Pocket Rocket!

That's right, me little Pocket Rocket finally sent Ghetto Crossing. The winter rains decided to take a break and gave us a tiny window on Sat to head out to Malibu Creek. Conditions were not ideal...hike was muddy, creek was bursting its banks, traverse was slimey, cave was flooded, holds were damp, but heck....we were so adamant about getting back onto our projects that we were willing to wade into the freezing creek just to get to the Ghetto Wall.

Super stoked to see her send it, I probably screamed louder than her when she clipped the chains. And I guess the energy of the SEND TRAIN just kept going! Came within a move from clearing the crux of Lateralus myself so I guess it's Game On!

Pics and vid should follow in the coming weeks for Ghetto Crossing.

And speaking of winter, it's certainly a blessing that the weather for the "coldest" time of the year is actually pretty refreshing...away from the smog of Summer and the gloom of Fall. Here's a typical view of LALA-Land in So Cal these couple of weeks.



Here's another pic I took while on a visit to Pacifica High School in Orange County. If we had this view in Spore, I wonder how many of my kids would've skipped school, plus there's PE everyday!

Me New Puppies

Got them puppies a couple of weeks ago and gotta say they're SWEET! The new line of Madrock's Con-series of shoes come with their propriety Science Friction 2.2 Mad rubber.

First look gave me the impression that the Con-series shoes were simply re-designed versions of the Hooker series. But upon closer examination and stuffing me toes in them told me that they are radically different in terms of last and camber.


Concept

Contact

A couple of sessions in them made me realize that they are poles apart from the previous Shark slipper. Personally loved the Sharks for their softness and sick toe-hooking rubber uppers but they were kinda on the broad side for my feet and the rounded toe box didn't particularly favor tiny pockets. However, the new Contact is a different animal altogether. Firstly, this slipper fit like a glove, leaving me skinny feet with no dead space. The radical camber create a beak-like point at the area of the big toe and this allowed me to focus alot of power onto the tip of the shoe when pinpointing on tiny foot chips thus bumping up precision a couple of notches. Furthermore, these puppies performed pretty well on the pockets of Malibu's volcanic tuff and with the new rubber, I didn't feel like my feet was ever gonna give on slick foot holds. As with any slipper, the Contact has all the wonderful properties of convenience for bouldering and softness for toe grabbing. But the softness and ease of putting it on comes at a price.....you'll need a strong foot if you plan to stand on your toes for extended periods of time on longer routes and when it comes to heel-hooking, the aggressive teeth on the heel will rip the heelcup right off your foot.....so either downsize (Ouch!) or keep the Mad straps on.

As for looks, the Con-series ain't nothing much to shout about but hey....I'm a pragmatic guy...FUNCTION before fashion. Plus being priced below $90, it's a real bang-for-the-buck!

But at the end of the day, the Super Locos are still my SENDING SHOES...FLAME ON!!!

Motivation

Through all the years of being in the sport of climbing and being a competitor, I have recently reflected on what truly motivates me to climb. Is it really the joy of getting out there amongst the whispering maple trees, basking in the warm sunshine of Tonsai beach, hanging out with the bouldering posse in the Buttermilks at the foothills of the Sierra Nevada that truly motivates? Or am I a hypocritical worldly being motivated by the adoration of my peers, the disgrace of my enemies and the self-affirmation that comes from SENDING?

Christians on Campus College Meeting

We had a wonderful evening tonight at the College Meeting for the Christians on Campus and I've gotta say that the fellowship with these group of saints continues to multiply our growth in the Lord day by day. We have been truly blessed since we joined the church in Long Beach and it's only possible through God's Grace that Christ is expressed by all of these people everytime we are in their presence. We didn't manage to take pictures for the day but here some back dated ones from Thanksgiving 2008...Yam was blessed too!

Acts 2:46-47 "And day by day, continuing steadfastly with one accord in the temple and breaking bread from house to house, they partook of their food with exultation and simplicity of heart, praising God and having grace with all the people. And the Lord added together day by day those who were being saved."

Dampened

Eversince Tanleng came close to finishing Ghetto Crossing (possibly 8a with the ridiculous sequence that she's doing and falling a move from the chains), we've been getting out to Malibu Creek State Park alot.

And since I was stuck having to belay her on her project and not having the chance to get back to Echo Cliffs, I thought I'll jump on Lateralus 14a for a go. This climb was put up by Shawn Diamond back in the day and everyone I spoke to told me it has this ridiculously hard boulder problem (V10 possibly) before linking into Ghetto Crossing. After working on it for a good frustrating 3 weekends, the verdict is that it is ridiculous NOT, hard YES! Frustrating...definitely!! Why? Cos just when I began to make pretty good progress on it, things would happen in our personal life that took 2 or even 3 weeks away from our projects. So there's this on-going roller-coaster ride where I'll make progress, get on a 2-3 week break and return to getting shutdown, making progress again and the whole process will go on and on and on and on.....Furthermore, the climb isn't something one can get away with just by having good power endurance cos if you can't even pull those moves, there's nothing to endure unlike some marathon 8b+s like Millenium in Maple Canyon.

To make matters worse, the rain has been beating down for the past couple of weekends, completely raining us out! Yes my dear Californians, we do need the rain but being from Spore and having experienced 30 over years of tropical monsoon rains, I ain't a fan of precipitaion for very selfish reasons.

So here we are stuck in the climbing gym, strong...perhaps, stoopid...yes. I may have maintained my bouldering power but I must say not being outdoors has detrimental effects on my climbing form. Kinda reminded me of myself when I was bouldering well in my 20s but sucked when it came to sport climbing. If you've watched me lead, not glamorous that's for sure. However, the encouraging thing is getting on Facebook to see friends back in Spore still getting psyched climbing on plastic and the resurgence of activity at Dairy Farm by Derek and gang. I hope I can rub-off some of that motivation especially when I haven't been in the pink of health lately plus not giving myself a break in between workouts. And you would think that an exercise physiologist like me would know better when it comes to periodization. Such is the desire for progress that it has driven me towards irrationality.

Rain, rain please go away cos the fields aren't the only thing you've dampened.

Game On!!

Well, well....here's my first foray into the world of blogging...not too sure where it's headed but I'm primarily trying to chronicle the events in my life and perhaps with all the trials and tribulations that occur along the way, I can look back later and have a good laugh.

It's been an eventful year and a half since I first arrived in the United States. Going back to school after such a long while and getting more involved in climbing (not as much as I anticipated). I had the impression that quitting my full-time job of teaching in Spore will afford me tons of time to climb but boy was I wrong! Days in full-time grad school only afforded me time in the weeknights in the local gym and either Sat or Sun for the outdoors. Sadly...not too much difference from Spore. Well....I guess I just gotta make good use of whatever I have right now.

School-wise, it's been busy....climbing-wise, it has been both fruitful and heartbreaking.

Nevertheless, it was a wise decision to leave the climbing-abyss of Singapore...sorry my friends. Alot of my buddies here in So Cal will beg to differ that there are tons to climb here but it truly beats climbing in a little gym for 365 days a year, in temps of 92F and humidity of >90% year round.

Climbing has it sweet moments in 2007 when we first arrived with me flashing V9 on my first trip out on established terrain in the Buttermilks. Plus the sponsorship by Madrock that followed later in the year as well as Edelrid's offer of a rope during the greatest time of our need. I must say I was and still am truly blessed by my sponsors' enormous generosity and it gives me tremedous privilege to represent them.

2008 was a bittersweet year. Managed to excel in school but I supposed I still continue to struggle with my internal demons when it comes to climbing hard. Only time will tell who will triumph....so onward to 2009!

Studying Exercise Science in CSULB and having the opportunity to teach Biomechanics have gifted me tremendous insight into how our human body can adapt to training stimulus and I have constantly been incoorperating it into my own training for climbing. I recently started a page on Facebook that allows discussion and sharing of training tips for the climbing community in Singapore. Though there had been a couple of responses from readers, I have recently began to wonder if there is a broader readership to my posts. I hope the scarce responses on the forum is not a true indication of readership though...otherwise, it may indicate that climbers in Spore either don't give a damn about their improvement or they'll rather take a passive approach, sit and read and expect answers to drop onto their laps.