Slacking in Boulder

All,

Here’s an update to Slacklining in Boulder. I’ve been gathering information and identifying contacts at the city.

I have a contact, through the Boy Scout Troop I volunteer for, that works for Boulder Mountain Parks. We were on a service project, and I asked him about slacklining, and the current state of legal / not legal in Boulder. He put me in contact with someone from the Forestry department. From there, the Assistant City Forester put me in touch with Boulder Risk Management as well as Parks & Rec. We’ve traded some emails, and they are willing to meet with some of us to discuss slacklining in Boulder.

For now, Tyler Shalvarjian and Heather Larsen are interested in joining me. I don’t think we should overwhelm them with people on the first meeting, but I would like to make sure I have all the points of view from the community in place. I’m hoping to set up a meeting for later this month.

Have any others recently worked with the city? If so, could you send me details about who you contacted, and what the result were? I’d like to make sure we’re consistent in our message to the city.

I sent them info from Slackline.us (see links in prior post). It contains a proposed city ordinance – though that may not be required. I sent them this email:

Earlier this summer, Tyler (included on this email) was issued a ticket from the Boulder Police for slacklining in Martin Park. We understand that the statute behind the ticket was Boulder Municipal Code 6-6-6, which prohibits attaching anything to trees in the city. As a side note, the slackliners are diligent about using ‘tree protection’ when they put their lines up.

Tyler is an active member of the CU Slacklining club, and I’ve been involved in slacklining for close to 30 years, though it’s my kids now who are the real slackliners. Between us, we’re connect to a large number of slackliners in Boulder, and we’d like to find a way to work with the city to make slacklining safe and legal.

I’m open to your ideas and thoughts as well – please contact me at ken at kgwagers dot com anytime.

Thanks,
Ken

Slacklining – keep it legal in Boulder, Colorado

Below is a series of links as a starting point for a conversation with Boulder officials.

My thoughts:

#1 – Always be respectful, even if you think officials are wrong.
#2 – Always use tree protection; tree damage will trump any thing else we can do.
#3 – Keep lines safe & monitored.

Flyers to use / hand out! Visit Slackline.us for more info.

Lead By Example!

Basics of Slacklining

Slackline documents
City of Boulder Approved Rules

Approved University of Colorado long line locations – but CHECK FIRST with Slackers at CU Facebook group!!

University of Colorado Slackline rules (see section 15).

Boulder Municipal Code section 6-6-6

Associations

Slackline U.S. National Slackline Association

Slackline U.S. – Slackline Access to Public Lands document

International Slackline Association

Flyer by International Slackline Association for passers-by.

Slackline Groups by City/State

History of Slacklining

Wikipedia

Slackline Tools article

Boulder / Denver Other News Articles

Boulder Weekly Slacklining March 2017

Jefferson County Fixed Anchor info (via Access Fund)

Mountain Magazine Online – Slacklining is Not a Crime

Colorado Daily Article 8/24/2015

Daily Camera Article on 7/25/2015 discussing $250 ticket

Colorado Daily article discussing CU Boulder slackline rules

Colorado Daily article – discusses rules for CU Slacklining

Colorado Daily Article on Slacking for Trees

Daily Camera article about how Boulder City Council operates.

Denver Post article on Mickey Wilson (2015)

Boulder Parks & Recs

Boulder Parks & Recreation Liability Waiver

Link to Boulder Parks & Recreation main page

Link to Boulder Parks & Rec Master Plan

PDF of Boulder Parks and Rec Master Plan. It should be easy to show how slacklining fits in the master plan’s goals

Link to Valmont Bike Park – most likely more dangerous than slacklining

Daily Camera article on Valmont Bike Park injuries

Jefferson County

Jefferson County regulations for Climbing & Slacklining, as well as a link to their application for fixed hardware.

Articles & other related links

Boulder Adventure Lodge and their slackline park

Northwest Slacklining resources for keeping slacklining legal

Shows damage to trees – wrong kind of trees used, no tree protection from slacklines

Slacklining in Tehran, Iran

Miami Times article about police and slackliner interactions

Portland, OR article about slacklining. Discusses interaction with police and legality.

Video of positive police encounter in Seattle. 20 min.

Seattle article about drafting slacklining regulations. Follows up from video above.

Seattle news article about the video above.

Article about ‘Slacklining for a Cause’ raising funds for a charitable organization.

CU’s Slacking for Trees fund raiser

Salt Lake Tribune article about death of a cyclist that ran into a neck-high slackline in Utah. There is an open lawsuit.

Daily Nebraskan article about prohibiting slacklining at University of Nebraska at Lincoln

Blog article about Austin, TX slacklining regulations.

Article about highlining in Verdon, France. Rules and regulations discussion.

Calgary Herald article about trying to gain approval to slackline.

UK Slacklining Code of Conduct

Slacklining as part of physical rehabilitation

State and National Parks

Yosemite Slackining Rules

Huntington State Park, UT

Coastal Activity Park (UK)

Papers

The first link below is a research study by a student in Jackson, Wyoming. This paper includes very good information, seems well researched, and addresses safety, tree damage and load, liability and other issues. It resulted in reasonable rules for Jackson parks. Quote from the paper from Jackson Certified Arborist Todd Graus: “Movement of the tree from slacklining merely mimics lateral forces that are produced by wind everyday”.

Senior capstone paper by Taylor Meadows.

Paper by Jesse Goldman about slacklining for middle school students as part of a mindfulness program.

A few colleges with clubs
University of Colorado (Closed group – request membership)
Brown
University of Puget Sound
Cal Poly Pomona
University of California – Berkley
Purdue
University of Minnesota
West Virginia University
Bates College
Humboldt State University
San Jose State
Rochester Institute of Technology

Where Slacklining is clearly legal (links below)

University of Colorado
Colorado School of Mines
University of Puget Sound

Aspen, CO
Austin, TX
Boise, ID
Chelan County, WA
Davis, CA
Madison, WI
Jackson, WY
Huntington State Park, UT
Lakewood, CO
San Luis Obisbo, CA
San Diego, CA
Wenatchee, WA
Westchester, PA

Yosemite National Park

Where Slacklining is probably not legal (links below)

University of Nebraska – Lincoln
University of Nevada – Reno

Isle Vista, CA
Miami, FL
Portland, OR

Policies / Regulations

Colorado Recreational Use Statute (thanks to American Whitewater for hosting the statue)

Links page from Slackline Technology. Links to a number of cities, parks and schools policies.

Slackline Technology document. This is a good document with a tree study by arborists.

Colorado School of Mines slacklining policy

Madison, WI slacklining rules and parks.

City of Davis, CA slacklining staff report.

Chelan County, WA slacklining rules.

Isla Vista, CA slacklining rules – prohibited in most cases.

Sal Luis Obisbo slacklining 12 month pilot program. Based on a study done by Arborists.

Final policy in San Luis Obisbo. This was adopted in 2013, five years after the study.

Slacklining rules for Wenatchee, WA

Boise, Idaho slacklining rules.

Bend, Oregon slacklining rules.

San Diego, CA Parks and Rec slacklining rules.

West Chester, Pennsylvania slacklining rules.

Austin, Texas slacklining rules.

Lakewood, Colorado slacklining rules for regional parks.

University of Nevada Reno – slacklining is illegal.

Aspen, Colorado Rec Center page on Slacklining

Boy Scouts of America slacklining rules.