12 step program: the heart’s repair part 1
hey tubby, I'll trade you that beer for some discipline...that's me on the Koh Phi Phi ferry New Year's 2006 pushin' 210 lbs.
It’s a little after 8 am, on an early-April 2007 day. I’m sitting in my doctor’s office in a really uncomfortable, 70s-era Swedish modular knock-off chair with zero back support. Leaning forward, elbows on knees, hands clasped, head slung, and to the casual observer, striking a rather serious pose. In reality I’m just trying to take the pressure off my back it but could just as easily be the impending dread weighing on my brow that’s responsible for this posture.
Y’see in about 5 minutes my doctor’s gonna walk through that door and she’s gonna give me some pretty earth-shattering news. Funny thing: looking back, it turns out this won’t be the true motivation to my change of attitude. This is just the beginning. This is just necessary context. The prologue.
“Frank” she’ll say, as I avoid eye contact, preferring to stare at a photographic audience of newborns adorning all the thank you cards from the host of couples she recently turned into happy parents.
“Your cholesterol is high. You know that you’ve got a history of heart disease in your family. You need to make a choice before things get any worse.”
Yup. I knew it. Bad news.
Back in Toronto!
taking it easy for a while...
Hey everyone,
So i landed back in this beautiful city on Wednesday and have been trying to figure out what exactly has happened to my elbow. I have been to phsio already and we have almost pinpointed the issue.
The trip was amazing and in the last week i got to check out some new areas within the potrero that have very little traffic, the Vatican is a small area that requires an entry pitch to get into and the smirf bowl is probably the most mysterious crag at the potrero. The verdict is the Vatican needs some serious rebolting attention in order to fix all of routes, every one is damaged from a flood they had years ago. The vatican was a pretty eerie place and kind of felt like a tomb, every route in it was completely water polished due to the fact that when it rains heavy in the monsoon months there is a waterfall going right through this area.The smirf bowl is a pretty serious 5th class approach, to a very short set of routes the hard route is 2 manufactured pockets to a jug and the 11d in the orange rock looked like the best route there.
giveaways at the ottawa TDB stop!
now that i have your attention...okay, not exactly. more like free gear...beta gear, that is!
tomorrow’s gonna be an interesting day. the entire beta staff’ll pile into a car (SHOTGUN!!! 
) at an ungodly hour for a saturday (won’t even get to watch my beloved irons lay the beat down on hull 
) and do a whirlwind road trip to the Tour De Bloc stop at Coyote Rock Gym in Ottawa.
Off by 6 am we’ll hang out, sell clothes, shoot video and liveblog the whole enchilada (check in here tomorrow for up-to-the-minute info on the trip and the comp), hang out some more, give away some great prizes and then pack it up by 10 pm and hit the road back to the 416.
so, y’say you gonna be attending the comp in the nation’s capital on saturday? well we’ve got a few treats in store for ya whether you’re competing or just spectating. the only thing you’ll need to get in the game is a mobile phone that’s got a camera and can connect to the internet (which i’m assuming is all of ‘em nowadays) and you can play along with the beta facebook challenge and the beta twitter challenge and have a shot at some of the great prizes we’re giving away during the comp. trust me, it’ll be fun like beer-pong but way less messy!
liveblogging tdb @ coyote rock gym tomorrow
broadcasting live from ottawa and causin' a ruckus!
Hey gang, just wanted to let you know that Dave, Jamie and I’ll be liveblogging the crap outta tomorrow’s TDB stop at Coyote Rock Gym in Ottawa. watch the blog to catch up on all the latest plastic pulling news and to find out who’s crushing what!
We’ll be posting regular updates, photos and videos via ScribbleLive and would totally dig some feedback and audience participation. visit the ScribbleLive website and log in with either your facebook, twitter or any other acceptable log in method and let us know what you’d like to see from the event and we’ll do our best to oblige. You don’t even have to be stuck in front of your computer, just download the iphone app to participate from wherever you are on the planet (within range of wifi or a cell tower, natch). The more the merrier and in that spirit we’ll be giving away a pair of beta bamboo boxer shorts to one lucky participant, so join us for all the fun tomorrow, same bat time, same bat channel!
The Left Overs :)
Left overs as the title of this post because that is what you can call the handful of climbs i have left in the potrero. A lot of these routes have been left for a reason, not because they super hard necessarily but maybe they are dangerous, or just not worth doing due to type of rock or maybe location. Usually 10 year old open projects have reasons for still being unclimbed.
The last week has been pretty quiet actually, i have tried to get on the crying rian project a couple times, but there is a section of the route that is constantly seeping along with two rest huecos higher on the route, this is why one of the locals said nobody bothered with the route, somedays its dry and somedays its wet and dirty which is super frustrating while trying to coordinate rest days and climbing other routes so i dont detrain.