Girls Only Slackline Festival III

Time flies! Three years ago I came up with the idea to host a Girls Only Slackline Festival, and with enough interest it was held in Ostrov, Czech Republic, a central location to the European countries with the most female slackliners and highliners. The first year, only 6 girls attended and I had to have my boyfriend at the time come along to help me rig the highline since no other females seemed to know how to rig. 

The second year was almost triple the turnout, with 20 girls coming from around the world to slackline and highline together. We had eight countries represented. Pino of Pod Cisarem sponsored us the Himmelreich cottage next to the pub, which was a luxury to say the least. 

This year was more mellow and with totally different energy than the years before. Around 14 ladies came, from Germany, Czech Republic, Switzerland, USA and Poland. It was incredible to see the progress of some of the girls who had been there the year before.

The girls were so supportive of each other, it was incredible. What seems to be so special about this festival is the lack of competitiveness, each girl is aware of her strengths and weaknesses and uses the others for support and advice. Girls love to talk, this is not just a stereotype, but what is amazing to stand on the towers and witness such a pack of girls talking about highlining! 

There were some old friend who returned again this year, and I was thankful for Ancee and Chrislaines rigging abilities so we could put up highlines efficiently. I had one new line about 15 meters long rigged by the time the girls arrived, and with Chrislaine and Ancee we rigged another 28 meter highline. We had plans to rig a third line but in the end two was just enough. Ancee was sure to rage in her t shirt from the year before!

Often with this festival most of the activity practiced is chongoing on the highline. This seems to be a common learning curve for girls who are just starting out. 

Naturally the progression from chongo is climbing the leash after a fall. This can prove to be a huge deterrent for girls, who lack upper body strength naturally and who dread being stuck hanging in a leash waiting to be rescued. My friend from back home, Kimberly (the badass mother of 4!) learned climbing the leash, and I happily went out and hung with her on the line to give her an up-close demonstration. 

Another important learning process in becoming a highline is catching the line. If you are able to catch you can save quite a bit of energy by not climbing the leash repeatedly. Some of the girls who attended the GOSF this year were quite proficient in catching!

Overall, this festival proved to me once again that it is worth the rigging, the planning and the pushing. There are always girls who are thankful for such an event, one that is for them. You can go to any highline meeting and find boys, but it is rare to experience one with mostly or all females. The atmosphere is different, special, and necessary. I think the festival works as a great filter too---the girls who come are there because they love the sport and they have a legitimate desire to become a highliner. There is no superficial reason to come to this festival; there are no boys to flirt with, not very many cameras, no competitions or prizes, only highlines, slacklines, czech food, czech beer, and girls of all levels. 

I hope this idea of the Girls Only Slackline Festival will catch on worldwide, so that on every continent annually there is a place where girls can meet and share their abilities, passions and curiosities for this sport of balance. I constantly bombard myself with the puzzling question of why there are less females than males in the outdoor/extreme sports world; and the only thing I am lead to believe from observation is that girls are more cautious than boys. They seem to really think about all the possible outcomes of an activity before going for it, and I think this can impede them from trying their hardest in a sport which often inflicts pain (not seriously! It heals!)

There are a few realities that are evident in relation to this problem; women have been fighting for their rights for a while now, and we are still doing so. There is pressure all around us to fit to some unrealistic mold of femininity, and I think this totally inhibits girls ambition for outdoor or extreme sports. By far, highlining is not the most feminine sport, it leads to bruised legs, bruised egos and sometimes less than attractive screaming, heavy breathing and ugly facial expressions. To me, there is nothing more womanly than a girl fighting on the highline, but according to society it goes against everything we are supposed to shape ourselves as. I hope we can change this. Not every girl needs to highline or be a highliner, but those who want should and nothing should stop them.

So, thank you to all the girls who came, who supported, or who cheered from a distance. You are the reason this festival exists!

Volvo Gala Sweden

Urban Highline Festival 2012

Urban Highline Festival 2012 from Polished Project on Vimeo.

G4G Project - Girls Girls Girls

coming soon...

Perks of being an ugly Rigger...

Last week I spent 6 days in Chamonix, France in the Alps. I joined up with Tancrede and Julien from the Skyliners team as well as Ingrid, to shoot an upcoming Asus commercial. Julien and Ingrid were the actors, and Tancrede and I were responsible for rigging and testing the lines. It was quite a relief to not be in front of the cameras, but the job was hard work nevertheless. The first day we slept in the lift station, waking up before sunrise in order to install 2 highlines near the lift station deck. The lines were unspectacular due to the proximity of the lift deck, one was hardly a highline being about 7 meters long and 5 meters high, however the other (see photos below) had a spectacular backdrop and in fact was a highline, about 18-20 meters long. One direction was to a sharp spire, and was quite exposed. It was a joy to walk. A medic on the scene was kind enough to snap a couple photos before the pretty people started acting ;) Finally after a week there we rigged 2 highlines by the lift station, a slackline, a beautiful alpine lake waterline on Lac Bleu, and a real proper mountain highline which involved a 3 hour hike over a glacier, sketchy loose rock climbing with a backpack, rigging in fog and cold, and then helicopter shots. It was a good week. 

Getting the first ascent of "For the Money and the Bitches Highline" OS FM FA.

Moving to the "Island" of Ostrov

For Sure Highline from faith dickey on Vimeo.

This year turned out to be kind of apocalyptic after all. Tumultuous changes turned new leaves, and I moved away from Poland. Spring was slow coming, and the bitter cold left me impatient for it's arrival. I needed a place to live, and in the humble life path I had become accustomed to living the slacklife, I was unable to rent a flat somewhere. Somehow, the idea of moving to Ostrov seemed like a good one, and my good friend Pino at Autokemp Pod Cisarem welcomed me with open arms and work to keep me busy until the warmth arrived. It was bitter sweet to pack as much gear as I could carry into my two Deuter backpacks, hit the road with my thumb and finally see the sign of one of my favorite places on earth; Ostrov. 

 

The camp was waiting as simply and beautifully as I remembered it, an old pub that is as outdoor-punk as I am. 

My room was a shared one with the other seasonal employees.

Pino had plenty of work for me to stay busy with, helping him mill wood, varnish it and repair the cabins. I enjoyed this work, laborious but with lots of learning involved.

After a day of labor in the cold Spring, coming inside to a warm fire and good goulash was as much as I could ask for.

Besides working and trying to highline, I found extreme joy in exploring the still Wintery landscape all around me. The forest and rocks were so incredible in this scenery, a magical and unreal universe.

I experienced my first completely solo highline mission during this time in Ostrov. I had a non slacklining friend visiting from Ireland, so she came along, however rigging and walking was completely up to me. It was so liberating to be solely responsible. I had to organize and sort gear beforehand to be sure as not to forget something, then upon arriving at the towers of choice I needed to climb up both sides repeatedly to complete the process of slinging the towers, making the anchors, dropping the lines to the ground, tying them together, pulling the line up and tensioning. 

A local family with a vacation home in Ostrov have a daughter who slacklines named Hannah. She was eager to try highlining and I naturally jumped at the chance to potentially get more girls in to the sport. She learned the chongo (sit start) on the highline! It was incredible! After several good tries she called it quits, but I think if she is ambitious she would be a great highliner!

I left this line up (called For Sure Highline, 18 meters in length, I nabbed the first ascent) for days, enjoying the ability to take a short hike up and highline at will. I walked in various leashes, trying to come back to highline shape after a big break. The rigging involved about 12 meters of slings on one side (the anchor shared with NarcoBaron) and 10m on the other side. Both sides are accessible without rope.

Ankle leashes are one of my favorite ways to walk highlines, and as you can see I had a blast doing it on this one!

I had a feeling while rigging this line that it would be a soloable one, and after a day I had the pleasure of walking it with no leash. There was no one around, I was completely alone. The cold Spring kept most tourists and climbers away, so I only had the natural sounds of the forest for company. It was beautiful. I was at my own will completely, with no one else around to distract me or for me to be concerned about. 

The solo was perfect, one of the easier ones which reminds me why I find such joy in the experience. I was stable, smooth, in complete control of my fear and my muscles. My thoughts were clear and I could fully enjoy the full man walk. Thanks to a borrowed GoPro I was able to capture it. 

Sometimes fellow highliners would come on the weekends and install their own lines, which was always great for me! I could roll out of bed, stroll up to an already rigged line, and have a walk! On one such occasion my Czech friends came and rigged a 47 meter line in Himmelreich area, which I had never walked before. They finished late in the day so I was unable to walk it, and I had to depart the next day very early. I swore I would wake up at 7:30am in order to walk the line, and no one believed me as apparently I have a reputation for enjoying my sleep (who doesn't?) I am stubborn and enjoy saying "I told you so," therefore I did wake up early, had a tea and took Pino as company to walk the highline. 47m in length is no joke, and I was pretty rusty after my break, so I was unsure of the outcome. In addition, it was freezing cold with snow! I hiked up to the line, climbed the chimney of rock to get to the anchor, and in multiple layers quickly took off my socks and shoes. My feet were not happy to greet the bitter cold, but I was determined to walk the line. 

                                             

            

                                     

It was a fight but I managed to walk the line first try both directions! Thank you Pino for the photos. 

In my spare time I strolled around the vacated area, exploring several of the empty houses. Here are a few photos of the haunted looking places, houses I dream of restoring.

So, Ostrov became home. I traveled away often but every return was comfortable, and I think I will be returning to Ostrov for the rest of my life. I highly recommend it to anyone and everyone.