nd of October.

Levan Tsivadze Slackliner:

Highline is one of the slackline disciplines where the slackline is suspended far above the ground between the two solid points. There are number of psychological obstacles such as height, environment and exposure around you. That’s why people think that highlining is dangerous but in fact it is safer than other slackline disciplines.

The first reason of safety is that you don’t have the ground below and you’re securely attached to the line. The basic trauma that you can get is bruises from the line and some muscle soreness. The physical fatigue is more.

We are protected with the climbing harness that is connected to the line with the climbing dynamic rope. Rope by itself is attached to the ring through which is passed the webbing. In case of fall you just hang on the rope.

Each highline anchor is on the rock which is drilled in several places and filled with the bolts and hangers. More bolts on the anchor, less force goes to each bolt. Now one anchor is made on the thick tree. It’s essential that tree should be at the safe place.

What is the most important, equipment should be certified by ISA (International Slackline Association) and steel carabiners must be used.

Usually during the first attempts you don’t trust the equipment, yourself and you feel scared. Your emotions affect the line. If you are stressed, line won’t calm down. In the beginning you never feel relaxed,you think about others opinions, is it worth to be here? Why are you doing this? But when you walk the highline, you understand that everything was worth trying and “suffering”.

Kate Poniatowska Slackliner:

When I first walked... I was so scared that I don’t know what I felt. Little trembling and suddenly everything disappeared. There were nothing and no one.

I climbed on the line, went in the middle and looked down. I think I shouldn’t have done it because... there is a whole space and you feel so small, so small... It’s unimaginable. Everything falls silent, you hear nothing. Music, people, talking... You don't hear anything. There is only you, line and... a lot of space.

I was extremely afraid of falling, I was more tired mentally and emotionally than physically It was something different, I’ve never felt such thing. You think that this is the end you take hands off the line and you don’t exist anymore. But in reality, yep, I exist and nothing seems so terrible anymore.

It was my first highline and first falling was a pretty tough. It was awesome. Really.

Levan Tsivadze:

The first step of course is to have a slackline but if you don’t have one you can just find us on Facebook, join the community and we always write about upcoming sessions.

Everyone can join us we’ll teach and help them if it’s possible we will lend them a slackline. We try to engage full community so that everyone could try and understand how much pleasure you can get from all of this. How different is this from everyday life.

It helps us to express our emotions and find the limit of our capabilities. Discover how much you can do and what else you can achieve to get till some boundary and then just expand and progress your limit.

Slackline has several disciplines. For example Trickline. Its idea is doing acrobatic tricks on the slackline. Second one is Waterlining. That's when the slackline is rigged above the water Also there is a Highline, that we’ve talk about already. There are also Urbanlines that are rigged high above the ground in urban areas.

To walk on the highline, it’s necessary to walk on a simple line near the ground. 40 meters long is desired. You should be in a good physical condition so after a fall you’re able to climb up the line.

What is most important you should be strong mentally. Must be ready psychologically that height is not an obstacle for you and you should exceed your limits and the comfort zone. Just overcome the fear that you have. At first you don’t trust the equipment and other stuff so you have to get over it and trust what you have and what is done properly.