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simplycircus
Jan 31, 2006, 4:06 AM
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Hi everyone. Simply Circus is looking at offering an 8 session slack rope walking class in the Boston, MA (USA) area. These classes will teach the basic theory and skills of walking on the rope. This will include an overview of the equipment in use (by the youth circus community, not the rock climbing community), inspection & safety techniques and basic walking skills, including mounting, standing, walking forwards, walking backward, standing on one foot, and methodologies of balance. Time permitting (or in subsequent classes if we have enough interest) we will also cover various turns on the wire (the 2 footed Ball Turn, the Outside Step Turn, ½ pirouette, inside step turn, etc), as well as many other tricks and skills (dance steps, Boingo Board on wire or rope, juggling on wire, jumping, kneeling, Handstands, cartwheels, Swings, Sitting on the rope, Lying Down on the rope, Splits on the rope, Unicycle on the wire, Front rolls, Back rolls, mounts and dismounts, etc). Participants in this class would also receive a copy of our slackrope walking textbook. Would there be much interest in the rock climbing community for this class?
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veganboyjosh
Jan 31, 2006, 4:37 AM
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questions: is this on static rope, or dynamic? how much is this class? if a tree falls on a mime in the forest, and there's no one around to hear it, does anyone care?
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hereandthere
Jan 31, 2006, 2:06 PM
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What days or nights would it be on? would there be a chance to walk a highline at the end of the class?
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simplycircus
Jan 31, 2006, 2:30 PM
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I will be honest, I am not quite sure what rock climbers mean when you refer to static vs. dynamic slack rope. When we talk about dynamic force on a line, it is typically in reference to a spring loaded tight wire. For this class we will be using 12 and 15 foot long freestanding rigs (1 rig for every 2 students). We are looking at Monday or Wednesday evenings for the class. Cost for this class will be in the $125 - $175 range depending on what location we run it in. Please note that at this time we are only thinking about running this class, it has not been set up yet.
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mcfoley
Jan 31, 2006, 3:35 PM
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Ummm ok... I have heard of a slackline...duh! I have also heard of a tightrope...again duh! What I have NOT heard of is a "Slackrope"? What material is you "Slackrope" made of? Ever heard of a "tightline"? Seems like you are trying to rename a tightrope for the sake of marketing your services to ignorant climbers, or should I say aspiring slackliners, who might not know the difference. Please clarify. not sure why I care anyways...the name "slackrope" just annoyed me!!!
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slacklinejoe
Jan 31, 2006, 5:32 PM
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Mcfoley, relax- slack rope is legit and predates us by a very long time. Simplycircus - We commonly divide rope types into static or dynamic according to the elongation percentage. I beleive Dynamic where it is closer to 15% while static is usually closer to 5% - someone may need to correct those numbers if they know for sure. It's obvious that on average for the community we aren't highly educated on slack ropes, we shouldn't expect them to be highly experienced slackers either. While sure he has some commercial interest going on, he's doing so in a "Hey, is there an interest in your group for similar cross over training?" - not some stealth advertising scheme. I'm kind of curious myself at how much interest there is in the original version of our sport. It could be fun to see the differences between the variations of the sport and broaden our horizons.
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simplycircus
Jan 31, 2006, 6:43 PM
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In reply to: Mcfoley, relax- slack rope is legit and predates us by a very long time. Thanks SlacklineJoe. You are correct, slack rope predates slacklining by over 2,000 years - slack rope walkers have been documented as far back as anciant Egypt, and has been extramly popular in the circus community for well over 200 years, since the very first circus.
In reply to: Simplycircus - We commonly divide rope types into static or dynamic according to the elongation percentage. I beleive Dynamic where it is closer to 15% while static is usually closer to 5% - someone may need to correct those numbers if they know for sure. Interesting. We don't typically divide ropes in this way, at least not so formally. We do use different types of rope and cable for different effects and personal tastes. We will put bungee into the rope to get more bounce, or use steel cable to minimize bounce. We will use different ropes for different effects. I keep 12 or so different ropes for different effects at the more advanced level - 3 webbed straps, 2 steel cables, and 7 different ropes. For teaching we generally only use - steel cable, nylon rope, and occationally Blue (stretchy) nylon webbing, and yellow (not-so-stretchy) nylon webbing (though I will note that while we still call them blue and yellow after the origional webbing we used, they genarally aren't that color any more...)
In reply to: It's obvious that on average for the community we aren't highly educated on slack ropes, we shouldn't expect them to be highly experienced slackers either. Very true.
In reply to: While sure he has some commercial interest going on, he's doing so in a "Hey, is there an interest in your group for similar cross over training?" - not some stealth advertising scheme. Again very true. We have an interest in running more classes, and so we have an interest in finding new markets for our services. The two have so much in common, its worth asking the question. I will however note that we are a non-profit educational corperation.
In reply to: I'm kind of curious myself at how much interest there is in the original version of our sport. It could be fun to see the differences between the variations of the sport and broaden our horizons. Me too. Having gone over most of the web stuff on how slackliners walk, the bigest difference I see is refinement. If you watch the videos of slackliners available on the web, some of the (IMHO) best slackliners I have seen have learned to use weighted balance. Where this seems to be an advanced part of slacklining (and I have not yet found any written refrence to it), its a basic in slackrope. Go back 250 years, and this was an advanced skill in slackrope too. Another example I will give is in turns. I have watched countless videos of slackliners making turns, and thought to myself "gee, just a few small changes to how he does that turn on the rope will make a huge difference in his stability..." On the flip side, slackliners have some very interesting methods of dealing with wind on the wire and other specifics issues that have not been adiquatly addressed in slackrope.
In reply to: Ummm ok... I have heard of a slackline...duh! I have also heard of a tightrope...again duh! What I have NOT heard of is a "Slackrope"? What material is you "Slackrope" made of? Ever heard of a "tightline"? Seems like you are trying to rename a tightrope for the sake of marketing your services to ignorant climbers, or should I say aspiring slackliners, who might not know the difference. Please clarify. not sure why I care anyways...the name "slackrope" just annoyed me!!! In circus the following terms are generaly interchangable, though regional differences do exist (and are beyond the scope of this): slack rope - slack wire - slackrope - slackwire. They all refer to the same thing - a walking rope without significant tension on it. Tight rope - Tight Wire - Tightrope - Tightwire - Low Wire (and other variations on these basic terms) all refer to a wire that does not sag under the weight of a person or persons. Tight Wires usually have 2 or more tonnes of tension on them, where slack ropes do not. Whereas bungee is added to slack lines to add bounce, high strength springs are added to tightwires for additional bounce. As an aside, the term Taughtrope was used about 100 years ago to describe ropes that were tight, but not as tight as a tightrope, however this term has not really been used for a long time, as most people just called them slack ropes.
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