Saturday, November 28, 1998

By NORA ZAMICHOW, Times Staff Writer

Backyard practice

Slack lining -- walking on a length of springy nylon line -- calls for strong nerves, balance and something more.
      Slack lining, or loose rope walking, is part sport, part mind game, part spiritual quest. It requires physical agility, precision and balance to walk atop a line stretched over a precipice--the kind of fine tuning that allows a walker to avoid plunging simply by bending one pinkie finger. Even though an occasional slacker has been known to cross a precipice with no tether, there have been no reported deaths.
      Unlike a tightrope, a slack rope will sway up and down and side to side. It can ripple or swing in a giant circle, like a jump rope. The rope is not actually slack but because it's nylon, it's springy. The longer the rope, the greater the bounce. And the bounce is largest when the walker reaches the middle. Tightrope walkers such as the Frenchman Philippe Petit, who has walked a wire across New York's World Trade Center, carry a pole to help balance; slackers use only their arms in a tai-chi-like movement, with bent knees and a fluid yet slow motion.
      While numerous rock climbers try slack lining on lower levels, only perhaps a dozen or so proceed to higher levels. By this fall, Dean Potter's reputation as a rock climber had grown, and he had become the poster boy for slack lining, a pastime that draws mostly from the ranks of climbers.