The last thing you would expect from a daredevil who walks, sometimes unsupported, sometimes naked, on a rope at great heights, is to see him break down and cry at the mere mention of a deceased friend, but unpretentiousness is one of the endearing qualities of Californian Andy Lewis, aka Mr Slackline.
Andy Lewis, aka Mr Slackline.
Lewis, 28, describes himself as a spontaneous soul who can sing, dance, yell — whatever he feels like — unobstructed by embarrassment or fear. That makes him the perfect candidate for slacklining, an extreme sport that requires balancing on a strip of nylon or polyester webbing fixed, but not taut, between two anchor points. Usually, a slackliner is supported with a safety leash, but Lewis has done many free solo stunts with nothing between him and the ground.
He is palpably passionate about life, in a strangely intense yet relaxed way. A man of extremes, he says he can go from being crazily active to sitting in front of a TV for three days straight. During the interview, he went from chatting merrily about the fun of slacklining to shedding mournful tears about his friend Daniel, who passed away eight months ago.
“He lived such a good life and I try to live like he did — help everybody smile,” he said.
It can’t be said that he made Thai pedestrians smile on the day he crossed the thin line from the rooftop of The Offices @ CentralWorld to the 55th floor of the Centara Grand Hotel, a world-recording breaking stunt for the longest slackline walk, at 169m in distance and 175m high. Most spectators stopped in their tracks, craning their necks, gawking, as they witnessed Lewis’s toe-curling, record-breaking challenge.
Though Lewis has accomplished many seemingly impossible tasks, he still felt quite nervous about the challenge in downtown Bangkok, as he was given only two hours to complete the walk.
“Before getting on that line, I told myself, ‘It’s only two hours. However badly I’m scared, it’s only two hours’,” he said, laughing.
But it only took him about half that time — 65 minutes to be precise — to accomplish the feat.
Lewis began slacklining about 10 years ago, just before he started college. He admitted that initially his parents and friends were not quite as enthusiastic about the idea as he was. Their reaction, to quote Lewis, was, “You are going to kill yourself.”
“For years, I would come home for Thanksgiving and all I heard about was how I was going to die. My neighbours were yelling at me about how I scared my parents,” he recalled.
After they heard about his amazing experiences and success, they realised it was his true passion.
“It’s been 10 years and I’m still not dead. Maybe there is some kind of control to the chaos,” he said.
Lewis has won many titles from slacklining competitions, including the Slackline World Cup in Germany in 2012, and the Gibbon Games in the US that same year. He has walked many amazing lines, but said his dream destinations are usually off limits, such as a gold mine in Africa or the world’s tallest skyscrapers.
His initial interest in slacklining was spawned by a curiosity to find a sport that was not so normal. He wanted something with a connection between the outdoors and limitlessness. Slacklining was a sport he could do everywhere — at the beach, in the city, in the mountains.
Lewis is also known for slacklining naked. To him, this not to show his skin, but to free himself from restrictions.
“Everyone gets naked. You go home to take a shower, you get naked. Somewhere in the history of humanity, nakedness has become weird. For me, when I am trying to focus, clothes are a distraction. I want just me and the line, that’s it. It’s not the idea of being naked, but the idea of nothing holding me back, so the clothes come off,” he said.
A strong mind is a must for a person who wants to do something as physically challenging as slacklining, but Lewis said half the battle is believing. There will always be failure involved, but Lewis is not fussed about it.
“It’s a hard struggle to fail, but on the opposite side, when you fail, you humble yourself, and if there’s a next time you will try to do better and you start being positive. You take that as inspiration and motivation to be better.”
Having broken many personal and world records, he still wants to keep going, although he cannot really pinpoint why. He credits his strong motivation to wanting to lash back at society for trying to destroy the freedom of people.
“I wake up in the morning and want to do something cool. I want to push my limits. The need to feed on life is what keeps me going. I don’t really want to know why I keep pushing and I don’t think it’s important. It’s interesting that there are a million excuses for people not to do things, but when you talk to people who do the most amazing things, they do it just because. You can have no reason to do something and a million reasons not to.”
Lewis has learned a lot from slacklining, most of his lessons spiritual. Doing something that puts him inches away from death, he said, makes him realise how small and insignificant life is, and how people make such a big deal about themselves without that realisation. The sport also teaches him a wide array of feelings, from soaring confidence to soul-gripping fear.
“It’s like jumping into a pool of cold water. It’s not knowing the outcome of what’s happening, and that’s the metaphor of life. You see the end of the line but you just can’t get there — you have to take one step at a time. It’s about focusing and feeling in the moment, but having an end goal. When I am on the line, I focus on the moment. Living in the moment is what I live for,” he said.
