(Sao Paulo) The Brazilian Rafael Bridi, specialist in high linetraveled 510 meters on Wednesday on a strap stretched between two tall buildings in Sao Paulo, breaking an urban distance record for the Americas.
The 35-year-old barefoot tightrope walker traveled this distance in 25 minutes at 114 meters above sea level, above the Vale do Anhangabau, a district located in the heart of the megalopolis, AFP-TV noted.
Rafael Bridi was to try to repeat his feat in the afternoon.
“I don’t even remember what I thought, I was very focused, especially on my breathing, this strength that comes from the abdomen,” Bridi explained to AFP-TV as soon as he arrived on the roof of the second building.
He also took care to “maintain a relaxed posture so that it is a crossing of pleasure and not of great effort”.
Bridi, a high-altitude traversal specialist and Guinness World Record holder, took a small fall about halfway through the traverse, but recovered by sitting on the slackliningbefore getting up a few seconds later.
This performance took place on the occasion of the 469e anniversary of the metropolis of Sao Paulo, an immense urban jungle of more than 12 million inhabitants in the south-east of Brazil.
“I feel very honored today” and “very well received” by the Paulistas, he continued, “it is not only a crossing, but a record for the anniversary of Sao Paulo”.
“Sao Paulo is very different from what you can imagine in Brazil or in the world,” he said, referring to “such a concentration of people”. “I looked down, I saw people in buildings, I waved to them.”
“After all, men made all these buildings, so why not use them in another way? “, he asks.
The Brazilian native of Florianopolis (southern Brazil) is more familiar with performances in the great outdoors.
In 2021, Bridi made a spectacular crossing between two hot air balloons at an altitude of 1901 meters in Brazil, setting a record.
In 2020 it had evolved above a still active volcano in Vanuatu, a first in the world.
Bridi practices the high line for 10 years. “Every morning you wake up thinking about the high lineand at night you go to bed thinking about high line he says.
“I have a well-regulated routine”, he explains, “I get up very early, I do stretching, meditation”.
He trains on a slacklining three times a week, while practicing running, surfing, biking, climbing and canoeing in order to “always keep this body active”.