I cannot imagine how many welts that guy must've gotten practicing that move.

Does the rope touch the ground at all?

w-lfs-n is amazing.

Keeping the great ape heritage real, I see.

He's just fishing for compliments.

Slack rope work (which this is) is way harder than tightrope, too, I understand.

Oh, alas, I am wrong. Which this isn't, I should have said.

Now I don't know what you're saying, rfts. He's on a slackline, no?

It's a little slack, but not truly, swayingly slack.

I originally thought it was, but on second viewing, I changed my mind.

Wow, never seen that before. It looks impossible.

As with other exercises, it seems that the girl version of the slackline backflip is easier.

Like, on a slackline, when you jump, it doesn't spring up to meet you; it hangs.

Oh nevermind. I don't know what I'm talking about.

Ok, so what's a slackline? And why does the slackline forum link to him doing the move on a line that looks just like this one? Huh? Huh?

13: No, you're right. I poked around a bit and figured out I don't know a slackline from a hole in the ground.

Kids these days have it so easy. Back in my day, you did that over a canyon or across the World Trade Center Towers

When we lived in the Bay Area, dear readers, we knew circus folk. Like 14-year-old skate rats, they were always practicing new tricks, they were always fucking them up, and we always had to repress the urge to laugh at them just a little.

Slackline was one of the rarer acts on t.v. in the old days, Ed Sullivan et al. Only saw it a couple of times, the guys spinning plates were much more common. Clear memory of a guy juggling, foot on the slackline moving quite a bit under him just to stay upright.

Here's the guy from the post trying a new trick.

More things Ogged can't do.

Please. If this thread is going to be "things Ogged can't do" we'll take it to 1000 again.

EvilK

He spelled it "Evel."

He also didn't tightrope walk.

Holy crap that's cool. I need to learn how to do a backflip.

the girl version of the slackline backflip is easier.

Girls have tricky relationships with flips.

20: If this thread is going to be "things Ogged can't do" we'll take it to 1000 again.

Stop objectifying women!

24: Girls have tricky relationships with flips.

I've seen someone slip on a beam and send each foot down one side, landing with all their weight on their tailbone and... uh... delicates. And by "seen", I mean boy, was I a reckless twelve year old.

I've certainly read that slackline is harder than tightrope walking.

that's beautiful.

the kind of thing that makes me love the human race, and feel proud to be a member.

even though my pride in his achievement stretches the boundaries of undifferentiated ego mass. hey, he can do cool stuff! and i share some dna with him! probably not the dna in virtue of which he can do that stuff, but still!

(i also feel great watching plants photosynthesize.)

Girls have tricky relationships with flips.

Then there's the dude who can't even get up on the beam.

the girl version of the slackline backflip is easier

Um, what was the point of this? The linked video is of a teenage boy with slightly longish hair. If there's a joke here, it's either exceedingly lame or exceedingly subtle.

Awesome.

Also, the added video...family hanging out in the park, kids being supportive of dad...would it be too earnest to admit how charming that is?

The front flip is really cool, especially if you realize that you cannot spot on a front flip (or, at least not in the same way you can with the back flip.)

you cannot spot on a front flip

That's what amazed me; he doesn't seem to look at the line before he lands on it.

You can't. On the back flip you can see the floor as your feet come around but on the front flip your head is following your feet so you land it blind.

One of the gymnastic commentators during the last Olympics described doing a triple front flip (with some kind of twist) off of a vault as "Oh God, I hope I don't die."

There are a lot of very scary gymnastics accidents on youtube, including some broken necks.

34: It's only a matter of time before we get an exegesis of Faces of Death, isn't it?

I hear there will be a thrilling slackline chase in the new James Bond movie.