People think there’s a trade-off to living in the city versus living in the country: Either you get urban life or green space. Marquette doesn’t do much to change the perception; our occasional green spaces feel like anomalies carved out from steel and concrete. But despite Marquette’s location, students are finding ways to remain engaged with the outdoors.
As the weather has gotten warmer, students have been spotted on- and off-campus slacklining. Slacklining is a balancing sport where the object is to walk across a flexible flat rope held taut between two anchor points, occasionally doing tricks.
According to slackline-tools.com, slacklining was started in the 1960s when rock climbers started to practice walking across chain ropes in parking lots. In the 1980s, climbers started slacklining as a sport by anchoring the rope across spaces between mountains and over bodies of water. The sport has spread to many climbers across college campuses in the U.S. and Europe.
Trevor Gundlach, a sophomore in the College of Arts & Sciences, was introduced to slacklining when he visited his older brother at Marquette. After coming to Marquette himself, he created his own slackline rope out of rock climbing webbing. He has been setting his slackline up around campus and teaching others the sport ever since.
Alex Kane, a sophomore in the College of Business Administration and co-president of Marquette’s Great Outdoors Club, became interested in slacklining after he saw a video on the Internet. After his friends set up a slackline over a pool, he started to practice the sport and learn slacklining tricks. His background in skateboarding and gymnastics has helped him create his own moves.
Slacklining is only one of the few sports and outdoor activities the Great Outdoors Club participates in. Frank Will Bufe, a junior in the College of Education, is the other co-president of the Great Outdoors Club. He frequently gets off-campus to bike, kayak, cross-country ski, play Frisbee golf, hike and explore different parks in Milwaukee.
“A lot of times you look down Wisconsin Avenue, and you think you think this place is purely urban development. It looks like a cold, mean place…” Bufe said. “But once you get out of the Marquette bubble, you find things. It’s impossible not to.”
Bufe frequently spends time at the Urban Ecology Center, a nonprofit outdoor organization and community space. The center provides numerous outdoor programs and facilities for the public, including an outdoor tepee and a rock climbing wall. Rental equipment, ranging from bikes to kayaks, is available to rent with a student membership to the Urban Ecology Center for $12 a year.
Lack of experience with outdoor sports is not a problem at the center. Chad Thomack, the urban adventures coordinator at the Urban Ecology Center, says that most outdoor programs are geared toward beginners.
“No matter what your skill level is, anyone can join,” Thomack said.
The Urban Ecology Center is located near Riverside Park, a series of trails along the Milwaukee River, and is ideal for kayaking. Riverside Park eventually converges with Estabrook Park, which has a Frisbee golf course perfect for the quintessentially collegiate sport.
In addition to its great trails and a Frisbee course, the Estabrook Park will also open beer gardens along the trails this summer. The outdoor pubs were prevalent in Milwaukee during the 18th century, but were stopped during Prohibition.
So don’t waste away in front of Netflix this spring. Get active instead, and take sports outside the dull, gray walls of the Rec Plex.