It’s been a while, huh? It’s been so long that to relay everything that’s happened since my last post would be to post up right here in my bed for eternity, because that’s how thorough I am… and how slowly I type.
Now I will attempt to clear the cobwebs, knock the dust off and scrape the grime out of the crevasses… Hopefully there isn’t too much built up that it isn’t impossible to clean.
Since my last post I’ve completed my second semester of college! I took an Intro to Archaeology class with an amazing professor, Matthew Kennedy. I took a fun yet slightly stressful (because I kind of suck at it) Argumentation and Debate class with a funny and eloquent professor, Dr. Whalen. I took a very interesting Oceanography class with the knowledgeable, yet sometimes slightly misleading Robert Anima, and I took an elementary piano class with a super nice and patient instructor, Jim… can’t remember his last name… Mcfadden I think. I don’t mean to brag but, I got all A’s and a B in the Piano class! Even though it’s only junior collage and some of you smarty-pants’ out there might scoff at this, it’s a huge deal for me since I was never very good a school, especially high school! Even though it’s totally embarassing and I thought I did a pretty bad job, here is a really funny video a classmate posted of one of my debates in argumentation on the topic of reducing vs. not reducing the US’s nuclear arsenal: http://playphotovideo.com/debate/debate4.mov. Ugh… sorry to my debate partner and my apponents if you didn’t want anyone seeing this… oh man! Why am I posting this?!? Oh well. I also went to a rookie debate tounrnement with my debate partner for extra credit and paced fifth in the tourniment and got a little trouphy! Wooo hooo! So I’m pretty proud of myself for this one, I’ve got to say!
Speaking of that sin, Pride I mean, I’m also very proud of myself for making my first Magazine cover! So which one you ask? Climbing magazine, Rock and Ice, Urban climber, Alpanist for god’s sake? Nah my friend, nah. The magazine that I’m proud to be representing on the cover of, is this month’s issue of San Francisco! Being a SF native, born, raised and still residing in the city, I think it’s appropriate that my first (and possibly only?!?) cover be on my city’s namesake magazine. Here’s a link to their website: http://www.sanfranmag.com/ Go pick up a copy! The Photog who took the pics of Natasha and I is a great guy and a really professional photog, not to mention a photoshop wizard! His name is Rod McLean and his website is right here. The first day we went out to goat rock up in Sonoma which is a cool, fun little bouldering area but didn’t really offer anyphoto opportunities worthy of the cover, so a few days later we went out to the Endless Bummer/Surf Safari rock that hosts two really fun, short and photogenic climbs and I’m really glad we did because we scored some amazing images! I sent these two climbs in the same day way back when I was 15 on a day trip there with Kevin Jorgeson… when we went back out to get the shots I knew my shoulder wasn’t anywhere near in the shape it had to be in to actually repeat the route, but I was suprised at how doable the moves and everything on the route felt so early in my recovery. I think I could definitely send Endless bummer now, but surf safari would be sketchy considering the crux is a big throw with the left hand… but who knows!?! I’m going to the gym in a bit so we’ll see just how much of a gain I’ve made after the last few rest days.
The article that I was interviewed for is about alternative healers in the bay area and my PT’s (Jim Donak- www.divingbuddah.com) name and website ended up on the cover and in the article as well. One healer that I told the writer about that who’s info they didn’t end up using in the article but who deserves to be in there just as much is my good friend and body worker Mike Papciak. Mike is magical with his hands and as a climber (actually one of the strongest climbers in the bay area in the 90’s) he really knows how to find the knots and aches in climbers bodies and work them away. I don’t think he has a website yet (c’mon Mike!) but if you live in the bay area and are curios what a deep tissue/triggerpoint massage is like, shoot the man an email at mike.papciak@gmail.com!
So on to the next subject: shoulders (fucken a..)! So after about four months of rehabbing and stretching, I finally just got antsy and decided to try some super-easy climbing back in October. I started off doing 5.8s and 9s, basically with only my right arm and only using my left for balance. Little by little I ramped it up to the point where I was doing easy 12s about a month later, but still favoring my right arm alot. I can’t say that the grades I’ve climbed since then have gone up dramatically (I’ve done 13a and V7-8ish in the gym) since then, but I’m using my left arm a lot more now and I’ve made leaps and bounds of progress with it in the last couple months. I can finally dead hang on both arms again, do chin-ups and pull-ups and do some campusing on the campus board and on the ladder. Next I’m going to start putting some weight on the arm by it’s self, little by little of course. I think as soon as I can dead hang on it by it’s self then I’ll start to make leaps and bounds of progress in my climbing.
Since I started climbing again back in October, I’ve gone on some fun trips to Yosemite Valley, Tuolumne, Humboldt, Pinnacles National Monument and most recently Red Rocks. check out the blogs if you haven’t already! There are some pretty great “best of 2009″ blogs on Fiveten’s blog to whaste your time reading, and as always, there are some pretty great blogs from all the amazing Petzl athletes on their blog as well! It’s been really great to be outside again and just move over the rock. Just to feel the texture of the rock under my finger tips again has been magic. I’d be lying though if I said I didn’t care that much about climbing hard again, so I’m going to be training and pushing harder and harder in the next few months until I can do a one arm with the left arm (which is something I’ve never actually be able to do anyway, even with my arm was healthy). I have many climbing-related goals left to accomplish and I’ll be damned if I let a wee little surgery get in my way! Heck no!
As the list of climbers grow, I get more an more comforted that I’m not the only one out there who’s had shoulder problems and gotten the surgery, as messed up as that sounds (But I know they think the same thing about me). Beth Rodden, the poor girl, has recently had the labral surgery and has been documenting her recovery with some regularity here and here. The legendary comp climber Patxi Usobiaga also recently had the surgery just before Christmas! This is crazy for me tho think about since that guy always seemed so invincible to me, but I guess when you train that hard…something bad is bound to happen eventually. There are also a bunch of people from the bay area that have had, or have to get the surgery soon. Good luck to everybody that is facing this life-changing transformation and I wish you all a safe and speedy recovery! And trust me when I say that I know how you feel! One guy who doesn’t seem to need any luck to regain his prior strength is Chris Webb Parsons. He had the surgery about two months before me and just sent the Mandala the other day! Good on ya Mate! You are an inspiration!
What else is new… Not a whole lot really. Just kinda the same old sheeeit. Oh! I got back in the water and surfed for the first time last week! I went down to Linda Mar in Pacifica with a couple friends and went out with a long board! I was really nervous that I was going to wreck my shoulder but you really don’t have to paddle that hard on a long board and the waves were pretty mellow so I ended up catching a couple fun rides among the closeouts and stayed out for about an hour and a half! Wooo Hooo!
I start my spring semester at CCSF one week from today (eeeek!) so I’ll try to get a post up about my recent trip to Red Rocks before then with some pics and vids. I just got a new little point and shoot at best buy, a Canon SD780, to take on climbing trips so hopefully I’ll be able to take a bunch of pics and share ‘em with Y’all! Ok I’m going to get up off my lazy ass right now and go outside before the next rain comes!!! The good thing about the rain is that means snow for the Sierras this weekend!
Here are some recent pics:
Nice shout-out to Mike, woot-woot!!
I especially like the photo of the “stop peeing on my house” sign.
Once you’re totally healed, are you planning to go back out to Clark Mtn.?
Heck yes. Very psyched to go back there.
Nice new layout for your site
Congrats on the mag cover!…and nice work with the classes
That’s cool that your shoulder’s gettin better and your gettin back on the rock!