SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico – Two members of a famed acrobatic family commemorated patriarch Karl Wallenda on Saturday by completing the stunt that killed him, walking between two towers of a seaside hotel on a wire 100 feet above the ground, without a net.
Nik Wallenda said he had planned to walk by himself across a 300-foot-long wire, but his mother convinced him to let her join him on the reconstruction of the 1978 stunt.
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“I’ve been mentally prepared my entire life for this,” he said. “I’ve seen the video of my great-grandfather falling hundreds of times. It’s something I’ve been wanting to do for all of us, for our family.”
He said he initially rejected a request by his mother, Delilah Wallenda, to join him. “Just because of safety,” he said.
But Delilah Wallenda, who is in her late 50s, eventually won him over, he said.
German-born Karl Wallenda was 73 when he fell to his death after a lifetime of spectacular acrobatics.
Boy, 9, sets balloon solo record
TOME, N.M. – Nine-year-old Bobby Bradley floated into history early Saturday, taking off solo in a hot air balloon and landing perfectly about a half-hour later to become the youngest trained pilot to accomplish such a feat.
Showing maturity and composure well beyond his years, Bradley proved any doubters wrong as he strategically touched down on a dirt road — exactly as his parents had instructed. “It was awesome. It was amazing. I loved it,” he said.
His mother said she would not normally recommend that 9-year-olds fly solo, she said it was a natural progression for her son, who is “not your normal 9-year-old.”
Bobby is a fourth-generation balloonist and has been flying in them for more than half his life, with his parents and some of the sport’s most experienced and decorated pilots.
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