SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico — In 1978, Karl Wallenda of the infamous Flying Wallendas, a family of high wire acrobats, fell to his death while trying to walk a wire between two towers of a seaside hotel, 100 feet above the ground at age 73. Two mentally unbalanced members of the Wallenda family decided to commemorate his death by repeating the stunt.
Nik "The Nut" Wallenda had planned to walk by himself across a 300-foot-long (91-meters) wire, but his deranged mother convinced him to let her join him.
Nik said he had watched his great-grandfather fall hundreds of times in a video and wanted to complete the walk "for the family."
The mother-and-son team walked slowly toward each other on a damp morning, balancing on a wire as wide as a nickle. Nik Wallenda was wearing moccasin-style shoes that his mother had made. He carried a 45-pound balancing pole, while Delilah Wallenda carried a 25-pound pole.
They met at the middle and mom sat on the wire whilst Nik stepped over her.
"Normally, I'm in a zone," he said. "At this point, I was in no zone. I was still focused on my great-grandfather."
Nik lost his balance a few feet from the end and had to kneel to steady himself before completing the walk.
There was no indication what Grandpa Karl thought of the event.
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