Acrobat, mom reenact fatal Puerto Rico wire walk

[KG]

By DANICA COTO, Associated Press – 2 hrs 3 mins ago

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico – Two members of a famed acrobatic family commemorated patriarch Karl Wallenda on Saturday by completing the stunt that killed him, walking between two towers of a seaside hotel on a wire 100 feet (31 meters) above the ground, without a net.

Nik Wallenda said he had planned to walk by himself across a 300-foot-long (91-meter-long) wire, but his mother convinced him to let her join him on the reconstruction of the fatal 1978 stunt.

"I've been mentally prepared my entire life for this," he said. "I've seen the video of my great-grandfather falling hundreds of times. It's something I've been wanting to do for all of us, for our family."

He said he initially rejected a request by his mother, Delilah Wallenda, to join him.


http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110604/ap_on_re_la_am_ca/cb_puerto_rico_high_wire_act

[tabasco]

1. Well done.

But why?? Is there good money in this?

[joshcryer]

2. It's their family heritage, just something to keep going.

It may end one day but it's nice to see this. I remember seeing that video over and over. How the grandfather held on to the wire at the last minute and then finally let go...

[SDuderstadt]

3. I had the impression he could...

no longer hold on.

[TorchTheWitch]

5. take a look at that video again - he never got hold of the wire at all

You're making it sound like he deliberately let go of the wire to fall to his death when that isn't the case at all. He never was able to get hold of the wire at all, and he sure as hell tried.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pAdRMcrzM9M
(WARNING: though the film doesn't show him hitting the ground it does show him falling)

Karl is also Nik's great-grandfather, not his grandfather. He was the founding member of the tightrope walking family. Perhaps the video you remember is some other family member or some other tightrope walker entirely.

[joshcryer]

7. Apologies to the above posters, I thought he had a grip, I was clearly wrong.

I may be thinking of someone else because I remembered the person in the video holding on, actually having a grip, but it could be a muddled memory.

[applegrove]

4. I saw that fall as a kid and was so traumatized.

[TorchTheWitch]

6. saw it on youtube for the first time tonight and still traumatized

Yet I had to watch it over and over again. What a horrible tragedy.