Life is full of balancing acts. Your career and your personal life. Your dreams and your realities. But for professional rope walker, Ryan Robinson, his balancing act is a matter of life and death.

Picture this: you’re suspended hundreds of feet in the air between two cliff ledges. Nothing is supporting you but a one-inch piece of slack rope and the climbing harness attached to it. The heavy winds smash against your eardrums and sway the line underneath your feet. Every step you take is a delicate dance, a battle with gravity, a test of your limits.

Sounds scary, right? Well, for Ryan, that’s just a day in the life.

In a recent chat on The Team Ignition Show, host Leticia Bufoni got the inside scoop on Ryan’s life and adrenaline-pumping career. Here’s what you need to know about him.

Background: From Triathlons to Highlines

Hailing from Sacramento, California, Ryan has always been into extreme sports. Before he discovered highlining, he actually competed in triathlons for years. It wasn’t until he hit age 29 that he grew sick of “running so much” and decided to pursue a different passion. That’s where highlining came in.

“My friends make fun of me because I went from running really fast to walking really slow,” he says with a laugh.

Before he could start highlining, Ryan needed to get comfortable with slacklining. This is the act of balancing on a slack rope between two anchor points but at much lower heights. One day, he decided to test out slacklining at his local gym. Needless to say, it wasn’t love at first sight.

“[I] immediately fell off. I, like, cut my leg, and I just wrote off the whole sport,” he recalls.

It wasn’t until years later when Ryan saw a video of people highlining that his interest in the sport was reignited. He took slacklining up again, mastering the art for about a year before eventually moving up to highlining. From then on, there’s been no stopping him.

Career: Taking to the Sky

In his 14 years of highlining, Ryan has achieved some incredible feats, crossing gaps all around the world on his one-inch rope bridge.

Over this period, his blend of creative vision and athleticism has caught the attention of various partners and sponsors. He’s worked with videographers and photographers with some of the world’s most prestigious and recognized outlets, including National Geographic, GoPro, RedBull, and Outside Magazine. He’s also been officially sponsored by Black Diamond Equipment and Balance Community.

Speaking to CNN in 2021, Ryan said: “Over the years I’ve figured out my own way of making [this career] a reality [through] a combination of sponsorships, media opportunities, and many other things under the same umbrella.”

The holder of several world record titles, one of Ryan’s biggest career highs came in 2019 when he broke the world record for the longest highline between two bridges. He set the record in Folsom County, with the line stretching nearly 2,000 feet.

Despite his years of experience and many achievements, Ryan isn’t immune to fear — especially when things don’t go to plan. According to Ryan, one of his scariest highlining experiences was when a double-propellor helicopter came towards him while he was suspended midair.

“Very faintly, I [could] hear my friends screaming, ‘Get off the line!’ That has never happened in my life,” he shares. “My whole life flashed [before my eyes]. Because I can’t stop this [helicopter] and I look like an ant to him.”

While the experience had a happy (and safe) ending, it reminded Ryan that fear is actually a good thing in this career.

“If I ever stop being scared, I think I might stop [highlining],” he says. “Fear guides us. I think it’s valuable.”

Newest Projects: The Moon’s the Limit

Despite cementing himself as a highlining pioneer, Ryan’s never gotten complacent. He’s constantly on the hunt for new challenges to conquer and epic experiences to capture.

One of his coolest came earlier this year when he performed a highline while silhouetted by October’s supermoon. Ryan and his buddy, videographer and photographer Spencer Welling, met up at a popular climbing spot called Hall of Horrors a couple of hours before sunset. As the night grew darker and the moon emerged, Ryan made his way across the rope, with the breathtaking moon as his backdrop.

The result? Well, just see for yourself:

Fun Facts About Ryan Robinson

• The longest highline distance Ryan has ever walked is 2,900 feet.
• Ryan has highlined a 704-foot-long line blindfolded.
• Ryan has appeared on American Ninja Warrior four times.
• Despite his years of experience, Ryan says that he still takes falls pretty consistently.
• Although highlining is his one true love, Ryan has spent his career refining many other skills in the area of adventure sports, including anchoring, climbing, rope work, and technical ascents.

With many more gaps still to conquer, Ryan has no plans of slowing down anytime soon. While his exploits have taken him everywhere from Australia to Brazil, in a recent podcast Ryan hinted to The Team Ignition Show host Leticia that his sky-high adventures will soon be leading him to the sunny shores of Hawaii.

Follow Ryan on social media: