A biography for Nik Wallendahasn’t been written yet.
“I have permits to be the first person in the world to walk across the Grand Canyon so that's a process we'll start working on. I'd say within three to five years I'll accomplish that as well.”
“My great-grandfather, Karl Wallenda, was my biggest hero in life, my biggest inspiration behind everything I do.”
“It's Niagara Falls. It's one of the most beautiful natural wonders in the world. Who wouldn't want to walk across it?”
“One thing that was passed on from generation to generation in my family, over seven generations in 200 years, was never give up. That's the way we live.”
“We train very hard under windy conditions. I've actually walked a wire in my backyard with 90-mile-an-hour winds.”
“I'm often very relaxed when I'm on the wire. There may be some tears because this is a dream of mine.”
“I feel like I'm on cloud nine right now.”
“The mist was so challenging and the winds hit me, definitely more than I expected. It was definitely those winds, you can't re-enact them, you can't recreate them. Then my forearms started to tense up and you feel like running.”
“A lot of praying helped me a lot.”
“There was no way to focus on the movement of the cable. If I looked down at the cable there was water moving everywhere. And if I looked up there was heavy mist blowing in front of my face. So it was a very unique, a weird sensation.”
“I've seen the video played over and over, and it replays in my head constantly. To be able to walk in his exact footsteps is an extremely huge honor, and I did this for him as much as I did it for my family to get some closure too.”
“I have never in my life walked with a harness. The weight of the tether, makes it feel like I'm dragging an anchor behind me.”
“I've trained all my life not to be distracted by distractions.”
“I'd love to come to Australia. I'd love to walk about the Sydney Opera House.”
“If you think you can fall, you're more likely to.”
“I hope what I do and what I just did inspires people around the world to reach for the skies.”
“To do this walk, I believe it's around 2,000 feet, to go from the U.S. to Canada. I would train walking a wire almost 8,000 feet, to overtrain for this.”
“I am so blessed. How blessed I am to have the life that I have.”
“I was not scared at all.”
“This is something no one in the world has ever done.”