Stuntman confident ahead of Niagara tightrope walk
Wallenda to wear safety harness
Alittle after 8 tonight, Nik Wallenda, a 33-year-old Florida-born stuntman, will say a quiet prayer before setting foot onto a two-inch thick cable and attempting to become the first man in 100 years to cross Niagara Falls on a tightrope.
But while the trip across the falls from the U.S. to Canada is about 1,800 feet and will take 45 minutes, the journey to get there has taken much longer and risks being overshadowed by a health and safety row.
He spent two years wrangling with U.S . and Canadian authorities who initially refused to allow the stunt. And he has spent nearly 30 years dreaming about the possibility — since a trip to the falls when he was six years old.
In an interview before his attempt, Wallenda, whose family has performed high-wire stunts for seven generations, said: “I visited the falls with my family when I was six years old. I remember peering over the edge and thinking how cool it would be to put a rope over there.”
His fantasy was hindered by the fact that Niagara has for more than a century enforced a ban on stunts amid concerns that they had become commonplace.
In the meantime Wallenda, a father of three, set about other death-defying spectacles. In 2011, he walked on a high wire between the two towers of the 10-storey Condado Plaza Hotel in San Juan, Puerto Rico, a walk which
I’ve never worn one before. . . . It is going to be very testing and very uncomfortable.
NIK WALLENDA
saw his great-grandfather Karl fall to his death in 1978.
But two years ago, he returned to his Niagara fantasy. New York state and Canada’s Niagara Parks Commission agreed to lift the ban. The economic climate may have forced the NPC’s hand. With 120,000 people expected to watch in person it will be a huge tourism boost.
But the agreement came with a caveat. The NPC said that they would only consider future requests “once in a generation” saying it would be at least 20 years before they considered another.
Wallenda faced one more obstacle in the form of the safety demands of his main sponsor, the ABC television network. They insisted he wear a tether, to avoid the possibility of live coverage of a man falling to his death.
It is a condition that Wallenda has reluctantly agreed to, as he cannot afford to perform without ABC’s backing.
“I’ve never worn one before,” he complained. “It would be like me suddenly telling you to drive on the other side of the road. It is going to be very testing and very uncomfortable.”
The decision has caused some criticism and threatens to overshadow the attempt. Critics pointed out that it could no longer technically be described as “death-defying” given that the worst out come is that he would be suspended above the falls until help arrives. He will have other difficulties however. The falls are the most powerful in the world and generate high winds and lots of mist.
Wallenda has tried to replicate the conditions, creating winds of 55 mph in training and being blasted with water by fire engine hoses.
“The only real difference will be the height. I’ll be much higher off the ground,” he said. “In training we had crowds of up to 4,000 and I’ve performed in front of large crowds since I was two years old.”
He refused even to entertain the notion that anything could go wrong. “I wouldn’t do this if I didn’t think I could do it.”