Adapt the difficulty with your level and with your mood! What you need to start practicing almost every kind of slackline is very simple:
- a pair of sneakers (don’t overrate your ankles)
- a slackline will be perfect for most of the different purposes, at least at the beginning (find by the way our Review about the Gibbon Classic slackline, a very good and very simple slackline to start)
- 2 posts/trees
- perseverance
From the very easy two-section set-up to one more sophisticated three-section that take long minutes, we are going to see quickly how to make the best and safer set-up .
Two-section setup
Why two-section ? Very simply because it's made of two parts: one long (30-100 foot) and a much shorter (10ft). A ratchet link everything and allow the two sections of webbing to be connected and tensioned to the user's specifications. Very tense if you start and want to learn easier, or not very tense if you are already quite skilled and want to bounce and are likely to make some tricks.
Find here the set-up instructions for the Gibbon Classic Line (made by Gibbon) :
Three-section setup
A more traditional slackline setup includes three sections setup made of : a long section (30 ft.–100 ft.) tightly attached and connected to the two shorter sections (8–12 ft.) which are going to be used as anchors on the trees. The tensioning system is the most difficult and widely discussed element of the slackline setup.
Three anchors
Trees are usually the most commun anchors to do slacklining. Ideally the trees should be bigger than 12 inches (30cm) in diameter. There are several very effective methods of tree protection that function on two principles: eliminating abrasion, and redistributing the load over a wider area.
Three anchors
In order to effectively protect the trees you can use a wrap of vertical blocks (1 in × 1 in (2.5 cm × 2.5 cm) cut into 6 in (15 cm) pieces) strung together by drilling a small-diameter hole through the center and running cord through them. Blocks are spaced evenly to prevent the anchor slings from contacting and abrading the outer bark, and the length of the blocks distributes the load vertically as opposed to horizontally, compressing a continuous line around the trunk. The founding community of slickliners considers that put a carpet square between the block wrap and the outer bark is ideal. As many others you can also use towels, carpet or purpose-made tree protectors to protect the trees.
We would like to warn you however that only using carpet squares or cardboard will only adress abrasion, leaving the load concentrated on a small area of the tree. It is rather adequate for occasional use, one who slacklines regularly should take every precaution to protect the life of the tree.
