Krabi

FOR THOSE WHO HAVEN'T BEEN TO KRABI, PLEASE DON'T GO TO KRABI.

The place is so beautiful, you will always yearn to return time after time.

The crags are so amazing, you will feel cheated when you climb on plastic.

The food is so good, you will often reminisce about it during hunger pangs.

The memories become infused into your fantasy and reality... and you understand why climbing is more than a sport... and you hunger for more crags coz you realise they are more than just places on earth.

route reading

Here's an article to route reading on planetfear:
http://www.planetfear.com/article_detail.asp?a_id=217

In response to 'novice' on what to look out for in route reading, there are several points I noted during the last vertical competition (Climbatopia at SP)

1) First observe how the whole route runs
2) Find where the crux is and figure out the best sequence (or ask others)
3) Look for rest spots (esp before crux)
4) Figure out good positions to clip in. (otherwise you will invariably on the wall try to clip in too early)

but of course i am a novice climber too so u cant trust me too much on this :) Experienced climbers wanna comment?

SRC Website

Hi guys, the new foto we took is out on the nus team climbing website!


Meanwhile, do train hard and climb hard during rockon/boulderactive/rockamania so your name will be listed on the website! (cheap thrill...)

hmm

juz realised that i've been doing some of my fingerboard trg wrongly..

Moon Climbing's fingerboard trg plan

endurance god?

Yday at CA, rachel told me that she saw HAfiz doing the 30 move endurance routes 6A,6B+,6C+ forwards and then backwards continuously.. (not sure if he did the 7A also)

This is his 30 min ARC.

We use FFA (free for all) tiles, bridge to rest and sweat like pigs in heat.

He is SHEN!!!

Solo-ing in Croatia!

HEY HEY...

Do pple (girls) do this in Krabi? Haha... would be an interesting sight. But they seemed to have scarily fair legs... liked they have chalked them or something...





For my ambitious friends who have thought of deep-sea solo-ing... A reminder of the consequences of missing that dyno... or failing to stick a crimper... But it's amazingly tempting as well...

Been doing finger and campus board like crazy these few days to train up my finger power and also many pushups to strengthen my injured left shoulder. Currently feeling v fatigued from overloading my body but hope to peak by boulderactive. My wish is to top one route!

Also in a bit of dilemma whether to join pumpfest novice cos it feels v wierd competing with my juniors on Top rope.. *sweat*.. But prize money is attractive :D

Hill Street Char Kway Teow

Supposed to go TJC to climb today but fate lah. Cannot go so ended up at yishun again argh. Was calculating what I missed when I missed out on climbing back at college.

What I missed out:

• Climbing at TJC and meeting up with old people
• $2.00 Hill Street Char Kway Teow!
• $0.60 Cheng Tng
• $1.80 for eight items of Yong Tau Foo
• $3.00 of big Cuttlefish rojak
• $5.00 of tiger prawn noodles
• $1.50 of fat aunty's Mee Pok!
• $0.50 for big cup of cin-cau/barley/pineapple juice/water chesnut
• $2.50 for (a lot of fishball) noodles
• $2.00 of white carrot cake

But on brighter side, this is what I gained in Yishun for $6.30:

• Tanned arms
• Tanned LEGS
• Tanned neck
• Tanned face
• Tanned feet
• And finished the easy yellow route which I did not finish ah-hahaha

Anyway heard Teck Chew took the wrong bus to TJC hahahahahahaha he ended up at Bedok market, near Tanah Merah there hahahahaha poor thing Yishun was packed too argh

wow what a nice place to climb! it's called totem pole, in aussie


Also in aussie (nice legs)


Blue mountains

Before Krabi.................BINTAN !!!

Will be MIA again due to Loss of sight for a few days.....

Yishun and Gear Review

Here's the obligatory post of Yishun. But to make things different, I will bundle in a gear review too.

Yishun was strangely empty today..no TJC climbers but there are some MINDEF commandos and they have spanking new gear! They brought slings by drums and most of them have new ropes but it is incomparable to the Ocun's Mescal harness!

The Ocun Mescal Size (Small)

The Ocun Mescal has a body hugging fit (but then all harnesses should be body hugging) and despite its inadjustable leg loops, they strangely did not pull my shorts up upon sustaining a fall. This is very good as sometimes when people stay indoors for too long, they tend to develop fair legs and it is not stylo lah. Things will be worse if the fair legs are hairy legs argh.

Futhermore, the sun is not that hot today. Good thing to climb in that weather but bad for tanning purposes. The Lim bruders did not have any shirts on argh but that is not the point! The point is the atmosphere during today's climb was pleasant. We have bruders throwing stones and little juniors following suit by throwing stones. Tried routes too but endurance was not there and lack balls to execute certain moves.

Upon a fall, I had expected the harness to jerk on my jewels as it is small in size (the harness is size s, not the jewels argh). But somehow, the leg loops did not do that and I fell with a really relek feeling. The gear loops are a bit old school as it uses plastic but at least it is not as stiff as other harnesses' gear loops. The velcro bit at the waist is good too as it does not come undone easily. This is good as I was belaying heavy people and the harness clings on to my body.

Each team member also had their fair bit of climbing, good lah like that everyone happily happily. There is also a progression towards vocal climbing too as climbers scream, holler, coach throwing a shoe at me -.- great cheering, some ghost stories and stone throwing. Although I was a bit shacked (fair people get tired easily from climbing) it was a good atmosphere. Plus the Safra kia who always suspek I forge my guardian's signature is not working today wuahaha

Syok lah today haha I can focus on my weaknesses for Rock-On and the harness is syok. Like it is super comfortable. Nice color too. Good value for money. The best part is (get ready for mushy part) the team's strength and spirit is imbued in it, makes me feel that I am not climbing alone. Yeah. (",) Thanks people!

KRABI... in the words of our 神... *SLURP*. Going to start a countdown...

NUS Climbing Team Photoshoot -- 200206

and today...

Girls getting ready..they took really long







Rock chicks (literally... lol!)

outdated rockmaster fotos

fu qi xiang!

A Matter Of Trust

Climbing and falling are inevitably related. Falling and trust, I find, are also intimately linked in the same way.

With faith, you can climb.

With trust, you can fall. And know that you'll climb back up again.

It doesn't matter if it's a crimper/sloper deadpoint just 3 panels off the ground or a lateral throw to a juggy ledge 15 panels up. If you can't trust your belayer, you're already half-way to falling.

Life seems to hold a similar truth in many other things too -- without belief in your foundation you're likely not to get far, but without a trust in life, you're even more likely not to live at all.

Your belayer makes a big difference when you're up. Your mind does the rest.


JKLM

balls vs no balls

Yday at Yishun was a very fun day for me as I did many climbs on many different routes.

Anyway, regretably, I found myself in the same situation as Junwei was in just a couple of months ago... ie 3 clips above the last runner and trying to clip in to the anchorpoint with trembly forearms.

In that split second, the thought flashed through my mind..to attempt to clip in on the end jug and accept the probabilitly (stacked against me at 99%) of falling (a v long way I might add) or to put my arms over the top edge of the wall and clip in relative safety.

Alas I have not as much balls as junwei :( I chose to pink point!

I have another recollection at Ton sai Wall in Krabi trying to redpoint Lion King (since i hangdogged my way up the first time). Anyway there I was trying to clip into the anchor (no top edge to pull myself over this time) and yet unable to hold on any longer due to extreme pump...of course fall la!!

Got to work on my resting and clipping and endurance and footwork ..alas - wat a long list.

Dr Topo Videos

For those who are still not sick of climbing videos, the links below (my choices) are taken from the website forwarded by june kiat. Right-click to save as. Natural climbing rocks!!!

http://drtopo.mysite4now.com/movie/alphabeta_big.mov
http://drtopo.mysite4now.com/movie/baldy_big.mov
http://drtopo.mysite4now.com/movie/holy_big.mov
http://drtopo.mysite4now.com/movie/orford2_big.mov

of acid and robots

more 'science of climbing' stuff to read ...

How was ur feb 14th?

http://www.8a.nu/eng/articles/forearms.shtml
http://web.8a.nu/articles/ShowArticle.aspx?ArticleId=774

and a climbing robot developed for NASA by climbers ... cool s**t ...

TJC

climbing in TJC is shiok!

They have a nice vertical wall with fun routes plus a cool mega roof and even the bouldering section is well laid out and planned.

so jealous..... *Green eyes*

Dynamic Belaying

http://www.planetfear.com/article_detail.asp?a_id=216

An interesting read ... Alas, something which I would like everyone to practise someday ... when we have unlimted access to some descent high wall ... nothing beats taking the falls and catching them right to put all those words in the article into proper perspective ...

"My life in your hands, and your life in mine" ... Do you trust your belayer?

After-Training Reflections

This after-training post contains a hell lot of self aggrandization, ego boosting statements, biased prespectives, and everything that Adrian Looi will usually sprout outta his mouth. Stop reading HERE if you do not suscribe to his polarized point of view or you don't like him or you don't think he talks sense.

Today's friday's training under Yap and Ke Sheng is immensely satisfying for me (hullo loyal readers who suscribe to my perverted point of view wuahaha u are the man). I rarely sweat a lot during boulder sessions and it is even more difficult for me to keep focus during training due to my..*what is your dirty mind thinking about omg*

I did three boulder projects, one route of which was assigned by Yap. Satisfying! No I am not gay but I finished one route with extreme grace yahahaha..yeah..gimme more ahhh.. oh man..although I cant start the other two routes at all -.- Maybe it is due to my leg or maybe I need to familiarize to a new move.

Oh yeah the gym contained the right number of people today. Plus it is actually airy in the gym but! This gives you no reason to come on friday hahaha

Then one by one the alumni came. One by one and again it is satisfying! After they arrive, we went up to do finger training (no do not think dirty here either). Super nice timing. Finger training was syok as I learnt something about campusing from Ke Sheng that I never put into practice. Plus my aiming was good as proclaimed by Ke Sheng wuahaha. And it was even more syok! A beautiful lady actually peeked in during our training!

Giving you time to digest and to imagine how breath-taking she was.

Training was wrapped up with an endurance route..haha although i did not climb for hyper long already, i still went quite far during the route. Love today's training as I was disciplined to keep going at routes, it was not so packed so I can keep trying routes and I actually sweated during today's training.

Words cant describe my joy now. Alright study time!

Bouldering in Hampi (india)

This is where we are headed this December http://www.javu.co.uk/Climbing/Articles/Hampi/







Make urself free and start saving now!

NTU's wall

For those going to NTU for the opening of the wall, here is a preview of their wall. For those injured, unable to make it for the opening, busy, midterms, etc etc, here is the wall. (Picture thanks to NTU's training coordinator haha)

I've got "IT"

"IT" can bring a grown man to his knees

"IT" causes swelling

"IT" causes prolong pain

"IT" is a sprained ankle.

Man... to have one sprained ankle in the team is bad enough, talk about two now; that's bad luck.

People, watch yourself.

Be careful.... very careful. OH yeah. nearly forgot, for those that have forgotten, and manage to see this post in time, GO BUY TOTO. 10 MILLION!!!

Playing It Safe

Heya peeps,

Just thought I drop a note to all regarding training and climbing in general. Hope I don't sound too much like a wet blanket; just a little worried that we loose our focus during this busy period of training, school and competitions.

1) Please exercise caution when you guys train. We have about 6 good weeks to competitions; while we're busy chasing grades and trying to improve, please do remember to GET ENOUGH REST. You will improve more quickly if you push hard and rest well, instead of taking longer breaks when you have finger or joint pains.

2) After 3 years in climbing, I've learnt a few things about our bodies -- improvement takes time. Sow the seeds now to reap the benefits later. No point rushing it and risk injury. If you wanna do campusing exercises upstairs but your fingers feel wonky, don't risk it by rushing it. Finger injuries have been known to delay and disable progress. Besides, there's plenty that you can do to climb better. Knowing how to is already one way in itself.

3) Plan your training progress well. Avoid frustrations and burn-out by spending some time thinking about your climbing or discussing with other climbers. 6 weeks is a long time.

Sport climbing is an extreme sport nonetheless because of its risks. Sometimes, I think that the greatest risks in this competitive sport is our overwhelming desire to evolve from mattress-grub to chalk-pro. It all takes time. So stay alive to see yourselves fly, ok?


JKLM

to each his own

Recently, the training intensity has upped quite significantly. Trying madly to keep up with Mr ZX, I did lots of campus board and other physical conditioning but I realised that my body cannot take it (cos I can't recover in time).

If anyone feels the same way, just tell the ICs during trg and maybe u can relax and do some ARC instead for that day and come back stronger the next session. Don't always need to follow the prescribed trg plan ea time!

team harness

The team has 3 ocun harnesses meant for us only .. i keep one and t-loaned 2 out to the juniors. Then last week, I realised that i wasnt holding on to it and didnt know where it was?!!!

OMG I thought, if it's lost i'm going to be $60 poorer. After 1 week of worry and asking around, i've FINALLY FOUND IT!! Eli was holding on to it all the time and she was the first person I asked!!! tMD!!!

NTU Rock Gym Opening

Eat. Sleep. Climb

Anyone interested in going for NTU's Rock Gym Opening Ceremony this Friday??
It's 7pm at NTU Sports and Recre Centre.

Pass the msg around ya.

Kevin

level 2 course tmr cancelled... or NOT?

... not that i am looking forward to have the level 2 course tmr. but i was indeed quite sad that it was cancelled. either becoz many ppl cannot make it or ppl prefer yishun to having a boring level 2 course in ca... haha..

just to say.. level 2 course is boring, definitely not as fun as yishun. but it is an essential knowledge to have. i dunno how many of us here think that attending level 2 is a waste of time. coz personally, i used to think so + it's expensive.

maybe we will never be able to display the skills we learnt in level 2 in our whole lifetime...( very likely esp for me, coz i dun like to lead climb, i dun do much vertical too.) but still, as a climber (or boulderer...to be exact), i believe it is something we must know. something that we should learn correctly and not just having bits n pieces of the knowledge. at least then, we wont be laughed at by the yishun guy, who took away our runners becoz he say we dun have level 2 ( even though we knew what we are doing and we are safe, right kaiyin n lips??)

anyhow, i dunno if the level 2 course we are attending now, conducted by our coach will give us a level 2 cert. but it is still a full course conducted free. i hope ppl will appreciate it somehow. and a cert will be better of coz.

cheers...

continued....

so now, is the course cancelled?? enlighten me pls??

**very confused and dunno what is going on .....
.... anyhow, no right to be angry at anything... coz i know nothing... haa it rhymes...

Please Enjoy Training !!??!!

Erm, its 01 Feb liao. Left with one month of true solid training. (March is for fine-tuning??) Very fast.

Its really shiok, to see that ur training had paid off. One case in point - Liping. She comes real very early b4 each training. Most times, when i just arrive, she's already at the fingerboard. And she doesn't leave early too! Feng told me no motivation, no fingerboard. I feel that motivation comes from within and from people like Liping.

I've been doing fingerboard and hangboard for e past wk, and its satisfying to feel urself improve. I couldn't do systems last time, but now, i feel my lock offs are a little better than b4. Now its time to add weights. (Who wanna join me?)

Team training can only do so much, as it has to take into account everyone, space and time constraints. No one knows you best except yourself. And no one can push you real hard except yourself. If you really want to, then i recommend having an individual training plan, on top of the team program. That is, if you can take it and wanna do it.

Just some thoughts from the silly run.
(Hope i dun sound anti-team,jus some personal views)