IT’S BEEN A GREAT FEW MONTHS

FLYING THE FLAG IN EUROPE

In September I represented Great Britain at the Munich round of the European Junior Bouldering Championships. This was my first proper international event and it was held at a really good venue; Boulder Welt in Munich. The format was 12 qualification problems and the top six through to the final. I have to say that although I do not normally get nervous at comps the nerves did get to me a bit at the start of this one. I had a bit of a shaky start and dropped a slab problem early on that I would have normally got. I held the final hold but could not match it. I settled a bit after that and went on to top out 87 of the twelve problems including one that only one other competitor got. When the scores came through I found myself in 8^th place which is good, but I was gutted because if I had got the slab I would have made the final. Anyway looking back on it 8^th in Europe in my age category, in my first Euro comp is a good result and I won’t be nervous at the start in the next one.

Later in September I completed the final round of the Summer Boulder League at the Depot and won this series overall and got a good prize for doing so. I also got my letter from the GB Team Manager – “YOU HAVE BEEN SELECTED FOR THE GREAT BRITAIN SENIOR MALE BOULDERING TEAM.” The Team was officially announced in October and it was kind of strange and fantastic to see my name in the same list as Dave, Ned, John, Gaz, Stewart, James, John, Adam, Tyler, Ed and Tom. Wow! It’s quite a bit to live up to but I will do my best and I am really looking forward to it.

For the rest of October and November I have done a few more comps and have had some decent results such as wining the first round of the Climbing Works Boulder League and finishing 5^th in the final of the Battle of Britain at the Depot. I have also been training hard at ROKT.

Fontainbleau Edit

Here is the second video from my france trip; Fontainbleau.

France trip

I recently took a trip to france for three weeks for a family holiday. whilst there I got quite a bit of climbing done in Ailefroide and Fontainbleau. I have put together an edit for each of these famous climbing areas. Here is the first; Ailefroide.

Fontainbleau Edit coming soon...

Dyno Comp - Cliffhanger

Cliffhanger

We went to Cliffhanger festival at Millhouses Park in Sheffield on the first weekend in July. This is a great event that I have been to on several occasions.  In my previous visits I was competing in the Junior BBC’s. Having made the final every time I entered meant I have never had much time to look around the show. This time was different as I was not competing, well not at Bouldering anyway.  One reason we went on the Saturday was to get a good look at the format and standard in the qualifying round of the World Cup Bouldering event as I hope one day I may take part. We also had the opportunity to cheer on the GB Team members; many of whom qualified for the semi-finals, with Dianne, Shauna and Ned coming so close to making the final the next day.

I also took advantage of the rest of the show in riding my BMX at the skate part and taking part in one of the most crowded Parkour demos I have ever been involved in.  It was all good fun anyway.  I could not resist a bit of competition and I entered the Dyno Comp which takes place on a world standard Dyno comp wall. Well I did ok and found myself in the last 5 with three climbers that had competed in the world cup in the morning, and the current Dyno World Record holder Skyler Weeks. I went out at the same height as the two climbers that came 3^rd but came 5^th because i made it on my second attempt. Skyler went on to attempt a new world record that he only just missed, but then made un-officially after his 3 attempts. In the women’s event Lily Fitzgibon from the Climbing Works set a brilliant new world record and my friends: Ellie Rymer and Hannah Wilson finished second and third.    

Dino

May/June 2011 – Some more comps

I have continued to climb well recentley.  I completed all of the Summer Boulder League problems at the Depot in one session scoring 281/300 to lead this comp from my friend Seb Smith going into the second round. The  British Bouldering Team Manager had enquired if I was going to compete in the Summer Rockfest Comp at Rockover Climbing in Manchester,  so I did. In this very well attended comp I finished in 10th place overall which doesn’t sound so special but this was a comp in which Dave Barrans and James Garden did not make the last 6 cut for the final, so I was pleased with my result.

The following week it was the Bloc Party Comp at City Bloc. Ben and Martin had set some excellent problems as usual. They also redesigned the comp wall ready for this event and with a full repaint it looked really good. I was still classed as a junior in this event , so I  won the juniors by several points. What was better was that I was only  3 points off making the open male final which included the likes of Adam Watson, Tom Newman, Nigel Callender, James Garden, Dave and Adam Jeeworth.  Tom ended up winning in a close final.

I have also been back to the Deport for the second round of the Summer Boulder League and I managed to flash  29 out of 30 problems and got the other one on my second go scoring 297/300.

I have been going down to Rokt in Brighouse fairly often recentley and things are really coming on there. They have now got a big lead wall up and have a full programme of top setters going in over the next year. I am to be doing a weeks work experience from college  there at the begining of July so I am looking forward to that.

No more exams til 2012J

Winter/Spring 2011 Update

Seen as I have got a bit behind on my blog I have decided to write one update summarising winter/spring 2011

February 2011

The BMC competitions committee decided that no UK Youth Climber will take part in the new European Bouldering Championships. The reasons given were that some Committee members have significant reservations about the health implications of young climbers undertaking training for bouldering and that there has not been a fair selection process for the event.  My dad suggested that they use the BBC’c and CWIF but they say they cannot do this because they did not announce it in advance. Obviously; I was gutted as these comps would have been a brilliant experience for me.

March 2011

CWIF

In March I competed for the City Bloc Team at the CWIF. It was good to turn up and find out that the age limit for juniors in this event is 18. I really enjoy competing in the CWIF and have done pretty well in previous years.

The morning qualifying session was very busy and I actually didn’t get chance to try all 30 problems because of this. I ended up scoring 191, which I was not sure whether or not to be pleased with. However when the afternoon qualifier results came in later in the afternoon I realised I had done alright. As I was in 27^th place overall and top junior by over 20 places. I also went back on the Sunday and flashed two of the problems I did not get to try on the Saturday and another had been taken down so who knows?

The City Bloc Team was made up of Tom Sugden, Louis Parkinson, and Frankie Mosley who all did well and we finished 8^th overall which was really good given the range of Brit and Euro stars in the Teams above us. The Semi’s and the Finals were great to watch and I thought that the new 2 day format worked well. I am looking forward to next year when I will still be a junior. Who knows; the first junior ever to qualify for the Final at the CWIF...?

March 2011

Boulder Leeds - I was pleased to finish second overall in the Boulder Leeds winter league. I was second to Dave Barrans who won every round convincingly. My aim for next year will probably be to just up my scores from this year. Thanks to City Bloc, The Depot and The Leeds Wall for running the comps

April 2011

Boulder Manchester Final Round – I also took part in Boulder Manchester this year and the final round was at Rockover after 5 previous rounds at MCC and Rockover. I finished 3^rd in the final round which was enough to take 3^rd overall in the series. I also flashed the cash prize problem on the night but so did 4 others so the money was shared amongst us.

April 2011

ROKT Opens – A new climbing wall ROKT opened in Brighouse this month. It is extremely handy for me as I can get there easily on public transport. ROKT has big plans and excellent potential. I spent some time there in April doing a bit of setting and getting to know the people there. I also won the cash prize problem on their official opening night giving me £100 which was an great bonus.

May 2011

ASBO – My dad and I went up to Climb Newscastle for the Annual Spring Boulder Open  Comp – This is another favourite having made the final the previous year there is also a great crowd there which certainly helps me perform.

Well, when I arrived my friend from City Bloc – Martin Smith told me that he had completed the qualifying problems and had scored 337 out of 350, I therefore knew qualifying was going to be tight. I got my act together and produced my best ever qualifying result in a big comp and qualified in 1^st place with a score of 347. My dad even did unusually well at the ASBO getting some problems that are normally beyond his range.

 The final went ok and I was in equal first place after the flashing the first problem, however the second was very difficult and I could not get past the bonus hold. I should have got the last problem but it had been a long day and I was tired and I fell off the second last hold after several attempts to get there. I was very pleased for Martin, despite him knocking me of the Podium when he got the last problem on his 8^th attempt to take 3^rd. The comp was won by Nigel Calendar in convincing style.

May 2011

 We are going to FONT –woop!  My parents have booked the summer holiday and it includes 6 days in FONT and 2 weeks in the Alps. I have been to fontainbleu a couple of times before but i was very young. Now that I have matured I can go back and work some of the harder stuff.

May 2011

EXAMS

British Team Training

So after the BBC’s; I was having a chat with Nick Clements (the manager of the British Bouldering Team) who was really impressed with my result, as was I. And I ended up getting an invitation to go and train with the team at Boulder UK in Blackburn.

On the day I turned up to see most of the team there and we got stuck straight in. First of all we did 5 or 6 problems that Ian Vickers and Jamie Cassidy had set for the team to try. We went round in pairs and I was with Gaz Parry. I did all the problems which I was surprised with as I thought I would struggle to get any.

After that I had another chat with Nick and he mentioned the possibility of doing some competitions across Europe and maybe a round of the world cup. I was so shocked when he told me this but happily shocked as I didn’t think I was that good.

Then we did a couple of circuits which were pretty damn hard, but I still enjoyed it. After that I sat and listened in on the team talk discussing things like the new arrangements for the BBC’s and similar things. At the end of the day Nick invited me to another training session at City Bloc in Leeds and somewhere else in Preston. I gladly accepted and am pretty happy with the day overall.

This is a late update from late January

BBC's 2011

It’s been a while since my last blog update so here it is. The BBC’s were held early this year in January and in London instead of Sheffield. This meant no Cliffhanger festival to support it, but instead it was a central event in the outdoors show held inside the Excel Centre.

With it being in London there was a lot more travelling to do for some competitors including me. The journey down wasn’t too bad and didn’t take too long. When we got there we had time to have a quick look around, watch a movie and get a pre-comp meal, which consisted of soggy chips and fried cheese.

On the day we walked to the event which was only a minute walk from where we were staying and got took in to see the wall with all the other competitors. The wall was pretty much a flat overhang with a few volumes scattered about. This was a slight disappointment compared to the walls that had been produced in the last few years.

There was no problem with keeping warm this year as it was indoors and with all the people in there it got pretty hot. I would have preferred it to be outside in the summer but what can you do.

The format was different to previous years, with the seniors climbing on the Saturday and the juniors on the Sunday. As it was my first year in the seniors I wasn’t expecting a great deal from myself this year. We were split into two groups; A and B for qualifying. I was in group A which were climbing first. I was going pretty well I thought but there was half an hour less than normal which caused some problems. Towards the end of the comp I was trying for my second attempt on a problem that a lot of people were struggling on. The last move was a dyno which I do a lot of in training. I managed to catch it and almost came off but managed to stick it. This psyched me up and with about a minute remaining I jumped on one last problem and flashed it.

There was one problem that I didn’t get chance to try but it looked pretty solid anyway so I was pleased with what I had done. Now I just had to wait while the second group had their climb and wait to see what the results were.

When the sheet went up everyone gathered round to see how they had done. I was pleasantly surprised to find that I had finished 14^th. With it only being my first year in the seniors I was very pleased with myself.

I stayed around to watch the womens qualification and the finals. I also got chance to have a look around at the rest of the outdoor show which was pretty cool.

I came back the next day to watch the juniors as some of my friends were competing that day. All in all it was a pretty good do. I still prefer the sun though.

Winter Comp Season Begins

After a long break, the winter competition season is starting again and the first at Rock Over Manchester on Saturday was a success. With a large turnout including the British Bouldering Team it was sure to be a good comp.

Qualification consisted of many interesting problems including a swinging ball, which apart from the occasional easy problem were all quite hard. I was however pleasantly surprised when I saw Dave Barrans from the British Team fall of a problem that I flashed.

I didn’t make the cut for the final, not that I was expecting to as it is my first year moving into the adult category. However I did manage to just make it into the 7th-12th place playoffs, coming 12th in qualification, which I think was quite good considering I was the youngest to make it in by 4 years.

The playoff was a new thing to me, as I think it was to most of the other climbers. There was one long problem and we had a minute to view it. Scoring was done on who completed it, or if more than one person completed it, it was done on the time it took to complete it. Seen as no one completed the problem, the person who got furthest won.

I didn’t stay to watch the final but Dave Barrans Ended up winning. All in all it was a pretty good day, and I’m looking forward to all the other comps coming up over the winter. 

This picture shows me attempting the playoff problem.

Tout A Blocs 2010

A couple of weeks ago I went down to the French Alps for a holiday with my family, but also to take part in the European Youth Bouldering Championships which took place as part of the Tout A Blocs bouldering competition at L’Argentiere-la-Bessee.

We went down the day before to register, and check out the wall and the problems. The layout was 4 blocs on the main stage, another bloc and an indoor area.

I thought the first qualification round went quite well at first as I did I bit less than half of the problems. Then while waiting on the campsite for the afternoon qualification it started to rain. We went down anyway to see what was happening and we were told to come back the next morning. We came back the next morning and it was still quite wet as there were thunder storms over night. So it was then rescheduled for early that afternoon and the time was reduced to an 1hr 15 minutes from 2hrs. We were then explained the rules by someone who spoke English and we had got it all wrong.

Originally we thought it was like any other bouldering scoring system where you get 10 points for a completed problem, but it was different. Each problem was worth 1000 points and those points where shared between the people that completed that problem. This was frustrating as I had done quite a lot of easy problems in the earlier qualification. So I just decided to try lots of hard problems in the second round and class this completion as a learning experience for next time as I didn’t have enough time to do as many problems as I could have with the full 2hrs.

The second qualification was a bit weird as it rained for about 20 minutes in the middle of it but they didn’t call it off. But I still managed to get one of my hardest problems in the middle of the rain on one of the outdoor blocs. In the end I came 17th out 50 odd competitors which was not bad considering that I didn’t know the rules.

The senior final was pretty awesome, which was held on the main stage in the dark. It was packed with spectators all cheering on the competitors. The problems all had some sort of leap in them which were all very impressive to watch.

 It was a fun competition and it looks good for next year as I will be in the same age group. After the comp I still had another week of holiday to look forward to.

My First Blog - The BBC's 2010

Over the past season I have been training and competing indoors a lot in preparation for the junior BBC’s and the European Youth Bouldering Masters in France this summer. The BBC’s at the weekend was a bit of a mixed bag. I qualified for the final in second place with a score of 87 out of 100, sitting behind a score of 90 from Barnaby Ventham. Seb Smith and Joe Swales who I climb with at Leeds also made it into the final which made it a bit more interesting.

It looked like it was between me and Barnaby based on the qualification scores. There was a significant gap between us and the next place qualifiers. In the final I flashed the first problem along with a few of the other finalists. The second took a few more attempts but got there in the end. The third was a bit more tricky and no one topped it, but I was so close, as I held the last hold but couldn’t hang on to match it. I was the only one to get to the final hold and if I’d held it I would have won. The last problem was on a big overhang, it was tough but a few of us managed to flash it.

Despite making every move in the final, I came out 3rd because I had too many attempts on the second problem. This was a good result but I am a bit disappointed on not getting 1st, as that was my aim for the comp having finished second and third previously. The first place was taken by Edd Mowbray who was the most consistent climber on the problems that were topped. All in all it was a pretty good weekend and I’m still in training for the comp in France in July. After that I hope to get outside a bit more.