Holding a handstand is hard. How much harder would it be to balance upside down on a rope? It may sound impossible, but people around the world are bouncing and balancing on slacklines. Slacklining is a sport much like tightrope walking. But instead of a wire, it uses a flat, stretchy rope that sags and swings.
Sonya Iverson fell in love with slacklining in 2008. She practiced and eventually worked up to highlining, a version of the sport where people (wearing safety ropes) cross canyons at terrifying heights. Iverson has slacklined in more than 20 countries, including Turkey, Germany, and China. Now, she is bringing the sport to unlikely places: refugee settlements in Lebanon.
Doing a handstand is hard. How much harder would it be to balance upside down on a rope? It may sound impossible. But people around the world are doing it. They're bouncing and balancing on ropes called slacklines. Slacklining is a sport much like tightrope walking. But a flat, stretchy rope is used instead of a wire. Unlike a stiff tightrope, the slackline sags and swings.
Sonya Iverson fell in love with slacklining in 2008. She started practicing a lot. Iverson eventually worked up to a version of the sport called highlining. In highlining, people cross canyons at terrifying heights. (They wear safety ropes.) Iverson has slacklined in more than 20 countries. She's visited Turkey, Germany, and China. Now she is bringing the sport to unlikely places. She's teaching slacklining to people in refugee settlements in Lebanon.