Paradigm Freestyle Kit

Paradigm was built from the very beginning to be optimized for freestyle. What does that mean exactly? A good freestyle webbing has a number of characteristics that set it apart from off-the-shelf webbings:

1.) Stretch

The first spec that most people look at when considering which freestyle webbing to buy is the raw stretch of the webbing. However, there is much more to stretch than just % of elongation at a given tension. In freestyle, a highliner will typically bounce the line many times over and over, increasing and decreasing the tension of the line as they push into each bounce. At critical moments within the bounce, stability and power are needed. To achieve this ideal line behavior, we need a steep stretch curve - The change in stretch as the tension changes. Bouncing on a webbing with a less-steep stretch curve, we experience a hard "floor", or resistance at the bottom, causing shakiness and instability. With a steep curve, the entire range of motion within the bounce is fluid, and it never really feels like there is a bottom.

Paradigm brings that feature straight to the front. The stretch curve is very steep in the critical tensions that freestylers use (2 - 5 kN), resulting in a super-stable, yet deep and powerful bounce.

As we discussed briefly above, freestyle highlines have a ton of interaction between the highliner and the highline, as well as between the leash + ring and the highline. For this reason, we made durability an absolute priority in the design of Paradigm.

It starts at the weave itself. The general style of weave that Paradigm uses is similar to most other freestyle webbings - a plain tubular weave with colored marker yarns somewhere on one or both faces of the webbing. However, if we look closer at the building blocks of that weave, Paradigm goes a step further. We use twisted yarns in the construction of Paradigm. This means that every single strand of yarn in the weave is twisted together with another yarn of the same size and type. This limits the surface exposure of each individual yarn, giving it a much better resistance to abrasion damage.

One of the defining traits of a freestyle highline is that the highliner typically stays in one area of the line for the duration of the session. This is usually just a few meters right in the middle of the line. This results in a huge amount of leash falls and a LOT of abrasion concentrated in one small section of the line.

To combat this, freestyle highliners have begun using tubular "sleeves" in the middle of their lines to protect their webbing. With these things in mind, we have developed our own version of this sleeve. The Freestyle kits that we offer on Paradigm come with a 5m sleeve that is prethreaded onto the end of your rig. Our sleeve is unlike a lot of other sleeves, in that it sits on the double webbing very tightly. It's 32mm wide, so it just barely fits over the main and backup lines, preventing the sleeve from feeling loose and "slippery".

Freestyle webbing stretches a LOT, particularly modern tubular freestyle webbings. For this reason, the backup line needs to be considerably longer than the mainline, especially since it acts as further stabilization for the highliner during these massive dynamic tricks.

With such a long backup, often times 18 - 20% longer than the mainline, the risk for a massive fall in the event of a mainline failure is quite large. For this reason, we have opted to add a middle stitch in our Paradigm freestyle kits. This "X-Stitch" provides a hard point between the mainline and backup line, positioned directly in the center of the two lengths of webbings. This hard point acts as an absorption of fall distance, drastically reducing it compared to a non-stitched line.

Inspect Your Rig EVERY SESSION

There is a LOT of potential to damage your line during a freestyle session. It is imperative that you check every meter of your line before AND after each and every session. Retire if there is ANY doubt of safety. Paradigm is a low strength nylon webbing that is tubular in structure, giving it less durability than a multi-layered flat webbing.

Limit UV Exposure

UV and Nylon do not mix. There is a very steep decline in the strength of nylon tubular webbings after prolonged exposure to UV. Do not leave Paradigm perma-rigged or rigged for longer than a few days at a time.

Only trick in the Trick Zone

Freestyling on your line causes significant abrasion and can lead to mainline failures if done outside of the Trick Zone. Keep your freestyling on the tubular sleeve.

Do not remove the tubular protective sleeve

The protective sleeve that is meant for the trick zone is there to protect your webbing. Removing it will expose the delicate nylon tubular webbing beneath, subjecting it to further risk of damage. Do not remove the sleeve - doing so will void the warranty on your freestyle kit.

Retire your rig if any of these things are true:

• Obvious fading from prolonged UV exposure
• Damage to any of the warp yarns (fibers going along the length of the webbing)
• Excessive fuzziness on the face or edges of either webbings
• Stiffness when not rigged. If you can hold up a foot or two of webbing without it falling over, it's time to retire this rig.

This is not an exhaustive list. Please use your better judgement on deciding when to retire your rig and take the above precautions to extend the lifespan as much as possible.

"After nearly a year of studying webbing behavior and testing various prototypes with Balance Community, I am very happy to present Paradigm, a next-gen freestyle webbing that I'm proud to put my name behind. Effortless Yoda Rolls, huge, stable bounces, and insane 'pop', this truly is 'The Cheater Line'. Get ready to take your freestyle game to the next level with Paradigm."

- Ian Eisenberg