EMS is shooting their new catalog in Mallorca and they have Chris Sharma and Joe Kinder (among others) on the scene. Joe has started posting updates on the first couple of days on his blog. Check out his site for updates as their trip progresses and check out these first few photos in the meantime. Peep Colette’s blog for more as well. As usual, Mallorca looks amazing.
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Diablo Wall, Mallorca
Chris Sharma on a new bolted 5.13c Domingirous
Photos: Joe Kinder
That 5.13c must not be over the water if they bolted it or If they wanted to go higher. Do you know why they bolted it?
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Apparently the route is over 100 feet long so that probably has something to do with it.
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Also from Joe’s blog, http://www.joekindkid.com/?p=246, “It is on a point in Mallorca that tourist from all over the world come to see…about 600 feet up”
Thus a rap in climb out type of thing.
Also of note Adam Ondra is in spain and is tearing it up! http://www.climbing.com/news/hotflashes/ondra515x2/
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i think its so pathetic that joe kinder considers himself a “professional climber”. i have no idea how he got popular in the first place but there are hundreds of people way stronger then him that will never be heard of. Its embarrasing that people whose max redpoint level is 8c are making money off of climbing in the US, while people climbing 9a regularly in europe can barely find sponsors.. if you saw him at the petzl roctrip, all the other top petzl athletes were lightyears ahead of him.. does anyone agree with me here? shouldnt you be at an international level to be making money and be well known for your climbing? either way i believe its unfair to the rest of the world, and even though hes a cool guy who loves climbing, a lot of other people are too.. why dont they have so many sponsors?
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Interesting point. I think that in many ways who you know in the outdoor industry is almost as important as how hard you can climb.
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I don’t know Joe myself, but if he’s promoting climbing and if he’s getting people excited about the sport and the products his sponsors offer, it doesn’t take a whole lot of explaining. Just a math thing.
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Very Nice!!!
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Joe Kinder is a strong climber who happens to be equally good at promotion. Joe chooses to make his living on his terms, all the power to him. Joe obviously knows how to make his sponsors happy and make a profit. There is nothing wrong with marketing and promotion, it can drive the sport in many ways… progression not being the least. Joe is driven to be an effective advocate of a sport he loves. I do not see any weakness in his extensive resume that would prohibit this. As for Joe’s climbing, is there any real weakness there, the dude climbes his ass off who cares if there are better. Ryan Fowler
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Well said Ryan. Unfortunately, it is much easier for most people to tear others down than appreciate their efforts in a positive way.
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Similarly, it is easy for most people to talk shit on 8a.nu, change route names after the FA, shoot your mouth off before you realize that you look like an idiot (or your sponsors tell you to settle down)…
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Touche…
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That being said, lots of love to Kinder. His blog, despite his english being, at times, harder to understand than Dave Graham’s, is one of the more entertaining ones out there. I appreciate the fact that he is upfront about the support he receives from his sponsors – a frankness that stands in contrast to the “oh I’m just wearing this harness because it’s sweet…” kind of mentality. For a while he was posting on the cultural aspects of the awesome places his ‘job’ has afforded him the opportunity to visit. This made his blog WAY more interesting – I can’t begin to express how little I care that ‘so or so climbed such or such route rated 5.14_ on his LAST try of the trip and how he’s PSYCHED!’ Perhaps this is purely an effect of there being fewer cultural attractions in Rifle, CO and Slade, KY; I don’t know. Whatever, people will be people and I did my fair share of shit-talking-wanna-be-gangstah-spray back in the day.
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i think a large part of being a pro climber versus some unknown, unsponsored badass is commitment to the lifestyle. joe is out there trying hard 100% of the time… no extended breaks…
it’s not all take. like other pros, he’s had to give up quite a lot: he has traded the comforts of a more sedentary, typical life… he has been living out of a suitcase, setting down roots for only a couple months at a time, etc. he has put himself into the spotlight, but he had to cultivate the relationships necessary to open the opportunity. also, his lifestyle requires being in the spotlight. dance monkey, dance – send routes, show up at trade shows and events, pack your bags and do it again and again and again. feeling tweaked? bit injured? worn out? too bad. climb more, monkey bitch! we need photos! we need spray!
yeah, there’s a lot of glamour that seems to go along with being a climber pro, but it’s certainly not for everyone and just because you can send v13+ does not mean you have what it takes. sponsorship requires playing the game, not just climbing.
and yeah, there are parts about his internet persona that may irritate some, but holy hell i know how that goes! how many folks do you know who act the same way online as they do in person? few. sure we will all be judged by the way we present ourselves, but the wise intardweb trollers will know to withhold forming actual opinions until the face-to-face…
finally, i find it very amusing that anyone would want the american climbing public to feel sorry for unsponsored euros. european cultures seem to treat climbers with actual reverence… as atheletes, as people of worth and merit… as *professionals*…
if anything, it seems like the opportunity for euro climbers is substantially greater than in america. maybe it is a rigid, difficult road due to increased competition in europe, but that’s what is supposed to make all you euros so much better than us: discipline.
still, i’m not certain i’d care to give up the foolish hack, just messin’ around, nature of american climbing. yeah, i know dozens of kids who campus my projects in muddy skate shoes and who will drop off v0 topouts of v11 problems and never care to “finish.” “sending” just doesn’t matter to them and they’d rather get into a 3 hour snowball or pinecone fight than shoe up and finish. should american climbing get more serious like the euros?
in some senses, kinder seems to be caught right between these two feelings… professionalism and adolesent-style, sometimes irresponsible fun, and perhaps this tension is what his on-line shenanagans are derived from?
i know this: the more i’m called upon to get more serious in life, the more i call my friends foolfaced bitches on line.
go figure.
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Very well put and salient points, but something tells me your offline persona is not that different from your interweb legend…
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Joe has done his job once again! Obviously all you know him or what he does and we are all talking bout it, yeah even you Peter
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Conspiracy!
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I do know what he does (I certainly do not know him), but I can assure you that I’m not going to go out and buy a Gregory Pack, EMS Jacket, Scarpa shoes etc etc etc JUST because some dude uses/wears them. Of course, even if were so inclined, I’d do so on prodeal so the companies really wouldn’t be making any money anyway. Besides, not all attention is good attention – Kinder and Taylor’s “altercation” represents the epitome of all that is absurd.
Sock Hands brings up good points. Peace and Respect to Kinder’s sacrifice, I know that neither I nor most people have the passion for climbing to give up everything else for it. That level of dedication is admirable and sponsor worthy. Obviously these companies (though they, apart from EMS, probably don’t have huge marketing departments) think so too otherwise they wouldn’t be hooking him up.
At the same time, truthfully I am equally (if not more) impressed by the college student working his ass off at a top university and STILL climbing 5.14 or v12 over his limited breaks, the 45 year old business owner with a family who STILL climbs 5.12 when he gets out a few days a year, etc etc etc. And this isn’t just because I can only imagine what these individuals might accomplish should they (at least the young ones out there) take up climbing full time: it’s the very act of responsibly striking a balance between their well-rounded passions.
So yeah, it’s not that I find it obnoxious that Kinder is sponsored and better climbers aren’t. Indeed, quite the opposite. More power to you if you can be content climbing and making a living off of climbing full time.
But I would point out that Emily Harrington, who’s done extraordinarily well for herself as a climber, is now saying that she’s not content and is ready to settle down and study international law. She’s not going to lose her sponsors, in fact, they’ll probably milk the fact that she’s smart AND strong. Unless being smart isn’t “cool” in the climbing world, that is.
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and while I’m on the track of giving props to people I know, how could I forget: “the narc who, injured, takes his passion for climbing to the internet and the climbing gym as a reporter and youth team coach”
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word to the word to middle aged fools, family folks, career folks, etc. who still get out and pull down. another good example is angie payne. working a tough schedule of pre med or biology or something similar and pulling hours at animal shelters/vet office or similar… still crushing….
dave hume… another name for the illustration…
but another counter-point to keep this merry-go-round turning: underground lifers are not the ones generating tons of media for the rest of us to feed off of like pigs at the trough. while you may argue that these folks should make up a larger part of magazine coverage, etc, a number of social and economic realities come into play and they do not. like it or not.
so, in some senses, folks like joe are the very reason many of us know of certain products. they are the conduit for advertisement to us. so, will kinder cause you to go buy scarpa shoes? well, maybe not consciously, but maybe. where was scarpa before signing joe and the next generation of climbers? scarpas appeared on and extremely small percentage of climbers’ feets. now, they are all over the place. of course this was part of a new marketing and development push by the company, but folks like joe were recruited to play a part in the process and they did.
just some dome fodder.
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I was never contending that Kinder shouldn’t be sponsored or a professional climber, here or in Europe. In fact, much of my argument was against the idea that you MUST be pulling down 9a+ consistently to be valuable to a company. Where Angie Payne brings a degree of intellectualism to her appeal and Jacinda hunter brings a motherly quality; Joe brings a flamboyant attitude and language replete with emotional expression. In a world where EVERYONE climbs pretty hard, it can be good enough to climb 8a or so, so long as you’re in the spotlight for SOMETHING.
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word. just keeping the discussion going since i’ve got zip zero zilch to post to my own blog.
how bout this: a boulder problem is v-hard from the sit. was first done from the sit by billy badass. however, billy is stupid and did not consider it a send from the obvoius matched hold at chest level first. the line starting on the obvious chest level hold is super classic and accessible by a much larger percentage of the bouldering population. is the post-FA establishment of the “stand start” valid.
my thoughts on this are clear.
obvious higher start = legitimate boulder problem
y’all can perform an unspeakable act on a butt of some sort and/or choke yourselves if you disagree.
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socknuggetsoffritterlove- seems like a totally legit argument and i am in aggreement especially since I most likely can not do the lowest version of said problem.
that being said… how far is to far? should any given problem have a maximum of 2 starts i.e. one stand and one start that is the lowest possible?
I know there have been problems that have like 3 or more starts… i.e. Mongolian cosmonot, get over it? ect. what is your stance on that my wise friendly blog highjacker?
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I am a BIG fan of these off topic conversations. However I am trying to think of a better place for them so that individual posts don’t get cluttered. Would people use the forum if they didn’t have to login. Something different? Mass chaos? Let me know your thoughts.
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Sockhands with nothing to post? What are things coming to?
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mass chaos or bust.
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