300 m PES

300 on Polyester - A dream comes true

Having plenty of time, freshly mowed meadows within 10 minutes from my home and a new 300 m piece of webbing, I took the opurtunity to realize the project „300m Polyester Slackline“.

Alex report:

We had to pull in 35 m to get the line to the desired tension of 19 kN. The first 18m I pulled in by myself, then Johannes arrived from munich. Unfortunately he soon had to pick up Clemens from the train station. But I was lucky because 4 guys living next to the spot helped me pulling, so the next 14 meters were much easier and faster. After we had pulled them in, the dynanometer showed 15 kN, so i changed from pulleysystem and Linegrip to chain host and did the last 400 kilogramms in exchange with Clemens. After half an hour an the chain host the line had the desired tension of 19 kN, but when I checked the sag in the middle, I sat on the ground. We put the anchor on the tensioning side with help of the pulley system half a meter higher. Checking again: nearly 3m sag and 10cm space to the ground, finally ready to walk! It was around 6 pm by then, so I made only a short rest, then went on the beast. When i stood up, I was surprised that it felt easier than expected. I soon realized that I like the stretch and behaviour of this webbing a lot. But still, i had to keep focus all the time and react to every movement of the line which I caused. That made the walk slow but also very controlled. Just once in the middle and 10m before the end I had a critical situation. The middle felt really nice at every walk, bouncing there was so slow! But on the way back i had to stop bouncing in the middle, otherways i would have hit the ground as the tension had dropped...
Last action of the day was measuring the line: The Laser showed 299,96m.
When returning with Clemens to the spot the next day, the first thing we did was putting the line with a special technic to a tree 2m farther behind. So the line was now 302m long :)
We retensioned to 1,9 tonnes, then I went on the first 300m long Polyester Slackline ever rigged: I needed 3 tries to cross it. After the sent it started to rain, and I was also a bit exhausted from the day before, so I kept the other direction for the next day.
On the third day Lukas Irmler swang by for half a day and we both enjoyed the line. On his first try only 10m were missing for a send. I could complete the Fullman of this line today. The swinging chain host in combination with a height of 4m made the last 20m the hardest part (the other 2 days we didn't have the chain host in the line).
These 3 days showed me one thing: 300m PES is possible and not the limit yet!

Huge thanks to Johannes, Clemens, the people who helped pulling and my family for making a dream come true!!!
 

Line Facts:

webbing: „blueWing“ (63g/m, 30 kN breaking strength)
tension: 18-18,5 kN during walk; max tension on the line: 19 kN
tensioning system: embedded 9:1 (to 15 kN), then chain host
date of the sends:
   8th mai 2012: 299,96m (Laser measurred); OS FM (Onsight Full Man)
   9th mai 2012: 302m (Laser measurred); Half Man (one way)
 10th mai 2012: 302m; way back