Taping Highlines

How do you tape two webbings together? And what's the best tape to use? Check it out on this episode of How Not to Highline. Hi, I'm Ryan Jinks and welcome to my garage. Today we're going to show you how to tape two webbings together and the best kind of tapes you can use. In case you don't know, Highline requires a minimum of two lines. A main line for you to walk on and a backup line in case you're having bad luck that day. In order to get them to stay together, we tape them together. The backup line, whether or not it's webbing or a rope backup, is going to be at a different tension than the main line. From tensioning, to walking, to falling, or even blowing in the wind, these two lines need to be able to move independently from each other. If we were going to tape these two lines together with the sticky side on both webbings, it's either going to break that tape or one of them is going to work itself loose in that tape and leave the sticky glue all over one of your webbings. So instead what we use is called slider tapes, where we put the tape on one of the lines but not on the other so it can slide independently of each other. So the method I'm going to show you on how to put on slider tapes I believe was developed by Jerry Meschewski from Balance Community and is the most efficient and the standard method to put on slider tapes today. So you take about two inches of tape and you put it in between the two webbings with the sticky side facing up. So you have an inch stuck to the main line and about an inch and a half left over here, which you go over the top, creating a non-sticky side here. So I go around with my tape and I still have some non-sticky here so it's not stuck to the edge of my webbing and I go around one and a half times. I break my tape underneath because it's not necessary to go around again and it's nice not to have more than necessary on top. And now my backup line can move independently from my main line. So there's a bunch of different kinds of tapes that you can use to do this. Vinyl tape or electric tape is one of your options. Black tape here is your typical three quarter inch vinyl electric tape that you can buy from Home Depot. I find the black vinyl tape tends to leave it's glue residue more than the red vinyl tapes possibly because the sun heats it up more. Here you have half inch and one inch red vinyl electric tape. The skinnier tape seems to have less of an impact on your line but the wider tape tends to hold more. The one inch red vinyl tape is what Balance Community sells on their website right now. The other tape you can use is either climbing tape or duct tape. The climbing tape tends to leave a little bit more glue residue than the red vinyl tape but it's a little bit more durable. And if you need ultra durable duct tape which will leave a lot of glue residue on your line is your best bet. Ideally it's best to tape your backup line to your main line and leave it forever. But if you need to remove your tape for whatever reason you just want to make sure that your tape doesn't slide across your webbing leaving that glue residue. You can either break it like this or you can grab both strands like that and break it like that. Or what I find best is just to undo it just like you put it on and when you have your main line here you just rip off the tape and then peel it off. There could be situations that you want three lines taped together. You could be either paranoid about safety or you want to tape three heavy lines together for training or if you're doing a rope jump that requires additional lines. Or in this case where Garrison wanted to try out somebody else's sonic webbing but already had his moonwalk pre-taped and didn't want to untape it. So we just taped his double moonwalk to the sonic webbing. So there's three different ways to tape three webbings together. The first one would be to tape the top and middle together and the middle and the bottom together. This kind of distributes the weight along the thing and it makes for a nice Christmas decoration. And the second way you can do it is to pre-tape your backup lines and then periodically tape the backup lines to the main line all in one bundle. And the third way of doing it is just to tape both the backup lines together because technically they are still able to move independently of each other. So the idea is that you want your tapes often enough and strong enough so that you don't have the problems we had at the CRG 700 footer. Our tapes were breaking leaving these huge hundred foot loops and we were getting our backup lines on top of our main lines and super twisted. This is a really important tip. You don't want your tapes loose enough that your backup line can twist inside of it. Try to get your tapes as snug as possible while still allowing your backup line to freely move through it. So how close can your tapes be together? Well that depends on how long your line is. For a 10 meter line you'll want to tape 3 or 4 times evenly across the line. For a line under 100 meters I like to keep my tapes between 2 to 3 meters apart from each other so my backup line doesn't become uncontrolled and become a royal mess. For a line over 100 meters you can get away with taping over 10 meters apart from each other because it's all relative to how long the line is. It can also help to not tape regularly down your high line. Having irregular loops in your backup line can help absorb some of the bad energy that sometimes you send down the line. On my spider silk rig I took the time to measure how many feet each tape was from the static side of my rig. Starting with 2 feet, then 5, then 10, all the way down. This was kind of time consuming but it's really fun to be able to see how long your lines actually are when you're out high lining. Keep in mind spider silk doesn't stretch that much. If you have a dynamic line your measurements could be off. And yes, in America we do like to use feet a lot. Mostly for walking on high lines but sometimes to measure them too. If you get nothing else from this video, listen to this. Tape your line at home. It can be a real pain in the ass if it's windy or if you have a long loose line it can be real hard trying to hang on with two hands under the tape and stay on the line where you want to be. If you do have to tape a high line after it's already rigged and it's super slanted, just get on top of the line and lay on your chest and you won't slide around as much while you use both hands to try to tape that line. And I highly recommend not to use your entire roll of tape. It's really nice to have partial rolls like this when you just need to make a repair or two on your line every once in a while. And if I'm having tape issues on a high line, I just put a partial roll of tape on my leash so it doesn't fall off and it's always available if I need it. I don't really ever feel it and it doesn't affect my walking experience. This is especially a nice trick if you're going to be sending the leash to the static side when you first rig a high line so when they slide back they have tape to make repairs as they come. And after enough time in use, the edges start to roll up over themselves, mostly with the climbing athletic tape, and especially when you're aggressively rolling over them, it'll tend to curl up these edges more and more. So just be mindful when you're getting these tape edges rolled over that you don't slide across too aggressively. Sometimes it's nice just to lift yourself up over them as you go by. The fastest way to destroy a tape job, especially with loose backup lines that get all wrapped around over the main line, is to be sliding across the main line and it catches on that backup line, ripping the tape as you go over it. So we just covered a lot of info, let's recap. You can use electric tape, climbing tape, or duct tape. Narrow tape will leave less impact on your line, while wide tape will hold your two lines together better. You don't have to take your tape off after each trip, leave it on as long as you like. You don't have to tape three lines together, just make sure that the tape doesn't break. Your tape distances should be a little bit inconsistent. For shorter lines you'll have two to three meters, and for your longer lines you'll have eight to ten meters between your tapes. Don't forget to make your tape snug so you don't get twists in your line. You can write the length on your tapes if you want to keep track of distances. And don't forget to do all your taping at home. If you are taping a highline after it's rigged, and you're sliding around, just get on top of the line and lay on your chest. Don't forget to keep partial rolls for repairs, and you can put those rolls on your leash if you want. And just be careful when you slide across your tapes. Taping a highline can be a real pain in the ass, therefore, you shouldn't highline. Hey, don't be a dummy and go do dangerous boards after a guy in his garage teaches you how to do it, but make sure you go with an expert the first few times you go highlining. In the meantime, check out these other videos, and don't forget to subscribe. Thanks for watching, and please be safe.