The 2010 UBC Pro Tour event at the Outdoor Retailer Summer Market went off last night in Salt Lake City before a packed house and undoubtedly thousands watching live on the internet. To paraphrase announcer Obe Carrion Daniel Woods reigned supreme, and on the women’s side of things Alex Puccio kept the streak of someone named Alex always winning this comp going. Here are the full results:
| Men’s Results | Women’s Results |
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My planned live blog ran into a bit of a snag when some circumstances beyond my control forced me to be over an hour late meaning I missed the first problem entirely. I picked things up with the start of the 2nd problem and I’d like to once again thank everyone that stopped by to follow along.
What I did see of the comp was pretty well done. The entire presentation of the event from the lighting to the walls to the announcing was a definite improvement over past events, and it seems like things just keep getting better with each comp. The only real negative was the frequent buffering of the feed which myself and several others seemed to be experiencing.
The one thing that stuck out to me from watching the comp though was how hard it is to keep track of what’s happening with respect to who is in the lead and what holds a climber needs to get to in order to move up in the standings.
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There was a leader board shown after each round which was nice however within each round it was really hard to follow where things stood.
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The announcers were good for the most part but I think I would have liked to hear them talk a bit more about the scoring.
That said, since I wasn’t able to give the entire show my full attention maybe it was just me, so let me know in the comments your impressions of the entire night.
1 -Daniel Woods
2- Ian Dory
3- Jon Glassberg
4 – Chris Sharma
5 – Carlo Traversi
Wow most impressed by Ian an Jon! Whats up with Sharma? The few comps he has been in, hasn’t done a lot to excite
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He did win the last comp he entered in the US
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first off enjoyed watching last night. I thought sharma did pretty well considering the company that he was in. I think we witnessed a changing of the guard last night. The new breed is out and their hungry.
By no means do I consider sharma week (just not motivated to give his shoulder to the last plastic problem), he just shows up to these things for the sponsors (don’t blame him at all gotta make some money). The place he’s going to give it his all is outside. That being said I remember a clip with boone speed saying comments about sharma walking all of his project when he came onto the scene.
I think it’s exciting to see the transition because these new kids are going to push things farther than anything we’ve seen.
Olympics with woods, and adam O should be interesting?? if the Olympics will take climbing.
Oh yeah who was the announcer, he needs to ease up on the red bull and they need to play music over the broadcast in the background.
We need Ob doing the announcing thing
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Was anybody else just a little creeped out when Obe called Angie Payne (?) “baby girl”
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I think that’s just called “Obe being Obe”
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Did any of those guys know there was a Bouldering World Cup taking place?
At least Alex Johnson did.
Do we really want climbing in the Olympics? Apparently there are two worlds in competitive climbing, the US and the rest of the planet.
If people from Japan, Korea or Canada can take a plane and compete in Germany, what’s up with Woods, Puccio and all those pr0s?
It is true that, for instance, Adam Ondra didn’t compete in Vail, but all the rest did.
Winning the world cup must be good for sponsors, don’t you think?
Let’s play Devil’s Advocate: Could it be that those strong, pinch-breaking, swing-loving, American climbers are scared of the kind of technical problems that are common in Europeans world cups?
If we want climbing to become Olympic we should move towards a single world-wide community. Sponsors should be aware of this and encourage their athletes to attend the official comps.
Just a thought. I would love to hear yours.
Love!
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I am not a comp person and never would dream of taking my meditation public. That being said I don’t see the down side of climbing being in the Olympics. The sport is growing rapidly (in the states) regardless of the Olympics. This would allow folks to truly train. I know that sponsors can pay decent money but that is nothing compared to what countries will be able to provide.
Why not see how far the sport can go and truly see how far the human bodies can be pushed. The Olympics would bring mutants out of the wood works that would try for a gold but would never show up at a comp. There are strong people out there that choose not to be sponsored and on video.
No reason to fight change cause it’s going to happen
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As for the comment of having the pros competing in world cup comps they need someone to pay for them to get there. Some of our pro climbers get sponsership money but not enough to do world traveling.Other climbers have their country pay their expenses,so I dont think it is about being afraid .It is more about the lack of funds to get there. this comes from someone who has given birth to one of these pro climbers.Also a lot of these european have a whole network of people that travel with their National Teams,Doctors,coaches,managers ect… i think if we were more set up like this I think you would see more of the Pro clibers traveling and doing the world cups!
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“Could it be that those strong, pinch-breaking, swing-loving, American climbers are scared of the kind of technical problems that are common in Europeans world cups?”
Yes. Horrified. It probably has nothing to do with other – much more obvious – barriers. 1) Cost ($800 from NY to LDN will get you 2 months in Hueco), 2) Time (it’s always bouldering season somewhere), and 3) Value (if i’m 21 and i’m getting paid to climb and hang with my ‘bros’ there is little need for me to waste time and money to prove myself on European plastic).
But in the last instance it’s probably good ole fashioned fear. Because nothing is quite as horrifying as balancey foot switches over top of 5′ thick gymnastic pads.
Nothing.
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I was really disappointed with this comp. 1. the routes we definitely uninteresting. 2. The huge shoulder moves on both problem 3’s were stupid( didn’t any professional setter learn anything from Ethan destroying himself at nationals?) and finally 3. The routes sucked! No one problem was though provoking for any of the climbers. You can argue that it broke down the field well yada yada yada but bottom line this comp would be a joke if it were part of the world cup. We should learn something from the rest of the world.
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have to agree with the route setting. I enjoyed watching the comp but between this one and vail I’m shocked that there are not some folks hurting. Vail was nothing but wild tendon ripping dynos but since sponsors are trying to get climbing into the main stream it is really the only thing that seems to interest Americans that don’t climb.
the problem is the wall was pretty one dimensional compared to Europe’s walls. More money better comp walls
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This comp was just plain bad.
1) The routes were boring. You couldn’t even see women’s number one from most of the viewing area at the actual comp… bad bad bad.
2) The Format was slow. They need to speed it up somehow. Either running a traditional format (someone does problem one, then rest, then problem two, and the next person follows immediately). This results multiple people climbing at once so someone is basically always on the wall. Or option 2: give them a minute (or there about) on, then run the rest through (like they did) and then give the person another minute, or 30 seconds or whatever, so people are standing around resting, and thus NOT DOING ANYTHING.
3) The announcers were horrible. Stop saying “like,” and just in generally find someone who is better at it.
4) THe walls were boring, the last two years had more interest, and visually pleasing wall designs.
5) Why does everyone think these events are improving? By what measure? The field (entering the comp) is the same size, if not smaller, than ever. The prize purse hasn’t grown since the PCA years (and is actually 1/2 the size of the first year of the PCA). When you adjust for inflation (“luckily” none of that in the last two years… atleast for these climbers) that means you make less money today if you win (aka are Daniel Woods) than you did 3+ years ago.
Why do people think the olympics will “improve” climbing? These isn’t going to be any more sponsor money… by any real measure anyways. Look at ALL the sports in the olympics… most are as poor is not more than climbing. Curlying anyone? Speed Walking? More over, more climbers in general will only negatively effect the average climber and in reality will probably be bad for the current “pros” as well as a large, more serious (ie- less pot smoking/drinking/partying) group of climbers would only end up putting them to shame… plus add in alitte doping (you know, the EPO/steroids, whatever kind) and its just nothing but bye bye D. Woods…
sorry… that was pretty negative, but some one has to say it.
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I think the presentation aspect of the comps has gotten considerably better. I agree that the climbing action on Tuesday wasn’t the most exciting I’ve seen but I was pretty distracted so it’s hard for me to be real negative about that aspect. I do think there needs to be some way of speeding up just about any climbing comp I’ve seen lately (Battle in bubble, World Cup, UBC, etc).
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Agreed……..the presentation aspect of these big comps is better but lately from watching both the Teva games and this comp it seems as I have to agree with the others here that the problems were nothing to write home about. This should be something that makes you go wow that was cool and split the field at the same time but it was just generic setting. There were no cool holds other than the volumes, the walls were bland and why have the walls baking in the sun every year just for good photos…..apparently that’s more important than the climbers or the competition.
As for Americans competing in Europe this has always been a problem. After all these years there has never been an American male to win the overall world cup in any aspect of climbing. Lynn Hill and Robyn Erbesfield-Raboutou have on the female side but that was back in the early 90’s. There is just no real financial support from sponsers for the pros to be able to do so.
P.S. I have been setting for a very long time so I tend to be a bit of a nerd when it comes to watching comps.
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3) The announcers were horrible. Stop saying “like,” and just in generally find someone who is better at it.
Agreed!!!!!!!!
more serious (ie- less pot smoking/drinking/partying) group of climbers would only end up putting them to shame… plus add in alitte doping (you know, the EPO/steroids, whatever kind) and its just nothing but bye bye D. Woods…
Shawn white still dominates!! No can touch him why would this be any different in climbing??
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“Shawn white still dominates!! No can touch him why would this be any different in climbing??”
He’s also a good example of a “competition only” skateboarder/snowboarder. He’s never in the skate magazines (except for the very few contests that are mentioned), or in the videos (other than his sponsors videos).
Daniel Woods is not the Shawn White of climbing. Shawn’s more comparable to one of the European comp climbers. You probably won’t see much of them in Urban Climber, and definitely not in any of Chuck Frybergers future videos, no matter how hard they climb.
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good point…
olympics won’t help climbing, it will destroy it! more climbers = more access problems, not necessarily more money!
why do people have to make money with climbing anyway? just get a job and don’t exploit climbing & nature!
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Lots of kids are climbing in gyms, out west there is so much rock that their will not be an issue. It’s only down south where we have to worry about this.
I’ve run into kids in NC who live near rock and just climb in gyms.
I truly don’t think that we are going to suddenly be over run with folks wanting to climb.
It takes a certain type of person to climb, and the average person does not posse this level of what some consider “insanity.”
This is why their are secrets in every town to keep this problem in check.
But I understand where your coming from…
Oh yeah and what do you say about climbing gear companies cause by the very nature of the outdoor industry their are exploiting nature.
Unless your climbing barfoot, without chaulk, pads, ropes, etc you are helping them exploit nature.
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There is a phrase going through the online climbing media: “Speeding up bouldering competitions”. It does sound profound at first. But think about it. The current format ALREADY IS condensating the process of finding the right state of mind, visualizing the moves and then finally doing it into 5 MINUTES. Thats already insanely short, I certainly could not do it. This already favors certain types of climbers, because the moves cannot be too technical and complicated.
It does look boring. But not because it is boring by itself. It does appear boring, when a coced up Obe is bursting his vocal cords and crazy disco ambiance is climaxing while the climber is just trying to concentrate and do the problem. I even enjoyed the Vail live stream (even technically it was on the lower end). But the problems were exciting and certainly did do the job of being doable in 5 minutes but not to easy.
I personally think this direction (of the OR show) was fun to watch one or two times when it was fresh but its certainly not the way to go and at the end its too shallow to be memorable. I think if you continue this direction you could as well hand the franchise over to American Gladiators.
My point is: Don’t try to make climbing appear as something it is not. Then it will be exciting for those who like the sport (even if they are not climbers). I have shown footage of the PCA featured in Dosage I or this years Boulder World Cup in Eindhoven to non climbers and they enjoyed it like I do.
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