When I showed up to visit friends at the beach last week, I was a bit surprised. Everyone was sitting in the usual hangout circle, but there was someone different in the mix. He looked familiar, but I had never seen him there before. The guy looked very similar to someone named Andy Lewis, one of my favorite extreme sport athletes. Of course it was him!

A few days after posting a highline picture from Joshua Tree on Instagram, I received a random like from one of my favorite slackliners, the legendary Andy Lewis. I thought it was cool, and I started telling my nephew about the guy. Then, a few days later, here he is at the beach hanging out with my friends and I. How awesome is that? Even better, I sent him one of the pics I shot, and he posted it on his Instagram account. I was so stoked!

I don’t really idolize Andy so much as I do the lifestyle. I like what he represents. He is someone who has found a way of life that they truly enjoy, and pursued it to the fullest, achieving success. Andy has played a huge role in developing the sport of slacklining, and became the first ever slackline world champion back in 2008. Check out this video here if you’d like to learn more about the sport from one of the originators himself.

Below are some pictures from the first day Andy came out to Santa Monica. We had all the gear to setup the 300 foot longline, but nobody had brought a 300 foot line. Andy pointed out we had more than 300 feet of line within the group, and could tie a couple together to make it work. After tying Andy’s trickline to some climb-spec webbing, a super stretchy longline was up. It was another day of good vibes and fun times!