SBP are a slacklining team who have been travelling the world to find the best spots to set up our slacklines in the most amazing places. The Minirig has come along for the ride……… and boy, what a ride it has been. It has been a great source of music and has been put to good use where ever we have been.
Slacklining is when you walk on a 1 or 2 inch wide piece of flat webbing stretched between two fixed points. It is usually is only slightly tensioned which means that it moves and wobbles. It can be done on the ground over large distances (The world record is 500m!!) or with extra safety precautions taken up high between buildings and mountains.
The Minirig’s first adventure was on an outstanding trip to the mountains above Monaco for a 4 day new year’s eve slackline celebration. Friends from all over Europe travelled to this middle ground to live life, slackline and party down, dirtbag style. Fortunately there was an old abandoned military cave which had been left open. It was mostly dry with only a few leaks but on the plus side it had a massive fire place which came in very handy on the cold nights. We didn’t care about having to sleep on a concrete floor or going to the toilet behind a rock or off a cliff because it’s all about location, location, location. The whole of Monaco could be seen below like an amazingly complex painting with its stadiums, high-rise hotels and of course multi million pound yachts. With this beautiful view it was just the right place to set up 3 slacklines. 20m longs, 35m long and 40m long.
Balancing on an inch of moving webbing over such a gap can be terrifying and there can be a lot of mental barriers, but on the other side of fear is freedom and if you are lucky enough to get to the other side without falling this intense feelings of fear turn into great feelings of accomplishment and achievement.
The Minirig was useful in so many ways. The nonstop 26 hour drive that involved drinking instant coffee and standing on our heads at 3 am in a French service station. This clapped out little car with tiny door speakers was not match for the Minirig and its mighty sound, which kept us going through the night, plus who doesn’t enjoy a sing-along on a road trip. This however was not the thing that impressed me the most about the Minirig. One of the first days slacklining we had was also the sunniest, and it was the speakers time to shine, putting it on the high volume setting filled the mountain side with music for people on both sides of the abyss and helped make a good atmosphere, great. Not only could I tell the Minirig was safe at all times as I could hear it everywhere but it helped calm anybody walking the lines as well as all the people watching and waiting (which can feel like torture sometimes). The tunes were literally playing for the whole day on the highest volume but the Minirig wasn’t done yet, it soldiered on (albeit not on full volume and not all the time) for 3 more days. I was truly convinced of its amazing battery life. It also showed it’s worthiness in the cave, providing great sounds for breakfast lunch and dinner and though a game of chess or two when it was raining. Being small and easy to carry not only has the Minirig proven its worth on this trip but will have a reserved place of all of the future trips planned.