Daredevil makes new high wire record by walking 260ft in the air
By ANIMonday, August 30, 2010
LONDON - A daredevil high wire performer has apparently broken his own record by cycling across a tightrope 260ft in the air, without a safety net.
Nik Wallenda, a seventh-generation funambulist from the Flying Wallendas circus family, cycled more than 100ft along the wire strung between two hotels at the Paradise Island Atlantis resort in the Bahamas.
The new record for the highest traverse of a high wire on a bicycle has not yet been confirmed by Guinness World Records.
Wallenda defied winds of 28 knots and occasional thunderstorms to safely complete the traverse - the furthest he has ever travelled by foot on a high wire.
“Against all odds I walked on that wire today. There was lightning in the area, high winds, and it was the first walk without my father,” the Telegraph quoted Wallenda as saying.
“It was one of the hardest decisions I ever made in my life and the hardest walk I have ever done. But my family history and my family tradition is that the show must go on,” he said.
Wallenda is the great-grandson of the celebrated circus performer Karl Wallenda, who died after falling off a high wire in San Juan, Puerto Rico in 1978.
He said he hopes to continue performing as long as he is physically able, and added: “I want to be the first person in the world to walk across the Grand Canyon, and I have the permit to do it.” (ANI)
