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Wednesday night I watched Nik Wallenda make a record breaking tight rope walk on the Discovery Channel's "Life on a Wire". I wish I could embed a video for you but for some reason I can't get the blogger video to work ... maybe it's just me or maybe its blogger... again!
I must admit that the information I had gleaned from the June 22nd edition of the Sarasota - Manatee Herald Tribune was not completely correct. It was stated that the premiere episode of this new reality series would be in San Juan Puerto Rico where Nik and his mother, Delilah, would walk across a 300 foot high wire. In truth the episode was filmed in the Bahamas where Nik, his family and crew set up his high wire rigging between two high rise luxury hotels ... spanning a distance of 2,000 feet and over 200 feet in the air.
I held my breath as he went across the wire and can only imagine how suspenseful and terrifying it must have been to watch live from the audience far, far below. Nik first went across the cable on a bike and then later ventured across this huge expanse on foot and holding a balance pole. Afternoon tropical winds had picked up, the warning of an approaching storm. Nik's shirt flapped and fluttered about him but he was on the wire and now committed, there was no turning back.
Meanwhile, on the ground below, his wife and mother rushed about frantically giving commands to the men holding the stabilizing cables that kept the high wire from swaying. "Pull back tighter ! See the the way that cable sags? Lean that way, take that slack out to the cable." The two women had a lot at stake here, Nik was a husband to one and the father of her children and to the other he was a beloved son. Both women knew that a fall from such heights meant certain death and the Wallenda family was no stranger to death. In the past, through 7 generations of Wallendas, there had been several injuries and a number of lives lost in fatal falls ... one of which was a fall that involved a multi person high wire pyramid. The fear factor was extreme and very real. Breaths held, hearts stopped until Nik finally reached the safety of the building at other end of the cable.
As I said, I wish I could have embedded a video for you, however I did receive this from Delilah this morning on facebook :
Delilah Wallenda, a circus high-wire acrobat and the seventh generation of the Flying Wallendas circus family, walks across a 300-foot-long wire suspended 100 feet in the air between two towers of the Conrad Condado Plaza Hotel in San Juan, Puerto Rico, Saturday June 4, 2011. Delilah's grandfather, the German-born Karl Wallenda, tried to perform the same feat in 1978 but fell to his death at age 73. Delilah and her son Nik Wallenda commemorated the famous family patriarch by successfully completing the same stunt simultaneously Saturday. (AP Photo/Ricardo Arduengo)http://my.news.yahoo.com/photos/delilah-wallenda-circus-high-wire-acrobat-seventh-generation-photo-193152661.html
FOR SOME REASON THE ABOVE LINK ISN'T WORKING IN BLOGGER I'LL TRY THIS AND KEEP MY FINGERS CROSSED :
DELILAH WALLENDA
The Flying Wallendas ... they fly through the air with the greatest of ease those daring young men on the Flying Trapeze.
Delilah, beautiful, vibrant, light, breezy and clever. It was hard to believe that this lovely woman could actually be a grandmother but the fact was she’s not only a grandmother but a high wire artist as well. A member of the famous "Flying Wallendas" that performed world wide and astounded audiences with their tempts of fate. Perched high above the ground the Wallenda family do their amazing acts of showmanship, flying from trapeze to trapeze, twirling, turning and somersaulting through thin air. But this is not their only fame, the Wallendas are especially famous for their performances on the high wire, far above the ground and without a safety net. Risky? Definitely ! However these are professionals, the Wallenda are artists that never take their skills lightly, theirs is a life of constant practice, practice and more practice. Performing high in the air is in their blood and the gene, if one wishes to call it that, is passed on from generation to generation.
In 1978 Karl Wallenda, the patriarch of the Wallenda family, performed in San Juan, Puerto Rico. It would be a performance that no one would forget, one that would make news world wide. Karl would plummet to his death ! 73 years old at the time, Karl was sharp, stable and knew what he was doing, his death was not caused by diminished abilities but by improper rigging. Rigging is the link between life and death for a high wire artist, just one cable not in the proper position or not tighten enough could spell tragedy.
I first met Delilah in the early 90’s at the Palm Aire Country Club and Restaurant where she worked as their charming hostess. She was one of those rare dark haired beauties that turned heads when she walked by and whenever her name Wallenda was mentioned people would quip; "Oh are you one of the Flying Wallenda’s ?". To which she’d respond; "Yes I am". You could only imagine the jaws that dropped. "Are you serious?" Delilah would smile ever so sweetly and explained that she is the granddaughter of the famous Karl Wallenda and that , yes, she performs on both trapeze and on the high wire.
Tonight, June 22nd, the Discovery Channel will be airing a new series about "Life on the Wire", a true reality series featuring Karl’s descendants his great-grandson, Nik Wallenda and Nik’s mother, Delilah Wallenda. The first episode airs at 10 PM tonight and will take the audience back to San Juan where the grandson Nik will walk across a 300 foot long cable, stretched across a span between two tall buildings, 100 feet above ground ... Delilah will accompany him.
I intend to watch this show as I’ve never seen Delilah perform before. Though it was well known that at the Wallenda house their backyard was home to a full rig of trapeze and high wire equipment and that at certain times the public could witness them during practice sessions. I was never so fortunate to witness this, each time we drove by their home I’d glance into the tree tops to see the high wire rigging empty but filled with promises of an amazing family with incredible abilities.
If you can I suggest you tune in the program, I have a feeling Nik Wallenda will be making his great grandfather very proud.
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