Andy Lewis (born October 7, 1986), is a professional stunt and safety coordinator, and extreme sports athlete, and particularly
slacklining
Slacklining refers to the act of walking, running or balancing along a suspended length of flat webbing that is tensioned between two anchors. Slacklining is similar to slack rope walking and tightrope walking. Slacklines differ from tightwir ...
.
Early life
Lewis grew up in
Greenbrae, California
Greenbrae is a small unincorporated community in Marin County, California. It is located south-southeast of downtown San Rafael, at an elevation of 33 feet (10 m), located adjacent to U.S. Route 101 at the opening of the Ross Valley. Part of ...
.
Slacklining career
Lewis played a major role in developing the sport of competitive tricklining, becoming the first-ever slackline world champion in 2008 in Fort William, Scotland. He repeated the feat in 2009, 2010, and 2011 winning Champion Overall at the Gibbon World Cup Series‘.
[ Andy is also known for his many "first across” (F/A's) highlines where both scouting the line and figuring out how to rig the line are required before being the first one to walk across. He also holds the American record for longest highline, longest free solo, and highest walked slackline (between two hot air balloons.) He was the first to successfully rig and walk a 55m+ highline (2008, California – "Ruin's Highline"), the first to walk a 60m+ highline (2009, France – "King Line"), and rigged and walked the world's first 100m+ highline ever (2010, Moab – "Afrodisiac"). Andy is also renowned for his "free solo" exploits, having walked more than 100 different highlines without a safety leash. Andy's record for longest free solo highline held up until August 2015, with a 55m crossing at 60m high up— no leash. His leashed crossing in 2018, was nearly 3000’ long, walking 888m onsight (first try.)
Andy was included in Peter Mortimer's Reel Rock 2011 film, featured on MTV, and on other international TV networks. He is credited with taking slacklining from an obscure hobby of a small portion of rock climbers to the world media forefront on Sunday, February 5, 2012, when he performed on a trickline while ]Madonna
Madonna Louise Ciccone (; ; born August 16, 1958) is an American singer-songwriter and actress. Widely dubbed the " Queen of Pop", Madonna has been noted for her continual reinvention and versatility in music production, songwriting, a ...
sang behind him during the halftime show of the NFL Super Bowl. Saturday Night Live
''Saturday Night Live'' (often abbreviated to ''SNL'') is an American late-night live television sketch comedy and variety show created by Lorne Michaels and developed by Dick Ebersol that airs on NBC and Peacock. Michaels currently serves a ...
and Conan O'Brien's Late Night TV show parodied Andy's halftime performance in the week following the Super Bowl.
Utah monolith removal
Lewis and three others took credit and received a backlash for removing the Utah monolith
The Utah monolith is a metal pillar that stood in a red sandstone slot canyon in northern San Juan County, Utah, United States. The pillar is tall and made of metal sheets riveted into a triangular prism. It was unlawfully placed on public lan ...
on the evening of November 27, 2020. Lewis said their motivation in removing the sculpture was to protect the environment from overuse. However, it is seen by many that Lewis's statement directly contradicts his actions through his use of anchors drilled into cliff faces for his Slacklining events
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Lewis, Andy
1986 births
Living people
American stunt performers
Tightrope walkers
People from Santa Rosa, California
People from Greenbrae, California