With the popularity of highline freestyle rising in today’s highlining world, permanently rigged lines (or perma-rigs) are becoming the norm rather than the exception. This intensive use and long exposure of the webbing can lead to critical weakening and failure.

In these publications, we adress the main factors we are aware of, abrasion and UV degradation. We also give some recommendations on what to do to avoid critical failure, the first of which is always to rig redundantly. We are constantly updating the ISA 41 Highline Webbing standard to be consistent to the currentl knowledge and practice of highline.

On the subject of abrasion, we adress 3 abrasion issues that were noticed specifically in the context of highline freestyle:

• Leash wrapping around the line
• Backup-loops wrapping around the main line
• Abrasion in weblocks from cyclic loading

The main source of potential abrasion is always at the edge however, extend your anchor past the edge of the cliff and use proper padding.