Ben Plotkin-Swing

Birthday: March, 1986

Height: 5' 8"

Weight: 140 lbs

Started Slacklining: 2004

Current Location: Seattle, WA

Biography: Slacklining naturally balances and combines many of my lifelong passions. It requires flow state focus and intuitive movement, while giving me an opportunity to be outside, travel to spectacular locations, and be part of a unique and welcoming community. Slacklining also connects to my life as a Ph.D. student in experimental physics at the University of Washington. In addition to walking lines, I love to understand and explain the physics of line motion and rigging forces. I started slacklining in 2004, but at that time I was focused on being an internationally competitive mountain unicyclist. Slacklining stayed in the background of my life until 2012, when I walked my first longline, and discovered that the sport was full of unexplored frontiers. The watershed moment was at the Balance Community Backyard Highline Festival in March 2012, when I walked my first highline. By the end of 2012 I had walked highlines in Yosemite, Smith Rock, and Moab. In 2013 I established my first highlines, and helped to grow the longline and highline community in the Seattle area. My goals are to keep pushing myself on ever higher, longer, and looser lines, and to continue contributing to the slackline community in Seattle and beyond.