Slack.fr is now offering metal pole for indoor gymnasium that fit into handball poles holes ! The system is solid since it works like expansion bolts. It’s perfect for slackline associations. It’s 200€ a piece.
We all know Mich Kemeter, slackliner from Austria, free solo climber in the 8 grade and also basejumper. He sent a 113m highline in the verdon gorges !
The festival took place in Florianapolis, and was called Gravitation because on the way to the line we passed by a plant called Gravata, a green plant which is itching and scratchy if you get caught in it, however it is the symbol of this natur in Florianapolis. The Highline Gravatation Festival main aim was to be the first highline (only) festival in Bresil, being international at the same time. The intense interaction between the slackline community and the natur was a success !
The first edition was in Florianopolis on a beach called Lagoinha do Leste. This place is very well preserved, included in a tropical climat which is perfect for slackliners.
With this festival, they wanted to promote highline and sport in general, as well as the social relationship between sport people, the city, and the natural environment. They also wanted to help the slackliners to get more technic and practice.
To me, this was a real success. The communion between nature and sport was perfect, with a big respect to mother nature and an endless mutual help between slackliners whatever the spoken language was. There are 2 main sectors : one with 2 beginners lines (28 and 35m long) with a nice open view on the ocean, and another with 4-5 lines (20 to 70m long) very exposed to wind and ocean too.
There was a perfect harmony between slackliners, as well at „home“ (in the camping for participants and non participants) as well as when balancig on the lines, in harmony with nature and humanity… What else ?
Here is an original ring, very different from what we are used to see on our highlines. It doesn’t help to get rid of the main problem of highline rings : to forget to put it on before tensionning.
However we love its advantages : its lightness, its stenght because the rope is holding (not the ring itself), and finaly the fact that it protects from abrasion. It’s different and we like this !!!
His latest baby is the Alpine Weblock 4.0, a top quality locker. This weblock is incredible and probably the only one in the market that can adapt to any connector. Can you believe that it does also allow spanset ! Watch this video for more details : https://vimeo.com/101400015
This piece of metal is futuristic : every details are designed for slackline optimisation. The look is also awesome.
You need one for sure ! But it’s costly : 113 €
Here is what Jerry said :
“There is one feature that has always been the number one thing that I want to strive for in the design of the weblock: versatility. Throughout the various iterations of the AWL, we have been making the device more and more versatile. Now, with the 4.0, having the ability to anchor the device with an extremely wide variety of connectors and directly to spansets and static rope anchors, it’s more versatile than ever before.
On top of the extreme versatility of the device, it’s also fantastic for highline rigging. Having the ability to attach various backups to the anchor hole as well as stack 2 weblocks on top of each other for mainline / backup rigging makes your highline anchor so much cleaner and safer!
This design has been a massive undertaking for me with close to 40 iterations and countless hours of testing and concept development. Not to mention, the 6 years of development of the webbing anchor concept that went into the ground-work for this design. I’m very excited to share this design with the community. I believe it will make the anchoring and rigging process much more enjoyable as well as simplifying everything within your anchoring system, thus making it safer.”
