Gravity Brawl 2008 Wrap-up

i think it would be horrid to be climbing under blasting techno with an announcer chanting my name.  big indoor comps don’t look like they would be particularly fun to attend either.  of course, i’m a ‘scene hater’ so what do I know… (something about 150 people in puffy northface jackets and prana beanies sitting in the cold waiting to watch indoor climbing strikes me as unappealing).personal preference aside, i think the spectacle route is the best way to go if one wanted to popularize comp climbing.  i mean, i’ve had to turn my college classroom into a spectacle in order to get my students to even show up (strobe lights make learning fun), so it doesn’t seem odd that climbing comps would be going in the same direction.  if they sold beer and foam “sharma” fingers, i think climbing would be on ESPN in no time. 

I just had a huge success with a comp format where the goal was to climb as many routes or boulder problems as possible in 2 hours. I chose the finals by asking anyone who was interested in finals to write down their hardest send of the day. We did not close down prior to the comp to set and only did a little extra setting in the prior week. What was so great here was that anyone could compete and not feel outclassed if they didn’t climb hard. The finals were a show. I threw in people I thought should be in finals even though they didn’t turn in a score card cause they were trying to be modest (Thanks Pi, Simon, and Hefty!) In short it was a laid back comp. The beer and food was free!I get VERY turned off at overly competitive comps where kids and their moms are freaking out, there are so many people you only get one shot at the route, and the techno is giving me a headache. That’s not what climbing is about.If you are talking about the “mainstream audience” and you mean Nascar watchers or Baseball fans I say fuck them. They aren’t climbers and they will only bring our pastime down to the sludge of entertainment these sports and their like dish out on a daily basis. If “mainstream” means regular or occasional climbers that just haven’t stepped up to the next level I say we should make the comps more accessible to the common climber and keep comps a fun gathering or show.Also, our comp made us no money, we gave it to charity, I wish I would see this more often.