Slacklining
World’s hardest slackline: Jaan Roose walks between parasail and boat
The record-breaking slackliner Jaan Roose completed his biggest challenge yet by walking a moving slackline between a boat and a parasail being towed high above.
Estonian Jaan Roose has won three world slackline championships and pulled off jaw-dropping firsts in the sport all around the world, including making the world’s first intercontinental slackline walk in Turkey, crossing Italy’s Strait of Messina, completing stunning skyscraper feats in Dubai and Qatar, and spanning iconic Kenyan rock formations to name just a few of his feats.
Now he's completed his most difficult project yet and it’s like nothing he’s ever done before: slacklining between two moving objects – namely, a challenging descent between a parasail and the boat towing it.
On a slackline bouncing between a wave-tossed motorboat and a wind-vulnerable parasail, even a momentary stop would have been tough. The Estonian athlete lives to push boundaries, though, and he was determined to actually walk the line right down to the boat. "It was a very unknown world," he describes. "Would it be possible to walk a parasail slackline? How? And how much?"
To find out, Roose and his team partnered with Visit Maldives and spent a week at Siyam World Maldives, Noonu Atoll, innovating techniques and equipment.
Roose descends from the parasail – and rewrites the rules once again
© Vishal Amir Ahmed/Red Bull Content Pool
"Setting up a slackline between unusual vehicles – one in the air and the second on the water – makes this my most unique project in terms of rigging, because the angle points are totally different," Roose explained. "Usually, slackline projects are between two static points. Here we have two objects moving in every direction at the same time."
Roose came up with various ideas for a slackline system to serve the purpose, testing them day-by-day. The final result involved modifying the boat to implement a system of bungee rigging that absorbed most of the instability created by the waves, while also changing the connection at the parasail. He also added control toggles that gave the pilot of the parasail – usually an uncontrollable canopy – some means of directing it.
Meanwhile, the captain of the boat had to re-think everything he knew about towing a parasail, obviously having never done so with someone standing on the line.
Jaan Roose on the game-changing line in the Maldives
© Base Films/Red Bull Content Pool
Usually slackline is between two static points. Here we have two objects moving in every direction at the same time
Most crucial of all, after 15 years practicing his sport, Roose had to learn to balance on the slackline in a whole new way: "A big part of this project was definitely the physical challenge, because it's hard to get on the line and to find a moment to start walking. And when I was walking, to adapt my body, my knees… I had to follow the behaviour of the boat and feel what was happening behind my back with the parasail."
Roose had to change his natural timing as well. Normally he puts full focus on each step individually, but because the elevation of the parasail slackline was constantly changing, he found that a doubled rhythm was best, taking two steps at a time. "That was the most important part," he confided.
Of the whole experience, Roose said: "It was a very intense, long journey – incredibly challenging and successful! Each day, we were getting better and better until we could just play together like an orchestra."
Roose was all smiles as he posed for a picture on the boat
© Vishal Amir Ahmed/Red Bull Content Pool
A critical moment came at the very end of the effort, when the exhausted Estonian had to face the hardest part yet: “Getting close to the finish mark is intense and it doesn't get easier, because the body is cramped," he explained. "In this case, as I got really close to the boat, with all its wobble and movement, the slackline system actually didn't work as well, so I had to pay even more attention on making those last few steps."
When the audacious walk was completed, however, the Estonian was nothing but smiles.
An elated Roose said: "Proving that having a slackline attached to moving objects can be done – and that it's possible to maintain balance while walking on it – is pushing the sport technologically and performance-wise. We showed that the body actually can balance in a such a challenging environment: the world’s hardest slackline."