Watch Epic Slackline Triple Frontflip at World Championships
At the past weekend, the Gibbon World Slackline Masters were held in Stuttgart, Germany with 30 of the best trickline athletes in the world, from 14 different countries battled for the world championship title.
The new Tricklining World Champion is Abraham Hernandez from Chile. Silver won the Brasilian Randley Freitas and Bronze the Japanese Haruki Kinoshita. Tricklining is a modern sport originating from slacklining and combines spectacular areal stunts with the balance and coordination skills in slacklining. On a highly tensioned slackline, the athletes will perform crazy stunts up to triple flips in heights up to seven metres over the ground.
Besides the trickline world championships further contest were held: one of them was the Jibline contests. By moving and dancing on the slackline to the rhythm of music, the contenders will give their best to convince the crowd and judges of their skills. Winner of the Jibline contest was the Brasilian Perdo Rafael. The local hero Benni Schmid (GER) finished second. See a triple frontflip at 0:23 below.
Highlights
Comp Summary
After two mind-defying minutes of spectacular tricks, 27 year-old Abraham Hernandez from Chile sticks a triple flip and complex manoeuvres during his final run in front of an amazed crowd, and takes home the title of 2019 World Championships in Tricklining. 14 different nations were represented by over 30 of the best trickline athletes in the world who all travelled to Stuttgart, Germany to demonstrate their amazing skills on a slackline. Tricklining is a modern sport which combines trampoline-like flips and aerial manoeuvres up to 7 meters off the ground, as well as the balance and coordination skills of slacklining (balancing on a 2 or 1 inch strap).
In the semi-finals the Brazilian Randley Freitas, Abraham Hernandez from Chile, Louis Boniface from France and Haruki Kinoshita from Japan fought it out in 1 vs. 1 battles in front of the judges of the American Trickline Association (ATA) for a spot in the last round. Randley and Abraham moved on to the Finals where they battled each other with double and triple flips. Abraham managed to win over the crowd and received the best score, not only winning the World Champion title, but also moving up to the top spot in the ISA World Ranking list.
Other crowd favourites, the Nakaumura Brothers demonstrated to the audience what is already possible on a trickline at a young age. Takushi, only 8 years old and Rikuto, 10 years old, amazed everyone with complex flips and spins on a line which twice their own height. Rikuto even managed to qualify himself for the knock-out rounds but eventually was out-performed
by the future World Champion, Abraham Hernandes.
Slacklining is commonly known as a leisure activity in parks or the back yard. “I had never imagined what crazy stuff is possible on a slackline!” said Tom (23) from Stuttgart, amazement. He is motivated to learn how to balance and walk in the slackline area. Until then he had never tried it out. “It looks so easy when she does it!” Lisa (35) mentions with a smile while her 7 year-old daughter Paula balances and walks on a Slackrack, a 3m long self-supported slackline frame.
Just like Paula, many others managed to balance for at least 10 seconds on the slacklines. Visitors were invited to participate, by doing this, in Stuttgart’s run for the Global City Balance Challenge, a worldwide competition including cities like Munich, Dublin or Tokyo. The Global Balance Challenge is meant to decide which city has “the most balanced population”. Stuttgart managed to get 546 people to achieve the goal, demonstrating that with the right approach slacklining is very accessible.
“Anyone can achieve the skill of slacklining!” Robert Kaeding, who is the organizer of the championships and founder of GIBBON Slacklines, confirms. “Even my mother at the age of 66 has learned how to balance!”
Alongside the World Championships in Tricklining, two more contests were held during the weekend; a Jib-line Contest and a Speed-Line race. Jib-lining is tricklining at shorter distance and lower height, where the goal is to bounce on the line to the rhythm of the beat of the music playing at 130bpm. Here, Brazilian Pedro Rafael managed to beat Stuttgart local Benni Schmid. On the Speed-line, Marc Thomson from Switzerland achieved the quickest time of 5,2 seconds over the 15 meters distance.
The next big contest is just a month away. The Team World Championships will be held on the 7th July in Munich where teams of two will be challenging each other for the title.
Check out the latest buyer's guide:
