Being the First

by Crazy Ivan

So Maverick added a new skill toy to the House of Skills' collection the other day.  If you're not familiar with "slack-lining", picture tight rope walking on a seat belt and you pretty much have the idea.  It's a tight line about 3 inches wide that you ratchet up to a couple of trees and then walk across... or try to walk across anyway.

Just for the record, none of us had anything to do with that video.  That's a vid that the producers put out so I guess the guys you see there are essentially the "Myachi Masters" of slack-lining.  They're doing all kinds of cool stuff there.  Our highlight video at this point would essentially consist of us stumbling four steps out and then falling off.

But yesterday was our first day on it and like every other skill toy that's come into this house, it's only a matter of time before we master it.  I already managed a pretty solid hand stand on it and Mav pulled off a leaping 360 at one point last night.

And, of course, we Myachied on it as well.  We had it set up in the back yard between the fence post and a big tree leaving us about 12 feet of walkable line.  I managed to Fu and Fusion my way across without dropping the Myachi or myself into the muck below.  While I can't confirm this, I believe that makes me the first person ever who played Myachi across a slack line.

Which brings me to the larger point of this entry.  Because Myachi is such a young and expansive sport, it stands to reason that any creative person could probably accomplish something that nobody has ever done before.  There are so many tricks yet to be discovered, so many marriages between Myachi and other skills that have yet to be attempted, so many crazy challenges that have not even occurred to us yet.

That's the beauty of getting into a game on the ground floor.  There are so many barriers yet to be broken down.  Think about it, if you'd gotten into skateboarding in the late 70s almost everything you did would be ground-breaking.  Almost every trick you came up with would be new.  Almost every move you landed would be revolutionary.

We've always been big fans of using Myachi in conjunction with other skill toys.  We've done Myachi while riding unicycle, while riding a skateboard, on a balance board, while yo-yoing, while juggling, on stilts... and of course, now on a slack line.

So what is your claim to fame?  I ask because there's a good chance that you've pioneered a move or type of trick with Myachi without even realizing it.  I saw a video online a while back where a Myachi Maniac tossed his Myachi over his entire house and had a buddy catch it in the back yard.  That was almost certainly a first.

The easiest way to invent new tricks and challenges is to combine Myachi with some of the other stuff you do.  If you think you've got a "Myachi first", leave it in the comments section below.  Strange as it is, some us are keeping track of these firsts.

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Edit: We were hesitant to set up the line again today because of the snow, but eventually we couldn't take it anymore.  Here is a quick vid of Mav and I playing.  Keep in mind that we're just starting to learn what we're doing here...  Don't expect any backflips just yet.