Hong Kong and Yangshuo Part 2 ( the good the bad and the nonsense )

Okai so there are some of the stuff that we did when we were not climbing... which acutally is alot of the time =/

By the way I'm not talking about the Good Food we had coz Kenneth will be posting on that. Right Kenneth? =D

We spend 50% of our time when we're not climbing playing the iPAD!!!


At the airport...


Our room (HK)... small but clean and cheap and got personal toilet =)


Even on the train. But the truth is, it really helped us alot! Saved us from getting lost, finding great food, locating climbing crags and gear shops!! By the way, Angry Birds Rock!! and Kenneth has hidden talent for gaming!! Bert can testify!


We landed in Macao 2am in the moring and when to The Venetian (Casino) to spend the night. Or rather our bags spent the night and we slept wherever we can...


The engineers analyzing the roulette machine to find their sure win numbers! while i slept on the machine... =p


Everything in Macao opens like after 11am, only the Casino's 24hrs... so we died of hunger and boredom outside Coach... Of course we did all the touristy stuff but... you can go see for yourself so no need to show them here.

In Hong Kong we...


visited gun shops...


found that Kenneth and Joshua might be in a relationship...


and had our gear shopping spree!!!


We also found that HH hates "cho tou-fu" ...oops should have left this for ken..

Because it rained for the first couple of days in HK, we decided to hunt for HK bouldering gyms! But for some reason, all HK's bouldering gyms are all hidden in light industrial areas...




We were told to look out for the wooden geko. With the metal door closed, you'll never know that this is a rock gym!!


Slightly larger than our own gym without the enterprise wall. Very springy mattress.




Old school cargo lift, where you got to lift 2 metal doors by hand.






and this gyms about our NUS gym size.

Next up China!


Our sleeper-bus to Yangshuo from Shenzhen.


Yangshuo was really really hot!! About 35 to 36degrees in the afternoon...


Cooling our heads off with water from the well after climbing at Egg Mountain.


Night life in Yangshuo! Lots of pubs and clubs and shops.


KTV in Yangshuo. We have to spend up to 288 yuan on food and drinks and we can sing for as long as we like ... so they sang for 7hrs... i almost died ...


HH pole dancing!!!! NOT.

We also took a bamboo raft down the famous Li Jiang River.




Behind us is the Nine horses painting mountain"... suppose to see 9 horses ... blah..


And here's the famous 20 Yuan scenery.



We spend much of our time over at China Climb when we have nothing to do...




We met Abond (on the right)and Ar-Chen (on the left). Both sponsored climbers with big brands such as Arcteryx, Black diamond, La Sportiva... and both are experienced route bolters with man FAs under their belt. Had great times having long chats with them and found that climbing gods are pretty much like us mortals too.


Bouldering with China Climb guys at night =)


We also met other China Climb folks such as Abond's younger brother, Xiao-Chen (black-T), and Tanxi (white pants)a biker. Very friendly bunch and that would go all out to let you have an enjoyable stay in YS.

Joshua, XinYi and I missed our bus back to Shenzhen after HH and Ken left for Beijing. The bus broke down before it reached Yangshuo. Tanxi and Xiao-Chen wanted us to leave YS with only good memories, so they when out of thieir way to plan a deep-water solo trip by the river just for us =D




(Obscene picute of dragonfly mating on Joshua's swimming trunk has been removed- NC16)


Our sleeper-bus back to Shenzhen from Yangshuo. Imagine four guys staring at you while you try to sleep, lying down at the same level as their socks, smelling a concoction of stinky socks, pee and perspiration. Eeeeeeeeeee... but at least we're lying down... they had to squat for 10hrs.


Alrite I'll stop here. Rock trips are not only about climbing, it's also about having fun meeting ppl and enjoying a different cultural experience of places you would otherwise not visit.

Kenneth please show all the good food / cheap food / wierd food we had =)

HongKong and Yangshuo ( the climbing )

Okay! Since we din have enuff time for the trip sharing session at arvin's place and we already prepared for it i think i shall share with everyone our trip to HongKong and Yangshuo here on the blog

Brave Climbers you shall see in the pictures below:
Brian ( our team captain ) *cheers*
Kenneth ( The Bai-Ka Reincarnated )
Xinyi ( woman behind successful male climber(brian) ... or behind his camera most of the time.. hahhaha )
Joshua ( the self proclaimed 5.14 climber )
and Me ( Heng Hong )

disclaimer: u shall only see Climbing or climbing related photos in this post, for elaboration on food i will tag kenneth and for all the other stories that me and kenneth missed out i shall tag brian (teamwork ftw!)

captions below pictures

ok trips starts off in HK , lots of food and lots of sightseeing before the climbing actually started , finally rain decided to stop after like 3 days and we went for 1 failed bouldering trip.. mebe brian will talk on that.. not enuff space to upload more photos of that

Our first place we visited was Hua Fa Shan, part of the tsuen wan boulders , far out in the outskirts of HongKong, its about as high as bukit timah hill (roughly) so we trekked up with our stuff




view on top of the hill was magnificient , better than the PEAK. haha

found a huge boulder with a China Flag on it .. wrote there : climb up onto it at your own risk (in chinese of coz) .. of coz we climbed onto it.. who cares


it was a great boulder to climb on , with a superb undocumented route up on the highest and most inclined side.


thats kenneth on it

we all tried it .. then we realised theres a rather deep 2 digit mono on the last few moves.. DAMN PSYCHED!


cant see the last hold.. its over the lip... quite a good pocket.. just out of sight.. gotta make a blind throw for it


Aftermath of mono

Brian managed to finish the route! probably first acsent! =)


another day, went climbing with some of our newly met hongkong climbing friends at beacon hill , near shek kip mei station

not too bad belay area

the view when on the route was also phenomenal , can see a huge part of HK



and BAM .. we're in Yangshuo now

Karst scenery all around , at least thats what they call it



yay squat at the side of the street.. quite nice pic .. great background =P


we travelled around in kinda taxi/minivan to the various crags.. about 10rmb per pax each trip to and fro..
ok first climbing day went to baby frog wall , or tadpole wall , tonnes of easy climbs there. ALOT OF MOZZIES .. mebe coz its usually the place with the most people as most climbing centres bring their customers there to climb easy stuff


Next climbing day we went to the egg mountain , where we climbed at the north and north east face.. Very very sunny..kenneth got tanned.. like for 128972342seconds.. haha.. but the quality of the routes were really good and the scenery was very very different from that we saw in HK =)



Kenneth on Hustlers Roof 6c

thats me starting on the same route



third day of climbing brought us to tong men shan , or twin gate mountain, one of my favourite places. theres this 2 big caves into the wall where it was cool and nice place to put our stuff or sit down
nearby theres also a stream if we need to wash our hands and stuff.
great belay area , plenty of climbing routes. BEST =)



Kenneth and Xinyi on routes at tong men shan , dunno y kenneth is keow kar-ing .. i think hes taking his shoes off for a rest if i nv remember wrongly. haha


not everytime is an easy time for crag finding. but thats where the fun is at

ITS AN ADVENTURE! ZOMG!

ok moving on..


Ahh.. found it.. this is Baishan .. the BIGGEST crag in Yangshuo , possibly one of the most densely packed routes in Asia , lots of routes.. some joined . some 1m apart. haha.. Immense wall

im not kidding .. try to spot brian in this picture.. (dun look so high we not doing multipitch..haha)


great scenery of baishan with Brian on China White 7b



chinaclimb .. our favourite hangout at night .. more stories by brian =))


FINALLY.. the climax or CLIMBAX of the trip .. Moonhill.. Easily the most spectacular crag in yangshuo... the great arch on top of a bukit timah hill.. damn awesome!



closer view from up on the hill



insanely cool route that goes right up the middle of the arch. Moonwalker 7c .. oh yes its another spot brian contest
oh yes and by the way IT IS as scary as it looks



ok thats all for the climbing we did in HongKong and Yangshuo! hope i didnt miss anything.. if i did kenneth and brian will settle it! =)


As for Krabi i shall tag Larrisa to blog about it since its her first climbing trip! =) (correct me if im wrong)

Cheap Air Tickets

Can check it out! But travel period is only from 9th Aug - 15th Nov. Cannot go also nvm, see also shiok. Anyone game enough for a short midterm trip :)

Air Asia

Boulder Final Men - Rock Master 2010

1 X Flying Arrow

was innocently going about my own business till i kena one time flying arrow from dear vice-captain.

our msn conversation
judith says:
hey
are u free?
jansen says:
yes madam?
judith says:
wanna help me compose an exciting email to ask freshies to come for trials?
haha
my emails are boring

note how she uses the 'do you want to help me' trick to great effect. having fallen victim to it once before in her 'do you want to send me home', i thought i've become more battle-hardened. alas! it's hard to turn down a lady.. and worse.. one trained to mess with your mind. so here goes!

the unadulterated version!
Hello Freshies!

Yes the dreaded F word. There is this certain negative connotation associated with being a Freshie – that you’re a newbie, that you need an idiot’s guide to navigating around NUS, that you don’t know which canteen serves the most delectable food. Don’t worry! Here at TeamNus Climbing Club, you’ll find a whole bunch of really warm and friendly seniors who will attend to your every need!

Just head down to our very own cosy Climbing Gym down at the Sports and Recreation Centre (SRC) for our open house! It is just beside the entrance of the swimming pool and no, you do not need an idiot’s guide to find the place. Just watch out for lean, mean and muscular dudes and dudettes hovering around the area waiting to welcome you to a fun-filled event!

Join us for our Welcome Tea on 10 Aug, 6pm! You can ask us anything under the sun, from which faculty has the most hunks and babes, or ask for module beta (climber lingo for information), or simply check out if climbing is the sport for you! A video presentation, usually painstakingly edited by one of our design/arty farty climbers will be screened to bring the outdoors to you! Refreshments will be provided. FREE! *typical kiasu Singaporean eyes lit up*

If you find that you want to explore the intricacies of movement on rocks, or if rockclimbing is your cup of tea and you want to join our competitive team, come for our Team Trials from 11-13 Aug. They are held at 6pm each day. Simple tests will be conducted to ascertain your suitability.


*After receiving death threats from concerned parties, the author is forced to remove the part of this report that was previously here. While the author wants very much to uphold his reporter's integrity, he considers the adverse effects of such insistence. As a result, this entire section has been condensed into a "do you want to?" quote (font size increased and font colour changed, no less) for remembrance's sake. Thank you for reading.*

the real pi3 sai4 boy

At least I stopped at age 6!

finger techniques=)

In general terms, all finger techniques are equally good. However, different techniques suite different climbers, holds, angles and rock. Most climbers have a dominated finger position and this position is therefore trained frequently, meanwhile the abandoned techniques are getting weaker. A balanced gripping repertoire is the key factor for any top-climber. Introduction article-2002!



-Open hand

-Open crimp - Often weak

-Closed crimp
Your preferred technique usually depends on where and how you began to climb. If you started out on verticals with crimpers you are probably strong in a closed crimp position, while if you started out on steep indoor bouldering your strongest position is open crimp. Climbers that have started out on small limestone pockets and slopers, like in Fontainebleau, are often very skilled in open hand.

Recruiting muscle fibres
The good thing is that, through recruitment training of your finger muscles, it is relatively easy to adapt and increase the strength of the different finger positions. In bouldering, you have probably noticed that you feel stronger by the number of tries. This is in fact partly due to recruitment. For each try, more muscle fibre is being used and coordinated.

To much load makes index finger 'collapse'.

Recruitment Training

Gripping positions can get more than 100 % stronger in 1 hour (i.e. 100 % more muscle fibres will be in use). To train this, you just hang on your fingers with a load that they can take and then gradually increase this load. However, if you overload ;your finger position will collapse and the training will become contra-productive.
Procedure:

1. Start by making 10 pulsations and then rest for 30 seconds. Repeat 5 - 10 times. When you feel/get stronger, increase the load.
2. Make 2+2 moves upwards and then rest for 30 seconds. Repeat 5 - 10 times. When you feel/get stronger you can prolong the moves.
3. Make 2 double hand moves upwards and then rest for 30 seconds. Repeat 5 - 10 times.

When you feel/get stronger you can start doing downward moves.
Different possibilities to increase the load

1.A. Low load can be achieved by simply standing on the floor.

2.B. Step inwards/backwards to increase the load.

3.C. Stand on holds

4.D. Foot-less Muscle Training & Injuries

Your maximum power depends on the strength (size) of your fibre and the proportion of fiber that is in use. A later article will discuss how you can increase the strength of your muscle fibres. The first step however is to increase the use of the fibres that you already have. This can be achieved through campus board training, however, begin with low load training to reduce the risk of injuries. A good idea is to start every session with focus on your finger positions. This will give you a better understanding and knowledge of the gripping techniques - a key factor in climbing.
www.8a.nu

Hello it's me again. Anw yes long long long overdue portraits which I completed about a month ago but just haven't got round to uploading. Sorry Yix after finishing the full-body Fel I didn't have the stamina to give you a body so you'll have to make do as a disembodied head. No if you think your nose is smaller think again. (ok I made it about 30%ｌａｒｇｅｒ　ｔｈａｎ　ｌｉｆｅ）．　Ｆｅｌ　ｙｏｕｒ　ｂｕｎｎｙ　ｔｅｅｔｈ　ｇａｖｅ　ｍｅ　ａ　ｌｏｔ　ｏｆ　ｔｒｏｕｂｌｅ！　Ａｎｄ　ｓｏｒｒｙ　Ｉ　ｔｈｉｎｋ　ｙｏｕｒ　ｒｉｇｈｔ　ｃａｌｆ　ｔｕｒｎｅｄ　ｏｕｔ　ｍａｎｌｙ．　Ｂｕｔ　ｃａｎ＇ｔ　ｂｅ　ｂｏｔｈｅｒｅｄ　ｔｏ　ｃｈａｎｇｅ　ｉｔ　ｒｉｇｈｔ　ｎｏｗ．　

Ｂｕｓｙ　ｗｉｔｈ　ｉｎｔｅｒｎｓｈｉｐ，　ｗｉｌｌ　ｔｒｙ　ｔｏ　ｄｏ　ｍｏｒｅ　ｂｕｔ　ｉｔ＇ｓ　ｌｏｏｋｉｎｇ　ｋｉｎｄａ　ｔｉｇｈｔ　ｆｏｒ　ｔｈｅ　ｒｅｓｔ　ｏｆ　ｔｈｅ　ｈｏｌｓ．　

Climb NUS shirt

Hi people I came up with a design for the Climb NUS event. I hope it's alright... it's based on the L4D logo for those who don't play games. I couldn't think of how to fit the secret ambition theme into the shirt design. if anyone has any bright ideas do chip in but i'm damn damn damn busy now with work so I may not be able to produce a second design. Esp since this vector design took F***ing long to do. Vector art is tedious.

I was thinking of another design, based on Hermes' (the greek messenger god) shoes. The one one with wings on them. I was thinking of climbing shoes with wings on them. Makes for a visually appealing design, but again, no connection to the theme.

I would have preferred orange as the shirt colour but I didn't want it to look too similar to our team shirt. Anyone for other colours? Red? If enough people respond I'll upload another colour variation (for now I don't want to spam this wall).

memorimooohs of year 1 in NUS with climbers:

Ms Shuhui Sing


hmm.. did u guess the song is hey soul sister? hehe

Ms Daffy Driving:



coolios=)

Mr Shermanpunchimun Swinging



whee.

lovingit.
Arvintango

Future BA2011!?!?!?!

Bouldering World Cup 2010 • Vail, Colorado • Mens Finals from Jon Glassberg on Vimeo.

Premature celebration?

note at 5min 20secs

Im on a horse

THREE of my fav RECENT adverts =P

Movie Marathon?

Hello everyone, since it's the holidays now and i'm very free (plus my family will be out of town the coming week) how about a movie marathon at my place anytime between 18th-25th may? um location would be sengkang (unless someone else wants to host) and you're welcome to contribute movies if you have. idea is for it to be an all-night through movie marathon starting in the afternoon. leave a comment on the best dates for you (and preferably movies you will be bringing)! hope you guys can make it (:

P.S. If you guys want weekend since you're working it's not a problem too, 22nd-23rd would be this sat/sun (:

okay since most people seem to be free on the weekend, it will be this sat/sun 22nd-23rd! i'll be emailing via yahoogroups so look out for the email!

This one took a little longer than anticipated... got carried away rendering. And it proved my theory of difficulty: nothing's wrong with Clara's mouth! It's kinda... perfect? The only thing the slightest bit wrong is that her canines are as wide as her lateral incisors; they're supposed to be longer and narrower. Very very hard to capture... I still feel it isn't completely right. Took me a long time, too. Luckily she's got some other features that are rather more... distinct. I particularly enjoyed drawing her eyes, which I think look very.... cute.

I put the picture size as "Small" so that it doesn't compete for space with "real" climbing posts, so if anyone wants to see a larger version just click on it. I'm trying to set up a dedicated blog for this stuff so that it doesn't choke up NUS Climbing's blog.

Captain Planet

I'll try to do as many of these as I can before I go for my internship.... starting with the year 4s!