Misinformed?

Bad posts on my behalf led to things on the Craig David thread to shift until they appeared to be more about character assasination, obviously this wasn't the intention and a strange exchange of pm's was prompted. I don't think he'll ever get why I'm worried about his actions, but it appears a consensus has been reached and a sensible one at that so i'm more than happy. On an aside one of the pm's threw up this:

"I don't know much about the schoolroom but it seems a shame that is has become so elitist. Talk to some of the older generation and they will tell you that back in the day the ethos was very much come one, come all. I've heard tales of it back in the day, when there were maybe thirty people there all at once, Ben and Jerry And Stu cranking like demons, general punters having a go, the girls doing their own thing, all in the same room. Maybe there are too many climbers in Sheffield now to be so inclusive, and to be honest I don't really care that much, but it seems a shame that this spirit has been lost."

I don't know what people who don't climb up the board think of it but supposedly it is madly elitist and not the way it used to be?

Too Fluffy...

Weather was rubbish today so the planned trip to woodwell was cancelled. Instead I went up the school again, warmed up well, it was quite cold. Got straight on stuey 5, 1st go held the crux swing, campussed up touched the blue hold but didn't quite have the height, this happened a load more times as below, failing on the campus move every time, just. Damn.



Eventually my goes got a bit worse so I sacked it off and did a pinch problem that I put up a few sessions agi, its really good although I haven't a clue how hard it is, I need someone else to get on it but its really good.
After that I tried a few things including Perky Pinky, damn those first two moves are hard. After a bit of channel surfing I got on Too Fluffy... First go my foot popped annoyingly, second go I had it which was good as its the first time i've done it since getting back up there...
A debate on UKB is once again stressing me, R-man and the omnipotent Polish Dave have been going to Craig David despite the access situation. Remarkably a large amount of people seem to think it's ok? Seems a little short sighted to me but anyhow i've had my bit say and will leave it at that.

Be Like Water My Friend...

Last nights session went well, conditions were poor so I only gave stuey a couple of goes. Did a nice new problem at around 7b-c ish and then sat down underneath Basic Doyle, turned to Lee and said "I won't do this", "just want to check how my fingers are feeling", two (relatively) good start holds, right hand up to the tiny edge, left foot as high as possible on the kick board, pull to the wooden crimp for LH, tension and get right foot onto the first little spike, snatch the yellow, take feet off, put left foot stupidly high on the little edge, Left hand up to Push It, feet swing off, by this time I was cursing not having bothered to put dragons on, rh green edge, feet off yet again, left hand c45, top....Psyched. I guess now I can stop winging about my fingers being behind the rest of me, its just my core thats lagging now. Bring on the swings on THE pinch...

Finished with weights so unsuprisingly I feel sore today....

TasWAD and things...

It's been far too long since my last blog fairly SLACK of me given i haven't had a great deal on.

After spending too many sessions at the works I finally went back up the board and started having productive sessions, I had two good sessions one where Lee came and did weights (due to following ginger ned's advice and injuring himself). Both sessions I managed stuey in two hugely overlapping halves but by the time I had everything figured out the wooden pinch got overly warm and started spitting me off left right and center.
After the 1st session I took Nat to the works where we bumped into a guy (Callum white? a.k.a. TasWAD) who was over from Tasmania for the worlds (in spain), staying with Graeme before flying out. He seemed a decent bloke and was making light work of everything in the works so I invited him up the board so he could try some harder things. After warming up he promptly flashed Total Recoil/Pego (the harder one I can never remember which it is) and then Turd Reich. I was appropriately impressed so pointed him at Too fluffy to be hard... on the crux hump his foot stayed on the undercut.WTF? and he looked as if he was going to cruise it, unfortunately he failed going up to 45 and didn't make it up there again... I then pointed him at driller killer and basic ben, both of which he struggled with, however I was hugely impressed, he was only 17 as well...
The day after this I ended up at the works once again setting my "Signature" problem. I opted for something with small ish holds but not too hard, so it actually gets tried. Anyone done it? Dobbin? 7b? Nice/Ok/Shit? Fingers were feeling creaky the next day so I had a rest day. Nat's family arrived and we ate out (Clashed with the schoolroom meeting unfortunately) at the St.Pauls hotel in the city center, it was nice but afterwards drunken natalie took it upon herself to get her brother psyched up for clubbing, nice food and rubbish beer are not a good combination and I awoke on saturday feeling like a sack of sh*t, to be honest that feeling is still with me now. I trained again yesterday, expecting good conditions I went up to the board but it was really nasty up there, cold but slippy. After (finally) despatchng total recoil BB finish this session I tried stuey briefly and then went OLD SKOOL with power pulls. They're shit. My back hurts today but so does my neck and pelvis, if you get a decent amount of weight on that 'belt' of zippy's all that happen is that it tried to remove your legs when you stand up. Never again.
Natalie started work today in Wakefield and I went in to start the ball in motion for a module I have to Co-teach in the upcoming weeks....Scary stuff..

Oh and midweek Nat had her free photoshoot thing over in Manchester, here are a few:



(Will Dobbin's GQ shoot look similar I wonder?)

Again?

Being a bit of a plonker I managed to leave all of my normal climbing gear in the boot of the car which went in for service on wednesday, with all of the hassle with warranties etc. the parts havent all been ordered then the garage had a call back from Fiat this morning saying "actually, if the drivers side is knackered change all of the front end" (he was referring to most of the front suspension that appears to be trashed), of course this means that they haven't ordered all of the parts and they wont arrive until today around closing time so it will be monday that the car is back to us and even then it needs to go to Hawley's to get the new tyres.
Nat headed down to the works around lunch time wearing an old pair of my evolv predators which weren't ideal and some filthy chalk bag from the depths of my box full of old cr*p. Like I predicted it was horrible and we didn't stay for long. Percy and Sam were route setting and showed me with great delight that they had managed to attach screw on's to the really nice square cut pusher slopers. One problem featured an additional screw-on, on each hold. I returned later that night and only used about half of them. As it was still hot the board seemed like a crazy idea so I went for mileage, trying to tick as many of the new red/pinks that just went up. Didn't get round to trying about 5 problems one of which I wont be going near without a big group of spotters. The rest were all relatively pleasant. In the "room" behind the comp wall a few were especially good, one involving a XXL pusher sloper and a fair deal of slapping, and the other going up the rhs of the newly steepened section.
Speaking to Sam the fate of the fixed board is set, it is to have all of the screw-ons left on and 20-25 'signature' problems put up for life, these will be taken down, cleaned and put up exactly the same if they become dirty. Will that conjure up more interest for that section? Personally I doubt it. I made the suggestion of loosing one side of the campus board and steepening up the other to create a board which was listened to and in my opinion is the only way they will be able to squeeze in a decent training board without loosing valuable seeting areas.

Works x 2

Had two sessions down at the works, the 1st was fun but not too productive, the second was a last resort as the sun was beating down upon sheffield and the board seemed like a bad option.
The second session went well. Warmed up, then headed over to the comp wall and promptly flashed a nice basic purple up the barrel section of wall. A couple of goes later i also despatched the blue. Percy the Gnome and their merry band of men were trying all kind of faggotry, thankfully none of it worked and basic ruled the day.
Had a quick scout around Sam's evo 8. I've never been in an 8, they're really quite understated for the style of car that they are, prefer the 6 myself but its very nice and in mint condition. Talking of cars Nat's was due for the pre 1st MOT service after which it will no longer go to a registered Fiat dealer.

300 quid for the service. OUCH
140 quid for two Pirelli's up front. DOUBLE OUCH
30 quid for a Wheel alignment check

+ a massive ball ache of phoning various garages as the incompetent fool (who is now the general manager and away today) who sold us the car (reg Fiat dealership down souf) forgot to transfer the third year of the warranty into Natalie's name and hence some extra suspension components that need changing currently don't seem to be covered. Add to that the fact that the courtesy car has the same bhp output as a poodle and i'm not a happy bunny. It doesn't matter if you get 68 mpg etc. as the money you save on fuel will be plowed back to Fiat in servicing costs. ARRGGHHH.

Climbing well though.

The future of the school again looks uncertain and i'm amazed by the general lack of bebotherment from other members. It's been a small few that have really done anything to stop the initial closure and that seems a shame, I don't necessarily think anything will go ahead if more people don't pipe up and start giving a sh*t.

...Basic Breakthroughs!

Trained on wednesday night with Doyle who was about doing his level 2. Instead of rambling on i'll keep it short, finally repeated Basic Knitwear which i've been struggling with since I started again, maybe I'm stronger or maybe it was better conditions who knows.
Yesterday Natalie and I went down the works, I didn't climb but was severely tempted the problems looked good and Dobbin recommended them as well. Instead of climbing I waited to train in the evening. Evening came and people dropped out of training like lemmings leaving me lacking psyche to go up the school all on my lonesome, instead I drove to the works. I spent about 5 minutes there before getting back in the car and going up the board. Session went well - ticked basic ben, easily as well, then went on to do a load more stuff around about that level. Uncle crimpy....is still evading me which is a bit annoying.
Glad to see some kind of improvement as before I left for Font I was beggining to fear a dreaded plateau. Weather looks good today, I think I should start taking more advantage of it and focus on getting back to full strength during the winter, but then again I hate off days outside, they just feel like such a waste so i'm not sure if its really worth it.
Went out briefly last night to the Harley (2 quid entry!) for em's leaving thingy but decided to call it a night when plug was 12 quid each to get in, some other people headed to DQ's. Dense spent the early evening recounting tales of Dawes on superman...