2012 SCS Nationals Write-Up

     The 2012 SCS Open Nationals were held yet again at Movement in Boulder.  This years competition went very smoothly without any major hiccups that can sometimes unfortunately happen at these big events.  Like last year, I competed within both the sport and speed events. 

Sport Qualifying round

     The format for the qualifying round was almost identical to the way that the World Championships was held last year at least.  Both the men and women were given two climbs, flash format style.  Half of the climbers started on the first climb while the other half started on the second climb.  Once everyone was finished from both sides they then switched climbs and moved to a rolling clock of 5 minutes to move the event along versus the 5 minutes allotted for the first climb. 

      My first climb I ended up falling going for the last hold before the anchors.  I should have sent it but I knew it was good enough for finals just as long as I did not screw it up on the second climb.  The second qualifier was a lot of fun with a huge no hands knee bar about 5 clips in.  Sadly, I was not able to utilize it as I was not pumped enough to justify staying their for long.  I then quickly climbed through the next crux, a huge cross through to a crimp under a volume, to what I thought was another knee bar.  However it proved to be a teaser knee bar and did not help at all.  Moving quicker now to avoid further pump for the hard finish, I traversed left along the route, to at least for me an awkward left bump out to a jug.  For some reason my right hand was not wanting to grip the underside of the volume which would allow me to make the move.  Instead of just going for it anyways I decided to try the failed knee bar I had just left.  If I could just get a quick second to recover I knew I could readjust to make the move.  Sadly the knee bar didn’t want to work again, by this time I was very pumped and ended up falling seconds later. 

      This little mess up ended up costing me a place in finals this year, finishing 10^th.  I have learned a lot from this event and the fact of not making finals is only more motivation to prove myself that much more at the next event.

Qualifier #1

"Julian Boyd"

Speed

      The last time I had touched the speed holds or climbed on the speed wall was this past summer at the Arco Championships.  Thankfully despite this I was able to get back into speed climbing mode and get a Finals time of 5.91seconds for the 10 meter.  I again was awarded the title for the 2^nd year in a row of “2012 Speed SCS National Champion”  This was definitely I nice little boost after not making sport finals. 

Photo "Julian Boyd"

Photo "Richard Levin"

Speed Finals Video!

    Now back to the gym to train on some “Rock Candy Holds” for the 2012 Canadian Bouldering Nationals, being held in Montreal Canada April 14^th and 15h. 

     Thanks to everyone who came out and watched, and to all of my Sponsors:  Rock Candy Holds, Power Bar, Jan Sport, Organic and Five Ten. 

Stay tuned for the Canadian Nationals write up!.

Check out the amazing highlight video from LT11 from finals, they really outdid themselves this time!!