Aerial artist battles elements to execute dangerous silks record while blindfolded
An aerial silk artist battled the elements to break a dangerous world record at a dizzying height.
Erika Lemay (Portugal) set the highest suspended aerial silk free roll (blindfolded) at a height of 36.80 m (120 ft 8 in).
Taking on the challenge in Comporta, Portugal, on 20 June, was made all the more difficult by the extreme winds.
Erika, 41, has been an aerial silk artist for decades and has performed all around the world.
Hear from Erika Lemay, who did this death-defying stunt at over 35 metres in the air 🥵️ pic.twitter.com/yKvX9mztqd
— Guinness World Records (@GWR) September 10, 2024
She said her world record attempt was part of her "lifelong dedication to aerial arts and desire to push the boundaries of what is possible in this discipline". She also hopes to inspire others to overcome any limits they may face.
Erika performed four free rolls, which is where you don’t touch the silk or apparatus on the way down with your hands or your feet.
“The very important component is you need to feel the balance of your body as you go and to stop you have to hook your leg at the right moment,” Erika explained.
“That’s one of the key points and the most dangerous points.”
The weather added in another element of risk.
When the crane was set up the day before her attempt, Erika wasn’t able to go up and practise as much as she wanted to due to a thunderstorm.
The extreme wind caused problems as the silk was blown around erratically, and Erika, blindfolded, was unable to see where it was going.
She told us: “I had never been on an aerial silk with that amount of wind, even though I’d been performing for decades.
The silk was flying horizontal and having to do that blindfolded and not knowing where the silk was going was difficult.
“The day after, I woke up and thought to myself, ‘Are you going so crazy that you can’t see this makes no sense?’
“I had that moment of doubt.”
On the morning of the attempt, Erika admits she sat for half an hour weighing up the risks.
As she wasn’t strapped to anything, the wind blowing the silk around added a huge element of danger.
If she couldn’t stop herself from rolling by hooking her leg around the silk, she’d fall.
But it was all worth it in the end for Erika.
Looking back on her attempt, she said: “I let go of the silk. One, two, three, four, hook. I knew I had done it.
“I was very happy. “
She added: “I’m very proud of myself because I think that I did, technically, the movement perfectly.”
Erika said this challenge was as much of a mental one as it was a physical one.
She said: “I think there’s not enough emphasis put on the psychological preparation of anything that is aerial acrobatics and the importance it has to be able to overcome and be very well prepared mentally speaking.
“The idea was to beat the mind game behind going higher and blindfolding myself whilst executing a difficult skill.
“I wanted to make sure that the mental preparation was as solid as my physical preparation and what I had been doing with my body for so long.
“That was a challenge.”