There was a time when Taylor St Germain was so afraid of heights that he couldn’t reach the top of an indoor climbing wall, “something three-year-olds could conquer”.
Now, the 25-year-old is a world-class highliner, walking freely on narrow slackline ropes strung hundreds of feet in the air while performing tricks and stunts.
Filming her dizzying exploits has helped her become a TikTok star, with almost 50,000 followers mesmerized by his pieces performed in front of the camera while walking on tightropes high above the ground in impressive locations.
In a video, Taylor from Canada reveals how she found the courage to start highlining and how she isn’t put off by falling and hanging from her safety harness.
As he slowly crosses the finish line, he admits that when he first started out in the sport, he spent “more time falling down” than getting up.
Taylor St Germain (above) is a world-class highliner who walks freely on slackline ropes suspended hundreds of feet in the air while performing tricks and stunts.
Taylor’s dizzying feats have made her a TikTok star with almost 50,000 followers. In a video, Taylor reveals how she worked up the courage to start highlining and how she’s not put off by falling.
She tells her followers: ‘When learning to walk, a child doesn’t fall 50 times and think, “Maybe this isn’t for me.”
“Falling down sucks, but it’s part of the process of learning to walk and I think that’s what I love so much about slacklining. It’s literally learning to walk again. It puts you back in that constant state of failure and it takes a special kind of resilience and strength to decide that you’re going to keep doing it.”
In another video, while bouncing up and down the rope, Taylor explains how he gets up when he falls.
She says: ‘There are two ways I normally do it. Either I use the momentum of the bounce to lift myself up with my arms and swing back onto the rope.
‘In times when I don’t have as much bounce, I can hook my leg into the strap and then use my arms to pull myself up and grab onto the rope and then pull myself back up.’
Taylor also shares tips for overcoming fears with her followers. In the caption of one video, she wrote: “Highlining allowed me to confront my fear of death in a very physical way and helped me recognize other places where this manifests in my life.”
Taylor said highlining helped her confront her fear of death. She said: “It takes a special kind of resilience and strength to decide that you’re going to keep doing it.”
Taylor said the fall is “part of the process.” He is pictured highlining in Zion National Park in Utah.
Taylor said he uses “bounce momentum” to get back on the rope when he falls. Pictured here, left, in Switzerland and right, in Squamish, a mountain town north of Vancouver.
As she balances on a tightrope, she speaks to the camera: “I used to be afraid of what I’m doing now. I’ve learned a lot along the way to be able to do this. The first thing you need to do if you want to overcome your fear is to understand where it comes from.”
‘I wasn’t afraid of being on the highline because I knew everything there was safe. I wasn’t taking any unnecessary risks, even though it really seemed like I was. I was afraid of highlines for the same reason I would be afraid of most people: I’m afraid of dying.
“If you can get to the bottom of why you’re afraid of something, you’ll be able to cope better because you’ll be able to rationalize to yourself that you’re not in danger.”
Taylor initially tried slacklining, where the rope is fixed relatively low above the ground, before feeling comfortable enough to take on the “higher” and “scarier” lines. She is pictured highlining in Squamish.
Taylor said highlining “feels like dancing in the sky.” She is pictured on the left balancing on the sea in Mallorca and on the right in Squamish.
Speaking to MailOnline, Taylor said of her fear: “There was a time when I couldn’t get to the top of an indoor climbing wall (although there are three-year-olds who can do it), but I started to get over it before I tried highlining.”
“It’s interesting because when I was little, I was afraid of heights. Roller coasters terrified me, but I didn’t mind climbing trees. As I got older, it seemed like the fear got worse and worse, which is true for a lot of people.”
Rather than let her fears hold her back, Taylor decided to tackle the problem head-on. She first tried slacklining, where the rope is fixed relatively low above the ground, before feeling comfortable enough to take on the “higher” and “scarier” lines.
She admits it’s an “ongoing process,” explaining that there are some lines where she “feels no fear at all,” while others leave her “paralyzed.” She adds: “The difference is that I can now overcome fear much more easily and quickly, and I’ve developed enough confidence in myself and the team to overcome it.”
Taylor’s highlining activities have taken her across Canada, the United States and Europe, from the ocean in Mallorca to the rocky landscapes of Zion National Park in Utah. She even competed in the LAAX Highlining World Championships in Switzerland this year.
Taylor says her favorite thing about highlining is that “it feels like dancing in the sky.”
She said: ‘I feel very free on the line. I can push myself constantly without fear of impact. It seems extreme, but other freestyle sports are much more dangerous in terms of impact injuries. For us, there is no ground to hit. We just fall into the air and are caught by the strap and harness.’
To make sure she’s safe, Taylor always ties herself tightly to the rope. She said, “Whether I’m setting up the rope or getting on it for a session, I triple-check my tying and always have a friend do a check on me as well.”
For those tempted to try the sport, Taylor says, “Don’t try highlining on your own, there are so many nuances with the rig that can only be learned through experience, not by watching a YouTube video.”