AN INCH of material is all that lies between Ryan Wozencroft and a painful descent.

But the 20-year-old student uses artful manoeuvres to keep his whole body balanced on the thin, elastic strip suspended between two trees.

On Monday he was out in Witney practising the blossoming sport of slacklining, performing daring stunts on a line like a tightrope, but flat.

“It’s a pretty silly sport,” he said, “try to imagine a cross between tightrope and a trampoline. But it is growing pretty quickly in this country.”

He got roped in a couple of years ago at a circus skills club at his university in Portsmouth, where he is studying human physiology.

Someone was doing it there so he tried it out and liked it so much that he started his own slacklining club.

His first line was a luggage strap – £25 from eBay. Now he uses a purpose-made strap, short and bouncy for so-called “tricklining”.

On YouTube there are videos of people walking slacklines across precipitous canyons and performing brazen stunts.

Mr Wozencroft said the most exotic place he had walked a line was under Portsmouth pier.

Back home from university, in Milton-under-Wychwood, there aren’t any good trees to hang a line between, so he catches the bus to Witney.

He says whenever he is practising in public, he gets a few spectators, and someone always wants to give it a try.

“Walking up and down isn’t as hard as you might think,” he added. “It’s everything else that is difficult.”

WHAT IT’S ALL ABOUT

SLACKLINING is the art of walking along a narrow piece, normally one or two inches wide, of nylon or polyester webbing tethered to two anchor points. The length of the line can vary considerably.

At first glance it appears similar to tightrope walking but the line is not rigidly taught, although it is still under a degree of tension. This slackness allows the line to stretch underfoot which in turns enables the user to perform tricks and stunts.

Slacklining originated in the US in the early 1980s when two Yosemite rock climbers, Adam Grosowsky and Jeff Ellington, got the idea after walking along loose chain fences on rainy days in Yosemite Valley.

The activity gradually caught the attention of more climbers, who became increasingly daring.

In 1985, a young climber called Scott Balcom successfully crossed a 55-foot wide and 2,900-foot deep chasm between the rim of the Valley and a detached rock pillar called Lost Arrow Spire.

Nowadays slacklining is broadly split into two forms – lowlining and highlining. Lowlining is more common because it can be easily practiced in parks or on the beach, is safer and allows for tricks and stunts.

Highlining, which takes place at considerable elevation, is far more and dangerous and is seen as the pinnacle of the sport.