Mr Stripey

Just a quick one as I updated this blog yesterday. Pulse climbing has put up a vid of the new gym with myself climbing a problem I set yesterday. Yes, I am aware this is indoors but as its a new AWESOME gym, I thought a shout out should be made.
Can be viewed at:
www.pulseclimbing.com.au and www.youtube.com/user/pulseclimbing#p/u

Cant wait for the season

Pulse climbing is nearly all finished. They held the reel rock tour there on Wednesday just gone. The turn out was excellent with heaps more people there than I had expected. This only got me even more keen to get training and have a great year. This year I would like to do many of the bouldering comps. I think this would benefit me as a climber and also give me a great focus point other than outdoors. This is my final year in my degree so no doubt I'll be busy but hopefully I will still be able to get my goals done. As this is my final year, it has also given me great motivation to think about where I want to go once Ive finished to celebrate. I have a few destinations in mind but am unsure yet. Some of the possibilities are;

*Bishop and Heuco

*Joes Valley

*Spain

*Red River Gorge

*Switzerland

There are others which pop into my head, though these stand out the most to me at the moment. I have started to really get back into form lately. I did a weekend in the Blue Mountains where I was able to test out where I'm at and how I'm climbing. I was also able to get to Nowra 2 days after that to do a few laps whilst dodging the mosquito's!!!!! (unsuccessfully). I have also been back on the hangboard and my wall until the gym opens on the 12th of March. I also was able to get down to Sydney to do some bouldering and become familiar with a few problems I want to do this year. This was partially successful and partially not. I did well on a problem called L'Homme Obu graded V10/11 but the weather was hot and skin came off easily. After that I went to Crumbly to try the moves of Abacus V12. This thing shut me down so hard. I didn't really rest, and whilst progress was made, the whole thing feels nails. This disappointed me as last yr when fresh I believed I had a good chance if I continued to work it. However, this motivated me more to get into form and hopefully later in the year it will be on the scorecard.

The photos above are me on L'Homme Obu and me training in my garage (previously newcastles best facillity).

Count Down

Well if you have looked at my page before, you will already know there is an amazing gym soon to be open here in Newcastle. I am so excited for this gym to be open. I cant wait to see how the sport grows up here in Newy and am eager to really start training in a fun way at a gym again. Since moving to Newcastle about 3 years ago I have not had any gym to train at. This makes it extremley hard to keep motivation levels at a high (being stuck doing essays is not good for motivation either). For me climbing is really about motivation and goals. If both are there then everything else is able to fall into place. You can tapper your training and good this will happen. I am proud of what I have accomplished since being here in Newcastle considering the above. My training consisted of lots of hangboarding, and some bouldering on my little 2 and a half panal home wall. I am greatful in a way that I did not have a gym to train at. My reasoning for this is that I now fully (well maybe not fully) understand the benefits of hangboarding and know the masive benefits gained from it if done correctly. A big thanks goes out to my good friend Chris Webb though. Most of the time he is away overseas, however when he is in the country he ALWAYS seems to motivate and pushes me to my limits. Good luck O/S mate, come back every now and then so I can get some stuff done. Whilst I did many trips to Sydney for both bouldering and training this gym opening will enable so many people to up their climbing skill and will be a massive contribution to the sport. What else could you ask for, amazing beaches, not overly busy traffic and a good climbing gym. Well you could possibly ask to be a little closer to rock, but if there is a group of super keen people to share the driving and get away thats ok.