‘Pushing the Line’: Aaron Bray Reveals the Transformative Impact of His ‘Super Obscure Sport’ in New Discovery+ Series

Aaron Bray is excited to introduce the “super obscure sport” that has completely transformed his life to the viewers of Pushing the Line, an intense new series streaming now on discovery+. The tricklining pro is one of the few elite athletes taking on some of the wildest highlining challenges in the world, pushing himself to the limit mentally and physically to push his skills to the limit on a 1-inch rope suspended hundreds of feet above the ground.

Bray opened up to PopCulture about the “transformative” impact the sport has had on his life after a chance encounter at the park with two people walking a simple slackline in the park one day. “I was terrible at the beginning,” he admitted. “I was just falling off nonstop.” Once he saw the levels to which people were taking their slacklining passion, turning it into a stage for gymnastics and tricks, Bray was hooked, working each stunt bit by bit until he had mastered it.

“The freedom and the creativity that you feel on the line, you just become disconnected from reality,” he told PopCulture. “You’re in your own world and time moves at your own pace.” Moving on to highlining is a whole new skill set to master, however, as Bray trained to master getting on top of the line as well as pulling himself back up while dangling hundreds of feet off the ground. “Your mindset is mostly trying to reassure yourself in the beginning, saying your little mantras and little pep talks,” he said of actually stepping out onto the line. “Once you get out there it’s relying on the skills. … Once you’re walking, the mind chatter starts to fade away and you just enter into the flow.”

Even if people don’t feel inspired to get out and start slacklining after watching Pushing the Line, Bray hopes they’re inspired to take adventure into their own hands. “That thing that you’ve always said, ‘I wish I could do it,’ you can be that person!” he said. “There are so many things within our grasp.” Looking back at his life now, Bray sees it as “pre-slacklining” and now, when he has a completely different perspective on life, risk, and putting it all out on the line.

Also starring in the 30-day peek inside the world of slacklining are heavy-hitters like Spencer Seabrooke; Andy Lewis, who helped invent the sport and performed with Madonna at the Super Bowl; and Mia Noblet, who holds the world record for longest walk. Each week, the crew will set new lines and take on new challenges in some of the American West’s most stunning locations, including Moab’s iconic Fruit Bowl, the 400-foot Castleton Tower and the Colorado Rockies, where they’ll attempt to break the U.S. record with the highest kilometer walk in history. Pushing the Line is streaming now on discovery+.