[Paul B]

Maybe ask the BMC why there is no GB round 

Hassled by the magic of Twitter.

[a dense loner]

I think they'll take note

[Paul B]

I think they'll take note

I got a response the other day from the DVLA!

[Fiend]

What "Here's your new licence Mr Bennett, nicely full of points, good luck with the VRS lolz"??

[tomtom]

What "Here's your new licence Mr Bennett, nicely full of points, good luck with the VRS lolz"??

More along the lines of "thank you for reporting the red Audi A3 with painted war figures on the dashboard for having no car tax."

[Fiend]

LOL. You got me worried there. End of June as it happens. Maybe I should get something on the dashboard....hmmmm....

[Muenchener]

Was listening to Jimmy Webb on The Ledge podcast, apropos of which a few thoughts about men's and women's competition bouldering and why the latter is more interesting.

Trying for the sake of argument to leave aside the factor.

The women have had a fairly stable group of top competitors for a few seasons so it's been possible to follow people's rise and fall. Seeing Jule Wurm finally win a major championship in front of her home crowd was great, as is the fact that the right person is now very much on the rise, having had a couple of promising but frustrating seasons beforehand.

Compare and contrast the men's this year, where some random bloke you've vaguely heard of won last week, some other random bloke you've vaguely heard of wins this week, repeat until August.

But also - circling back round to the Jimmy Webb reference - in the women's, the top competition boulderers are for the most part also the top actual boulderers. Whereas in the men's there's almost no overlap these days, with the limited exception of Daniel Woods usually but not always winning the US Nationals.

Discuss. Or not.

[fried]

Spliff, innit.

[Clart]

Was listening to Jimmy Webb on The Ledge podcast, apropos of which a few thoughts about men's and women's competition bouldering and why the latter is more interesting.

Trying for the sake of argument to leave aside the factor.

The women have had a fairly stable group of top competitors for a few seasons so it's been possible to follow people's rise and fall. Seeing Jule Wurm finally win a major championship in front of her home crowd was great, as is the fact that the right person is now very much on the rise, having had a couple of promising but frustrating seasons beforehand.

Compare and contrast the men's this year, where some random bloke you've vaguely heard of won last week, some other random bloke you've vaguely heard of wins this week, repeat until August.

But also - circling back round to the Jimmy Webb reference - in the women's, the top competition boulderers are for the most part also the top actual boulderers. Whereas in the men's there's almost no overlap these days, with the limited exception of Daniel Woods usually but not always winning the US Nationals.

Discuss. Or not.

Go on then. Although not a boulderer Ondrawad had a pop a couple of years ago and did ok. He didn't need to do them as his reputation was already beyond reproach but did them anyway having more to loose than gain. Unlike everyone else though he was already Ondra so didn't need to prove he was as good as himself. The likes of Webbs and Woods, if they entered the IFSC, could be shown up to be dissimilar to the ability of Webbs(TM) and Woods(TM). Their sponsors may not like that. Why put yourself in a position where you could potentially damage your marketability? Cynical perhaps but understandable. I assuming that there is less money in sponsorship for the top women boulders who exclusively boulder out of doors so the comp circuit is a win win for them. This isn't new though as LeGrande and Hirayama  had the comp circuit to themselves in the '90s while everyone else was messing about on rock.

[Coops_13]

 Just glanced at the in progress men's qualification results. It looks like you needed to climb all five boulders to make it through to semis. Does this mean the setting is too easy? Were they local setters or do the IFSC use a similar group of people for all comps?

[mr__j5]

It's often a combination. The main route setters are accredited IFSC Chief route setters that are shipped in, but if the locals can provide some of their own setters, then they are used also for some of the work.

Some times with the comps, the difference can be as much the fact that the weather is different than expected to when the problems were set.

[GraemeA]

Some times with the comps, the difference can be as much the fact that the weather is different than expected to when the problems were set.

This is definitely true sometimes but unlikely in Mumbai as it is inside with air con. I guess the setters just undercooked it a bit.

[36chambers]

Just glanced at the in progress men's qualification results. It looks like you needed to climb all five boulders to make it through to semis. Does this mean the setting is too easy? Were they local setters or do the IFSC use a similar group of people for all comps?

Sean Mccoll didn't seem too happy about the qualifiers

"IMO 4 boulders were much too easy with one hard blind jump boulder, which if you were tall, you could jump straight to the jug. Sooooooo..... basically it was a qualification on one boulder, one move, one jump. If you didn't do that one move, you could flash the other 4 and you'd be out of semi finals!"

source: https://www.instagram.com/p/BFYcdK7t9mu/?taken-by=mccollsean

[lagerstarfish]

but at least most of the local guys topped out on something

[lagerstarfish]

interesting to see a few Iranian chaps in there as well

although their team website looks a bit odd - it appears to be Japanese spam

http://www.iranmountfed.com/

[jwi]

Discuss. Or not.

The top male competitors either are on par with the world's best when they visit the great outdoors (Hojer, Ondra, Schubert, etc) or would be on par with the world's best after a few months of getting used to the new environment I'm sure. I agree that it would be more interesting if there were fewer strong competitors.

[Baldy]

Maybe someone needs to step up and put themselves ahead of the rest?

Easier said than done perhaps... but I do remember Ondra coming to events a few years ago and just demolishing it - so it's definitely possible.

Equally, perhaps the routesetting could be used to aid in this.

It's nice seeing a bunch of different styles and testing the competitors on a range of holds and movement types.
But if we think that it is, on the whole, negative for the sport to have a very random looking podium, then perhaps keeping some consistency of style (and perhaps favouring a few competitors over the rest) might not be the worst thing in the world?

It might also favour TV viewing, with (for example) larger dynamic moves being a bit more marketable than ticky tacky technical nonsense that doesn't translate well? This may tend to favour Hojer, Fischuber style climbers rather than the finger strength flexi guys from Russia and Japan...but there you go.

FWIW, I have found the Men's event far less interesting the last few years since Kili/Sharafutdinov/Hori stopped winning everything in the Men's - and while it might not being such a great 'overall' test of climbing, I'd 'think' I would prefer a good show/storyline to seeing the 'best' climber top out on some dodgy problems.
I may also be completely full of  since I haven't watched a lot of the comps this year, but if they want me to do that, they'll have to hire a better commentator.

[fatneck]

Have come to the conclusion that McColl is a wanker generally, but am also calling horse shit on the instahelm post as Hojer (tall) did not flash problem 2 yet Bonder (short) did. Sour grapes IMHO...

[a dense loner]

Mccoll may well masturbate but he is completely right

[rodma]

Mccoll may well masturbate but he is completely right

After the way he behaved in the qualifiers in fiera, it's about time he got shut down

Whilst be may well be correct that it sucks, his comments highlight more about him than the comp. Boo fucking hoo, there was a problem that didn't suit him and he couldn't make up for it on the others, because too many other competitors did those ones. That's comps for ya, just like falling off a traverse section low down on problem 2 at fiera, looking at the judge to see if he has noticed that both feet are back on the mat ( he hadn't ) allowing the competitor to step back on 4 moves into the problem and top it, thus qualifying for the semis, is also a fine example of comps and the sort of shit certain people like getting away with. I'm not bitter. I wilted on the last move on problem 2 at fiera after several failed attempts (i lost body tension, dabbed on the move Sean did and stepped off), where if I had flashed it, I would have qualified for the semis.

Hahahahahahaha

[standard]

Mccoll may well masturbate but he is completely right

After the way he behaved in the qualifiers in fiera, it's about time he got shut down

Refresh my memory?

Edit: oh you did

[rodma]

Mccoll may well masturbate but he is completely right

After the way he behaved in the qualifiers in fiera, it's about time he got shut down

Refresh my memory?

Edit: oh you did

I've just checked the results and I exaggerated, he would have got two tops in three attempts ( not one top as I stated) and would have finished 21st, rather than going on through the semis and finals and finishing 3rd.
 
http://www.digitalrock.de/egroupware/ranking/sitemgr/digitalrock/eliste.html#!comp=1097&cat=6

I could not have qualified, even if I cheated on problem 2, I would have been 22nd :D

Problem 2 had a difficult start traversing from the right arete to the left arete with the crux being cutting loose when the left arete was gained so that you could heelhook by your left hand. This is where Sean walked across the mats ( I'm not exaggerating, his hands were still on the handholds to his credit) to get his left heel up and continue onwards.

I've never seen a dab like it. In fact the word dab is just insufficient in its capacity to be able to encompass the sheer amount of gall involved

Edit: I know I did, but thought I may as well expand

[Duma]

Onbouldering stitched this up from instagram clips

[a dense loner]

No ones saying he can't do Hubble I'm saying he's right with what he said about the problems

[fatneck]

You may say he's right Dense but as the very wise Ste Graham said on Twitter:

https://twitter.com/sxrxg/status/731543677278011392?s=09

Also, are the probs on the hard side for the semis?