Skull and Fitbones presents slacklining

Slacklining is a balance sport where the participant walks and balances (or at least tries to) along a narrow line secured between two points such as two trees. Think of tightrope walking, but instead of a taut line a slackline is a bouncy, stretchy flat nylon webbing, and can be assembled just inches off the ground. The origins of slacklining is attributed to the climbing community in the Yosemite National Park, in the US, over 20 years ago. In their ‘down-time’ rock climbers started walking along chains and then started securing their climbing ropes between two anchor points and started trying to walk along them .

At Schull and Fitbones we use 5cm wide webbing with lenghts of 15 and 25 metres. We will often have a slackline in one of our rucksacks so when we find those perfect trees or posts the perfect distance apart out comes the slackline. So whether we have just descended Mt Gabriel near Schull on the Mizen Peninsula, in the community grounds of Ballydehob, in the beautiful Knockomagh Woods at Lough Hyne, near Skibbereen and Baltimore, or at the Glengarriff Nature Reserve, we have been known to assemble our slacklines and have a go.