Friday night marked the 2nd segment of the Level Up Boulder Series 2013! This time, with the competition being held at night, hence the additional "setting sun" in the logo above!
There were about a total of 30 climbers all cranking hard at Climb Asia. It was really heartening to see so many of our climbers come together to support this idea. This idea that grew from inspiration after my trip to Japan. Having a community of climbers come together, it was almost like a mass climbing session! What strike me the most was seeing some new budding talents, especially from the polytechnics, coming down and really showing us oldies what they've got! haha. (okay, im not THAT old.. but still! Those youngsters were screaming and really crushing some routes man!)
When the clock started and everyone got down to business, you could really see the climbers going at the route right from the start! This time, I put on my climbing shoes and dive nose in into this whole mess. Boy, was it tiring! There was so much psych and the fact that the routes posed a huge possibility of completion that kept me going. Even though by looks (and eventually feel) the routes were hard, my eager self took up the challenges that night and I truly had a lot of fun! Thank you to Aaron, Hazlee, Yan and Mut for testing and setting up the volumes and routes that night! We had 7 routes due to the space constraint, but that didn’t dilute the effect those routes were meant to give. They became our official tile brusher and maintenance crew in order that climbers could have the maximum stick power! Haha. I added in 15 minutes so that the crowd had more time to try out and work on the routes.
The crowd at Climb Asia for Sundown:
Here are the results for that night!
Mens (Left to right):
1st - Dennis (SAF)
2nd - Ron (Team SMU)
3rd - Nicholas (Team Climb Asia)
Womens (Left to right):
1st - Lynnette (Team Climb Asia)
2nd - Felicia (Native Shoes)
3rd - Vanessa (Singapore Poly)
We had a super final showdown on one of the roof routes as we had a tie in the Mens category. Thank you to the sponsors Sticki and SoiLL from Climb Asia for providing the prizes! The results were tabulated with the same format although we added in points to make the calculation process easier! This time, climbers filled out their scoresheet after the whole event, which might have caused them some confusion in the route numberings! Hm.. something I have to work on then! Haha.
Overall, this competition is pretty much home based, and informal at times. Haha. I changed the holding area for the briefing to the cave on the first level, but luckily everyone was around the gym so it was easy to gather them. Didn’t get to show my thanks and ask about the climbs from those who left earlier. We didn’t cater too much for the ladies in that the routes were “manly” climbing styles. My idea was intended to raise some standards and allow the girls to feel and try out the routes that guys were doing. I grew up climbing these kind of routes and setting outside my zone and wanted to see if it applied the same way. But I also realized that pushing it up too much may demoralize some and hence I thought we could do something new the next time: Japan created a shared route system whereby everyone climbed 8 routes, 4 of which were easier and 4 were hard. So this time, maybe LBS could move in the same direction. 4 womens routes, 4 routes that women and men would share, and 4 mens routes making a total of 12 routes. But all in all, everyone would still only do 8 routes. So the spread of tops and bonuses would be the same for men and women, and everyone would feel just as accomplished and (gym entry) money’s worth!
I organized this series with my things and goals in mind. At first it was to mimic the competition format in Japan and to see what it was like in Singapore. Our competition drought in the beginning of the year spurred me on as I was itching to generate a new wave of psych for bouldering. Slowly, as I talked to some people, got feedback and formed new visions, LBS 2013 became a means to reach out to the community, give opportunities, bridge the standards and motivate and encourage our climbers who were getting ready for the big competitions. With this, route setting has become more than just planning and putting up tiles. The ideas, the criteria, style and limitations had to be considered. Aaron stepped up and offered to help me routeset so that I may compete. Haha. Grateful for it, so that I may see and feel what others feel. His mindset was simple, he too wanted to contribute back to the community in his route setting. And I was proud this gave him the chance to do so. Im not sure where the next LBS 2013 will take us. Ive had many ideas, like holding it in school gyms, or catering to the secondary and jc students. These things will not be easy to carry out, with aspects of space, safety, STUDENTS!! Hahaha. But we’ll see.
Really got to give a huge shoutout to Climb Asia for being so supportive. From color tags, to prizes, to the space and being so flexible with us tramping all over their gym! Haha! Thank you very much!
