A Wallenda is set to tightrope walk across Niagara Falls in June, but in a harness?

[Electric Monk]

http://www.torontosun.com/2012/05/22/wallendas-watered-down-niagara-stunt

It’s being reported that ABC Television is insisting 33-year-old Nik Wallenda wear the contraption when he attempts his walk of the Horseshoe Falls June 15.

Under this scenario he may not be Flying Wallenda but a Dangling Wallenda.

(snip)

Leashing Wallenda like this is not fair to his legacy and is just dumb. Why not just broadcast him walking around the top of the CN Tower’s Skywalk with his harness instead? It’s not quite the same thing, but you get the idea.

“I wanted to do it without anything,” he told The Buffalo News.

What a non-event if they do it this way. Might as well not do it at all.

[shraby]

1. Better a "watered-down" stunt than another dead Wallenda.

[Politicalboi]

2. It takes guts to do it

To begin with. And I'm sure it ain't easy. So why not use a harness. The guy who tight roped across the Trade Centers didn't have a harness, should he pay with his life if he screws up? IMO no. I think it's crazy not to have some kind of back up. The walk alone, is impossible for most anyway. Even 2 feet off the ground.

[Electric Monk]

5. So leave the equipment up afterwards, and we have a new amusement ride.

For $100 anyone who wants to can get to see how far across the line they make it before falling safely. For an extra $10 they get the experience recorded on a DVD to show friends back home.

[Godhumor]

9. for an extra 50, the workers won't just leave the person dangling put there when they do fall n/t

[jberryhill]

3. That whole family should be locked up

"Why do the stunt at all" - i.e. is it really the risk of imminent death that is important to this demonstration of balance and fortitude?

Hey, take the roll bars and seatbelts out of the NASCAR cars... get those helmets off of the Tour de France cyclists... let's see football without pads and helmets...

There is a very real possibility that, as with a number of this guy's relatives, the "show" here is going to be a man falling to his death.

[cynatnite]

4. They had nets for trapeze artists...

People still came.

A harness is the right thing. People will still watch and if he falls, he won't die. Of course, the harness could snap. There is still an element of danger.

Having the harness is the right thing to do.

[2on2u]

6. The Wallenda agenda, scaring the bejeezus out of people who have

HIGH ANXIETY

[hedgehog]

7. So, it's not entertaining unless the price of a mis-step is death?

As someone who grew up near the Falls, I think it's pretty stupid that this natural wonder has to be hyped by events such as this.

[Electric Monk]

8. Would it be an 'event' to watch someone do it a foot off the ground across a parking lot?

[eShirl]

10. Always use protection!

[pipoman]

11. Isn't it illegal on both the US and Canada side

to go over the falls? Wouldn't NY state and Canada require safety devices before allowing the stunt?

[Electric Monk]

12. Earlier reports of the planned stunt had no mention of a safety harness

eg http://www.thespec.com/news/local/article/727747--daredevil-preps-for-niagara-high-wire-walk
http://www.newswire.ca/en/story/975155/daredevil-nik-wallenda-s-death-defying-niagara-falls-tightrope-walk-to-air-live-june-15-on-ctv

Daredevil Nik Wallenda's Death-Defying Niagara Falls Tightrope Walk to Air LIVE June 15

(snip)

After months of work and a time-consuming negotiation, the Ontario Parks Commission approved a one-time exemption in February to allow Wallenda to attempt a single crossing, reversing the 128-year ban on stunts. The Niagara Parks Commission has specified that such feats can only be attempted once every two decades.

"My great grandfather taught us to never give up. This is just the ultimate story of just never giving up," Wallenda said, adding that the legal battle was the biggest challenge of his career. "I got two laws changed that were over one hundred years old ... now, guess what… Nik Wallenda is going to walk across the falls June 15."

[lumberjack_jeff]

13. "Might as well not do it at all."

a) Fundamentally, I'd agree with this. There's very little point... except entertainment.
b) But if a harness makes the difference between an entertaining event and a boring one, I have to wonder what you were hoping to see? Would race cars without roll cages make the sport more interesting? Football without pads?

[SidDithers]

14. Tightrope walker Nik Wallenda may face falcon attack on Niagara Falls crossing...

http://www.thestar.com/news/article/1183199--tightrope-walker-nik-wallenda-may-face-falcon-attack-on-niagara-falls-crossing?bn=1

Could a Flying Wallenda meet a flying falcon?

There’s a “good possibility’’ a pair of nesting falcons at Niagara Falls could attack daredevil high-wire walker Nik Wallenda as he attempts a crossing over the famous waterway on June 15, say Mark and Marion Nash, spokespeople for the Canadian Peregrine Foundation.

Wallenda, a seventh-generation member of the circus and daredevil performers known as the Great Wallendas and the Flying Wallendas, will be crossing right through a major flight path used by the falcons, said Marion Nash.

<snip>

“They go 360 kilometres an hour — he could get a 2-pound missile attacking at the back of his neck,’’ said Marion Nash, who was attending the banding of four fuzzy, peregrine falcon babies who nest on a 43rd floor ledge of the downtown Sheraton Centre Hotel with their parents.

The Niagara Falls peregrines “may take huge offence — they’ll be patrolling their air space,’’ said Mark Nash, adding it’s also possible the pair may not feel threatened. “Who knows what will happen?’’

360 freaking kilometres / hour? Holy crap.

Sid