[shark]

It was a good film but they didn't go into much detail about the route. However, I think it was pitched to a more general audience. Maybe I missed it but was Neil Carson mentioned once in the film?

Agreed, a bit more history would have been nice. Didn't Neil Carson move to Wales to complete the route. Is he still around? Would have been good to see some insights from the first ascentionist.

Your wish is my command Chris

Arranged to do an online interview with Neil as I knew him BITD. He moved to France after the Big Bang.

Any questions you want asking fire away...

[gme]

Good effort. No idea why this wasn’t done for the film.

[dontfollowme]

Nice one Shark

[SA Chris]

Q 1- Did he see the film, and how goes he feel about not getting included or acknowledged in the film?

Nice one Sharkster.

[shark]

Q 1- Did he see the film, and how goes he feel about not getting included or acknowledged in the film?

Nice one Sharkster.

He’s not seen it. Nor me for that matter

[SA Chris]

What, he's not seen you??

Anyway, he gets no mention, what does he think?

[Ally Smith]

Your wish is my command Chris

Arranged to do an online interview with Neil as I knew him BITD. He moved to France after the Big Bang.

Any questions you want asking fire away...
[/quote]

Excellent stuff - I'm intrigued by Neil's Pollitt-esque disappearance from the UK/Welsh climbing scene soon after completing The Big Bang. Did the motivation wane, or was it a conscious effort to get out the lime-light at the top of his game?

And how did "The Walking Muscle" maintain such a skinned-rabbit physique?

[shark]

Any recommendations on recording this? Did a trial run with Microsoft Teams and quality was terrible. Zoom requires a paid account.

[remus]

Any recommendations on recording this? Did a trial run with Microsoft Teams and quality was terrible. Zoom requires a paid account.

You could use zoom (or some other video conferencing software) and use a screen recorder in the background https://obsproject.com/

[petejh]

Did he continue climbing in France and if so what did he get up to?

[andy popp]

Any recommendations on recording this? Did a trial run with Microsoft Teams and quality was terrible. Zoom requires a paid account.

You could use zoom (or some other video conferencing software) and use a screen recorder in the background https://obsproject.com/

I thought there was a free version of Zoom but that it's time limited (up to 40 mins?).

[Wil]

Any recommendations on recording this? Did a trial run with Microsoft Teams and quality was terrible. Zoom requires a paid account.

Free services will be poor quality, particularly if you're recording video. To get good results you need Neil to record it from his end (and you from yours) and then upload it to WeTransfer or similar so you can get it. You might have to edit the audio (and video depending on how you want to do it) together afterwards. There are apps that can do this, but none of them are free for any kind of quality.

[Wil]

I thought there was a free version of Zoom but that it's time limited (up to 40 mins?).

I don't think the free version is time limited if there are only 2 of you. I've done some audio only recordings with it and the quality is ok. With video it won't be great, but if you've both got good internet connections it will be ok. I doubt it's higher quality than Teams overall though.

[Paul B]

Did a trial run with Microsoft Teams and quality was terrible.

Wireless connection to wireless connection and using microphones built-in to your average laptop isn't going to yield great quality (I'd wager it's more geared towards certainty of maintaining the stream). At my old place I had a Madonna headset and various pieces of Jabra technology for when more that one person was using the same account.

[Ru]

Ask UKC what they used for their Ondra interview, that looked ok. We use Teams to record hearings and the quality is pretty good, although I see you've tried that without success.

[SA Chris]

I don't think the free version is time limited if there are only 2 of you.

I've done teams meetings with a dozen or so cubs, and when it gets to near the end of the 40 minutes, it always extends the time for free.

[Doylo]

Did he check out any other unclimbed lines on the Ormes that he didn’t finish?
Did he put much time into Liquid Ambar and what does he think re grade/difficulty?

[Rob F]

Good effort.

I remember seeing him training at Leeds Wall in the early 90's when he was at Uni- hogging / doing endless l---o---n---g circuits on the bouldering wall up and down and round and round. Headphones on for psyche. Looked like someone who was committed to the training side of things.

Interested on the relative focus on power vs enduro for his successful redpoints...

[SA Chris]

Is he surprised at the low amount or repeats that BB has had since he first did it?

[cowboyhat]

Did it feel like a big step giving it 9a?

Who else did he talk to, was it just in comparison to Liquid Ambar, it felt harder?

What was the hardest route he'd repeated up to that point?

[mrjonathanr]

Did a trial run with Microsoft Teams and quality was terrible.

Wireless connection to wireless connection and using microphones built-in to your average laptop isn't going to yield great quality (I'd wager it's more geared towards certainty of maintaining the stream). At my old place I had a Madonna headset and various pieces of Jabra technology for when more that one person was using the same account.

I bought a £20 microphone off tinternet for Teams and it works well - but so does an iPad if you have one.

[Paul B]

He’s not seen it. Nor me for that matter

Is that going to change before the interview for either or both?

Free services will be poor quality.

FYI - tested on a paid, business account so it's not the 'free' bit that's letting it down.

[gme]

Quality of interview is important quality of picture and sound not, as long as you can hear it.

I am quite enjoying the old school analog quality of everything at the minute, i dont think it detracts at all.

[Doylo]

Is he surprised at the low amount or repeats that BB has had since he first did it?

And the other harder routes down there ? LA, sea Of. infanticide

[tomtom]

Did a trial run with Microsoft Teams and quality was terrible.

Wireless connection to wireless connection and using microphones built-in to your average laptop isn't going to yield great quality (I'd wager it's more geared towards certainty of maintaining the stream). At my old place I had a Madonna headset and various pieces of Jabra technology for when more that one person was using the same account.

I bought a £20 microphone off tinternet for Teams and it works well - but so does an iPad if you have one.

I once recorded a podcast interview on an iPhone 6 for the Canadian national broadcaster - positioned right (talk across the bottom of it - about 10 cm away) they said the sound quality was excellent - the sound guy even wrote to me asking if I was sure it was recorded on a phone....

[tim palmer]

As he was a stalwart of the comp scene I was wondering:

How does he feel about the state/ evolution of the competition scene in the UK and the management of the comp side of the sport?

I don't know if he has anything to do with it anymore but something along these lines

[Paul B]

I am quite enjoying the old school analog quality of everything at the minute, i dont think it detracts at all.

There's a cassette player in your car with a lead hanging out of it, isn't there?

[tomtom]

I am quite enjoying the old school analog quality of everything at the minute, i dont think it detracts at all.

There's a cassette player in your car with a lead hanging out of it, isn't there?

Eight track. With a lump of coal wedged in the cartridge slot 😃

[SA Chris]

Sony Discman plugged into the leads behind an old PYE AM/FM Cassette player

[shark]

Is he surprised at the low amount or repeats that BB has had since he first did it?

Hmmm razor crimps, tidal logistics, unpredictable conditions (unless your Pete H). One mainly for the locals so pool is small

[sdm]

I don't think the free version is time limited if there are only 2 of you.

I've done teams meetings with a dozen or so cubs, and when it gets to near the end of the 40 minutes, it always extends the time for free.

Sometimes a meeting will extend, sometimes it doesn't. If all of yours have, I think that is just luck. I haven't been able to detect any pattern that determines which meetings can be extended.

If a meeting does get ended after 40 minutes, the host can restart it immediately with the same ID.

[shark]

Seems you can record on a free Zoom account. The internet lied to me 

[andy popp]

The internet lied to me 

Surely not!!!!

[tomtom]

Seems you can record on a free Zoom account. The internet lied to me 

I’d test if first. We’ve had some issues with the recordings from Zoom when teaching with it.

I use a different app to record what’s happening (panopto - which we get at work so may not be free etc..) there are plenty of these around.

[Bonjoy]

How's his brother Dave? We used to climb together when I was a teenager living in Alfreton. Does he still climb? Say hello from me.

[205Chris]

Thanks Simon. Duly wadded.

I remember reports of the Big Bang from when I first started reading OTE and it was clearly a big deal.

Is it true he moved to Wales to complete the route? How long did it take? What did his training routine look like? Did he have a mental battle on the route?

Does he feel he got enough recognition from doing it (first UK 9a (before Hubble upgrade))?

Has he got any tips for climbing the Austrian Oak at Malham 

[Rob F]

Rumbled!!!

We all know what Shark's up to...

[shark]

Is it true he moved to Wales to complete the route?

I always thought he was from Birmingham. Imagine my surprise today when I stumbled across this!

Scroll down to vid:
http://www.jamesmchaffie.com/caffs-blog/the-big-bang-premuir-footage

Has he got any tips for climbing the Austrian Oak at Malham 

D’you know what. The last time I recall bumping into him he was getting shut down on the Oak bitching how no way was it 8a+. I thought at the time that route looked like something I’d never do...

[shark]

Tommy suggested OBS to record what’s on the screen which is free open source software which apparently “literally everyone uses it on Twitch” (whatever that is). Seems impressive and I’ll use it as a backup.

https://obsproject.com/

[remus]

Tommy suggested OBS to record what’s on the screen which is free open source software which apparently “literally everyone uses it on Twitch” (whatever that is). Seems impressive and I’ll use it as a backup.

https://obsproject.com/

I've used it before for screen recording and can highly recommend.

[Will Hunt]

He did a route at Caley to the left of Boot Crack, which climbed the wall between that and the arete. It joins Black Jumper near the top. Are there any holds on the direct finish or did he chicken out because pad stacks hadn't been invented yet.

[shark]

He did a route at Caley to the left of Boot Crack, which climbed the wall between that and the arete. It joins Black Jumper near the top. Are there any holds on the direct finish or did he chicken out because pad stacks hadn't been invented yet.

I was embarrassed having to ask about this 

[Rob F]

Ha ha ha- it's alright, I rapped down it years ago. There aren't any...

[grimer]

I once stopped in his mum and dad's house with Ruth Jenkins one christmas time with him and Frank and I did a massive poo and when I went to flush it the water spun up and up and came out over the top of the bowl. I'm not sure how to get this across in an interesting interview question but for me the important point is a almost flushed my shit over their house and after that he climbed the first 9a. It's always been a big deal for me, more so than the Big Bang itself.

[Nibile]

Well a big bang calls for a Big Bang.
Isn't karma shit sometimes?

[SA Chris]

Is he surprised at the low amount or repeats that BB has had since he first did it?

Hmmm razor crimps, tidal logistics, unpredictable conditions (unless your Pete H). One mainly for the locals so pool is small

Are you channeling him? Filtering? Or just shooting down and questions i think could lead to potentially interesting?

Or maybe you could ask him how to succeed on a multi year siege?

[shark]

Without fail I get my victims to say what I want them to say. Should have joined the Met

[tomtom]

Without fail I get my victims to say what I want them to say. Should have joined the Met

Or vote leave 😃

[SA Chris]

Without fail I get my victims to say what I want them to say.

So If he mentions a hangboard at any point you will take that to mean you need to do that and only that to succeed.