Video #15 "High-Liners"

After a month of cold, snow, rain, and sitting and waiting for a weather window that embodied our time in Patagonia, the heat, humidity and non-stop action that has entailed our time in Rio since we touched down has certainly been a welcome juxtaposition. Fresh off the plane from Buenos Aires, we marched two hours with heavy loads straight uphill through the jungle to an amazing perch at the summit of the Gavea Stone, (translates as The Crows Nest) which offers 360 views of the city.

Our good friend Hugo had set up a mind numbingly exposed highline, and we were psyched and scared to give it a whirl. One similarity between the summit of the Gavea stone and Patagonia was the wind. That first day on the line was a total head-trip with high winds propelling clouds up from the city and then straight into the summit of the Gavea Stone. We were literally walking in the clouds, which made crossing the line next to impossible.
Renan and I got beat up big time, and hiking up for another round on day two, we both had strong doubts as to whether we were going to pull off successful crossings. The line had only seen one ascent by Hugo and repelled all other suitors so we were definitely psyched to break through and walk the line. But not before some more spine rattling, soul wrenching falls.
I walked in the traditional forward on the line style, but Renan side-stepped the entire line facing out towards the city. Renan has always been a side stepper, which is how he feels comfortable walking, but to watch him walk a line this way is horrifying. Each time he would have a bobble and nearly fall it looked as if he was going to do a back flip or front flip off the line!! Crazy!!
So since the line we’ve had some other wild climbing adventures here and gotten more footage for Sender Films, so stay tuned for more videos and writing. A final note about our short videos which we have been working very hard on is that a lot of the unusual “light tricks” you are seeing are not video filters, they are us playing around with mixing shots of car lights or streetlights reflected in the rain with action footage. We are also doing some fun stuff where we animate Kempy’s photos to give it a wild moving effect. Our aim is to create something truly unique, from my original music which scores most of the pieces including this one, to Renan’s artistic eye for editing we are combining our skills into something we hope you find fresh and exciting. Cheers from the field. Lots of Love. Cedar Wright.