The next 6 people to sign up for the PCI Clinic or Semi-Private Lessons in San Francisco will receive 30% off their entire next order of Asana Climbing gear! Been wanting a new crash pad? This could save you $100 bucks!
Wednesday, February 8, 2012
Special Offer for PCI Clinic
The next 6 people to sign up for the PCI Clinic or Semi-Private Lessons in San Francisco will receive 30% off their entire next order of Asana Climbing gear! Been wanting a new crash pad? This could save you $100 bucks!
Tuesday, February 7, 2012
Hey Bay Area Climbers!
Hey Bay Area Climbers!
There are only a few spots left for Saturday's Youth Clinic and Adult Semi-Private lessons. Sunday is already SOLD OUT.
This time, we will be having Steven Jeffery, Carlo Traversi, Beth Rodden and myself present to teach a 6-hour Youth Clinic and a 2-hour Adult Semi-Private lesson. All the details are below, but the short and sweet of it is:
- The youth clinic is going to focus on competition preparation and strategy. With ABS Nationals right around the corner, this is the opportunity to improve your competition game just in time for the big event. SIGN UP HERE: http://bit.ly/xNMciy
- The adult semi-private lesson is going to focus on the art of the Pogo, the intricacies of Flagging, and how these both apply to boulder problems at your limit. Carlo Traversi calls the pogo "by far the most essential technique in my climbing." You can see a video of a pogo here:
SIGN UP HERE: http://bit.ly/wMHnZC
There are only a few spots left for both the Youth Clinic and the Adult Semi-Private Lessons. Sign up now while you can!Youth Clinic: http://bit.ly/xNMciy
Semi-Private Lessons: http://bit.ly/wMHnZC
Hope to see you there!
KJ
Saturday, October 22, 2011
Injury Update
A little over a week ago, I sustained a season ending ankle injury while climbing on pitch 15 of the Dawn Wall project on El Cap. There's not much more to say than that. I'm extremely disappointed to not be on the wall right now, pursuing this dream project and supporting Tommy.
The injury occurred while attempting the 8 foot sideways dyno on pitch 15. On my first attempt of the season, I threw with everything I had, hoping to stick the move with the muscle memory from last year. I made good contact with the hold and began to hold the swing. Usually, the left foot slides down the wall, stopping when it hits the corner and halting the swing. Instead of sliding, my foot stuck upon first contact, and rolled. It then continued to slide down the wall until it hit the corner and rolled again. I instantly knew something was wrong, but a combination of shock and denial clouded the pain enough for me to try a few more times, until I stuck the dyno.
Upon lowering to the belay, I knew something was terribly wrong. I called my amazing physio Vicki Chung from the wall and made an appointment for the next day. Less than 24 hours later, I was in her office getting checked out. An X-Ray revealed that it wasn't broken. Three appointments later, the swelling had gone down and we were able to get a good assessment of the damage: bruised bones and a combination of stretched and compressed ligaments. I should recover fully with time, but for now, any kind of inversion or eversion of the ankle is still painful with the joint itself feeling quite unstable thanks to the stretched ligaments. 4 weeks of no climbing.
Seeing Tommy's updates from the wall is surreal. I feel out of place without the exposure under my toes, chalk on my hands, the sounds of gear being clipped, the pain of those sharp holds under my fingers, and the monumental task at hand that we've been working for so long. Tommy of course is charging ahead, now with the support of his amazing wife Becca. Since October 2009, this has been a team effort. To be a member of a team is to act with selflessness in the name of success. If Tommy sends without me, I will be happy to have helped push this project to completion. If not, we will be back.
Go get it Tommy. Eye of the Tiger!
- KJ aka Hector
The injury occurred while attempting the 8 foot sideways dyno on pitch 15. On my first attempt of the season, I threw with everything I had, hoping to stick the move with the muscle memory from last year. I made good contact with the hold and began to hold the swing. Usually, the left foot slides down the wall, stopping when it hits the corner and halting the swing. Instead of sliding, my foot stuck upon first contact, and rolled. It then continued to slide down the wall until it hit the corner and rolled again. I instantly knew something was wrong, but a combination of shock and denial clouded the pain enough for me to try a few more times, until I stuck the dyno.
Upon lowering to the belay, I knew something was terribly wrong. I called my amazing physio Vicki Chung from the wall and made an appointment for the next day. Less than 24 hours later, I was in her office getting checked out. An X-Ray revealed that it wasn't broken. Three appointments later, the swelling had gone down and we were able to get a good assessment of the damage: bruised bones and a combination of stretched and compressed ligaments. I should recover fully with time, but for now, any kind of inversion or eversion of the ankle is still painful with the joint itself feeling quite unstable thanks to the stretched ligaments. 4 weeks of no climbing.
Seeing Tommy's updates from the wall is surreal. I feel out of place without the exposure under my toes, chalk on my hands, the sounds of gear being clipped, the pain of those sharp holds under my fingers, and the monumental task at hand that we've been working for so long. Tommy of course is charging ahead, now with the support of his amazing wife Becca. Since October 2009, this has been a team effort. To be a member of a team is to act with selflessness in the name of success. If Tommy sends without me, I will be happy to have helped push this project to completion. If not, we will be back.
Go get it Tommy. Eye of the Tiger!
- KJ aka Hector
Monday, September 5, 2011
Reel Rock Film Tour Trailer!!
The 2011 Reel Rock Film Tour Trailer is here!! Be sure to check it out and find a show near you!!
Monday, August 15, 2011
What is PCI?
Here is a video about the non-profit I have been working on for the past two years. This video hardly captures everything we are doing, but it gives you an idea. For more information, visit our website: http://www.proclimbers.com
Wednesday, June 8, 2011
Pro Cycling from the view of a Pro Climber
On May 18, I was invited as a guest of Team Radioshack to watch the exciting finish to Stage 4 of the Tour of California in San Jose, CA. Having missed the Tour of California coming through my home town of Santa Rosa for the past few years, I was stoked to go check it out, especially from a booth right next to the finish line!
Through my work with PCI, I am constantly comparing climbing to other sports in respect to their events, presentation, organization, fans, sponsors, athletes, and history. This day gave me a great glimpse into the world of professional cycling.
We arrived a few hours before the riders were anticipated to finish the stage and I was happy to see the area in total chaos. Sponsor banners still had to be hung, the finish line had to be erected, booths needed to be set up and cameras still had to get into place. The reason I was happy to see this was because I've been there. This time last year, together with The Spot, we produced The Battle in the Bubble. Event production is no joke. Talk about a logistical nightmare. However, it all seems to come together in the end, and it came together with hours to spare at the top of Sierra Road.
From the RadioShack booth, we were able to watch the race coming in live via satellite on a flat screen TV. It was great to talk with some of the families of the riders on Team RadioShack and hear what they were like as kids. We exchanged hospital visit stories in what turned out to be very similar childhoods filled with adventure and passion. The parents I talked to reminded me of my parents in a lot of ways as they described watching their child scrape their knees, break some bones, and pursue their passion to the fullest. Very cool.
From an event production standpoint, all I can say is "WOW." Consider the footprint of a bouldering event versus a pro cycling event. We are talking about the difference between covering the action that can fit in the corner of a small football field (bouldering) and one that needs to be followed by helicopter. Stage 4 of the Tour was the shortest stage at 81 miles in length between Livermore and San Jose. At any given time, the field of riders is spread across several miles of road, traveling between 10 and 60 miles per hour, and across who knows how many different jurisdictions. I counted no less than 3 helicopters following the action up the road.
Despite the scope of the event and all the media coverage, it was also interesting to hear a very similar conversation to what we hear with climbing: "growth," "going mainstream," "popularity," and "big sponsors." I've always said that PCI isn't trying to do anything new, just new for climbing. Attending this event really drove this point home for me. I heard the commentators talk about enhancing the quality of the media coverage over the years, slowly growing the fan base, slowly attracting and retaining new sponsors, and growing the number of athletes who attend each year. This is coming from a sport with 40 million participants in the United States alone. Compare this to the Sport/Indoor/Bouldering segment of "Climbing" which has 4.3 million participants and you start to get the picture of where climbing is on its potential growth curve.
Sunday, April 24, 2011
National Geographic
The May issue of National Geographic is on news stands and it features a great article on Yosemite climbing by Mark Jenkins with photography by Jimmy Chin. This past fall, Jimmy Chin and Renan Ozturk of Camp4Collective joined Tommy and I up on the wall for a week. The product of their talent and hard work is featured on the pages of Nat Geo and in several amazing videos available on the Nat Geo website.
If you don't have a physical copy, you can view scan of it thanks to Black Diamond via this link:
At the National Geographic website, you can see some exclusive videos, view the enlarged photos from the article, and read the full article (more easily than in the scan) via this link:
Enjoy!
KJ
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