1st Nippon Open Slackline Competition

Tuesday, November 23rd, 2010 in: News

When I brought my slackline to Japan last February, the locals reacted pretty much the same as everywhere else; with curiosity and interest. What other response is there when you’re walking through the park and some crazy guy is levitating a meter off the ground, walking between trees, than to stop and stare? Many would come up and strum the line tentatively like a banjo string, as if they were half expecting it to snap at the anchor and hit them in the face. Braver souls, mostly children, would clamber onto the line and jump off with a squeal. Three out of four times I set my line up, I would spend more time showing strangers how to walk the line than actually practicing myself. Slackline is just one of those things that appeals to a wide audience, not just the “oh that looks hard I’ll just watch” crowd, but it’s the kind of sport that people want to try for themselves. It’s as fun and challenging as it looks, and when you get into it, it goes so much deeper than mere play… but that’s a subject for another post.

Gibbon first came to Japan about a year and a half ago to promote their slackline kits, setting up lines and inviting people to come try them out. Unsurprisingly, only a handful of diehard fans have stuck with it to competition level, but it’s garnered a lot of casual interest from people; the slackline group on Mixi (Japan’s Facebook) is as big as the ones for yo-yo and juggling, at over a thousant members. Not even two years later, Gibbon is sponsoring the first Japan National Slackline Contest. This was my real reason for coming to Tokyo that weekend.

I was considering entering the contest myself but opted out for a few reasons. Not only was I badly out of practice, I had little experience on the wide Gibbon lines, and had only jumped around on a Jibline once. Gibbon riders have a much different style than I’m used to, so I wasn’t sure if I could keep up with them. Second, since it was the first Japanese contest, I would’ve felt like an intruder as the only foreigner there. Also, the 8,000 yen entry free was discouraging. Nevertheless, I thought it was worth going, if just to see the competition and meet some of the riders.

And worth it is was. I met up with some friends and found the venue, Buddy Sports in Toyosu. The preliminaries were going on, so I stepped behind the webbing into the practice area and introduced myself to the riders. They weren’t just friendly, they all recognized me from my mixi comments! Having already established a rapport with the riders, we played around a bit on the line, and after lunch I spent the entire time filming the finals.

The entire competition took place on a Gibbon 2″ Jibline around waist-high. The ground had a few inches of foam padding for spills. The tricks were indeed of a different style than my own. The Jibline is much more trampoline-like, leading to much bouncing and flipping and gnashing of teeth. My only criticism is that without fail, the riders would dip their hands and feet onto the padding to stabilize their bounce. This makes repeated bouncing exponentially easier, and although without it there probably wouldn’t be much of a show, I can’t but feel that this is, well, cheating a bit. I’m not sure how to reconcile this thought with my desire to be a part of this community. That nagging thought aside, the competition was great fun, and it was well worth the trip back to Tokyo, along with all the other things about that weekend that made the trip worthwhile.

Here’s the video I put together from all the footage I took the competition, hope you like it!

httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MYtOU_jOb2g

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