Personal Project - Jay Cochrane Interview This Weekend

I just managed to secure a very important interview for my yet to be titled Niagara Falls documentary. Jay Cochrane is one of the world’s greatest tight rope artists in the world. His 1995 walk over China’s Qutang George landed him in the Guinness Book of World Records, and at age 63 he’s still going strong. This summer he’s doing regular walks near the Skylon Tower in Niagara Falls. Two walks a day, seven days a week, for TWO MONTHS straight. He’s also currently attempting to obtain permission to walk across the falls itself, from the Canadian side to the American. I’m pretty happy to be getting the chance to sit down with him this weekend, and based on our phone conversation, he seems like a great guy with lots of energy and plenty of interesting things to say. Here’s an excerpt from his Bio:

One October morning in 1995, Jay Cochrane stepped onto a thin steel wire a quarter mile above the Yangtze River in China’s legendary Qutang Gorge. In 53 minutes he skywalked 2,098 feet to the Lion’s Face of the gorge, an accomplishment recognized by the Guinness Book of World Records as the greatest wirewalk in history.

“When I looked across the gorge, my first thought was `Holy shit! You want me to walk across that?’” Jay said. “It was the first time I ever had to talk myself into a walk,” he admitted. “Then I started thinking about how it could be done. I knew I would do it.” The skywalk over Qutang Gorge was the pinnacle of a life spent overcoming obstacles — and exceeding expectations. And it sparked his desire for bigger, bolder achievements.

Could the great Niagara Falls be next?

Stay tuned for stills from my interview with Jay, and possibly a podcast on the recent developments with my film. Until then, check out this video I found on YouTube of Jay doing one of his walks.

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