The first leg of the 2010 Unified Bouldering Championships Pro Tour is in the books with the completion of the Earth Treks Roc comp on Saturday night. As usual the winner on the women’s side of things has a name that starts with Alex (last name of Puccio this time), and the men’s comp was won by none other than Chris Sharma (who just turned 29!). For a more complete writeup on how things went down be sure to check out DPM. Here are the full results from finals (Visit the Earth Treks website for full comp results):
Men’s Results
- Chris Sharma
- Paul Robinson
- Daniel Woods
- Vasya Vorotnikov
- Rob D’Anastasio
- Magnus Midtboe
Women’s Results
- Alex Puccio
- Alex Johnson
- Lisa Rands
- Francesca Metcalf
- Isabelle Faus
- Kasia Pietras
Of course it was possible for you to watch the comp as it unfolded via the live stream, something I was not able to take advantage of personally. The initial feedback on the Climbingnarc.com Facebook page seemed positive, but I’d love to hear more opinions on how everything worked so feel free to share your thoughts in the comments of this post. I know the guys from ne2c check this site, and I’m sure they would be interested in getting some feedback whether it is positive or negative.
Higher quality video footage is sure to be released in coming days but until then here are 2 clips of Daniel Woods (who was apparently struggling with an injury) and Chris Sharma trying problem #3 from finals:
Update – Here is more polished looking teaser to whet your appetite:
UBC – RocComp 4/24/2010 – Sneak Peek from NE2C on Vimeo.
Update #2 – Here is a crowd video of Alex Puccio sending 3 of the problems:
The comp was awesome and as usual the ne2c crew ran it well. However, for years I’ve complained about the lack of a stance on bumping competitors in the citizens comp. If ne2c is leading the way in comp format and presentation, they need to take a stand on bumping the sandbaggers and keeping it fun for people. The beginner division should never be won by a guy with 3100 points.
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Awesome comp. commentating…less so…. but comp itself was sick. Format was better than having three on at once, also I think good to have women’s and men’s simultaneously.
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Damn straight we read CN. Doesn’t everybody?
Sorry about the scoring snafu’s and yeah, we get tired of the sound of our own voices too… we’re working on finding a solution for both of those things. Plenty of lessons still to learn if we’re going do what we hope to do for the sport that we love. First glimpse of finals HL coming shortly… Back to work!
Thanks to anyone who tuned in, our Facebook page almost blew up!
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It’s funny how the two guys that just put up the “world’s hardest boulder problems” got beat by a guy who does nothing but climb routes all the time.
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My best guess would be that it’s an attitude thing. Paul could have won even without flashing the final problem but he gave it one burn and quit. Seems to me if you wanna win at anything you gotta go a la muerte
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That’s actually not true because once Sharma sent the third problem it was game over. At that point he had two out of three and no one else even had one. Paul climbed as much as he needed to lock up second place, sending the last problem wouldn’t have changed his spot. And I don’t blame him for not wanting to risk falling 20 ft on that crazy horizontal throw.
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It was cool as hell to be able to watch the comp live. I’ve never been to a major comp, so it was def. sick to see how intense the problems are and just how nasty strong these girls and guys are! I can’t wait to watch the next comp.
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Narc-
Seems as if you have some report with Paul. Maybe you could do any interview and ask him why he thinks Sharma is such a good competitor.
Clearly, Paul and Daniel both compete and boulder more than Chris. Is Chris exceptionally tough mentally? Does his outstanding fitness set him apart in such a competition? Are Paul and Daniel a little intimidated by competing with what I would assume is a childhood hero? Regardless, it would be interested to hear some of their thoughts.
Cheers
Matt
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Not taking anything away from Chris, who is amazing, but maybe his longer reach and height make a major difference on plastic. Anyone who’s short and climbs on plastic understands what I’m saying.
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yeah, I was thinking along those lines. His reach definitely gave him an advantage. The third problem looked easy for daniel, paul, and chris, but chris was the only one who stuck that horizontal throw. His wingspan definitely helped.
And Paul and Daniel did MUCH better than Sharma on problem 2, which was the most technical. But this just goes back to the whole rating debate. climbing style and body type are huge factors to the difficulty of a problem.
The bottom line is, the comp was SICK and everyone looked crazy strong. Best moments:
– DW’s save on problem 3
– Sharma matching on the neon green hold below the sloper on Problem 2. (that hold is HORRIBLE)
– Alex Puccio one-hanging the start to Problem 2.
– And of course chris sending 1 and 3.
P.S. thanks for promoting my video Narc. (it’s the first one)
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I agree with Matt, I think that would be a fantastic idea, maybe not even with just Paul, but other competitors who have competed against such a legend. Would be a great read. FYI been reading this site for over a year and finally commented, so nice to meet everyone
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It’s the sticky icky
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I was lucky enough to attend the finals and the atmosphere was absolutely sick. You could tell everyone was pulling for old man Sharma and the place erupted when he sent his problems. It really does make you appreciate how strong he is when two of the world’s best can’t send problems that he seemingly does with ease. In D Woods’ defense though I was standing right next to problem 1 and without being long enough to static that move like Chris and Paul could it didn’t look like there was any way to send it.
Btw, you ne2c guys did a great job with the semi finals video and the comp in general. Some of the Earth Treks staff said it might be too much work to do it in back to back years so get on them!
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Magnus did the move static with a heel hook on his second try. He’s no taller than DW.
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Overall, I’d the live feed was a HUGE success. I watched the second half of the semi’s and the entire finals. The feed was nearly flawless(cut out once during finals), the footage was great, and I really felt the energy of the competition.
As expected with something so new, there were some things that need a bit of polish. I thought it was a great idea to have Obe as a reporter on the floor, but it clearly didn’t work. Maybe the athletes weren’t prepared for it or it was done at the wrong time. Either way, I think with some more preparation an on the floor reporter would be a great addition to the program.
As said in previous posts, the announcing needs a little bit of polish, and I’d like to spend a minute giving some personal suggestions.
The the majority of the time the announcing was GREAT. I know it’s difficult to talk constantly and keep an audience you can’t see engaged. I thought the main announcer( his name escapes me) did a good job at this without getting too repetitive. (though I thought he was introducing too many people as living legends =) )
That said, I would like to make a couple suggestions to the NE2C crew about the announcing, based solely on my experience as a viewer.
1. Separate the hype man from the announcer. While watching the comp, I couldn’t help but draw comparisons between announcers in the Olympics and the announcers in the show. In the Olympics, you might have a retired athlete at the venue as a reporter who is really excited about everything going on, cheering for the competitors, but you also have a level headed announcer who’s doing the majority of the talking. I think this sort of format would have worked much better. Having a bunch of people scream into Mic’s when something happen is distracting. I know it’s difficult to do ( I was yelling at my computer when Sharma did Mens 1 and Dwoods did that ridiculous save), but it would go a long way to control the emotions while being an announcer. Announcing to an audience you can’t see is different then announcing to a crowd you’re standing in front of.
2. Professionalism. At times, a professional approach was really lacking. The entire point of the UBC is to help progress climbing, but if that’s going to happen there’s going to HAVE to be a more professional attitude coming from the announcers. I shared the video feed to a friend who is a very new climber and he really enjoyed it, but kept asking me “did this announcer just come from a monster truck show?” As I said earlier, I think it’s ok to have a hype man at times, but when an announcer is giving shout outs to their homies on a live feed, it gives a very amateurish feel to the audience.
That’s all I have for suggestions now. I hope nobody takes anything personally here because I’m 100% behind what NE2C is doing and only want them to succeed. I’m totally aware that this live feed thing is in its infancy and I think it’s a HUGE step in the right direction for climbing. Great job NE2C and I look forward to watching the next comp.
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I thought the comp was great, but Scott Mechler (sp?) was more interested in talking about himself than the competitors. Did he really need to talk during semi-finals about how great his arms looked in a tank top? Mute that guy. Even Obe was more tolerable.
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Thanks to all the peeps and business that put that show on. Made my Saturday way better and the climbing was just amazing. And it was free to view, I mean how cool is that.
Results: Sharma did great; it appeared the routes really suited his style. Problem 2 seemed the most technical with that crappy sloper wedge in the negative direction and It was so Sharma-esque to make an attempt to skip it – gotta love it tho. Don’t be too hard on DW and PR. I can’t imagine the pressure they must feel right now. I think we all found it slightly ironic that they each put up a recent V16 and then had to face Sharma at what appeared to be him entirely in the zone. We’ve all seen Sharma get bested in the comps as well so it really doesn’t mean anything but it certainly added to the atmosphere.
Viewer Impression: I understand that it’s an MC kinda thing and the real goal is to sell tickets for the competition and make it an actual experience for those actually there. So, the format makes complete sense. But, as a viewer it would be freaking great to hear a lot more technical aspects about the holds and the routes and the way the climbers are climbing the routes. Perhaps some footage of the route setters working out the problem? I get it that you can’t shout beta over a mic that everyone can hesr. Things might be a bit more viewer friendly to know the commentator is just talking to the viewer and not the crowd. Then the MC can focus on the crowd and the atmosphere and the commentator can do his thing without having to worry about one an other. I’d gladly sit thru more commercials that I could not fast forward thru in order to feel like I’m watching a presentation just for viewers. Also, what a great freaking idea it was to put the mens and womens routes right next to eachother. It made it so we could keep seeing all the action. As far as structure goes, this was a lot more exciting to watch.
I’ll shut up now…
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I didn’t mention this in my earlier post, but you touched on something I forgot to bring up. I think it would be great to have an MC who’s working the crowd be separate from the announcer to doing the internet feed. That way you can have someone hyping up the crowd and getting them involved which makes for a better atmosphere for the competitors and the viewers(crowd and internet), but allows for a calmer announcer able to talk about technical things without having to worry about hyping up the crowd.
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I had meant to put a bit more emphasis on that aspect but was trying to keep it simple. Since you mentioned it i wanted to chime in with this little diddy…
I think some people are under the impression that the technical talk would bore new viewers (or those new to climbing who are watching a comp for the first time). I think it’s the exact opposite actually. I don’t think someone new to climbing actually grasps how hard the routes are and how physically demanding it really is. Hearing a retired climber actually speak about the holds, the crux and why it’s the crux, the moves, the differences in sequences and the strengths of the climbers and different styles etc. I think it would give the impression of a bit of history to climbing and add to the professionalism. It’s not that I don’t think the younger guys are capable of doing the same thing, it’s just the impression that the viewer gets when listening. Then people would know this is a sport thats been around for a while and it’s making advancements.
Oh, and once again I would really love to see how the route setters worked the sequences. It’s a bummer when you see a rad problem that none of them can do. Then, we could all see what is holding them up on the problem. Understanding that it may have took the route setter a few days to actually get the problem right and then giving the climber have only 5 minutes to figure it out makes the difficulty of this a lot more apparent. Climbers get it, but non climbers don’t and I think that’s who needs to be appealed to.
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Great comments everyone. I especially like the ones regarding the announcers which is something I think I mentioned after the live stream last year (don’t go back and check, just take my word for it). Obviously having separate announcers makes things more difficult but hopefully as comps like this evolve it’s something that will included.
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One thing that people haven’t mentioned yet was the language used by the announcers. Not that I’m at all offended by a “holy shit” or “God damn” but this is something to look out for if ne2c starts building up its viewership. Its not often that you hear a Bob Costas type blurt out a holy shit during a memorable moment in the Olympics.
Also I completely agree with the need for a calm demeenor commentator describing the nuances of each problem. It wasn’t until after the comp ended and I actually got to touch some of the holds before I realized what they were pulling on.
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Okay, so I touched on this before the comp, and I’d just like to say, they did tone it down to about 1/16 of the “holy shit”‘s that Obe threw out at the Mammut comp. That being said, I completely agree that they need to cut it out completely for all the reasons you said.
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The first thing I thought of about why Sharma won was that he’s just a wild card for this comp. Yes he pulls down V15, 5.15b, and has onsighted something ridiculous, like 5.14b or so, but he really hasn’t climbed indoors or climbed in comps in a long time, and though we know what he likes stylistically from his climbs (his every move is documented for cripes sake), we don’t know what he can pull down in this competition environment.
Imagine being a setter that doesn’t want the competition to be boring because everyone gets a flash, or Sharma scampers everything because no one knows what he could do! You could set everything to the antithesis of his style to give him trouble if you are afraid he will flash everything, or set everything harder than you might normally. I’ve talked to Paul about what level they set problems at normally, and even though I couldn’t see or feel the holds up close and personal, even the movements seemed harder than what he had told me was the “standard”. Maybe the Sharma wild card bumped things up quite a bit. Usually you can see a progression of the 6 finalists going a so: top 5 or so get the first problem; the top 4 get the second; the top 2 get the third; then theres a battle for the end. It didn’t seem to have the same tier shape, and whether or not that is good or bad, it does bring a climax to the competition which is pretty fantastic (seeing people drop off one by one, literally and figuratively).
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At the comp I overheard that the reason the problems were so hard was because of all the rest time each climber had between problems. Instead of slowly ramping up the difficulty, all of the problems were essentially the final problem from your scenario since the competitors had up to 25 minutes rest between. I can’t vouch for the validity without talking to the setters but it seems to make sense considering the climbers’ struggles.
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Anybody knows what happen to Chris Webb Parsons? He was 6th in the semi…
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Who made the new volumes for this comp? Where can you find them? Anyone have info about these sweet new shapes?
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If you mean the giant orange feature, that was made by Jason Kehl.
Here’s a video of him talking a little bit about it.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iu2xmjSB2-E
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I wasn’t talking about The Growth. I was talking about the huge blue and Green Volumes. Who makes them?
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Nope, the Green and Blue volumes.
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