On June 15 Nik Wallenda will attempt to walk across the Niagra Falls from the American side to the Canadian side on a tight rope 172 feet above the water's surface.

Attempting such a journey has been illegal for the past 125 years.

Nik is a seventh generation daredevil, from the Great Wallendas whose escapades date back to 1780.

The walk will take between 30-40 minutes.

"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."

Nik is 33 yrs old and his walk will be televised on ABC on June 15 as the culmination of a three hour special on the greatest stunts of all time. (Keep in mind, ABC was the network that really took care of Knievel).

Great publicity, great PR and probably going to be great television.

Good luck, Nik!

I bet David Blaine will be the next one to offer the stunt.

Yes, but he will want to float across....ooops, didn't someone already do that with the Grand Canyon???

B

I can't wait for this. I'm equally interested in the walk itself as I am in the rigging of the cable. The 2" cable itself will weigh more than 40,000 pounds. It will have over 60,000 pounds of tension on it and will still dip as low as 30 feet in the middle.

This will be an incredible feat. I wish him mush success and hope it parlays well to his new show in Branson.

Can anyone on the café tell me who I can call so I can apply to the The Niagara Parks Commission for permission to perform the next stunt in 4012

I think you mean 2032.

Iwillfoolu;

I need to stop posting at 1:00 in the morning, thanks for the date correction. The Niagara Parks Commission would not take me seriously if I was filing for permission with the wrong date on the application

I have spent a great deal of time chatting over the years with Karla Walenda...daughter of the great Carl Walenda. Karla was supposed to be on top of the pyramid the day they all fell...but she was sick that day.

She now travels with small carnivals and does her thing on the top of a sway pole...scary as all heck watching her...no wires and no net.

I've always been a fan of the Walenda's. Best of luck!

Well, today is the day.

Nik is upset that the network is making him wear a tether. He's not used to wearing one and "is wary of the harness getting caught on the counterweights that will hang from his wire like pendulums and prevent the wire from twisting." (Quoted from article linked below).

Journalists are speculating whether or not he will unhook the harness during the walk.

http://www.buffalonews.com/topics/niagar......4229.ece

Here's the walk "By the Numbers" via http://www.citytv.com/toronto/citynews/n......ric-walk

7: The number of generations of “Great Wallendas,” known for their high-profile daredevil stunts

33: Age of Nik Wallenda

45: Estimated number of minutes it will take Wallenda to walk over Niagara Falls

5: Diameter in centimetres of Wallenda’s tightrope

60: Height in metres of Wallenda’s tightrope above the gorge bottom

550: Approximate length in metres of the tightrope crossing the Niagara gorge

46: The length in metres of Wallenda’s Guiness world record stunt in 2008 – the longest distance and greatest height ever traveled by bicycle on a high wire. He walked out from the roof of Newark, N.J.’s Prudential building and rode back on a bike

6: Number of Guiness world records held by Wallenda

1859: The first time someone crossed Niagara Falls on a tightrope (Jean Francois Gravelet, “The Great Blondin”)

1896: The last time someone crossed Niagara Falls on a tightrope (James Hardy)

1978: The year Karl Wallenda, Nik’s grandfather, fell to his death walking a tightrope between two buildings in Puerto Rico. The fall was blamed on “bad rigging”

120,000: Number of people expected to attend Friday night’s stunt in Niagara Falls.

$50,000: Wallenda’s target donation amount on website indiegogo.com for “training, rigging, marketing, travel, safety and unforeseen issues”

$21,076: Amount raised so far on indiegogo.com (as of Friday morning)

$20.5 million: Amount expected to be spent in Niagara Falls by “non-locals” during the walk day, according to an economic impact report by Enigma Research

$122 million: Amount of “legacy” economic impact over the next five years, according to Enigma

$1.3 million: The amount Wallenda estimates the stunt will cost him (including the fabrication and installation of the custom-made steel wire, permits and security on both sides of the border as well as travel and marketing). He’s recouping some of those costs with a broadcast deal with U.S. network ABC

Go get 'em Nik! And watch out for the dive-bombing peregrine falcons that swoop in at 200mph.

Very excited for him. He has told reporters that today he feels like a kid on Christmas.

The wire is the width of 3 pennies.

"The wire is the width of 3 pennies." The wire is 5 cm in diameter That amounts to 1.96850, make it 2 inches.

Thanks Paddy.

Let's say 4 pennies then.

I was impressed with all the views of Niagara Falls ABC showed. I was impressed with the overall production quality for a two hour show about a tightrope walker doing a walk. The walk itself was anticlimatic due to the fact he was tethered. Still a rare skill, but a bit boring non the less. I believe he will have difficulty getting sponsorship for his next walk, and an even harder time getting viewership because watching someone calmly walk tethered anywhere is not all that thrilling.

It's like a magic trick that took you a year to learn the chops and another year to perfect the routine - but to the audience, all of that work is invisible!

Ed

The safety tether was a requirment by the Niagra Falls people. They thought if he fell it would affect their tourism dollars. Mr Wallenda stated he did not want the stupid safety harness because he thought it was more dangerous but the Falls officials said no harness no walk. I think a lot of people know the bull he had to go through to get permission and it shouldn't affect his future in a negative way.

Paddy

No - actually the tether was a requirement of his primary sponsor - ABC Television. I am sure Nik understands better than most people the fact that the tether takes a good deal of the thrill out of the stunt. Even with the tether there was excitement for some of his walk, but at the same time, I was thinking - Wow, how cool would this have been if he was untethered. As much as I enjoyed the show, I think any future megaproduction will be a hard sell to television audiences.

I was disappointed because of the tether.

I was one of the people who also thought the tether would spoil things. I was wrong! I thought the entire special was great and there is no need for a man to risk his life for entertainment. Kudos to Nik!

I saw the Wallendas when they were with Ringling when I was a kid. They did the pyramid and I could not watch.
I don't know why they keep showing the Grandfather falling when he tried walking between the two buildings.
I did not watch the special Sat. night because I have a fear of heights and falling, and watching other people do this is not my cup.
I did watch the motorcycle guy try to jump the Grand Canyon. Stupid. Glad it failed.

I want to him go over the falls in a block of ice.