2009 June

ZacAtak™ Strikes Back

ΩHe may not have made it through to the second round of NZ Idol (twice), but ZacAtak™ is still a pretty cool customer. After a day of lowlights on Saturday he sparked up the action with the first ascent of a problem we don’t really know the name of. The new problem is the contrived harder start to Koolstie/Kushtie/Koolstyles (does anyone know what this problem is really called?). This may not seem that exciting on the surface, but I assure you that it is. I offer three reasons:

Reason 1 - Koolstie is one of the best problems around due to its size, variety of moves and position. The cool thuggy harder start has been begging for an ascent for years.

Reason 2 - All the lanky folk that can do the start easy lack the chutzpah to do the top. Shame on them (I’d include myself but I’m too weak to pull on).

Reason 3 - ZacAtak™ looked like his arms were going to pop out of their sockets on the start, but then he styled up the rest of it. Rad.

Earlier in the day we had a -6° frost. Given the rain on the previous day this meant for a lot of ice on the boulders. Then the sun came out and the lack of wind boosted the temperature up to 15°. What does this give you? Hot temps and wet boulders, everybody’s favourite combination! While everyone was unpsyched Derek tested out his new remote flash. It’s flash as. Peter top-roped Cold Fusion for a bit and then crushed the first move into submission, only to be stymied by dampness in the dimples.

Gomez finally climbed The Outcast, which was good for him. Nice job Gomez. He then fell off Quantum Mechanics a bunch because he can’t stand on really big footholds (or really small ones for that matter). It’s quite impressive to see someone so consistently fall off the easy moves after the hard moves on so many problems. Quite impressive.

Just when the day looked like a lost cause the ZacAtak™ struck and redeemed it. Did I mention its a really great problem?

Sunday

Gomez went to work. Everyone else went to Flock Hill. Reports just in suggest that the following things happenned:

-Rach crushed Conder despite the ice on top. Sick!

-Kester sent the Vandal.

-James and ZacAtak™ sent Derek’s new problem which he did last week (and sadly went unreported). It’s really good and in the bottom corner of Flock. Matt Everhard got close.

-Matt P sent his mind to mercury?

-Pete top-roped Tri middle a bunch. Apparently he’s making progress.

People took some cool photos. Check out ‘Images‘ for the latest selection.Ω

Democracy

Ω In the spirit of the late, great Powerband Bouldering Awards, I prepared this survey towards the end of last year, hoping to post it on 41174/43171 for y’all to vote on. For one reason and another, it never happened. So, here it is now (7 or so months late). Vote away! I’ll post the results in 3 weeks Ω

Directions

Ω Re-branded, updated Bronx (Turakirae Head) guide available now in the Guides section. Ω

Speculationarism

Ω A speculation by Powerband - What makes Zac Orme unique?

Zac Orme has a unique new style for climbing that is different from other top-climbers like Ivan Leukaemia, which might be a possible explanation why he has reached a level above Ivan:

1. Technical - He has good technique with minimal rest in between techniques.
2. Tactical/route-reading - He reads outdoor onsights like a proper climber, including having a sequence in mind. “I always try to have a sequence in mind.”
2. Flexibility – He’s happy to go to the crags you want to go to.
3. Screaming – He saves his screaming for the bedroom.
4. Clipping – He generally clips the bolts. “I prefer to clip as I climb.”
5. No Pain/Anxiety - “I do not feel anything”.
6. Breathing - As soon as he starts climbing he breathes. He also breathes before and after climbing.
7. Short arms – Zac is 100 cm tall with short, light-weight arms, which makes it easier for him to bend them.
8. Resting - He rests a lot between days. Sometimes all night.

You’ll find more wild speculation on another prodigious climber on 8a.nu Ω

In Absentia

Ω So, while 43171 was dying a slow death and the genesis of our new home was but a twinkle in JP’s eye there was still plenty of bouldering going on. As part of an ongoing quest in pursuit of increased efficiency I thought I’d test run the new blog while at the same time reporting on some of the recent action from Castle Hill Basin. Are you in?

There has been some most excellent girl power on display lately. Can I use that term without sounding condescending or patronising? I sure hope so. Rachel Musgrave climbed her first V8, the Quantum Field shadowpiece Anthrax. Nice work Rach. It was also climbed by visiting American yummy mummy Carrie Cooper on her very last day at Castle Hill. She said it was the scariest thing she’d ever done, which is a shame, if we’d known that sort of information earlier we would have put her on some other things while she was around. Zac Orme (who shall henceforth be referred to as ZacAtak™) flashed this problem. He’s pretty flash though and we expect that kind of thing from him.

In fact, he’s flash enough to get the second ascent of Minnesota Fats V10. Minnesota Fats is a heretofore unrepeated Derek Thatcher problem smack in the middle of Quantum Field. It is big, it is hard, it is a unique set of moves, in short, its excellent. ZacAtak™ was buoyed by the presence of an enormous gymnastics-style crash pad courtesy of Tools Of The Adventure. On the same day ZacAtak™ climbed The Outcast and The Joker, both V9. Huh.

Most recently there was a flurry of activity at Wuthering Heights yesterday involving the establishment of no less than six new problems. Perhaps the best of these was a sit start put up by Matt (Everhard) Evrard which he called Captain Weenie. It is on the small boulder close to Gogo Yubari. Matt is pretty old school, but he’s not so old school he won’t sink to the level of doing sit starts. However, he’s not new school enough to know that all the ‘captain’ problems are at Flock Hill. I guess he hasn’t seen Kill Bill. Still, nice work on beating out the circling jackals and getting the FA. It was repeated in short succession by Derek Thatcher (flash) and Rachel (who got the assist with earlier beta collection). Matt, who has obviously been spending too much time with Derek, suggested this problem was V2. I’d say its more like a six (and everyone knows that what I think is what really matters).

The other new problems were a sit start right next door with some lovely gastons courtesy of first-ascent-machine Derek, the last unclimbed line on the Buffalo Bill boulder now named Jesse James (also by Derek), a dirty crack penetrated only by Kester Brown, a backwards ramp-jump problem in the style of yours truly and fittingly dubbed Fosbury Flop and finally a nice rock over problem by ZacAtak™ on the same over-the-fence boulder as Fosbury Flop (we’ll be back to this boulder soon).

Did I forget anything? Probably.Ω

Gomez

Memory Lane

Ω In case you’ve forgotten what Powerband used to look like:

Quality stuff! Ω

New Horizons

Ω What better way to kick off the 3rd generation Powerband bouldering portal than to take you back to where it all began……Wellington! As best as I can recall, my very first post on the original Powerband website was reporting great deeds of strength and endurance at Baring Head, then the crucible of hard bouldering in New Zealand.

Times have changed.

Nobody goes to Baring Head anymore (except me and Richie Rich). And the crucible of hard bouldering in New Zealand is now Castle Hill basin. Still, new and exciting stuff continues to happen (if rather infrequently) in the Wellington bouldering scene. Certainly the New Zealand bouldering scenes is as strong (if not stronger) than ever.

After a partially successful experiment with the ‘coordinate’ blogs (41174 and 43171), it’s time to reignite my dreams for world (climbing website) domination. This time I will be more-than-ably assisted by Richie Rich (Minister of Information), Gomez (editor at large), the Koppulator (large editor) and hopefully you. Please send us your news, images and videos. We wont bite (well, we wont puncture the skin).

Anyway, back to the real point of this post,which is my AWESOME new problem at Turakirae Head. It’s big and bold, with long pulls between good holds. It’s everything you could want in a modern boulder problem at the grade. It’s the next generation. On reflection, I probably should have called it Powerband! Ω