Watch These Slackliners Set a Heart-Stopping Record

Daredevils Rafael Bridi, Alexander Schulz made longest walk over active volcano in early pandemic
By Mike L. Ford,  Newser Staff
Posted Sep 28, 2022 1:27 PM CDT

If walking over an active volcano via slackline is on your bucket list, you might look to Brazilian daredevil Rafael Bridi for guidance. Per UPI, Bridi and fellow slacklining enthusiast Alexander Schulz of Germany set a Guinness World Record for "longest slackline walk over an active volcano," which they achieved by traveling 856 feet across a cable suspended 137 feet above the fiery crater of Mount Yasur in the Republic of Vanuatu. The feat from April 2020 is now being seen on just-released video, which shows Bridi walking slowly but steadily through vapors and embers from the volcano below.

Bridi also broke the record for the world's highest slackline walk in December, when he sauntered 59 feet across a cable suspended between two hot-air balloons floating 6,236 feet above Brazil's Praia Grande. Slacklining is like tightrope walking, except a cable or polyester belt rigged to a tensioning system enables athletes to balance in static poses and perform acrobatic tricks. According to his Guinness World Records profile, Bridi was first introduced to slacklining when a friend suspended a cable between two palm trees.

Bridi fell in love and applied his engineering skills to develop "strategic" techniques that have put him at the forefront of the sport. "The walk was pleasant and very calm," he said of his stroll between the balloons. Bridi trains on his home slackline two or three days a week and credits yoga, meditation, biking, jiujitsu, and climbing with helping him maintain the physical and mental fortitude to stay focused at such heights. He told Guinness he hopes his achievement will inspire others to dream big, knowing that "with motivation and discipline, everything is possible." (More Guinness World Records stories.)

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