StuartKurth.com

Organize and run a boulder comp, sure, how hard can it be? Wish i’d known exactly how hard before I agreed to do it! Nevertheless I didn’t and then still ran an awesome event, well done team!
After a huge turn out at The Roxx and a good comp in Hangdoggg, the pressure was on to provide 54 superlative and satisfying problems to the ravening hordes of boulderers seething and crawling about the upper North Island like a plague of ape-armed locusts. I thought two days would be ample time in which to set and prepare for the comp but we only got it done in the very nick of time. Friday saw myself, Ketzal ‘foot goes here’ Sterling and Sarah ‘get me a step ladder’ Hay set 30 lines, with the help of Nicole later in the day. I didn’t even look at the finals, knowing only that I wanted a knee-bar somewhere in there and that was enough for the time being. By 9.30pm i thought 30 would be enough, and that Saturday would potter along like a breeze, or a walk in the park. Or a walk in the park in a light breeze. How wrong I was! Saturday happens to be quite busy in Extreme Edge, and not only did I have to continue the setting buzz from the night before, but i had the additional concern of trying to drop holds onto the small heads of as many children as I could. Nicole helped again, as did old JFM who raced in and set a bunch of problems with his headphones in. I set about putting the finals up, and by the time I had everything sorted it was time to open rego and contain the mass enthusiasm of 75 oozing competitors.
We had the youngins in the gym training up for junior worlds, as well as the sifters from Hamilton, Taupo and Wellington. Actually I have no idea where anyone was from, but the one common theme was an excess of shab and dishevele, which is common among boulderers. Needless to say even if the comp rules and format were burned onto each sweaty palm, most would still not know what was going on. But in the end we got there and the main event part of the night proceeded as per schedule. Considering we had no idea who would turn up, grading the problems correctly was always going to be hit or miss. Some green problems turned out to be harder than most blacks, as did a few reds, and if you were any kind of tall, as in over 3 foot, then a couple of blues would’ve been V3figures had they been outside. A black dyno i thought would produce at least one compound fracture turned out to be relatively easy. Even a three year old did it. Who would’ve thought. Not me or else I would’ve made it slightly harder.
We had a bunch of huge lights courtesy of Nathan ‘power is back!’ Scott, and curiously no-one burned to death. Possibly the tiny ‘caution, surface hot!’ signs on each one seemed to have worked. Like an anonymous substance down a drain, my hopes for bloody carnage were slipping away fast. At the very least a meaty flapper, or a severe pulley tweak? Nothing. Everyone had a grand old time and completely failed to injure themselves. Fail, but win!
After a brief but manic period of scoring, we had our 5 finalists. It would’ve been six but one (who shall remain nameless, but you know who you are!) opted out and chose to heckle from the stands. In the womens was gangle queen Speedy and Americano (or Canadian, I’m not sure which) Ashley, and when they both flashed the first problem I seriously wondered if we were going to have to go to a superfinal tie-breaker. But it came down to the second problem, with Speedy floating right up to the last move and peeling off the last hold. After two more attempts she threw in the towel and left Ashley to sail up the thing first go. In the men’s we had Jfm, Zane and a plague ridden Ken, who despite coughing up his own lungs managed to get the men’s highpoint on problem two. Problem on saw a knee-bar between a Pusher stalactite and a massive triangular StoneAge hold, ala the Quantum Field classic V10 ‘Leviathan’. While Jfm managed to curse and grunt his way to the summit, the weight of his headphones slowed him down on the slopey, pinch intensive features of problem two. No summit on that one, but all the unique shapes provided by Uprising were given away to the winners, as well as a raft of other spot prizes and the obligatory chalk bags that always seem to make there way into the hands of comp organizers. The kids turned into hairy litter piranhas at the mere sight of flying chalk bags, and a feeding frenzy ensued.
Thanks again to NZAC, Uprising holds, Bivouac Outdoor and Chalky Digits for sponsoring the event, and Extreme Edge for the venue. Thanks also to the helpers, the curry ladies, and the photographers for shooting it all.

Be sure to head along the the final event at The Rock House in Mount Manganui. August 28th.

Fin

This entry was posted on Sunday, August 1st, 2010 at 12:31 pm and is filed under Bloggin'. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.