How I Move
The slackliner and Tiktok star explains her sudden rise to fame, and the thrills and joy her sport brings Breannah Yeh
‘When you’re highlining, everything in your body and mind is telling you, don’t do this’
I got into slacklining when I was 13, when I saw it at my local rock climbing gym in the Bay Area, near San Francisco. It was very, very basic – I saw a kid bouncing up and down on the line, and thought, “I have to do that”. Next thing I know, I’m going back there every single weekend. Within the year, I was able to get sponsored, travelling the United States going to different competitions.
When people see highlining, they think: “Why would a person do that? That’s the dumbest thing I’ve ever seen, it’s so dangerous.”
But once I graduated college, walking a highline in Yosemite, California, was the first thing I did. Highlining is different to slacklining because of the more extreme height. Everything in your body and mind is telling you, “Don’t do this”, because you’re dangling hundreds of feet up. It’s this rush of adrenalin that you’re trying to fight to be as calm as you can. For me, it’s almost meditative. You’re able to dangle hundreds of feet in the middle of this space that no one’s been, ever. It’s very humbling.
The sport really isn’t that old, maybe 40 years.
The guy who built the gym I went to is one of the original slackliners who rigged up in Yosemite. At this gym, there was a picture of Libby Sauter – the first woman to walk the Lost Arrow Spire highline [in 2007, she crossed the famous void to the adjacent Upper Yosemite Falls]. Ever since, I have wanted to do the same. Seeing that was super-inspiring, because I was one of three or four girls in the US competing – so watching videos of women slacklining all over the world inspired me.
The cool thing about the sport, why I love it so much, is because every single person who starts wasn’t able to walk across the line the first time they tried. But if you put time into it, hours on end, I think any person could do the same thing as I’m doing. It’s an equaliser, everyone starts at square one.
I jokingly say that Cardi B made me quit my job. My video got over 45million views when she shared it, because I used her song in it.
I woke up the next morning, with this influx of messages – including from ESPN who wanted to share it. Within that next week, all these brand deals were coming in. My friends were like, “You have to quit your job, you have to ride this wave”. I was like, “No, my plan is to quit my job within two to five years – are you insane?” But, a week later, I went on Zoom and quit my job in Fintech to take this full-time. My friends let off a confetti cannon during the call with my old boss!
I knew I had slightly made it when Nike reached out to me to do an ad. How was I, as a girl that likes slacklining and jumping around, able to do all this?
It’s a surreal, awesome feeling. That’s every athlete’s dream to be able to do a campaign like that. In that moment, I thought, everything else that comes my way is just extra. I’ve already done what I wanted to do – I want to show people what the sport is about. I’ve since done campaigns with record label Atlantic and Mini Cooper.
With my videos, people say they can see so much joy in them – and that’s because every single Sunday me and my friends go out to Santa Monica beach in LA to just play.
That’s where we film. More than 100 different slackliners set up, from regulars to beginners and even tourists passing by try the lines. We’re out there having fun. I think it shines through – everyone is smiling from cheek to cheek, always. It’s a good representation of what the slacklining community is and how much joy me and my friends get out of the sport.