Latest / Adventure Sports Podcast / Ep. 1224: Overcoming through Highlining with Alexandra Witter

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Ep. 1224: Overcoming through Highlining with Alexandra Witter · Adventure Sports Podcast

0:06
[SPEAKER_00]: your listening to the Adventure Sports podcast.
0:09
[SPEAKER_00]: Thanks for adventuring with us, as we discover what incredible athletes and outdoor enthusiasts are doing all over the world.
0:16
[SPEAKER_00]: Now here's your host, Kurt Linville.
0:20
[SPEAKER_02]: Hey friends, I'm glad you're here.
0:21
[SPEAKER_02]: I have a couple of short announcements before we jump into today's interview with Alexander Witter.
0:28
[SPEAKER_02]: First, Valmire's new book has hit the shelves.
0:32
[SPEAKER_02]: Val was on the show back in episode 1086.
0:36
[SPEAKER_02]: And you may remember, he's done a lot of ultra endurance events and then kind of became enchanted with the idea of
0:43
[SPEAKER_02]: extreme winter events which led him eventually to an attempt at the South Pole in Antarctica self-supported.
0:51
[SPEAKER_02]: His book about that attempt at the South Pole has hit the shelves, so the book's entitled Blue Ridge White Desert, a young man's journey through Appalachia in Antarctica and the
1:05
[SPEAKER_02]: You might remember from the interview that he had some sort of a nerve damage problem when he was down there and was evacuated after a couple of weeks in a wide out, because his arm didn't work anymore.
1:17
[SPEAKER_02]: Very, very strange situation, but the book is out and if you want to know more than go to Amazon, look for Jacob, Val Meyers, Blue Ridge, White Desert, and the second announcement.
1:32
[SPEAKER_02]: This is very personal, but I thought why not throw it out there, maybe someone would benefit.
1:37
[SPEAKER_02]: So, if you've been listening to the podcast for a while, you know that my family and I moved to Gunis and Colorado, boy, almost nine years ago, and Gunis and Colorado is known as the base camp of the Rockies.
1:51
[SPEAKER_02]: It is in the heart of the Southwest Rocky Mountains, and
1:56
[SPEAKER_02]: It's in very, very close access to so many adventure sports.
2:00
[SPEAKER_02]: I like to think of it as one of the adventure sport capitals of the world.
2:05
[SPEAKER_02]: We are 30 minutes from Crest Abuse with amazing extreme skiing, mountain surround us for backcountry skiing,
2:12
[SPEAKER_02]: We also are surrounded by dozens and dozens of 14ers, five different mountain ranges.
2:18
[SPEAKER_02]: We have white water, kayaking and rafting all around plus the state's biggest reservoir, blue mesa and that barely scratches the surface.
2:30
[SPEAKER_02]: Whatever you want to do in adventure sports, this is the place.
2:34
[SPEAKER_02]: Many Olympians come from here and I have thoroughly enjoyed it.
2:39
[SPEAKER_02]: We have over 700 miles of mountain biking single track and we have, I don't know, how many thousands of miles of twin track if you like motorcycle and off road.
2:49
[SPEAKER_02]: So an amazing place.
2:51
[SPEAKER_02]: Why do I tell you all of this?
2:53
[SPEAKER_02]: My wife and I have a town house that we are selling.
2:57
[SPEAKER_02]: And it is about 1,600 square feet in Gunnison.
3:01
[SPEAKER_02]: It's about a block from the bus stop that drives you for free to the slopes at Crested Beauty.
3:08
[SPEAKER_02]: And we're trying to sell it.
3:10
[SPEAKER_02]: So in the show notes, I'm going to put a link for a YouTube tour that you can see if you are interested in moving to the base camp of the Rockies.
3:19
[SPEAKER_02]: Maybe this makes sense for you.
3:21
[SPEAKER_02]: My advice from experience.
3:25
[SPEAKER_02]: You can work three jobs and survive here, but that's not a lot of fun, so you need to be able to make your living from outside of the Gunis and Crested Bute Valley, and what I mean by that is, you have to be a remote worker.
3:38
[SPEAKER_02]: That's a simplest way.
3:40
[SPEAKER_02]: Or maybe you have a business that you could move here, which would be fantastic, but regardless, if you could come and be in the Gunis and Valley,
3:50
[SPEAKER_02]: Man, it is literally one of the adventure capitals of the world, such a beautiful place.
3:57
[SPEAKER_02]: I'll put the link in the show notes so you can see the townhouse and if you want more information, you know how to find me info at adventuresportspodcast.com and now let's jump into the interview.
4:12
[SPEAKER_02]: Hey, welcome to the Adventuresports podcast today.
4:15
[SPEAKER_02]: I have this wonderful gal.
4:17
[SPEAKER_02]: I can already tell Alexander Witter with us.
4:20
[SPEAKER_02]: And Alexander, she describes herself as a risk adverse high liner.
4:27
[SPEAKER_02]: So today we're talking about high lining, which, again, just blows my mind, I love it.
4:32
[SPEAKER_02]: She said that she never expected to beat the fear challenge.
4:37
[SPEAKER_02]: of highlining, but she did, and now she's not only an avid highliner, but she holds a world record, US women's record for the longest sin, which means the furthest distance on a high line without a fall, 1.2, you ready for this?
4:52
[SPEAKER_02]: Not meters, kilometers, which is close my mind, I could make it 1.2 meters, I think, Alex,
5:05
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, this is going to be a ton of fun, you know, we did our first, I believe our first Highline episode with Alonzo Rodriguez, I just this year, and it made me think, man, I've been missing out because it's such an amazing sport, but I also think it's a somewhat newer sport.
5:23
[SPEAKER_02]: Do you know how long it's been around?
5:25
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, I believe it started in the 80s, so it is
5:28
[SPEAKER_01]: fairly new ish and still pretty niche and still small enough that you can easily find a local community and like the total beginner is highlighting with the best highlighters just all in one community hanging out like equals.
5:47
[SPEAKER_02]: I love it.
5:47
[SPEAKER_02]: That's something we want to talk about today.
5:50
[SPEAKER_02]: I think if you're doing highlighting
5:53
[SPEAKER_02]: it is a lifestyle.
5:54
[SPEAKER_02]: It is a community.
5:56
[SPEAKER_02]: It's a team effort.
5:57
[SPEAKER_02]: You can't do this stuff without a lot of help.
5:59
[SPEAKER_02]: And it pulls people together.
6:01
[SPEAKER_02]: And I love those aspects of the sport.
6:03
[SPEAKER_02]: So I do want to talk about that in some depth eventually here in just a little bit.
6:09
[SPEAKER_02]: But before we do, will you describe what highlighting is for the listeners who are who are like, what are they talking about?
6:17
[SPEAKER_01]: Yes, so highlighting can be a lot of different things, but the one thing it is is you are stringing a piece of webbing between two anchors.
6:30
[SPEAKER_01]: So and what makes it highlighting and not slacklining is you're doing that at a height in which you need a leash or you should have a leash to catch you when you fall.
6:42
[SPEAKER_01]: They can be well as high as you want.
6:46
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
6:46
[SPEAKER_01]: And so you can string these between two trees, between bolted anchors on rocks, between wrapped boulders, between hot air balloons, under bridges.
7:02
[SPEAKER_01]: There's, yeah, the world is your oyster and people are constantly getting more and more creative with how to rig these things.
7:10
[SPEAKER_02]: I think what blows my mind, you know, I've done slack lining and usually our lines like 40 feet long is between a couple of trees and we're three feet off the ground.
7:20
[SPEAKER_01]: Right.
7:21
[SPEAKER_02]: And so I thought that's kind of what the sport was.
7:24
[SPEAKER_02]: Until I realized there were people that were literally connecting mountain tops and walking through the air for kilometers.
7:33
[SPEAKER_02]: I, my mind is just blown every time I see a picture.
7:37
[SPEAKER_02]: because the webbing is so small at that scale, you don't really even see it.
7:42
[SPEAKER_02]: It's like you're just floating up there.
7:44
[SPEAKER_01]: It's that sometimes what it feels like, too.
7:48
[SPEAKER_02]: Wow.
7:49
[SPEAKER_01]: That's exactly what I thought to you.
7:50
[SPEAKER_01]: When I started Slacklining, I think I'd maybe seen some videos somewhere of highlighting and thought, well, that's for the professionals, obviously, I'll never do that.
7:57
[SPEAKER_01]: And I didn't realize just how accessible it can be to find a local community and get into it.
8:04
[SPEAKER_01]: I thought it was totally unacceptable.
8:06
[SPEAKER_01]: But that's not true.
8:08
[SPEAKER_02]: Hmm, I want to bring up your Instagram because I went there and I was looking at some of the pictures and yes, I do have FOMO.
8:19
[SPEAKER_02]: It is amazing.
8:21
[SPEAKER_02]: But there's a picture in here you already mentioned between hot air balloons.
8:25
[SPEAKER_02]: There's a picture here of you slack lining.
8:28
[SPEAKER_02]: Literally, I mean, I don't know how high up you are.
8:30
[SPEAKER_02]: You are way to heck up there.
8:31
[SPEAKER_02]: But you're trying to get one hot air balloon to another.
8:35
[SPEAKER_02]: What was that about?
8:36
[SPEAKER_02]: That's crazy.
8:37
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, that still feels like a total fever dream in my head too, so I'm also in disbelief when I see the pictures of myself.
8:47
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, we were above a lake bed in Perump, which is outside of Las Vegas.
8:53
[SPEAKER_01]: So we were about 4,000 feet above the lake bed, 7,000 feet above sea level, and it felt totally unreal.
9:01
[SPEAKER_01]: That was a friend of mine, Sarah.
9:04
[SPEAKER_01]: She just found the right
9:07
[SPEAKER_01]: She found some pilots who had actually done it before.
9:11
[SPEAKER_01]: They did the first one that was ever done with Andy Lewis.
9:15
[SPEAKER_01]: And they were like, sure, let's do it again.
9:17
[SPEAKER_01]: And she decided to make it all women project.
9:21
[SPEAKER_01]: So it was women led and yeah, just a bunch of gals and some hot air balloons having fun and freaking out at the same time.
9:33
[SPEAKER_02]: This is crazy.
9:34
[SPEAKER_02]: So, how can people find you on Instagram if they want to look at the picture?
9:38
[SPEAKER_01]: My Instagram is Alex Whitty, W-I-T-T-Y, W-I-T-T-E-R.
9:45
[SPEAKER_01]: I haven't been too great with posting stuff, but I'll try to get on it.
9:50
[SPEAKER_02]: Alex Whitty Whittaker.
9:51
[SPEAKER_02]: No, not Whittaker, Whitter.
9:52
[SPEAKER_02]: Sorry.
9:53
[SPEAKER_02]: Alex Whitty Whitter.
9:54
[SPEAKER_02]: And I'm looking at this picture and I see so many faces in the hot air balloon.
9:58
[SPEAKER_02]: I don't know if I can even count them all.
10:00
[SPEAKER_02]: It looks.
10:01
[SPEAKER_02]: I don't know.
10:02
[SPEAKER_02]: Are there eight people in one balloon watching?
10:05
[SPEAKER_02]: I mean, it's crazy.
10:06
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, I think there was about that in each one.
10:08
[SPEAKER_01]: Maybe eight in each one.
10:10
[SPEAKER_01]: Can't quite remember, but.
10:12
[SPEAKER_01]: Like I said, it's a little bit dreamy in my mind.
10:14
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, I was absolutely terrifying and also in just awe-inspiring to be dangling up there between two
10:29
[SPEAKER_01]: anchors, but you know, you think of anchors as fixed structures, you know anchoring you and these anchors were totally moving and the two pilots had to stay coordinated so they had to try to stay kind of
10:43
[SPEAKER_01]: at the same level, but sometimes we can off-level, so it gets steep on one end.
10:49
[SPEAKER_01]: And then when I would whip off the line, the two balloons would go, and they sort of move inward.
10:56
[SPEAKER_01]: And so it was just totally unreal.
10:59
[SPEAKER_01]: And I think there's a picture of me crying and smiling and screaming at the same time.
11:06
[SPEAKER_02]: Well, I want to keep thinking about here.
11:08
[SPEAKER_02]: Like you just mentioned, keeping the hot air balloon somewhat at the same altitude.
11:12
[SPEAKER_02]: I mean, if one got up above one, your, your high line suddenly becomes a slide line.
11:16
[SPEAKER_01]: That's exactly right.
11:17
[SPEAKER_01]: Yes.
11:18
[SPEAKER_01]: It is nice.
11:21
[SPEAKER_02]: So crazy.
11:22
[SPEAKER_02]: I'm looking at these pictures.
11:24
[SPEAKER_02]: Everyone needs to go.
11:25
[SPEAKER_02]: Just looks awesome.
11:26
[SPEAKER_02]: Everyone used to go look at these and then they're all the gals on the ground.
11:30
[SPEAKER_02]: Is that at the end or at the beginning?
11:32
[SPEAKER_01]: That was at the end.
11:33
[SPEAKER_01]: We were celebrating with our feet back on the ground.
11:38
[SPEAKER_02]: how fun.
11:41
[SPEAKER_02]: Well, I mean, this is just way out there.
11:44
[SPEAKER_02]: The reason I brought up how many people are in the balloons is because as I'm looking through your Instagram, I'm seeing a lot of friendship.
11:54
[SPEAKER_02]: I'm seeing a community.
11:56
[SPEAKER_02]: I'm seeing groups of people working on projects together, carrying heavy things, setting up incredible, incredible routes.
12:05
[SPEAKER_02]: I mean, when you're trying to get a high line over a kilometer long, how many people does that take?
12:13
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, it kind of depends on the project.
12:15
[SPEAKER_01]: I will say community, yeah, community is really inherent in this sport because you can't, you literally can't install the line without community and also just the support emotional support.
12:29
[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, that's what kept me coming back in the first place when it's a very frustrating sport
12:36
[SPEAKER_01]: as you can probably imagine it's you're just falling like for years you're just trying to stand up and you're falling you're falling and so I think if it weren't for community I wouldn't have kept kept at it but yeah the other element is just needing community and needing community that you trust not just any community needing community that can coordinate well
13:06
[SPEAKER_01]: that you trust the job that they're doing and and everybody's kind of doing their part.
13:11
[SPEAKER_01]: And so I think that it creates good communities because people who aren't doing their part or aren't very fun to work with.
13:20
[SPEAKER_01]: Sometimes naturally get weeded out because well, you might not get invited to things.
13:25
[SPEAKER_01]: So that's kind of what builds this, this trusting community,
13:36
[SPEAKER_01]: expedition projects and things like that.
13:38
[SPEAKER_01]: But anyway, to answer your question of how many people, yeah, it depends.
13:44
[SPEAKER_01]: But, you know, if you're doing a bigger expedition line, you're going to need a lot of people to carry things.
13:51
[SPEAKER_01]: Uh, if you're doing one where you can kind of just drive up to the anchor, it's actually possible to do bigger lines now with fewer people because of a method we have where we have another line going across that's kind of caring the weight and where the weight of the line and we're sort of rolling the line because it's called the curtain method or pulling the line across and attaching it to that other line while it's going so that we're pulling less weight.
14:20
[SPEAKER_01]: So I don't know maybe six I guess, but it depends on so many different factors because every line is completely different and it's always a big adventure to figure out Yeah, how to get the line across.
14:35
[SPEAKER_01]: There's not one answer to that.
14:37
[SPEAKER_02]: Well, it
14:38
[SPEAKER_02]: I guess the main point there is there is a strong sense of community and it's built on a common interest and it's built on trust and it's built on let's face it.
14:48
[SPEAKER_02]: This is hard work to get these things rigged and ready to go.
14:51
[SPEAKER_02]: But then you get out on the line.
14:54
[SPEAKER_02]: You're one person.
14:57
[SPEAKER_01]: Yes.
14:57
[SPEAKER_02]: What does that feel like to be, I mean, a half kilometer away from anything several hundred feet in the air is just you.
15:09
[SPEAKER_01]: so it's a wild feeling.
15:11
[SPEAKER_01]: It's not a feeling that I've been able to get from anything else I've done.
15:18
[SPEAKER_01]: It's this feeling of intense solitude while at the same time intense connection to surroundings to myself, to my community, knowing that my friends are
15:38
[SPEAKER_01]: It's just simultaneously these two sort of contradictory feelings of like it's just me out here and space.
15:47
[SPEAKER_01]: And I only have myself to get to the other side.
15:53
[SPEAKER_01]: I need to do that in whatever way I can.
15:55
[SPEAKER_01]: So you need to really believe in yourself because you don't really have a choice when you're halfway out, but believe in yourself.
16:03
[SPEAKER_01]: You don't want to start doubting at that point.
16:06
[SPEAKER_01]: um and yeah and and then also just great so much great fullness for uh the people that I'm with and everyone in my life and the birds that are flying around me and all that hippie-dippy stuff
16:23
[SPEAKER_02]: I guess one of my favorite things about adventure sports has always been how it can build community and right now with with social media, especially I think and extraordinarily busy lives, I think that finding a real sense of reliable.
16:41
[SPEAKER_02]: community, deep rooted community.
16:44
[SPEAKER_02]: You know, a group of people that don't just know each other, but we'll put up with each other and encourage each other through the hard times, you know?
16:53
[SPEAKER_02]: You know, the fun and the challenges.
16:57
[SPEAKER_02]: I think that adventure sports off for that.
16:59
[SPEAKER_02]: But a lot of people do adventure sports solo.
17:03
[SPEAKER_02]: But this is one, you're not really going to do solo when you're setting up a big, you know, a big rig like this.
17:08
[SPEAKER_02]: Right.
17:09
[SPEAKER_02]: And so it pulls people together.
17:13
[SPEAKER_02]: Let's go back before you started highlighting.
17:17
[SPEAKER_02]: Okay.
17:18
[SPEAKER_02]: What got you into it in the first place?
17:20
[SPEAKER_02]: What's that story?
17:23
[SPEAKER_01]: Oh, I don't even remember where I might have seen a video or something in my early 20s of slacklining.
17:29
[SPEAKER_01]: And I said,
17:32
[SPEAKER_01]: get REI or something, they had a ratchet strap line, I bought one, I was moved back in with my parents for a little while and I just did it sort of like every day for a month in their back yard and I did it with the trees, I remember sort of communing with the trees a little bit, like talking talking to the tree anchor being like, hey, I don't know, I was just, um, it was
18:03
[SPEAKER_01]: find some stillness in the woods, but it was really just me and so kind of lost interests until later in my 20s when I was living in Brooklyn and I thought about it again and I said, oh, I kind of want to see if anybody else does this too and get back into it.
18:23
[SPEAKER_01]: And so I found a few people in a park through Facebook.
18:28
[SPEAKER_01]: I found a
18:32
[SPEAKER_01]: and started coming and it was cool because in New York City it's I found it very I don't live in New York City more but when I did I found it quite challenging to find community and challenging to find people who want to slow
18:46
[SPEAKER_01]: Slow down, everybody's kind of in a rush and all of a sudden I found this group of people that were very eclectic from all walks of life because it's New York City, you know, you have people different professions and everything.
19:00
[SPEAKER_01]: But had this thing in common of just being like adults who liked to play.
19:06
[SPEAKER_01]: So it wasn't just slacklining, it was, you know, unicycle juggling, it was just a really wacky group of people that I felt immediately
19:14
[SPEAKER_01]: Accepted and like connected to, oh my god, I definitely fit in here because this is a weird group.
19:20
[SPEAKER_01]: And I feel really lucky to have gotten into it that way because the group sort of ended up expanding quite quickly.
19:27
[SPEAKER_01]: Everybody kind of started getting into highlining at the same time.
19:31
[SPEAKER_01]: and getting in touch with a few other people in the region that already knew how to do it.
19:37
[SPEAKER_01]: And then started going out every weekend, leaving the city, scouting different spots, finding some some good home spots in the woods in that region.
19:47
[SPEAKER_01]: And everybody kind of developed this obsession at the same time.
19:52
[SPEAKER_01]: And so there was a huge amount of
20:01
[SPEAKER_01]: and place for me to get into it.
20:03
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
20:04
[SPEAKER_02]: What about the lifestyle?
20:06
[SPEAKER_02]: I mean, at first, it's a hobby, right?
20:08
[SPEAKER_02]: But you're talking about this group of people.
20:10
[SPEAKER_02]: And I'm like, no, I'm getting a lifestyle vibe here too.
20:14
[SPEAKER_01]: Yes, absolutely.
20:15
[SPEAKER_01]: You do get a lot of people that live the van life, you know, that a lot of people believe it or not, people who got pretty good at it in New York in that region ended up moving out west.
20:29
[SPEAKER_01]: Because there's such a bigger community out west, there's more land and space and yeah BLM land and stuff and just already a bigger existing community to learn from and so a lot of people left the city that way, really speaks to how passionate people get about this sport.
20:51
[SPEAKER_01]: And how life changing it can be, I personally already was sort of on the track of wanting to live out of my car for a while.
21:00
[SPEAKER_01]: I just didn't have a clear idea before highlighting what that would look like where I would go.
21:06
[SPEAKER_01]: So I did end up quitting my job and moving into my Subaru and driving out west and just sort of chasing high line projects for a little while.
21:20
[SPEAKER_01]: and then figuring out a way to work virtually and continuing that for a few years.
21:25
[SPEAKER_01]: So I think there is an aspect of being privileged enough or able to make that decision of going all in on something.
21:39
[SPEAKER_01]: Highlightings are pretty time consuming thing if you want to get good at it.
21:43
[SPEAKER_01]: And so I was lucky enough to
21:46
[SPEAKER_01]: You know, not have a partner or kids or responsibilities that made it impossible for me to dedicate my weekend to this sport.
22:00
[SPEAKER_02]: What did it feel like when you resigned your job?
22:07
[SPEAKER_02]: What did it feel like when you resigned your job?
22:10
[SPEAKER_01]: Oh, it felt great.
22:13
[SPEAKER_01]: It felt great.
22:13
[SPEAKER_01]: I didn't know what was happening.
22:15
[SPEAKER_01]: And yeah, I was actually, I had moved to the Hudson Valley.
22:18
[SPEAKER_01]: I had moved to Upstate New York at that time.
22:20
[SPEAKER_01]: And I was ready.
22:22
[SPEAKER_01]: I was like, I love this thing.
22:24
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm going to go do bigger lines out west for a while.
22:28
[SPEAKER_02]: And I'm trying to imagine your resignation letter saying something like, I'm going to go walk on air for a while.
22:40
[SPEAKER_01]: is something like that.
22:41
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm not sure what exactly I said, but it's kind of hard to explain.
22:45
[SPEAKER_02]: Was it scary?
22:46
[SPEAKER_02]: I mean, it's such a big life change.
22:48
[SPEAKER_02]: Let's be honest.
22:50
[SPEAKER_02]: It's easy to get into the routine.
22:52
[SPEAKER_02]: Having the job, you've got the place to live, you've got the lease or the the ran or the mortgage or whatever.
22:58
[SPEAKER_02]: You kind of get into a routine and didn't you get budget creep?
23:03
[SPEAKER_02]: life costs more than it used to and you're like, well, how can I pay for all of this if I walk away from my job?
23:10
[SPEAKER_02]: And right, this doesn't feel like this is me necessarily.
23:14
[SPEAKER_02]: I need to do something and I but you see what I'm saying?
23:17
[SPEAKER_02]: Everyone gets there.
23:18
[SPEAKER_02]: I think it's almost a universal thing to go through.
23:22
[SPEAKER_01]: Totally.
23:22
[SPEAKER_02]: And I describing anything like what you experience.
23:25
[SPEAKER_01]: Absolutely.
23:26
[SPEAKER_01]: In the beginning, I mean, especially being on the East Coast where Van let you you don't really find as much Van life culture very easily.
23:32
[SPEAKER_01]: And so I was like, I think there was this time in between being in the house I was living and being in my car with a bunch of stuff in my car where I was like,
23:41
[SPEAKER_01]: driving to a local lake and sleeping on a picnic bench or something, I thought, oh my gosh, what have I, what have I done?
23:48
[SPEAKER_01]: But as soon as I hit the road and started joining projects out west, I knew that there was just, I mean, it felt like people didn't think it was weird anymore.
23:59
[SPEAKER_01]: It was just totally more.
24:00
[SPEAKER_01]: Everything we were doing was just totally normal and I didn't think about it as being strange or wrong in any sense.
24:08
[SPEAKER_01]: And so,
24:09
[SPEAKER_01]: Once you find that community, it's just, I felt like I was where I belonged for sure.
24:14
[SPEAKER_02]: I want to share a little story.
24:16
[SPEAKER_02]: Some of the people on the show may have heard it before my apologies if you have, but I was in Kenya on Lake Victoria.
24:24
[SPEAKER_02]: And there was a boat dock there, and there are a bunch of guys naked swimming and washing in the lake.
24:31
[SPEAKER_02]: And there are other people getting in an oversized canoe that was about the tip over.
24:34
[SPEAKER_02]: And you can't even see the other side of this lake.
24:36
[SPEAKER_02]: And they're going to take off across this lake and this canoe that, I mean, the water line is within three inches of the top of the canoe.
24:43
[SPEAKER_02]: And that a big mob of people gather around us just because we weren't canyons, obviously.
24:49
[SPEAKER_02]: And I was just kind of in that moment thinking this is wild.
24:52
[SPEAKER_02]: This is so completely different.
24:56
[SPEAKER_02]: And then a little girl walked up who have on a shirt that said the American dream is so extreme.
25:03
[SPEAKER_01]: All right, different perspective.
25:05
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
25:05
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, the juxtaposition of that right there in that moment.
25:09
[SPEAKER_02]: I'll never forget it.
25:10
[SPEAKER_02]: It was almost life altering for me.
25:13
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, and then visiting with someone like you.
25:17
[SPEAKER_02]: Sometimes the American dream starts to feel like a bill of goods that someone's trying to sell us.
25:23
[SPEAKER_02]: you know, and it seems odd you say to do the van life thing, but then you find a lot of people that are doing it.
25:31
[SPEAKER_02]: And you say, wait a minute, this is normal too.
25:34
[SPEAKER_02]: It's just a different kind of normal.
25:37
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
25:38
[SPEAKER_02]: I kind of love the idea of saying, I am free to try things and live life.
25:44
[SPEAKER_02]: And I can chase whatever dream I want to chase.
25:47
[SPEAKER_02]: That's a beauty of America for one.
25:50
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, but when you, when you kind of hooked up with all of these van life type highlighters, how long did it take before you were like, oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, I did the right thing.
26:03
[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, pretty immediate.
26:07
[SPEAKER_01]: Because you, you know, you're around people who are prioritizing the same things in their life and which is just
26:19
[SPEAKER_01]: being present and doing something because it's fun and playing, and it really brought, I think, yeah, in some ways, it just brought me back to myself and also the importance for me of living in nature, like I sleep best outside.
26:42
[SPEAKER_01]: And I sleep worse inside, I mean, it's just, that's just the way, like, I have bad dreams when I'm inside, I have good dreams when I'm outside.
26:48
[SPEAKER_01]: So it's like, it just felt like that was my place and I know that that's definitely not for everyone.
26:53
[SPEAKER_00]: But yeah, when you find other people that are similar, it's great.
26:58
[SPEAKER_00]: Oh.
27:00
[SPEAKER_02]: that's pretty special actually.
27:03
[SPEAKER_02]: So you sometimes talk in past tense here.
27:06
[SPEAKER_02]: I assume you're not living out of your super room right now.
27:09
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
27:11
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm currently my partner and I are living in Bend, Oregon, which is a great place to land for people who love outdoor recreation.
27:22
[SPEAKER_01]: Not sure
27:29
[SPEAKER_01]: We're renting a studio for a year and seeing how that goes.
27:34
[SPEAKER_01]: So far, it's good.
27:35
[SPEAKER_01]: There's a great community here for Slack landing, highlighting, and I'm getting into all these other things that I'm living here, too.
27:41
[SPEAKER_01]: So, yeah.
27:42
[SPEAKER_02]: Well, being does everything, obviously.
27:45
[SPEAKER_02]: I mean, it's such a, such an outdoor, focused place.
27:50
[SPEAKER_01]: It is.
27:51
[SPEAKER_02]: What I'm wondering is,
27:53
[SPEAKER_02]: We're kind of off topic.
27:54
[SPEAKER_02]: Maybe you've been not really.
27:56
[SPEAKER_02]: You've got this group of friends.
27:57
[SPEAKER_02]: You're all kind of doing the van life thing and you're chasing these projects and having fun together and getting to know each other.
28:03
[SPEAKER_02]: But in general, how do people pull it off?
28:06
[SPEAKER_02]: I mean, do you have to win the lottery before you leave?
28:09
[SPEAKER_02]: I mean, what are people doing to get by?
28:12
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, and this is where the the privileged part comes in because there are some people have
28:20
[SPEAKER_01]: that pays well.
28:21
[SPEAKER_01]: And now Starlink is a thing.
28:23
[SPEAKER_01]: You know, you can go to the middle of a desert and just put Starlink up and have five people work.
28:29
[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, we've we've gone to projects where my boyfriend is like an RV.
28:35
[SPEAKER_01]: Big flowers painted on the side of it and stands out.
28:39
[SPEAKER_01]: He was working as a software engineer and he did that virtually for many years in the RV.
28:44
[SPEAKER_01]: And so and then I started teaching English virtually.
28:47
[SPEAKER_01]: And so we would just drive to wherever we wanted.
28:50
[SPEAKER_01]: As long as there weren't too many trees overhead, because that affects Starlink and you know, so we could be like really off the grid in the middle of the desert and run Starlink off of mostly solar and have like a bunch of people working from it.
29:06
[SPEAKER_01]: We've been on longer projects like a few weeks at a time where we'll even set up little like office tents.
29:15
[SPEAKER_01]: And so people are going in there and like working and I'm working with students so they're always seeing like these insane views that they're like, is that real or is that fake?
29:24
[SPEAKER_01]: And then yeah, and then you get off work and you're like, okay, let's go rig this line or let's do let's walk this line and then there's people who have more like seasonal work and so a number of people that do like ropes access kind of work.
29:38
[SPEAKER_01]: And so they're in their often very good rigorous.
29:40
[SPEAKER_01]: They really know what they're doing.
29:42
[SPEAKER_01]: So they'll go do that kind of rope's access work for months at a time, and then have a period of time off that they dedicate to go do Hylen projects.
29:52
[SPEAKER_02]: So rope's access work.
29:55
[SPEAKER_02]: Explain what that is.
29:57
[SPEAKER_01]: OK, well, I don't really know.
29:59
[SPEAKER_01]: I just know, like,
30:01
[SPEAKER_01]: you need to be able to climb into buildings or things that can only be accessed by knowing how to use probes and rig, yeah, and get yourself up there or tree work, I guess fall it falls into that to tree work or working with the wind term turbines, that kind of stuff.
30:22
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, tower climbers.
30:25
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
30:26
[SPEAKER_02]: That's cool.
30:33
[SPEAKER_02]: What was it like?
30:34
[SPEAKER_02]: Let's just go to this world record, the women's record for the longest end, 1.2 kilometers without a fall.
30:41
[SPEAKER_02]: Will you take this there and tell us that story?
30:44
[SPEAKER_01]: Sure.
30:44
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm going to start by saying like it almost felt like an accident.
30:47
[SPEAKER_01]: I wasn't really trying.
30:49
[SPEAKER_01]: I think if I had been setting out to do this, I would have been to
30:55
[SPEAKER_01]: overwhelmed to actually do it.
30:59
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, I just had been in a stint of doing a lot of highlighting, leading up to this rig.
31:06
[SPEAKER_01]: And so I was really stable on the line.
31:09
[SPEAKER_01]: And I mean, we knew we were like, oh, yeah, we're bringing a 1.2, you know, that would be the women's record.
31:15
[SPEAKER_01]: So we had put it out there.
31:16
[SPEAKER_01]: I remember getting on the line and the anchor was really high up in a tree.
31:25
[SPEAKER_01]: jug up or whatever to get there.
31:27
[SPEAKER_01]: And then I I wanted to tension the line which is just this whole thing with pulleys and it's like really annoying to do while you're sitting on the line.
31:34
[SPEAKER_01]: So I remember being very frustrated when I was starting my walk and be like, I just extended all my energy, tensioning this line.
31:43
[SPEAKER_01]: And then I I stood up.
31:45
[SPEAKER_01]: I started walking, got a few hundred meters in at that damn.
31:50
[SPEAKER_00]: It feels good.
31:51
[SPEAKER_01]: It's almost like this, this thing was like, oh, awesome, it feels good and also shoot.
31:56
[SPEAKER_01]: I feel that I have the ability to send this line, which now means that I want to.
32:04
[SPEAKER_01]: And now, this all, you know, it's no longer just this relaxing walk.
32:10
[SPEAKER_01]: Now it's battling with all of these contradictory thoughts and voices and doubt and certainty and like,
32:21
[SPEAKER_01]: negative self-talk and positive self-talk and everything and thinking about what you're going to eat for dinner later and trying to try to just all the thoughts for me personally.
32:33
[SPEAKER_01]: Off the line, I don't really have a strong inner dialogue, but as soon as I get on a line, especially a big line, it's almost like I can just hear all of my thoughts really clearly.
32:44
[SPEAKER_01]: And sometimes I go, what is that really?
32:46
[SPEAKER_01]: Is that really what's going on in my mind?
32:48
[SPEAKER_02]: Wow.
32:50
[SPEAKER_01]: So you have to learn, so yeah, in that moment, I think meditation techniques for me come into play a lot because it's just allowing the thoughts to come and trying to let go of them and trying to stay focused and strong while also having to let go, having to relax your body.
33:13
[SPEAKER_01]: It's all of these, I find highlighting to be just a metaphor for all the contradictions in life.
33:20
[SPEAKER_01]: stay relaxed and let go while also seeing strong and not giving up and yeah and then with the thoughts just I have some techniques that sometimes work where I look around at my surroundings which is often just stunning like wow how lucky are we to be able to be in this space that
33:44
[SPEAKER_01]: Most, I mean, I don't know, maybe birds get to see this view, but I don't know if they appreciate it as much.
33:51
[SPEAKER_01]: And so I'll choose some things in my environment.
33:54
[SPEAKER_01]: Like, let's say, for example, there's some clouds moving.
33:59
[SPEAKER_01]: And then I'll have a thought.
34:00
[SPEAKER_01]: And I'll try to put that thought in the cloud and just watch it drift away.
34:07
[SPEAKER_01]: And then another one comes and I'll
34:09
[SPEAKER_01]: Put it in the river down below or put it on a bird and just say okay, just go away.
34:13
[SPEAKER_01]: Now we're going to come back to the present.
34:15
[SPEAKER_01]: So it's really lesson and how to be gentle with yourself and letting go of an outcome, even though you really want something.
34:27
[SPEAKER_01]: And it happened to work.
34:28
[SPEAKER_01]: I just kept going.
34:29
[SPEAKER_01]: I was like, OK, I'm just going to keep going to to the next, you know, next 100 meters.
34:33
[SPEAKER_01]: I know I can send 100 meters.
34:35
[SPEAKER_01]: So I'll just do that.
34:36
[SPEAKER_01]: And then I'll reset and do it again and again and again.
34:40
[SPEAKER_01]: I knew it.
34:41
[SPEAKER_01]: How's it then?
34:43
[SPEAKER_02]: It was awesome.
34:45
[SPEAKER_02]: It and how long did it take?
34:48
[SPEAKER_02]: I mean, to walk that far doesn't take that long, but to do it on a little strip of webbing.
34:53
[SPEAKER_02]: Wow.
34:55
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, I think that one took me like an hour 10 minutes, so I was, I had a good pace, but I also was going slow enough to not trip up and fall.
35:08
[SPEAKER_02]: What did it feel like when you stepped off on the other end?
35:11
[SPEAKER_02]: Your friends are there.
35:13
[SPEAKER_02]: You realize you've done it.
35:15
[SPEAKER_02]: What happened?
35:16
[SPEAKER_01]: Um, so it was a bit of a dilemma because I was almost at the end, but I'd almost at the anchor and so there was this big boulder right underneath the last whatever few meters.
35:33
[SPEAKER_01]: And kind of turned a little bit of exposure to my friends were at an anchor.
35:36
[SPEAKER_01]: We actually had three parallel, 1.2.
35:39
[SPEAKER_01]: This is ridiculous.
35:41
[SPEAKER_02]: Okay.
35:41
[SPEAKER_01]: They were at another anchor.
35:43
[SPEAKER_01]: And I turned a little bit of exposure and talked to them for a while about this dilemma because I have a low risk tolerance, believe it or not.
35:53
[SPEAKER_01]: And so I do not like walking over things that are close enough for me to hit just in case I don't want to deck.
36:03
[SPEAKER_01]: And but now I was like, yeah, but I could maybe just walk across at this one time and then touch the tree.
36:08
[SPEAKER_01]: It's only a few meters.
36:10
[SPEAKER_01]: Um, and so I talked to my friends for a while and I was like, like, this counts, right?
36:16
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm at the end.
36:18
[SPEAKER_02]: And I don't know if I want to break my own rule.
36:21
[SPEAKER_01]: And they said this definitely counts your at the end.
36:24
[SPEAKER_00]: And so after thinking about it for a little while longer and just standing there, I was like, yes, this is the end.
36:34
[SPEAKER_02]: So for people who don't know, and I can't describe this very well, but you actually put up multiple lines, one to walk on one, which is a backup, right?
36:45
[SPEAKER_02]: And then you also have some sort of a little trolley that travels on the lines with you.
36:49
[SPEAKER_02]: So if you fall, you're on a leash, you have a harness.
36:53
[SPEAKER_02]: It catches you.
36:55
[SPEAKER_02]: Where did I go wrong with that in my close?
37:01
[SPEAKER_01]: the trot where you call the trolley.
37:02
[SPEAKER_01]: It's just a metal ring that travel and that is connected to a leash, which you tie into the way you were or you would if you were climbing.
37:13
[SPEAKER_01]: And it just drags behind you and like usually between your legs or around one of your legs or like around the side of one of your legs.
37:22
[SPEAKER_01]: So it's just dragging behind you and if you do fall, people either catch the line and don't land in the leash.
37:29
[SPEAKER_01]: Um, or they completely, we call it a whip and they completely whip off the line and the least just catches you and then you climb the leash and you get back on.
37:39
[SPEAKER_02]: You make that sound so easy.
37:40
[SPEAKER_02]: You're just not.
37:41
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, no, in the beginning, it's really not easy.
37:46
[SPEAKER_02]: I understand you're your boulder scenario.
37:49
[SPEAKER_02]: So if you were starting instead of finishing on that end, you would probably scooch across the boulder before you stood up to get place where you could stand safely.
37:59
[SPEAKER_01]: Is that the way I would now everybody has different risk tolerances and so there's plenty of people that would.
38:06
[SPEAKER_01]: just go for it, but I like to make little boundaries for myself to stay safe.
38:13
[SPEAKER_02]: So, well, it's better than banging your head on a boulder.
38:16
[SPEAKER_02]: I tell you, a whole cow.
38:19
[SPEAKER_02]: So that means that you're sitting down on this line and you have to learn how to stand up.
38:24
[SPEAKER_02]: It's wiggly, it's tiny.
38:26
[SPEAKER_02]: That would be as hard as anything just standing up for the first time.
38:30
[SPEAKER_01]: Definitely, that's a big crux.
38:33
[SPEAKER_01]: It helps to start on slacklines and there's different ways to stand up on the line.
38:37
[SPEAKER_01]: But yeah, that's an necessity.
38:39
[SPEAKER_01]: You have to be able to go from a sitting position or a squatting position on the line to standing to be able to walk it.
38:49
[SPEAKER_02]: I'm going to take you to learn.
38:51
[SPEAKER_01]: To learn at a slack line didn't take too long.
38:55
[SPEAKER_01]: But transferring that to a high line.
38:58
[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, I had more fear on high lines than anybody.
39:02
[SPEAKER_01]: I know in the beginning I took a lot longer to get past this wall of fear it almost felt like a physical thing and so the first crux was like going from that sitting position to standing and it felt like
39:15
[SPEAKER_01]: Somebody had put just a physical wall in front of me, and I just couldn't get my body to do that.
39:21
[SPEAKER_01]: And I was stuck there for like a, at least a year.
39:26
[SPEAKER_01]: And people get over that a lot faster and some slower.
39:29
[SPEAKER_01]: But I always like to tell people that that just because you can't, is because it takes longer for you maybe than others, doesn't mean you can't get there, because your body, the every time you go out,
39:41
[SPEAKER_01]: your body is incrementally getting more and your brain getting more accustomed to these movements and this is space and it feels just like a tiny bit safer.
39:54
[SPEAKER_01]: You might not feel it, but eventually it'll pay off that that you're teaching your body in your mind that this is actually
40:10
[SPEAKER_01]: I think that for me personally, like the negative getting negative with myself about it made it a lot harder and maybe get more stuck in that place and instead kind of making it a little bit less about those goals of, okay, I need to be able to stand next.
40:30
[SPEAKER_01]: Now I need to be able to take steps
40:32
[SPEAKER_01]: now I need to be able to walk.
40:34
[SPEAKER_01]: I think it ended up taking me so long that I let go of those because I wanted to keep going and enjoying myself.
40:40
[SPEAKER_01]: And so I shifted my focus a little bit to be why am I out here?
40:45
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm out here ultimately just to enjoy myself to have this new experience.
40:51
[SPEAKER_01]: So why am I so focused on, oh, I see everybody else doing this on the line.
40:55
[SPEAKER_01]: So this is what it
40:57
[SPEAKER_01]: Let me shift my focus to how can I find a moment of connection like every time I get on the line and so I started.
41:06
[SPEAKER_01]: Um, paying more attention to, okay, well, I'm gonna, oh, look, there's like a king fisher circling this quarry.
41:13
[SPEAKER_01]: That's so cool.
41:14
[SPEAKER_01]: Um, and so then, every time I came off the line, instead of being like, oh, did I stand or did I not stand?
41:20
[SPEAKER_01]: I would think, oh, I saw a king fisher today.
41:23
[SPEAKER_02]: That was, oh, there you go.
41:25
[SPEAKER_01]: It's really shifting, yeah, I really shifted, and I need to constantly remind myself of that now, too, as, um, the goal posts,
41:34
[SPEAKER_01]: turns into wilder things of like it's really easy to get frustrated and I feel like a lot of that has to do with ego and having high expectations and then I just have to remind myself like who cares?
41:50
[SPEAKER_01]: I mean I care but at the same time why I'm actually out here and ultimately it's to connect with my friends, my community, to enjoy this view, to connect with myself.
42:02
[SPEAKER_01]: It's not just to send this line or whatever.
42:10
[SPEAKER_02]: There's so much wisdom in that and I'm trying to, in my mind, I'm trying to explore this and how it applies to the bigger picture.
42:17
[SPEAKER_02]: My youngest son graduated from college this weekend.
42:22
[SPEAKER_02]: and Cam Smith was the keynote speaker and Cam just got back from the Olympics where he did Schemo, right?
42:28
[SPEAKER_02]: So Schemo was in the Olympics for the first time.
42:30
[SPEAKER_02]: Cam lives on our valley and so the university says, what's a like?
42:34
[SPEAKER_02]: You went to the Olympics, you know?
42:35
[SPEAKER_02]: So he was the keynote speaker for the graduation and one of the stories he told was being at worlds trying to qualify and he does a
42:48
[SPEAKER_02]: a relay with a gal skier, so they trade off.
42:52
[SPEAKER_02]: So it's a male female combined sport, which is super cool.
42:56
[SPEAKER_02]: And he said that they were in 13th rated and you had to be 12 to qualify.
43:05
[SPEAKER_02]: And he talked about all the failures, all the, all the did not finish or came in last experiences that they had had over the years, you know,
43:14
[SPEAKER_02]: but something shifted for them around this time and it's very much related to what you were just talking about.
43:21
[SPEAKER_02]: What happened was they quit thinking about winning that race.
43:27
[SPEAKER_02]: They started thinking about honoring all the people that had supported them.
43:33
[SPEAKER_02]: They started thinking about the community of people that had rallied behind them to make it possible that they could even be there to try.
43:45
[SPEAKER_02]: And saying, hey, guess what, we helped to put the valley back on the map.
43:48
[SPEAKER_02]: You know, that sort of thing.
43:50
[SPEAKER_02]: And they thought beyond the end goal of winning the race and just started thinking in terms of the bigger picture.
43:57
[SPEAKER_02]: What the more meaningful stuff.
44:00
[SPEAKER_01]: If that makes any sense.
44:02
[SPEAKER_02]: They got first.
44:04
[SPEAKER_01]: Wow.
44:05
[SPEAKER_02]: Yes, they went from 13th to first place because of this mind shift.
44:11
[SPEAKER_02]: I've had more meaning and more purpose than just can I stand up on the line, right?
44:17
[SPEAKER_02]: And I, I, I, something there.
44:18
[SPEAKER_02]: I don't quite understand.
44:20
[SPEAKER_02]: What do you think about that?
44:21
[SPEAKER_01]: I relate to that a lot.
44:23
[SPEAKER_01]: And to me, I think of it as like extrinsic values to what you're doing versus intrinsic values.
44:29
[SPEAKER_01]: and there was a point in highlighting for me that, you know, I did that record and then you can't help it.
44:37
[SPEAKER_01]: You got a little bit of an ego and also your expectations for yourself get higher and you start comparing yourself.
44:42
[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, always comparing, but I'll say myself since this is my experience.
44:49
[SPEAKER_01]: And so I sort of lost the thread.
44:51
[SPEAKER_01]: I realized that I was, I wanted to say I was training to get
44:57
[SPEAKER_01]: uh one avenue of highlighting that's newer and exciting and I was getting faster and faster and then did some competitions and just totally bombed and I felt so upset and I and I felt in that moment that like I had lost the thread I'm like oh I'm doing it's competing with my friends you know and why do I feel so upset and so I
45:20
[SPEAKER_01]: decided to try to take it back to where I was when I was first learning and focusing more on those intrinsic things like why why am I actually out here.
45:31
[SPEAKER_01]: I really try to think about those things when I'm on the line and sometimes write them down and focus on them because ultimately once if you let go of that if you at least try to let go of the extrinsic stuff a little bit.
45:46
[SPEAKER_01]: whether that be winning or having an awesome Instagram post or setting a record or just like looking cool, I don't know.
45:56
[SPEAKER_01]: You do better.
45:57
[SPEAKER_01]: I don't know.
45:57
[SPEAKER_01]: I think generally you do better because you're able to stop being so gripped about the outcome and just stay in the process.
46:09
[SPEAKER_02]: One other thing you brought up was the way that you would take the distractions, the ideas and put them on the cloud, or put them in the river, or put them on the bird, let them go away.
46:17
[SPEAKER_02]: Here's the crazy thing.
46:20
[SPEAKER_02]: I have talked to so many people who I think is pretty common.
46:24
[SPEAKER_02]: We get spilled up on our head and everything just whipping around and then we start to do the intense thing and it brings focus.
46:31
[SPEAKER_02]: Now we can finally quiet our minds enough.
46:34
[SPEAKER_02]: The almost described it the opposite way.
46:37
[SPEAKER_02]: Like, I get on the line and suddenly all this stuff that I normally don't notice in my head is hitting me.
46:43
[SPEAKER_01]: Yes, absolutely.
46:45
[SPEAKER_01]: I think that, well, the coolest part in the reason I like really long lines is because I find that every time I step online, my, my, that voice is just going a mile a minute, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah,
47:07
[SPEAKER_01]: It's quiet.
47:08
[SPEAKER_01]: It's just well.
47:10
[SPEAKER_01]: just there.
47:12
[SPEAKER_01]: So, and it takes a longer time to get to that point.
47:16
[SPEAKER_01]: So I don't always get there on shorter lines, but the long ones.
47:18
[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, sometimes I get to the end and I'm, my mind is so quiet and my body is so relaxed.
47:24
[SPEAKER_01]: Like I start out kind of like, oh, I don't have the strength for this.
47:27
[SPEAKER_01]: My arms are tired and, and by the end, everything is totally relaxed.
47:32
[SPEAKER_01]: That sometimes I just turn around and go back in the other direction.
47:35
[SPEAKER_01]: Oh, wow.
47:36
[SPEAKER_01]: Go back the other way because it feels so good.
47:39
[SPEAKER_02]: Oh man, this is one of the reasons why we do adventure sports.
47:46
[SPEAKER_02]: There's an element of self-discovery and learning things.
47:51
[SPEAKER_02]: The things that you've learned on the line have you applied some of those things to the everyday?
47:57
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, I think it's been a huge help for me and other aspects of my life.
48:03
[SPEAKER_01]: I think one of them being, it feels like the first time
48:08
[SPEAKER_01]: And I can't, I was like in my late 20s when I finally started, when I started really training Highline and then when I turned 30 when I like really dove into it, and I think it was one of the first times when I stayed committed to something that was really, really hard and saw it through and got to the other side, it sort of been a thing in my life of like
48:37
[SPEAKER_01]: letting them go and starting things and letting them go.
48:39
[SPEAKER_01]: I've had tons of different jobs and just in many aspects of life relationship jobs and so this was it really was a confidence booster and I have a lot more trust in myself and distrust of that voice
48:59
[SPEAKER_01]: of doubt that says, ah, you're not good at this thing or you can't do it.
49:03
[SPEAKER_01]: You're not, you're just not like them.
49:05
[SPEAKER_01]: You know, you're, you're not good enough.
49:07
[SPEAKER_01]: You just don't have it in you.
49:09
[SPEAKER_01]: And I don't really, I definitely question that voice a lot more.
49:14
[SPEAKER_01]: And that's probably a direct result of this.
49:17
[SPEAKER_01]: And then also just all the people, like you said, the community, I've met so many people that I feel like I have that I feel
49:28
[SPEAKER_00]: share similar values.
49:30
[SPEAKER_01]: And that's really important, I think, also to self-discovery and yeah.
49:37
[SPEAKER_02]: That's cool.
49:39
[SPEAKER_02]: What's next?
49:41
[SPEAKER_01]: Oh, I'm glad you asked.
49:43
[SPEAKER_01]: Like I said, there's a lot of different avenues you can get into with highlighting, you know, you can decide I want to learn to play an instrument on the line.
49:50
[SPEAKER_01]: I want to do expedition lines, I want to do freestyle, freestyle is awesome.
49:56
[SPEAKER_01]: um, I want to compete.
49:58
[SPEAKER_01]: And so I, this is going to sound really out of left fields, but um, I have getting like I've never performed, but I'm getting more interested in the idea of sharing this discipline with an audience and like a performative way, because I think it's something that
50:18
[SPEAKER_01]: We tend to do or like in behind closed doors, no doors physically, but like often the wood somewhere where people can't see us and then kind of being discreet about it.
50:29
[SPEAKER_01]: But I'm starting to realize like how much this thing that has become just so normal for me and my friends, like how awesome it is for other people to see how much they appreciate it.
50:41
[SPEAKER_01]: And so I am lucky to be doing
50:45
[SPEAKER_01]: my first performance on a high line in Texas this weekend.
50:50
[SPEAKER_02]: Wonderful.
50:51
[SPEAKER_02]: Great relations.
50:52
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, I don't.
50:53
[SPEAKER_01]: It's I'm going to just go and we're streaming between two buildings.
50:57
[SPEAKER_01]: It's at like a street fair and they found my friends performance company and and hired us.
51:06
[SPEAKER_01]: And so I'm going to get out there, sing a song, kind of do some clowning.
51:11
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm getting a lot of ideas.
51:13
[SPEAKER_01]: of learning how to clown and then how to bring that together with highlighting and so yeah, I think that'll be the, maybe the next area.
51:24
[SPEAKER_02]: Sure, the gift.
51:25
[SPEAKER_01]: Here's a gift, yeah.
51:27
[SPEAKER_02]: So cool.
51:28
[SPEAKER_02]: That's going to be a lot of fun.
51:30
[SPEAKER_02]: What do you think people are going to say, how will they react?
51:33
[SPEAKER_02]: People that have never seen anything like this and then they're confronted with it.
51:37
[SPEAKER_02]: I mean, it's almost like that, you know?
51:40
[SPEAKER_01]: There, yeah.
51:41
[SPEAKER_01]: Well, I know that if I take my, when I, when I, when if I take a whip, which is when you fall, I know that everybody's in a scream because that's what people say.
51:54
[SPEAKER_01]: But I don't know.
51:55
[SPEAKER_01]: I've never, I haven't spent a lot of time in Texas.
51:57
[SPEAKER_01]: I don't know what the crowd's going to be like.
51:58
[SPEAKER_01]: I don't know if, if I'm going to remember the lyrics to the song I'm going to sing.
52:04
[SPEAKER_01]: We'll see.
52:04
[SPEAKER_01]: It's all in adventure.
52:06
[SPEAKER_02]: Well, I'll say this much, Texas spends a lot of time here where I live in Colorado.
52:13
[SPEAKER_02]: So I love the people from Texas.
52:15
[SPEAKER_02]: They're just such genuine, enginuous people.
52:18
[SPEAKER_02]: And I think it's a lot of fun.
52:20
[SPEAKER_02]: Everyone likes to stereotype.
52:22
[SPEAKER_02]: People are great everywhere.
52:23
[SPEAKER_02]: All you have to do is get past the facades.
52:25
[SPEAKER_02]: You know, people are great everywhere.
52:27
[SPEAKER_02]: So I know you're going to have a delightful time.
52:29
[SPEAKER_02]: That would be awesome.
52:32
[SPEAKER_02]: What, what, uh, town or city, is this in?
52:36
[SPEAKER_01]: Great vine Texas.
52:38
[SPEAKER_02]: Great vine.
52:39
[SPEAKER_02]: I don't even know where that is.
52:40
[SPEAKER_01]: That's somewhere around Dallas.
52:43
[SPEAKER_01]: They grow.
52:43
[SPEAKER_01]: They have a lot of wineries.
52:46
[SPEAKER_01]: Nice wine and so naturally red red wine.
52:49
[SPEAKER_01]: That's what I'm going to say.
52:52
[SPEAKER_02]: So you are also a musician, huh?
52:55
[SPEAKER_01]: Oh well, that's the thing.
52:56
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, sure.
52:58
[SPEAKER_01]: I like to sing.
52:59
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
52:59
[SPEAKER_01]: I like to sing and I'm excited to try to combine that with this sport.
53:06
[SPEAKER_01]: I wish.
53:07
[SPEAKER_01]: Maybe after this we'll see how the first performance goes and then we'll start our first Highline Band.
53:12
[SPEAKER_02]: Oh, that's hilarious.
53:14
[SPEAKER_02]: And singing about red wine.
53:16
[SPEAKER_02]: I mean, that song sounds drunk to start with.
53:19
[SPEAKER_02]: So you're on a slack line.
53:22
[SPEAKER_02]: I could see all that there's kind of a juxtaposition there.
53:25
[SPEAKER_02]: This kind of funny.
53:26
[SPEAKER_01]: Well, that's going to be the whole stick, right?
53:28
[SPEAKER_02]: Right.
53:29
[SPEAKER_01]: I, you know, I don't know, something.
53:32
[SPEAKER_02]: So you say you're learning the clown.
53:35
[SPEAKER_02]: What do you mean by that?
53:37
[SPEAKER_01]: My partner and I have spent a good amount of time in Latin America in Colombia and then in Argentina, finding there's high-line communities around the world and it's just the most amazing way to travel.
53:51
[SPEAKER_01]: So we've been down there to do projects with them, but I've also there's some mix of the circus community.
53:57
[SPEAKER_01]: with the Highland community there in Columbia and so I've got, I've gotten really inspired by clowns in Latin America and how, yeah, there's just like, there's so many different ways to clown and to interact with the audience and connect with the audience and so that's been inspiring me and I feel like that's the next step to learning more about myself and some other personalities
54:26
[SPEAKER_01]: Thank you, come out, true cloud.
54:29
[SPEAKER_02]: You know, I always think about the oversized shoes, you know, their size 25 or something that clowns wear.
54:33
[SPEAKER_02]: Could you do that on a high line?
54:35
[SPEAKER_01]: Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh
54:55
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, we'll see.
54:57
[SPEAKER_02]: Well, I wish you all the best without it.
54:59
[SPEAKER_02]: It sounds fantastic.
55:00
[SPEAKER_02]: And I love it.
55:02
[SPEAKER_02]: I'm in it when I said, you know, you're giving the gift.
55:05
[SPEAKER_02]: It's to let other people experience it.
55:09
[SPEAKER_02]: That's really cool.
55:10
[SPEAKER_02]: It's great for the sport, but it's also just good for human connection.
55:14
[SPEAKER_02]: You know, in the bottom line is, I think that's what we need more human connection.
55:19
[SPEAKER_01]: I agree.
55:21
[SPEAKER_01]: I agree.
55:23
[SPEAKER_02]: very, very cool.
55:23
[SPEAKER_02]: Well, thank you for your time today.
55:25
[SPEAKER_02]: Alex, I really enjoyed it.
55:27
[SPEAKER_02]: Everyone, Alex, Sandra, Witter, and her Instagram, again, say it for us.
55:34
[SPEAKER_01]: Alex, Witty, Witter.
55:37
[SPEAKER_02]: Alex, Witty, is are there other ways that people should get in touch with you?
55:44
[SPEAKER_01]: know people can you know message me on Instagram if you're interested in getting into the sport or having more questions yeah I'm I'm open to conversation so thank you so much for having me this was great before we go though we said we're gonna give a shout out to a couple of organizations so if people want to do this you mentioned there are a couple of resources that
56:11
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, sure.
56:12
[SPEAKER_01]: So if you're looking to buy gear, like maybe your first kit for a high line or even a slack line, you can go to Balance Community and they're just run by a guy named Jerry who really hooks up the community and really supports the athletes and is just a great guy.
56:36
[SPEAKER_01]: So yeah, so that's a great place to get gear.
56:40
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, international Slack line association.
56:42
[SPEAKER_01]: If you're looking from just a wealth of information about highlighting about rigging, like installing lines, reports, accident reports, stuff like that events, you can find all sorts of gatherings that are going on throughout the year.
57:00
[SPEAKER_01]: And so that's a good place to go.
57:03
[SPEAKER_01]: And then on Facebook, you can always go to Slack Chat because if you're looking for like a local community, you can.
57:08
[SPEAKER_01]: Usually, find your local community on Facebook.
57:12
[SPEAKER_02]: Well, we did not take the time to dive into the techy side very much, Alex.
57:16
[SPEAKER_02]: But I understand that you use specialized types of webbing and different webbing for different purposes and people who probably should not just grab the random webbing that they have in the garage and start doing stuff without looking into it.
57:31
[SPEAKER_02]: So that's why the International Slack line associations got to be helpful.
57:36
[SPEAKER_01]: Yes, really helpful for that kind of stuff, yep.
57:39
[SPEAKER_02]: Okay.
57:40
[SPEAKER_02]: Well, now we can wrap it up.
57:42
[SPEAKER_02]: I really enjoyed the time to get to visit with you.
57:44
[SPEAKER_02]: You have a lovely smile.
57:46
[SPEAKER_02]: I think you have a joy that comes from the heart.
57:51
[SPEAKER_02]: And maybe that's part of this sport, maybe it's part of this community, but it's a beautiful thing to win us.
57:58
[SPEAKER_02]: So thank you very much for sharing.
58:00
[SPEAKER_01]: Well, thanks.
58:00
[SPEAKER_01]: It was a great conversation.
58:02
[SPEAKER_01]: Thanks for having me, Kurt.
58:03
[SPEAKER_02]: Oh, you bet everyone out there and at Pincher Sports, they're more than just fun, right?
58:10
[SPEAKER_02]: They can change your life, but anyway, I say it every show I'm going to say it again until the next one, get out there and ask some fun.