Slackline over Alligators

When I first wanted to learn how to slackline I had a plan. That plan involved walking over the top of alligators.  I didn’t know how long it would take me but I knew I could get good enough to at least try it a few times. I practice a lot. Luckily I have two friends that are some of the best in the sport to help me out. Josh Beaudoin and Heather Larsen are amazing solo slackline walkers and on a different planet when it comes to tandem slackline. Ever since they came over and helped me build a line in my backyard I have practiced my butt off. Setting small goals to build confidence I quickly got good at walking the whole line. I knew the part of the gator pond I wanted to walk across was similar in length to my backyard setup so once I was good at that distance I could try it over the gators. The line I setup over the gator pond is in reality about 15 feet longer and 2 feet higher than I am use to. I only have a 50′ slackline so we had to rig some stuff up to make it work. I couldn’t get the line as tight as I would like but I wasn’t about to back out. I walk to the middle of the line before it really starts to sway and get sketchy as that’s the deep part of the water and you can’t see the gators if they are on the bottom.  Next was getting the gators use to the line being in their pond. The first time we set it up they wanted to stay away from it. The last time we tried we set it up and let them have several hours of it being in the pond to adjust. Then we started to feed them around the line so they got brave enough to come right up to it and under it in no time. Perfect, now we could walk the line and I could get the pictures and video I was wanting.

It’s such a different feeling when you are up on the line and looking down you see three 200lb alligators that could really injure you if you happened to fall off and land on one of them. For the most part the gators didn’t scatter when I was on the line they were almost curious to see what I was doing. Several times when I fell off they would actually approach  me because they were investigating the splash so I really had to be aware of where they were.  I was very fortunate that day the gators were cooperative and myself and everyone else who walked the line had a great time. It seems like every time we do this it gets better and better so I’m excited to get back down to the farm with a longer slackline and try it again.