Day 175 - Rock Star Revisited

slender gentleman

Welcome to the second and final part of my long running series, Rock Star - Wideboyz Edition.

In the opening/penultimate episode in the series, I introduced you to Tom Randall, who I rudely accosted whilst he was setting problems at The Climbing Station.  As I explained then, he's one half of a hugely successful (and highly entertaining) climbing partnership known as The Wideboyz.

This here young lad in the photo is the other half of said comedy duo, Pete Whittaker.  He's a fabulous climber too, and has put up some of the hardest routes in the Peak District over recent years.

We were at the bouldering gym today and Pete was there setting problems for a competition tomorrow.   Still feeling bad about mugging Tom last time (first name terms now, see...), today I decided to play it slightly more covertly (and a little creepier, now I think about it), and just take a few snaps from across the gym, without disturbing him...

(Although maybe I'm disturbing him now?! Sorry Pete!)

Ooh, first name terms there too, huh?   Whilst I didn't speak to him, we did share a laugh over another climber who fell amusingly (it happens!), so now I figure we're kind of acquainted!

see pete's feet

Hey Jezz (if you're watching)...check out the shoes - Five Ten Moccasyms I reckon...you should definitely get some, they're all you need to be climbing like Pete...you'll be getting up E9 or E10 in no time, I bet...that's only about 10 grades harder than we've ever climbed...

;-)

Once we got home from a great afternoon's bouldering, we took Jazz for a limp down the lane...poor old fella, he's quite sore at the moment...

Loz decided to come with us, as she often does...which is fine, except she hangs back and keeps getting distracted by potential murder victims (voles) in the verge, and we spend around 70% of the walk waiting for her to catch up. 

To have any chance of getting home before dark, Anna usually ends up picking her up and carrying her, much to Loz's queenly satisfaction...

I got this lovely shot of the two of them: 

slim girls

As we got back to our garden, the cotoneaster was alive and buzzing with dozens of bees...I stopped and spent ten minutes trying to capture a nice shot of them.

Somewhat unconventionally, I decided to do this using the largest zoom lens, fully zoomed in, from 3 or 4 feet away.   

Turns out it's quite hard to get the bee in focus (especially with a low f-stop, which I was trying to use)...not least as they won't stay still...bumblebees are busy little things, buzzing about from bud to bud...who knew?!

So I only got one or two that are (barely) acceptable...but still, I quite like this one, even though the little white-tailed bumblebee is partially obscured:

bee still

Well, that's that for this evening...now go and watch some Wideboyz video's!

On the one hand, Tom and Pete are both world class climbers, whilst on the other, they're a couple of humble, funny lads having a great time, doing frequently amazing, sometimes crazy, and always inspirational things...

Recommended!

:-)

Day 158 - Rock Star

not as wide as advertised

Well, today really didn't go as planned, as I hope is evident from today's photo.

Now, those of you who know me (and there may be as many as several of you out there), will know that I'm into neither celebrity nor selfies...and yet this photo is both (kinda).

Allow me to explain...

The plan was to get up earlyish, drive up to Jool's warehouse in Nuneaton and drop those laptops off, then head straight off for a long bouldering workout, before heading back home, where my new musical toy was due to be delivered. 

But it turned out that Jools was having a hectic and stressed morning, with only a few hours to get sorted before going on holiday for a week...I ended up working there until around 1pm, and leaving with a couple more computers that need some work doing. 

At least I'd decided to climb indoors rather than out today, as the plan would have been dead in the water at this point. 

Over the last couple of years, there have been a number of days when I've had opportunities to climb outdoors, when Anna hasn't...today, I'd considered going bouldering at The Roaches, Cratcliffe or Burbage South, but felt that would be yet more experience for me when Anna can't make it...especially after my 50@50 the other week, when I climbed 50 routes and Anna climbed none...

So I decided to treat it more as a workout, and go indoors.  Our favourite bouldering centre is in Loughborough, which is almost never convenient...however, being most of the way there already this morning, I realised it would be perfect for a few hours exercise.

But then it was was 2pm by the time I got there, I was hot and tired before I even started, and I tired quickly.  I rarely climb indoors on my own, and I clearly need to learn how to pace myself.   After an hour or so I was hot, unpleasantly sweaty, and pumped.  And I felt very tired, and very weak...yay! 

Either I'm completely out of shape, it was simply the heat exacerbating the situation, or I just climbed too hard too fast (by my puny standards, of course).  I did around 30 problems in total (and down climbed them all) in the space of an hour, and apparently that's about enough for me at the moment...

However, as a bit of a bonus, this chap was there setting some new problems (I tried one of them - couldn't get off the ground)...it was one of those curious moments where you meet someone you "know", whilst being just some weird stranger to them...

Anyway, this guy is Tom Randall, and he's a very well known and highly accomplished climber around these here parts (and beyond).  

(Climbers make the best kind of celebrity - the kind nobody has heard of!)

Tom is part owner of the bouldering centre I think, although I've never seen him there before.  
He and another climber named Pete Whittaker are known as the Wideboyz, due to their love of climbing wide cracks called offwidths.   They famously (amongst the climbing community at least) went to the States and climbed all the hardest offwidths they could find, including the hardest in the world, which was unclimbed up to that point.

The Wideboyz also produced a series of crack climbing instructional videos, which we watched with great interest, before finding that cracks are still really hard to climb!

(Anna and I have been meaning to get on top of our crack climbing this year, but it hasn't happened yet...)

Video's always seem to be popping up of Tom climbing some super hard stuff in the Peak District, and some super fun stuff too...all of it light years beyond my meagre bumbling, of course.

So I asked Tom if I could take a couple of photo's, simply meaning "whilst he worked"...but I think he assumed I wanted to be in the shot so stopped working and pulled a couple of faces with me.  

I felt bad for interrupting his work (I honestly hadn't meant to), but he was a really cool guy, very friendly and fun, as you can see, so it worked out well!

Thanks Tom!

One last note...that bit of kit I ordered...here it is, duly arrived, with Jazz kindly posing for scale.

big box

What on earth did I order, a new drum kit?!   I can't believe the size of the box!

One day I might show you what was in the box...

;-)