Walk the longest Yard
by Philipp Gesing about Michael Weiß
During the last October weekend, Philipp Gesing and the slackline company owners Cihan Calis (gambit-slacklines.de) and Michael Weiss (sigma-slacklines.de) invited a lofty selection of longliners in order to break the current world records!
The former records have been established by Danny Mensik (380m on PES, 2013) as well as Rafael Bridi and Thomas Zimmermann (213m on PAD, 2014).
After months of rigorous searching, Philipp Gesing found the perfect spot for the adventurous undertaking in the form of a massive privately owned field that is normally used as a resort and pasture ground for sheep. Just a few kind words were needed to convince the shepherd that our project would in no way harm his interests and we got the allowance to rig both of our lines for the entire weekend.
A 405m PES line ( Skillshot LS sponsored by Gambit) with 6.5m of sag and a 283m PAD line with 8m of sag (Type-18 MKII married to Philipp)!
Friday the 24th of October, during the late morning hours we started our work. Time to rig!
After dragging up 800m of webbing and 200m of static rope (kindly sponsored by Sigma-Slacklines) as well as a 9:1 pulley system, slings and line lockers, we began by dividing ourselves in two teams:
One should install the 280 and one the 405. Afterwards start tensioning both lines with the help of everyone. Even though we had the help of the MPD (married to Philipp as well), it took us quite some effort to tension the lines. Especially the PAD just didn’t want to get enough tension, even though 7kN is quite low for such a length.
Roughly 3 hours later, all was done and it was time for breakfast. Except for Yuri, of course, who has been very tense the entire morning and could finally meet his quest. With some help of Hari, the 405 was tensioned just enough to not touch the ground close to the far end (the least favorable place to ground out..) and The Longest Yard could finally begin!
Watching Yuri sit on the line for a while to gather some concentration, it became clear, that this wasn’t going to be easy. It would take quite a while and a sheer endless amount of perfect steps to send this monster. But then he started and almost immediately went into cruising mode.
Shortly after, Hari started on the 280. He was nowhere near as edgy as Yuri has been, but wanted to test his limits anyway.
About halfway, Yuri encountered some difficulties though. Shaking, whilst getting more and more tense, only an excessively loud primal scream would finally calm the line and he was back into cruising mode up until the very end.
Hari had, without much difficulties, made it all the way across without much of a fight. We wanted to congratulate, but Yuri was still going and demanded for silence.
We rushed over (which takes a while, even when walking on ground) to see the last steps of this incredible walk.
Hari stopped bouncing the Type-18 to congratulate Yuri as well.
After 25 minutes, he made it.
2 World records, both on sight. What an incredible accomplishment and a great way to start our event!