The Origin Story: How LavaLine Came to Be
The Origin Story: How LavaLine Came to Be
To slackline over lava admittedly doesn't sound like the most normal thing to do, but for us it was the most exciting & extraordinary adventure of our lives and the fulfillment of a dream. Where did this idea come from? For that you have to take a look at my past:
Childhood & youth
Father & son in France
I was practically raised to be an adventurer. Our normal family holidays consisted of mountain climbing, white water river rafting and kayaking to sea caves that you had to dive into underwater. On father-son trips we walked through rivers (canyoning) and explored the Earth’s interior in caves. During the 6th spring of my life we drove across Morocco for five weeks in a motorhome and skied down the country’s highest dune; three months later we were in Sicily and I experienced lava at close range for the first time at Mount Etna. I stood there fascinated, just a few meters away from this red and yellow, bubbling and spitting hole and felt the heat on my skin. Since then, we’ve been to Etna and other European volcanoes many times - but I never did come so close to the lava itself again. Of the countless exciting experiences of my childhood and youth, it was that very first encounter with that elemental force that really lit a fire in me.
Slacklining career & the idea
One of the first highlines I did actually took place during the last holiday I went on together with my parents. At that time I was 18 years old. Since then, I’ve had such a bad case of slacklining fever that activities with my parents fell to the wayside! After our first slackline successes and big projects, the idea of walking in front of or even over lava came to me while I was thinking about that impressive childhood experience. For me it was clear from the beginning: My father has to be there if I ever do try it! But before any of that could happen at all, a location had to be found where a "LavaLine'' could be realized: Unfortunately the European volcanoes were not an option. On the one hand there are insurmountable bureaucratic and safety hurdles, on the other hand the eruptions do not occur at plannable intervals except at Stromboli. After extensive research Johannes and I focused on Mount Yasur in faraway Vanuatu. After the post-production of BuildingBridges was finished at the end of 2019 and the project was published, we could finally start LavaLine. Sponsors and partners were found and won over. Ulla Lohmann and Basti Hofmann know the volcano, as well as the country and its people like the back of their hands. We therefore asked them to be part of the project as our guides and fixers for the film production. We also brought my brasilian slackline colleague Rafael Bridi from Natural Extremo on board at short notice, and he was just as passionate as we were from the get-go.
Two weks too late
Five days before takeoff we received news that put us in a difficult spot: Tight rope guy Nick Wallenda was balancing over the Masaya volcano lake in Nicaragua. Since it was to be marketed on a large scale, we were afraid that the story "Man walking on lava" was "over and done", so to speak. We debated the issue and agreed that the first slackline over lava was still a story worth telling and that our individual take on it, combined with my back story would provide sufficient interest.
Let’s go!
What we couldn’t yet predict, was that our trip to the other end of the world would be so dramatically affected by the Corona crisis, that it became a whole different kind of adventure. So in March 2020, when the official number of people infected with Covid-19 worldwide had only "just" passed the 100,000 mark and the virus was still in the early stages of spreading in Europe, apart from Italy and Spain, we set off for the island lost in the Pacific.