The boulder season this year has been rather lengthy, compared to the previous years since I started climbing and training for competitions (5 years).

Rockmaster 2013, organised by SPRC, was the last of the last bouldering competition here in Singapore. So I though this event was definitely worth writing down.

The previous weeks were marked with NTU's Bouldermania and SIM Vertigo. I took part in my first Open Men qualifiers during Bouldermania and only managed 1 bonus from the flat walls haha. But the overall experience was quite thrilling, although routes were remarkable hard! But I am looking towards testing and challenging myself more next time!

Hitting the only bonus for my OM qfy in Bouldermania

SIM Vertigo was a huge knock on my door as I battled with myself mentally and physically. The weeks before these comps were not taken seriously, I had little focus and concentration during my climbing sessions and perhaps was feeling rather burnt out. I've been carrying on the momentum since last year when I started training for Feb 2013 TNFC Japan. But excuses aside, I was glad to have had this experience in that I learned more about my mistakes and weaknesses.

Heres a little list of my mistakes and weaknesses:

1) Warm up
Sometimes we take things for granted. We think we are still young. We are not. HAHA.

2) Focus
I got a little carried away doing my maths homework during isolation. Usually I switch on my zen mode and mentally psych myself up. But this little mental workout got me feeling a little tired and not in the mood for some serious climbing.

3) Beta
It has come to a point in which I have a whole cupboard full of possible betas that might suit a possible route. I forget to see and think about a route based on how the routesetter actually intends the route to be and to climb it that way. This is something important that competitive climbers have to think about.

4) Flashes
I lost my mindset towards needing to flash a route. Because of the format of our competition, flashing is an important aspect of the competition. It should not be a "go and try" thing, but a "go and finish it in one go like a boss" thing. This, I believe, also takes abit of practice, and we cannot just walk from the gym into a competition scene just like that without working and putting your mind to it.

5) Physical
I need to work on more power, more locking, more on-the-go-locks, more dynamic movement, more confidence in latching on. Basically, as I look at how some climbers in the world cup climb, I see something that I want to include in my climbs: that sureness, the confidence, the smooth flow when they climb. No hesitations. I get that alot, and it throws your momentum off, it makes your muscles jitter and not react in a way you want them to, it makes you pumped and you overgrip. Most of all, it makes you fall.

Indeed it was really humbling for me during SIM Vertigo, having been hitting podiums for most of the local competitions so far, and yet finding myself stuck in an area I had moved off from a long time ago. I did some reflective thinking in between and started looking at others and the way they climb. I find out what is it that they have and use to get to were they are, and I'm learning to use those too. I had forgotten what it was like to keep fighting for that coveted spot in the finals. Yes, I took things for granted. :'S Disappointed, I was.

Uncomfortable moves in this SIM qfy moves which threw me off.

Because Rockmaster was the week after SIM Vertigo, I made sure I switch my mindset. Forget about "training", there wasnt enough time. I took my climbing sessions with more drive. I climbed the way I want to climb during the competition, more swing, more power, more confidence. I ate up as many routes as I could during my climbing sessions, I also went back to the fingerboards to feel my arms pull my bodyweight repeatedly in one go. I need to feel what it was like to feel the tension in my core, my body rocking in over my knees, my toes edging the foothold and pulling me to the next handhold. It is the kind of familiarity I needed to feel, in terms of body movement and positioning, that I took for granted that my body knew. I was someone on a mission right there.

The hype for Rockmaster 2013 was amazing, and thats the way it was supposed to be. Format was different from our bonus-top system, and attempts almost did not matter as much as progressing to the top. Qualifiers was fantastically fun and it was different in that I was actually working hard to get some ascents. Took quite a few attempts in some routes, but eventually still managed to work my way to the top of the qualifiers. Well, its not the first time that im ranked 1st on the board and last to climb, but somehow I am less daunted by the fact that I will be climbing last of the women in the finals. (Level up!) I wished I had some videos, especially of the last route in which we had to "land" on a big volume tile in order to end. Took a few funny tries to get that one!

Nice wooden panels for RM13 and lighting too!

OW qfy results

Finals was a big show. It was the grand finale. Lightshow can win TNFC Japan. It was like rockclubbing. And it certainly was a privilege to be in such a finals. I missed the one last year, so glad I made it this year! The finalists were introduced from the top of the walls and the crowd and lights were really sensational. ;)

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!

I excluded myself because I had eyeballed the route beforehand, and I just wanted others to have it more. :) Congrats to all my winners!!

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!

This year's segment of Pumpfest by the NTU ODAC was held at City Square - the mall must be very supportive of climbing events! The walls were simpler in design, mostly flat planes, so there was a need for some volumes to be brought in. My initial thoughts were on the limitations the wall might bring, but it also gave me something to look forward in terms of volume and 3D movement on routes and really looking at how the route setters were going to manipulate this piece of artwork.

A brief insight on routes during the Intermediate Men Qualifiers on friday evening did seem slow and cautious. Most route endings were static, balance ends, and there were alot of sit-ins and careful rock overs. So when I went to Climb Asia to do my round of warmups, I made sure I stretched my legs and practiced my sit-ins as well as balance moves. Sit-ins are a very funny thing. I used to be really good at them until I first pulled my gluts/hamstring on a route in Pumpfest 2009. It hasnt been the same since and it really required alot of stretching to get it to work the way it used to.

We had 5 routes and I managed to top 4, flashing 3 of them and having 3 attempts on a dyno route. Surprisingly the routes were very much different from the IM qfy, and I was rather pleased with the routes and the way they felt. The dyno did catch my off guard. It was a rather awkward jump sideways and you had to make sure the first hand catches the tile before pulling to ensure the trailing arm gets enough height to catch the next better tile. I faltered on a compression route, in which I secretly blame the sidewall as my contact strength is not that good, given my sweaty palms.   But most importantly, I didnt trust my heel hook and was deciding between throwing for it instead of going static. Well, I could do the move, but the forearms were too pumped to latch on.



Grimacing on route 3 of OW qfy, the only route I didnt complete.

The most challenging route would have to be the last. It wasnt so straight forward like the others and we had to plan and execute those moves without any given footholds. Plus it required more contact strength and body control. (Marisa flashed this route - and I was really proud of her!) Entering the scene as one of the first few climbers really felt good and there wasnt any pressure despite it being a qualifying round. I think I would like more of this! haha. PLUS I get to watch my friends climb after.



OW qfy results

Finals was the same ifsc format. Initially we had no observation, but finally the setters/judges relented. YES! The first route was a flat volume climb, the second a reachy/dyno move, and the last a traverse. I managed to qualified 3rd behind two indonesian girls: nadya and fitria. Climbing before me were liting and felicia, and upcoming talent vanessa. These are the girls who I know are going to give me some indicator on the route difficulty and attempts I was to take.

I took a different approach from the day before and skipped warmup on the walls. Instead, proceeding to the isolation zone where I focused on stretching my legs as usual and monkeying around on the bars behind. Some of the other finalist had gone to warmup, and I was beginning to feel a tinge of regret. So I put on my shoes, and monkeyed behind the walls. HAHA. I knew that the walls were flat and less inclined, so small footholds were definitely a must, hence i took the effort to work on some footwork stepping on some small corners, rocking over on my sit-ins and pushing up into mantles. When all those did not seek to calm my nerves, I just layed down in the isolation, closed my eyes, and visualised. I recalled the previous days' warmup, how my body felts,the moves I did. And after about 5-10 minutes, my heartbeat slowed down, I became more relaxed and calm, and I knew I was ready!

I believed that there must come a point in time during a competition that you must be ready to take on the challenges outside. If not, you would never know what it is like to perform at your best and see how far it can take you. After 3 years and about 12 times being in a local open final, all the experiences I had gathered from qualifying last to qualifying first has certainly build up my mental strength, more so than my physical. This Pumpfest Open finals, I felt stronger in mindset, and higher in confidence. Of course there were pockets of shaky nervousness. :p Hey, I'm human!

The first route was a real challenge, hearing from the cheers from the audience. I would like to say that I breezed up the route owing to my humongous sit-in, right at the start. (If anyone has a video, let me know!) I guess I've gotten a decent amount of practice on volumes to scramble up this one. Particularly during this comp, I really took an effort to note the good edges, the possible ledges that I could hold and step, and the possible body positionings I might be in. I think I might be getting at something here!

I underestimated the move for the bonus on the second route. Somehow I was overcautious and hesitated in jumping/leaping for it. The stretch out to it was abit too much for me. :p I must admit I was pretty annoyed with myself when I realised the ending was easy. It could have been a flash.. but knowing that only liting and I had topped the previous route, I knew I was still in the running for podium. The last route got me quite shaken when I heard the girls topping the route one after the other. I knew I at least had to finish it, to remain on podium. But I settled for nothing less than a flash for this one. And I did! - with shaky legs and overgripping some tiles. :p I ended the route feeling more relieved than happy that I clinched the gold. LOL. okay, gotta work on this style factor/body control during moments of stress and pressure.



Victory fist pump on Route 3 of Open Women Finals



Prize winners for OW



OW Finals Results

OM finals results

Varsity Lead Womens medalists

One of the 16 routes

Try to make sense of the scoring if you can! I thought that the Chief  Judge should have given the statistics as well as we could double check.

Hazlee's scoresheet.

Far reach! I should have hooked my right leg instead. Hooking left shifted my center of gravity to the left, bad choice!

Getting stuck. :p

So much so, that i attempted to hack the route, but there was no way to get across to the black triangle volume.

Reaching up to gaston this volume. Time was up the moment I matched it, without able to proceed on .

Confusion on the 4th final route

Finals results for Womens

How they tabulated our finals

Finals Results for Men

Result statistics for Men

Intermediate wall and some of them on routes 1 & 2.

Kai having a go at route 3, set by Felicia. This ending is not easy, not easy at all. Takes a lot of confidence.

The crowd on the main Advance wall. 4 routes on this wall front.

Results from LBS 2013 OS. Nice even scores! Well done routesetters!

1st place winner for Womens category, Kai Xuan.

1st place winner for Mens Category: Nicholas Lee from Climb Asia, sponsored by La Sportiva

Planning this event was not easy, despite the small scale. But there was certainly alot of learning points that I could take away from this. The timing and advertising of this competition was micro, just a facebook event or word of mouth. Early morning climbs were not taken to with enthusiasm, haha. But climbing draws people and we started the event later than expected.

Thanks to bella, I've now got a cool logo for thi series. Am hoping to do up a shirt too, to show off my pride. HAHA. I was blessed with sponsors from apparel Grimpe, adidas watches and chalkpots from people who wanted to motivate climbers. THIS, is a community competition and I think its triggered a spark. :)

Routesetting came by easier than I thought, given that there were only 8 routes and the tiles were already up on the wall. Taping the routes up was underestimated and I took 1 hour to out all the tapes up on my own. :p I think I'll do it better next time, probably the day before. I missed afew holds while I was taping and I think this would affect the tries and efforts of the climbers. But thank you to my routesetters out there, for bearing with my inexperience (first time being chief route setter!) and also helping me learn more about the stylesof climbing.

I tried to enlist the help of my vjrc kids, but they were caught up in training, hence there were no route judges for the day. HAHA. It was all on integrity, and given no attemptes were considered, it was easier to keep track of the scoring in the number of bonuses and tops.

Overall, I feel kinda proud of myself for having a go at this unknown. I never imagined I would host everything on my own. Or that people would respond. Of course I would like to see more people, as well as carve a strong competitive vibe in this, but standards will slowly raise, and people will come to Level Up. Someone gave me an incredible idea for the next series:

Level Up Boulder Series 2013, Sundown.