Slacklining
Slackliner Jaan Roose is pushing the limits of balance and bravery
Estonian slackliner Jaan Roose walked from Asia to Europe on a special 1,074m rope. Discover how he's turned daring high-wire acts into a spectacular career.
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There’s a fine line between ambition and foolishness, and Jaan Roose has been walking that narrow line – quite literally. Roose has overcome the fine line from ordinary to extraordinary with his incredible feats in slacklining. Whether it's performing double backflips, winning three world championships or illuminating the Dubai skyline with his LED Sparkline walk, Roose has truly made balancing his career. He's transformed the sport with his visionary projects and remarkable records. Here's a selection of his best slacklining moment to date.
Most recently, the Estonian slackliner made history as the first person to cross continents on a slackline. On Sunday, September 15, Roose walked across the Bosphorus Strait, balancing on a slackline stretched over the iconic July 15 Martyrs Bridge, from the Asian side to the European side of Istanbul. He completed the journey in 47 minutes despite strong winds of 21kph and a temperature of 23°C.
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Crossing continents on a rope
A special 1,074m rope was suspended over the bridge, which connects Asia and Europe at a height of 165m.
Reflecting on the achievement, dubbed the Continental Pass, Roose shared his thoughts: "In addition to connecting two continents, the Bosphorus has thousands of years of historical and cultural importance, as well as incredible natural beauty. When you combine this with the variable weather conditions and strong sea currents, it becomes a unique location for slacklining. I made history, so I'm very happy!"
I made history, so I'm very happy!
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A step towards slacklining: Jaan Roose's career start
Roose tackles the Highline Mangistau project in Kazakhstan
© Victor Magdeyev/Red Bull Content Pool
Who knew balancing on a line could be a profession? Roose certainly didn’t when he first began slacklining at the age of 18. What started as a hobby slowly evolved into a passion and then a full-blown career for him.
Born and raised in the village of Matsuri, Estonia, his interest sparked when he finished second in the King of Slackline video contest in 2010. With a broken leg from parkour, Roose submitted videos of himself performing tricks on a slackline set up in his house. “And then with a leg in a cast from trying parkour I still try to do it. I’m sick, throwing up - I tried to heal myself, and still I went,” he remembers. “I started uploading the videos and the electricity went out, it was stormy.”
That unexpected win gave him enough push to pursue slacklining professionally–till today.
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How Jaan Roose got into slacklining
In his early years of slacklining, Roose would practise after school in the headlights of his car, trying to master tricks. That even meant skipping school at times. Even though that wasn’t ideal, he wanted to give his best. He explains, “Not that not going to school is positive, but I decided that if I use it for the competition this week, it’s a better outcome - that I know I've done and tried everything if I don't go to school for a few days. While I was at school, what could have been done, it would have been done, so that I would feel that I have given my best.”
Growing up with few restrictions, he developed an inquisitive personality. “I was told to just go for two hours, come back for a moment to show that I’m still in one piece, nobody demanded much from me,” Roose recalls.
Since he had the freedom to roam and create, he would spend countless hours exploring forests, climbing, and building things. “Apparently, my parents were also at that age where they were more involved with work, they knew that each day is similar and that nothing will happen to me, and that gave me the freedom to do things on my own, to take things and tools from my dad. To go build something and spend a lot of time alone.”
With slacklining it’s also like, I wouldn’t want to copy the style or the tricks
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A solo slackliner and lone learner
As you might have guessed by now, Roose loves doing things alone. “I don’t need to have friends with me. I have friends with me when I try to do something dangerous. It’s better to do those with someone next to you.” he adds, “It gives you more concentration, less people, less gossip. There are pluses, as well as minuses.”
He finds peace in solitude. He doesn’t need a friend to make things more fun or motivating. “This also helped with slacklining. I had to do it relatively on my own. We started doing it with the boys in the beginning, but at home I was still training alone and I wasn’t bored. Rather, it gave me more concentration.”
He admits he might have been more of an introvert, but he adapts wherever necessary, “Especially when I was younger, I wasn’t ready to suddenly communicate with strangers. I’m not used to calling up about every single thing, but eventually when needed I’ve travelled, seen the world.”
Roose hard at work in the Red Bull Athlete Performance Center
© Leo Rosas/Red Bull Content Pool
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Being a rebel like his mother
His mother had a great influence on him growing up. Roose fondly recalls her bringing a ladder to try a line above water, 3m up. “She said, ‘I want to try this,’ and I’m like, ‘It doesn’t really work like that.’”
Looks like fearlessness and curiosity are the traits Roose got straight from his mum, but there's one more quality he inherited from her – to speak up. “In my family, my mother is the same way, she’s not scared to say or do something… I’ve seen that sometimes when others would keep their thoughts to themselves, she doesn’t. Not in a way that she’d simply say anything, not like that. But she will take another perspective and will joke about it instead, she’d rather take things with humour,” he remembers.
He likes to call himself a “rebel” because he likes to stand out. “I forgot to say that I’ve been relatively rebellious also with sports. In school we had skiing, orienteering, which were very popular sports. It disturbed me when I was told what to do. It disturbed me greatly. I had that kind of opposition [to the norm].”
“With slacklining it’s also like, I wouldn’t want to copy the style or the tricks, I’d like to do them with my own [twist].”
Doing things differently is his style.
There was a fear of staying there, doing the same thing over and over, that I’d disappear from the picture
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Choosing freedom over comfort
For Roose, the biggest fear is losing his freedom and flexibility. He says, “I’d probably be most afraid of losing this chance and time to do what I want to do, this restriction of freedom – not that anything can be done about it, but precisely this freedom of decision making.”
In 2018, while working at the Dubai Circus, during the double backflip era, he couldn’t practise the trick since he had work obligations. When the contract ended, he chose freedom over bread and money. He remembers, “...well, I’d have enough in order to live – and to this day I haven’t created those kinds of obligations that would make me worried.”
“There was a fear of staying there, doing the same thing over and over, that I’d disappear from the picture. Because yeah, it was nice and comfortable doing an awesome show somewhere in Dubai, but you get used to everything.” He didn’t want to get too comfortable or stuck in a routine. He continues, “In the end it’s all the same and you can find things to do on the side, but I felt that I’d rather go back to the forest and work on that trick.”
Not having comforts has shaped his mindset of hard work and consistency. In fact “How could this be done?” is his approach, he likes inventing ways of achieving what he wants, the skills he wants to develop.
His slacklining career has taken Roose all over the world
© Victor Magdeyev/Red Bull Content Pool
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Playing with focus is his superpower
One of Roose's quirkiest trait is his hyper focus. When he zeroes in on something, he’s so locked in that he might miss small interruptions. This is super helpful when he’s walking a line in a noisy environment filled with cars, factory sounds and wind. In those moments, his focus is all on the line.
However, this unwavering focus isn’t always ideal. As a highliner, he needs to be aware of his surroundings too. He explains, “It’s not the point to only focus on one thing all the time, that can be a bit dangerous. Let’s say that the focus is only on the line and then you can’t hear what’s happening in your surroundings - a drone is flying close by, maybe it’ll fly in. Or birds are flying around your head. In other words, you have to switch the focus all the time, to not focus on one thing for too long, that is, when walking on the line, I focus on the line, how it behaves.”
Roose has definitely mastered the art of playing with his focus as required. And in tricky situations, he centres himself with breathwork. “Breathing also makes me a bit calmer,” he says.
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Sleep, snacks and slacklines
Roose is a night owl who loves his sleep. Night is his most productive time. He also believes rest is for the strong, ”I’ve understood that sometimes stopping the training means that I’m suddenly stronger while doing nothing.”
When it comes to food, he has a unique palate. He loves raisins in ice cream and macaroni. He’s known for mixing different foods together – porridge, eggs, sausage, mustard, all in one bowl.
Roose often listens to music during performances, even if he’s heard the same song 50 times. His favourite was the track Makeba by Jain, which he used for performances until it became popular on Instagram.
He thrives on practising in real situations. During his recent preparations for the frozen Valaste waterfall highline he trained at night at -10°C, stepping out of his comfort zone!
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Slacklining lessons
Roose slacklines in Samburu County, Kenya
© Migwa Nthiga/Red Bull Content Pool
Roose is all about going bit by bit, step by step. Starting with a 30m walk, he gradually pushed his limits to 50m, then to 100m, and eventually to 200m. His methodical approach eventually led him to walk a full kilometre.
In 2023, Roose took on the Kenya project at Nkadorru Murto; he suffered from an eye infection due to an insect bite. This experience revealed that the biggest dangers are often unexpected. It's not just the height that's risky, but the unseen threats. He remembers, “And that’s the thing, you don’t realise it. You don’t know the risk, so I couldn't foresee it. And that could’ve f**ked up the project if that happened slightly earlier.”
“I don’t have to fall down for it to be dangerous.” According to him, falling into the safety equipment or the sharpness of the line itself can be dangerous. “Those are the risks. Like riding a bike, you can have a helmet on, but you’ll get hit by the handlebars.”
Thinking ahead, meticulous planning and safety awareness is a skill he polished over time through his experiences, both good and bad.
He also trains smarter, which means choosing the best equipment, like the right slackline. For the double backflip, he experimented with different lines and found that narrow ones worked best. He focuses on analysing videos to improve technique, instead of blindly repeating a trick.
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The psychology of slacklining
“I think that the wall is in my mind and the stakes are dependent on how much I decide to take on. There are no geographical walls. Also with training, back in the old days I used to go to the forest to train and to be able to focus, I didn’t have a need for any nice gyms for that,” Roose explains. “But now, in order to save time, I have all these lines right next to my home, and it turns out that this comfort can hold me back a bit.”
It’s like working from a home office – it’s hard to stay focused. I have all the equipment at home, which is great because there’s no need to drive anywhere, but it also means I can easily get distracted by emails and other comforts.
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Roose’s big dreams
Roose thrives on the ambition to do something big, massive, even though he is not sure of anything. He says, “I’ve kept it open because I don't know what it is. I'm doing it all now with the effort that I’m giving, the way I've been giving it, but I don't limit myself to these projects.”
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Messina Strait: longest slackline world record
Jaan Roose on the Messina Strait
© Red Bull
In July 2024, Jaan Roose aimed to break a slacklining world record once again. He set out to cross the Messina Strait in Italy, walking over 3.6km from the Italian mainland to the island of Sicily. He passed the world record mark for longest slackline walk to date - which stands at 2,710m - but fell short of achieving the actual record.
Just a few metres from the finish, he lost balance and slipped off the slackline. However, the Estonian will go down in history as the first slackliner to walk the Messina Strait from Calabria to Sicily.
Watch Roose's incredible slackline in action below, and see exactly how much practice, patience and passion went into preparing for such a daring challenge in the short documentary film, Life on the Line.
26 min
Jaan Roose: Life on the Line
Slackliner Jaan Roose reflects on life as he plans a world record tightrope walk across the Strait of Messina.
It feels like there’s this primitive will to do something very cool
Roose has admitted that his ultimate aim in life is to do something incredible. He reminds himself, ”It feels like there’s this primitive will to do something very cool." It's not about the fame for him, it's about creating a legacy. And he's slowly walking towards it one slackline at a time. Let's see what he's up to next.
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