Amid the College Green bustle of students hurrying to class or seeking shade beneath a nearby tree, one group finds peace suspended on a band between two trees.
Some students on the green have taken to slacklining, a hobby that involves walking across an elastic band that sits about four feet above the ground.
Students who practice on College Green can often be seen performing various tricks on the bands such as backflips and still poses.
“It’s really nice because when you’re slacklining, that’s really all you can think about because you have to focus on it,” said Zac Oberg, a sophomore studying games and animation. “It’s a great way to relax in the afternoon.”
Oberg attended an Outdoor Pursuits camping trip as part of a freshman orientation program at OU and fell in love with the activity. He shared his newfound love with his brother, Sam Oberg, a junior at Athens High School.
After returning home from the trip, the Oberg brothers purchased some of the equipment required for the hobby. The equipment can cost between $60 and $200 for a kit.
Naomi Oberg, a 13-year-old 8th-grade student at Athens Middle School, said she tried slacklining before her brothers introduced it to her. One day while walking through College Green with a few of her friends, she tried what she initially mistook as a tightrope.
Slacklining differs from tightrope in that the line used in tightrope walking is made of steel and held extremely taught, while the slackline bands have more bounce.
“(In tightrope) it’s like walking on a pipe,” Sam said. “A slackline has a nylon webbing, so it has a lot of give, to where it’s like walking on a rubber band.”
The flexibility and bounce of the rope is what allows people like Zac to perform a multitude of tricks such as sitting on the rope or back flipping off it.
There are also several variations in the types of ropes that are used. The two-inch lines are used most often for tricks such as backflips. Others prefer to use the one-inch lines because they have a different feel and can be used for static tricks, which closely resemble stationary yoga poses.
Zac added that some people can be snobs about the types of ropes they use and claim that one-inch ropes are the only ones slackliners should use.
Some go the extra step of competing in slacklining competitions, a goal that Zac hopes to accomplish next summer.
“There is a competition over in Columbus every year that I want to attend,” Zac said. “There are 13-year-olds over there that can do double backflips and land back on the line, so I have to get more practice under my belt first.”
Right now Zac is trying to master flipping on the slackline and landing back on the rope. He also is hoping to learn a trick where he falls backward on the rope and bounces back up.
Zac hopes to start a slacklining club next year for students interested in slacklining and possibly highlining across the trees of College Green. Highlining is similar to slacklining but takes place at much greater heights off the ground
Zac and Sam both have lofty goals for the distant future.
“There are people who do highlines, who set them at 300 or 500 feet (off the ground) and go out on parachutes,” Sam said. “That’s my ultimate goal is to get where I can jump off one of these (slacklines) with a parachute.”
wh092010@ohiou.edu
