Ep. 27 - Ninja Courses 101
Joë Layno of Aspire Climbing gives me a crash course on ninja courses: who uses them, how to integrate them into a climbing gym, and why he doesn't see ninja courses as a flash in the pan.
The ninja course co-existing with the climbing walls at Aspire Climbing.
Staff at Altitude Kanata test out the ninja course in a stand-alone setting.
Ep. 26 - A Coaching Foundation for the Future, with Silvia McBurney
Silvia McBurney has been working with the CEC to develop a Long Term Athlete Development plan for Canada, and has finally published the document after years of meeting with coaches and medical professionals from across the country. Silvia joins us to explain the purpose of the document, and to give an idea of how it will affect coaching and competition over the coming years.
Ep. 25 - University Bouldering Series
Team finals. Post-comp sleepovers. Competing in rental shoes. All this and more in my interview with Max Summerlee, one of the founders and co-presidents of Canada's University Bouldering Series.
NEW: Canadian Bouldering Rankings
I've been working on a ranking system for Canada's open bouldering community for a few months, and now after some tweaks and sharing it with my friends, I'm happy to make it public. These ranks will be updated every Monday, and I'll be sharing regular commentary to accompany them until CEC Bouldering Nationals, at the very least.
There are a million things I want to explain about this system, which I'll start to cover on Mondays when I update the rankings. For now, I'd like to point out 4 things.
1. This is a really good catalyst for discussion, but not necessarily a perfect indicator of who will win the next competition.
2. In my head, Sean McColl holds the title of Strongest Canadian Boulderer Ever. This system only takes into account results from the last year, and puts a lot of weight into consistent results against the largest possible fields of Canadians.
3. This system is dependent on competitions posting their results. If I can't find the full open results and the format of the event online, I can't include the event in this system. (Vertical and Seven Bays - I'd still love your results!)
4. While this is a ranking system for Canada's open-age boulderers, I've made the decision not to include results from any competitions where A/JR age climbers are forced to compete outside of the open category, or who have to skip out on a WYCH-qualifier (mandatory youth locals, provincials) competition in order to compete in open.
Other than that, this project has been a fun learning experience. I look forward to your feedback, and I'm excited to use this tool for building storylines and analyzing our field of climbers. I hope you enjoy it!
Ep. 24 - Industry Banter, Dec '17
I'm joined by Shaun Hunter and Brandon Barraclough to talk about Moonboard Masters, aesthetics in competition setting, the Freedom Climber, the CEC's new High Performance Director, a gym flooring manifesto, climbing while old, and Sharma getting that Polo money.