Above the Abyss

Kühne, Friedi: - Friedi Kühne was born in Erlangen, Germany, and grew up in Rosenheim in close proximity to the Alps. After graduating high school, he obtained his teaching degree English and mathematics at the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich. He graduated from the university in the fall of 2017 and has lived in Bad Aibling since, dedicating most of his time and energy to slacklining. In late 2023, he published his first book about his slackline adventures.

During his childhood, Kühne enjoyed skiing, hiking, and mountain climbing. As a teenager, he developed an interest in parkour, freerunning, gymnastics, bouldering, and rock climbing. At the age of 19 he stood on a slackline for the first time and, in his own words, became "addicted to this feeling of balance."

Despite his initial strong focus on tricklining, he proceeded to walk more and more highlines in the surrounding Alps. After a college exchange year as a language teaching assistant in the United States in 2015, he shifted his professional focus fully to highlining. Kühne achieved several world's first highline crossings over 100 meters long in popular areas along the Pacific Coast, including Yosemite, Squamish, Smith Rock, Leavenworth, Joshua Tree, and the Columbia River Gorge. During this time, Kühne also became friends with prominent American slackliners like Jerry Miszewski, Andy Lewis, and Spencer Seabrooke. Kühne set a total of 16 slackline world records between 2015 and today.

Besides his part time high school teaching job, he makes a living doing highline shows and motivational speaking.