Footage Bouldering Fontainebleau - Roman v/d Werf

Check out this Dutch Dude at Bleau. Good footage of four equally good boulders: Tigre et Dragon (8a), La balance sans (7c+), Carnage-Berezina (7c+) and Ecaille de lune (7c). Click the picture to get directly to the site with all four video's.

(source: http://www.romanvanderwerf.nl/)

Climbing holds: Quantity VS Quality

OK, variety and quantity counts a lot where it concerns a bouldering gym, but I get a bit dazed by this.....

Spring Time - Climbing and Gardening

With the beginning of spring Maru becomes eager to spend lots of time outdoors. In this case climbing in the trees in the dunes and sowing the seeds of many flowers together with her niece. Let the sun shine and the good times roll.

Asics Commercial - Mabona Origami

Once upon a time there was an origami artist from Switzerland (!) who became even famous in the land of the origing of the paper-folding-art. Sipho Mabona's origami covers a great range of different styles from very intricate representational designs to abstract geometrical shapes. The impeccable folding and his great sense for lines and shapes distinguishes Mabona's work of art.

Watch the award winning Asics corporate movie “Origami in the Pursuit of Perfection”. Sipho has exhibited his work in galleries in Tokyo and Vancouver, was the invited guest at Japan Origami Academic Society (JOAS) Convention 2008 and was the first foreigner whose model graced the cover of the JOAS Convention book.

(source: coolmarketingthoughts.com)

Fifa 3 Street - Screaming Super Soccer Reprise

Ehrmm, do try this at home !! World Cup Soccer 2010 is on it's way. Soccer accrobats perform tricks unheard of and the clipstyle way of the footage helps sure enough. Made as a trailer for the Fifa3 Soccer game. Be amazed and stunned!! (click the pic).

And if that isn't good enough check this link to see how they made this clip possilble with the help of martial arts specialists Team Ryouko. Love it :P

Footage from Gaz Parry in Malsoñando 8C (Spain)

Nice footage from Gaz, and vocals from his girlfriend Kate, haw haw :-). Click pic to start it all.

(source: gazparry.co.uk)

Free entrance to all climbing Gyms in the world

A post on the climbing site 8A.nu

8a has together with IFC and all the climbing gyms in the world decided to dedicate a day to the financial crises. Everyone who sends an 8a message to a friend or post a comment on this thread will automatically receive a password that you can use as cash for the entrance at your gym. "Climbing make people happy and we are greatful to co-operate with 8a on this", says an official.

Easter Bunny Humour

Biggest Climbing Gyms in the World

According to (research by) 8a.nu these are the BIGGEST climbing gyms in the world. Two of them being situated in the Netherlands. How suprising.....

BTW Thalkirken DAV Munich - 5 000m2 (picture above)

Kletterzentrum Gaswerk - 4 000m2: 17 meters high

Ratho in Edinburgh - 3 214m2

Sydney Indoor Gym - 2 800m2: 16 meters high

Klimhal Amsterdam - 2 550m2: 21 meters high

Milandia - 2 500m2: 12 meters high

Klimax Puurs - 2 000m2: 21 meters high

Klimhal Nijmegen - 1 900 m2: 19 meters high

Camp5 Kuala Lumpur - 1 900m2: 16 meters high

(source: 8a.nu)

Coffee as solution to the Crisis - Dilbert

yuk yuk, this is a memorable comic because in my company they actually going to raise our contribution to coffee..... see what's goint to happen :P

(source: Dilbert.com)

Mad Rock gives you The Finger

Really,.... how MAD can you be to want these:

According to Needle Sports they are 'Little black rubber thingies to roll over your appendage and protect it! Designed to enable boulderers to keep bouldering, even when they split a tip. According to bouldering Lake District guru Greg Chapman they work best on Grit. Need to be forced on to finger and warmed up, then maybe taped into place. Packet of three. By the way, ignore the sizing info on the packet - they only ever made one size in the end....' What a gadget, Duh!

(source: Needlesports.com)

Video Chris Sharma in Humildes pa Casa 8C onsight

I found this nice footage of Chris climbing the tufa route in spain at 8a.nu. Click the pic and Njoy!!

Lecture Jerry Moffat in MONK Netherlands

Just as Wolfgang Güllich is a huge example for me Jerry Moffat is the embodiment of motivation and drive. Last saturday he came to MONK, the mother of all boulderfacilities in the Netherlands, and gave a funny and by all means interesting lecture about the two decades he was one of the dominating climbers in the world. A lot of pics of his highlights accompanied by the mantra 'this was me climbing 'this and that', at that time the worlds most difficult route'. I heard it a bit to often to my taste but it was compensated by hilarious bits of footage about his training with Ben Moon in their home based bouldering cellar, luring the monkeys in Hampi with bananas and try to get them to climb boulders and other stuff with Jerry showing of. He likes to do that I figured.

But speaking to him afterwards about climbing in Australia (and if he had climbed Punks in the Gym) he wasn't like that any more. Was is because he has stopped climbing all together (and taking up surfing and playing golf !!). Perhaps the reason is that he couldn't cope with the new climbing standards anymore, e.g. his age didn't allow him to climb the hard grades nowadays?

I wore the T-shirt we made for BAZ 2009 (see pic below) with the picture of Wolfgang and one of his most memorable quotes on it. I pointed it out to him asking if coffee was, as much as is had been to Wolfgang, an essential part of climbing to him. He aswered that it wasn't but that coffee to Wolfgang was as essential as petrol is for a car. Jerry thought the T-shirt was cool and asked where he could get that. I waved to Ad Siemons (from Fuerza Climbing and standing next to us), and said that Maurice and I made it as a rememberance to Wolfgang but that Fuerza probably would start selling the T-shirt later this year. Jerry wrote his address in one of his books (Revelations) and signed it. I'll bet he will get the first one once Fuerza starts manufacturing the T-shirts. By the way Fuerza has ten signed copies of Jerry's new book Revelations for sale !!

We had been bouldering in MONK as well and I have to say that it is the best indoor bouldering experience I have had!! What a great place to be and the magnificent boulderstructures with the even better routes are second best to bouldering the real rock. I'll be back, but sadly enough not to soon. It's a wee bit out of my way to Eindhoven... but if it's possible: 'beam me up MONK!!'.

Pics of us bouldering in MONK will be posted later. To be continued.

Beat Kammerlander - Prinzip Hoffnung

Beat says: "The crux is six or seven meters of blank face climbing, to where the crack shifts diagonally. It is unique to find a crack on such a sheer and difficult face where it is possible to free climb with removable protection (5.13d/14a and E9-E10). The climb is very particular and uses tiny edges and footholds. If you try it to often you bloody your fingers and wear through the rubber on your shoes. It’s a battle climbing up there.”

For an interview and footage of Prinzip Hoffnung go here or click the pic below.

If you get excited by this and the pic above, check this link to more pics and the full story of the 50 year old Austrian climbing his guts off.

(source: beatkammerlander.com)

Gullible, a little story of learning Dutch

At times a brillant Photo Comic series about the lives of four stereotypical students in the Netherlands. Unfortunately for the rest of the world it's in Dutch. Sometimes there's an exception because of an international student living in the house....

( source: http://www.fotostrips.nl/)

Pure Bouldering Film

A bit of info found on http://www.udinishop.de/:

From the producer of Dosage V - Alpine Blocs comes a 35mm bouldering flick about bouldering on planet Earth: PURE. Pure is about 19 extraordinary climbers in six countries on three continents , with no ropes. This is the first bouldering film to be shot entirely in cutting edge 35mm digital format. Featured Climbers: Nalle Hukkataival: As soon as he opened an 8a scorecard he was ranked 3rd in the world. This young Finnish climber has put in his time on the world cup circuit and is now focusing on climbing the most daunting boulders on Earth. Kevin Jorgeson: Pure features exclusive footage of Kevin's first ascents and first ropeless ascents in California. A Unique perspective on the mind control necessary to solo, and the rehabilitation needed when you screw up. Kilian Fischhuber: Winner of the 2008 Bouldering World Cup. No climber has ever had a more dominant season on the World Cup Circuit then Kilian, and few have the sense of humor. Anna Stoehr: Winner of the 2008 Bouldering World Cup. Professional Climber. 20 years old. Fred Nicole: No introduction needed. The author of the lion's share of hard boulder problems in the world. The leader and grand master of the sport. Cody Roth: Psyched to get on just about anything, PURE showcases Cody on hair-raising first ascents from Rocklands to Europe.

For the Dutch: the dvd is also for sale at Fuerzaclimbing in Haarlem Netherlands.

Friday 13th - Fate

Hot shots from Chris Sharma

Pictures by Pete O'Donovan: chris in Demencia Senil (9A)

Click forth to the site of 8a.nu where Pete posted some nice shots from Chris working in some most amazing routes, of which there will be some footage in the upcoming BigUpProductions film.

Earth Guide - How does the Earth work?

Although much of the information on this site you probably already know, it's the way it is being presented that draws attention. Questions like 'where is the Earth located in the Milky Way galaxy?, 'where does the sky become space?' and 'how do water and carbon circulate?' do tend to make you think, aww that's kid's stuff. But what the heck, check the site and enjoy.

World Longest Ice Climbing Routes Norway

(pic above by Bjorn-Elvind Aartun: Strandhogg, 800m, M5+ WI6+ A0)

The winter is nearing it's end, but not in Norway. A super long ice route (1,000-meters-high) has formed at the Kjerag massif directly above the open sea in Lysefjord in southwestern Norway. Extreme cold weather made it possible to form unusual long and sustained ice routes.

(pic above by Bjorn-Elvind Aartun: the crux in Strandhogg)

Separate teams of Norwegian, Swiss and German Climbers climbed routes from 600 to nearly 1300 meters. But it was Robert Jasper who made the most uit of the extreme long routes, cold weather and extreme difficulties.

(pic above byobert Jasper : Robert Jasper climbing on Fosslimonster (800m, M8+ WI6)

For the whole story and more pics see this link.

(source: climbing.com)