500 foot line sent!

nada9 · Joined: Oct 01, 2006 Posts: 54 Location: Berlin, Germany

'Not of this earth' slackliner Damian Cooksey walked a 506 ft (154 meters) line!
The line was rigged in the English Garden in Munich at July 10th.
Damian sent the line with his 3rd attempt. Most impressive to me was his first attempt though. Damian walked the line in an upcoming shower with the line swinging in strong winds with an amplitude of more then 3 ft! He rode the raging beast up to 3/4th of the length till it kicked him off! Great fight man!! Reminded me to Jans Galeks spectacular struggle on the last feet of the 300 ft line in scharnitz (austria)!! Second attempt was in pouring rain with still lots of winds. Again 3/4th of the length! The 3rd attempt was in just pouring rain and no winds. Damian kept the line almost perfectly still - no visible struggle - just constant and perfect walking on such a difficult line! - After I saw damian walk the 300 ft line in scharnitz i had no doubt that he would make a 500 ft line. His technic, his mental and physical skill is far beyond any other slackliner I know.
German slackliner Demian did well on the 500 fts and especially on the 300 ft line in scharnitz. He walked the 500 fts up to 1/3rd!
Personally my best attempt ended at about 2/3rds. Though having done quite some lines between 300 and 400 ft I did not have much of a chance on this one - this time. These lines are just tooo long - there's no good or bad luck any more - if you have a flaw or weakness in walking it, it _will_ get you at some time.

The line was about 8.5 ft high at the anchor points.
Rigging was done with damians tensioning method (slackdog plus klemheist) on top of a 1.5 ton lever hoist. We pre-tensioned about 4 ft with a simple biner setup over the slackdog. Then an additional 19.5 ft with the lever hoist. The webbing was type B webbing.

I wasn't 100% content with the rigging as the line felt strangely numb (not dynamic) this time. I have two suspected reasons for this:

- The line was simply overstretched and could not bounce as it usually does. Maybe type B webbing is not optimal for lines > 400 ft. We might use type C webbing next time. It has a higher breaking strengh (10.000 lbs) but is still quite dynamic (the purple thick webbing).
- We still had about 13 ft of heavy chain in the line after tensioning. plus a very heavy hook on top of it that I usually replace with a much lighter steal biner. The swing weight might have caused the numb feeling of the line.

Guys, that line was such a rad experience! I can still feel it in my legs!!

Good luck at the spire everyone!
Andreas

P.s.: Thanks to everyone who helped with this! Special thanks to Guenther Braun from Slackstar for advice and gear and of cause for sponsoring the whole thing. This meeting would not have been possible without him!

coldclimb · Joined: May 27, 2004 Posts: 516 Location: Wasilla, Alaska

That's pretty incredible. I want to see this now! Shocked

Both the rigging and the walking of a line that long are awesome!

lothse1 · Posted: Mon Jul 16, 2007 12:26 am Post subject:

osz w mordę

Damian you are sick!!!

respects
krowie oko slack line team
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krowie oko slack line team

nada9 · Joined: Oct 01, 2006 Posts: 54 Location: Berlin, Germany

btw: jan on that super difficult (black) 300 fter was incredible! I had this vision of the whole line turning upside down and shake to throw him off but Jan would still stick to the line! Imagine that and you're close to the impression Wink

I think I have seen more polish slackliners in scharnitz. Have you been there too lothse?!

lothse1 · Posted: Mon Jul 16, 2007 1:17 am Post subject:

unfortunately Crying or Very sad

We are to busy now.
work, work, work Evil or Very Mad

_________________
.... www.slackline.pl ....
krowie oko slack line team

DamianC · Joined: Jan 22, 2006 Posts: 366 Location: Berkeley

It was really great to finally get to long-line with Andreas. His enthusiasm for long-lining is very inspiring!!! Thanks to Andreas and Demian for rigging this line. All I did was show up for the fun! Here's a few photos from the day:

Demian from Germany

Andreas Thoelke

Damian Cooksey

Not the send, but approaching the half-way mark.

Who doesn't like a nice, long, slow walk in the freezing cold rain?

Thanks to Günther Braun & Renate Nutz of Slackstar, and Steffi for their support- and for bringing the umbrella!
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HugoBr · Joined: Jun 20, 2007 Posts: 63

Yeah Damian !!
This is HARD.....!!!!!NICE WORK!!!!!!!! Wink

Shaun_The_Conqueror · Joined: Jun 10, 2006 Posts: 648 Location: Arcata, CA

Congrats on the send!

ellocokiwi · Posted: Tue Aug 07, 2007 10:07 am Post subject:

Wow! That is simply amazing! Nice job!!
_________________
-Jeff

Arock · Joined: Oct 22, 2008 Posts: 2

Damian,

You have done some great thing my man. I'm so glad to see you doing something you love in life.

Congrats!!!
Aaron

Arock · Joined: Oct 22, 2008 Posts: 2

Damian,

You have done some great things man. I'm so glad to see you doing something you love in life.

Congrats!!!
Aaron

Jeremyl04 · Joined: Jun 04, 2008 Posts: 138

Quite the accomplishment, mad props man. I hope to get into some long-lining pretty soon. Though right now my goal is only 150 feet =].

monkey · Guest

WOW! That is amazing. Very Happy