So, after four days off the wall because of resting my left shoulder, I went down to the new Hangar 18 gym in riverside, which is really sweet BTW, for the ABS nationals. I saw a lot of good friends that I hadn’t seen in a long time and climbed on a bunch of really fun boulders.
I felt like a weak turd who weighs 8 lbs more than usual, but my shoulders handled the stresses of hard bouldering all day with little inflammation afterward, and my most recent acute BS in my left shoulder felt fine. I somehow managed to sneak into finals in third, despite struggling on almost every problem I got on. I botched the second problem in the finals and ended up dropping a couple places from my qualifying position, but did pretty decently on the third problem in the finals was was all campusing on technic pinches, which of course Daniel on sighted along with the other two finals routes. Overall I was not too disappointed with how I did in the comp, but it left me feeling like I wanted to get back in shape, which finally seemed possible with the way my shoulders felt. Daniel was impressive as ever to watch climb. Kid has inhuman strength to weight ratio. It’s just sick (and unfair if I may add). He usually inspires you to turn to another onlooker and shake your head in disbelief.
The next day Garret took us to his stomping grounds up in Mt. Baldy. While the place is limited, there is some quality stone to play on, and Goat Roper must be one of the most classic V9s in socal. 16 year old Julian Bautista is another very impressive young climber right now. Him and his older brother Michael were tearing it up at the comp, and Julian was climbing circles around us at Baldy, dispatching every problem we were taken to in a few tries. Expect big things from these kids in the next few years, at least before the Apocalypse in 2012.
I didn’t end up going to J-tree afterward… my friend who will remain nameless for now, who was supposed to come down and show me his new area out there bailed because the waves on the coast were just too good. Pshhh. And I didn’t really feel like torturing my fingers on pinned out cracks, so I just caught a ride home with the peeps. And I’ll same the 5.10 blog post for something worthwhile when I actually have some outside climbing to report on…
On Monday my shoulders still felt fine so I decided to cruise out to the beach and have myself a surf. The waves were great and I frothed out for a good two hours before I was too knackered to paddle back out. The beach was just so close and it looked more inviting than taking another outside set on the head and having the locals get priority on the set after that. My left shoulder, the one that hurt after doing the offset pullups, was a bit sore. I went to Berkeley Ironworks and tried to do some easy bouldering, but my left shoulder hurt as soon as i reached high above my head. So I had a pretty intense session for about another hour or so before I called it quits. That’s what you are supposed to do right? I know, when am I gonna learn? Now. Now is when.
Lets see, what else is new. I got five fillings yesterday! Awesome! Not so much though. My lips didn’t work for like 4 hours afterward so I looked like a total weirdo when I tried to speak, which I guess is kind of normal for me… Now it just feels like there are deeper holes in my mouth then there were before. I’ve been riding my dad’s bike from the 60s all over SF, to the beach and back like every other day.
Uhg! I want to climb again! And the waves are so good right now! This is torture! I’m learning slowly that I’m no longer 12 years old and invincible anymore. Bohoo. So I’m taking another few days off, and will test out the shoulder again on Saturday…
come on man!! cheer up! you’ve already experienced some lame shit with your ankle right?? so this shoulder problem should be of no concern, good old rest always helps. good luck.