[Wood FT]

Yeah but the ads were a small price to pay for a film of this quality being freely available. Really enjoyed it, inspiring stuff!

Agreed, a small price to pay for such quality.

[tomtom]

Yeah - just used to climbing films not having them I guess! I had to pause abs come back to it 3 or 4 times (child bedtime stuff) and it seemed to give me new adverts every time I restarted... probably different if I watched it all the way through.

[Plattsy]

This won't work on TVs and I'm not sure about other devices. It does work on my android phone.
Play the video. Take the scroll bar marker all the way to almost the end of the film. About 10 secs before the end or something like. Wait for the video to end. Cancel any auto play next video if necessary and click the play again icon to play the desired video again and there should be no little yellow ad break markers on the scroll bar and you can watch add free. 

[Adam Lincoln]

I can't believe people are moaning about ads.

[Plattsy]

Great film btw. 

[macca7]

I really don't know why but i didn't have any ads?
Watched on my android device but cast it onto my tv. Not sure why this would make a difference but hopefully it might work for others?

On the topic of ads i agree it is a reasonably small price to pay for something of this quality however its not just things of quality that have ads and somethings are getting unwatchable!

[tomtom]

I can't believe people are moaning about ads.

Yeah - it’s like when people only focus on one niggle in an overwhelmingly effusively positive post 😁

[Adam Lincoln]

I can't believe people are moaning about ads.

Yeah - it’s like when people only focus on one niggle in an overwhelmingly effusively positive post 😁

Thats not the point, moaning about something thats free, and has a few small ads that you can just skip easily.

Guess ads just didnt bother me.

[sdm]

I really don't know why but i didn't have any ads?
Watched on my android device but cast it onto my tv.

Do you run ublock or similar on your Android browser by any chance?

Ublock is the only way I've found to consistently get around their intrusive ads.

I used to run a pihole to block their ad server at the router. But that stopped working when they moved their ads on to the same server as their content.

[macca7]

Should really have said how much i enjoyed it and how impressed I was with both aidan and dan. More importantly than the climbing they both come across as very nice humble individuals and are clearly both world class boulders!

Not sure about dans topgun quotes but certainly put a smile on my face. I think we need more classic 80s film references in our climbing films!

[Teaboy]

Thats not the point, moaning about something thats free, and has a few small ads that you can just skip easily.

Guess ads just didnt bother me.

And you’re now the proud owner of a new fondue set, a family size SUV and have changed your pension provider 

Edited to say I enjoyed the film

[gme]

Great film. Has everything that a bouldering film needs and nice bit of chat as well. The lakes is a special place.

Ads are a bit annoying but it’s a free platform and allows the content makers to get paid and therefore make better stuff so all good by me.

[macca7]

I really don't know why but i didn't have any ads?
Watched on my android device but cast it onto my tv.

Do you run ublock or similar on your Android browser by any chance?

Ublock is the only way I've found to consistently get around their intrusive ads.

I used to run a pihole to block their ad server at the router. But that stopped working when they moved their ads on to the same server as their content.

I don't run an ad blocker that i know about. I get the ads if i watch the vids solely on my phone but didn't get them yday when i 'smartviewed' it on to the tv?

[SA Chris]

Not sure about dans topgun quotes but certainly put a smile on my face. I think we need more classic 80s film references in our climbing films!

Definitely. I think he also called Greg C the pariah, did he mean that or did he mean messiah?

[ducko]

A great film, the lad is so strong on small holds! Very impressive climbing, editing and interesting commentary from all involved.

The whole using gaskins / shadow play as a bench mark is a bit of a joke though imo

[remus]

The whole using gaskins / shadow play as a bench mark is a bit of a joke though imo

I guess that's the other side of the 'stay local' coin. If you go to rocklands, colorado, font, frankenjura etc. and realise all your 8Bs are harder than everyone else's 8B+s then you probably need to recalibrate your grade-o-meter.

ed: not saying there isn't a lot of value in staying local of course. Grades being secondary to enjoyable climbing experiences n all that.

[Bradders]

The whole using gaskins / shadow play as a bench mark is a bit of a joke though imo

Yeah it's a bit nonsensical now. I get how it would have been an influence back in the day but that time has surely passed.

Fair enough to have a benchmark, but an unrepeated and probably impossible problem isn't it.

[AMorris]

Not sure about dans topgun quotes but certainly put a smile on my face. I think we need more classic 80s film references in our climbing films!

Definitely. I think he also called Greg C the pariah, did he mean that or did he mean messiah?

Yeah I noticed this too. Didn't really know what he meant by it so I just put it down to his sense of humour or some kind of in joke.

[gme]

There’s another thread for the gaskins stuff, let’s keep this one for Aidan.

We can move on now though as his 8C+ is the UK’s new benchmark and we can use that to grade everything else.

[ali k]

his 8C+ is the UK’s new benchmark and we can use that to grade everything else.

It didn't look 8C+ to me. I watched it a couple of times to make sure too.

[RobK]

It didn't look 8C+ to me. I watched it a couple of times to make sure too.

I couldn't tell, it was all too obscured by his shoulders/biceps.

[Orrincoley]

his 8C+ is the UK’s new benchmark and we can use that to grade everything else.

It didn't look 8C+ to me. I watched it a couple of times to make sure too.

Probably because it might be 9A

[carlisle slapper]

Definitely. I think he also called Greg C the pariah, did he mean that or did he mean messiah?

Greg had to drag the lakes scene from being a fragmented word of mouth scene of piss taking retro claiming locals to being a documented bouldering area all on his own. developing and documenting areas on his own all off his own back only to be shot down with a bevvy of retro claims whenever he wrote up a new area (the hardest part of development is the admin, otherwise its just going climbing for the enjoyment of it). One spin off of this lakes history is that if you open the lakes guide you'll notice there are no first ascents on any of the problems as it was much better just to get rid of them than attempt to document the history of all the various areas. I'm not suzie dent so couldn't think of the perfect term off the top of my head but my point was is that Greg put alot of solo effort in whilst taking plenty of needless flak for a long time to get to where we are nowadays, but it really really helped drag the lakes scene into gear to get where we are now. The spin off of Gregs own great developments are lines like copperlines stand and low, arguably the best line of the film, which greg found and shared once the guide got published. tbh it needed more than a one word phrase. "point man" maybe (out in front but also getting pot shots)

Re the grading comments, don't worry your couched bottoms. Im more than happy to regrade my problems once they get repeated if they need it (often easier beta plays a far bigger role).I think Aidan was on crescendo this summer and smashed out a bunch of my other problems like Funkotron in the film.
All grading makes sense to reference local area problems first. if three 8bs are next to each other at a crag they should reference each other first, if one tied to colorado 8B grades and one tied to me climbing 8B in font and the other one was unrepeated but years older than the rest. theyd be way more all over the shop than just referencing how close we are to the first unrepeated one that was nearby. Personally i'd always reference grades in locality and development order. This isnt just a sign of respect to the local area but logical. obviously if people lie then it wrecks it all to become beyond farce. Bleau has the most consistent grades in the world thanks to the massive local scene. I see the top end of uk grading as massively susceptible to error due to lack of crossover between people doing each others problems countrywide and mainly johns historical influence. If aidan had chosen to take into account Johns grades he couldnt possibly give anything harder than 8B+ that he did this summer which was just too bonkers. i think John should stand by it and explain/ prove it along with his other 8C's as well as how he effortlessly repeated Si o connors lies at kentmere, he is very much the main player in the uk from 2002 up to now, 18 years! As i had established around 150 font 8's before i fully concreted my opinion and the ramifications of Johns interview answers i cant be arsed to go back and regrade them all (thats all i am saying in the film), as at least at the moment they're fairly consistent. Its all very well to sit there with hindsight but i've always tried to give my peers a fair shout, Johns approach just curveballed that ethos and its not like anyone else was ever that arsed to try and help me pin down key points that'd help with whether he's truthful or lying and whether to take his problems out the equation. (simons questions in the interview were by far the biggest help from another person in shedding light on his problems). I'd much rather let the next generations opinion help with it all and I think Aidan is a good example of the type of top end world class role model i've always looked forward to seeing in the UK. Regardless of Johns truth vs lies, just his "shadowplay" tactics -and his total elusiveness for the past 15years make him a really shitty peer to be metaphorically stood next to when trying to figure out the benchmarks at the top end of UKB. Its taken a lot of work mostly off my own back and with Aidans opinions as help to unpick the areas where suspicion outweighs trust. As a final point on this (because many people are sick of it) I'd recommend just watching worldclass, then fire over to Gone are the days of the G on doylos channel (for the bants). Then watch the only uncut footage of john climbing available on the web here (one of the problems ended up being dave fitz's first ever FA Snake eyes, 8A,): totally ignoring grades etc, i personally see john as being that good at climbing, and will wait for more vids from john for him to prove he was a far stronger and greater mover on rock than that, and better than anything the UK has ever seen. hopefully the difference in movement skill/ style on rock is fairly apparent even from the couch coach view. ping between those uncut footage vids. As a bit of money where mouth is personal ascents heres some uncut footage of me climbing the alchemist (lakes/ "G" 8A+) https://www.flickr.com/photos/beastmaker/33977773295/in/dateposted/ I've climbed around 60-70 8's in font and have other decent reference points from the USA, Italy, Norway, Swiss, Jura. Either way I stand by my fairly no brainer point in that grades local to the area matter the most when referencing FAs and play a huge part of the history of the area. Aidans lakes grades are sandbagged compared to a lot of world areas, but they're also in a style that suits him more at the mo than somewhere like font. They'd suit people good in japan or colorado by the looks of it more than a good bleausard. We can disregard G 8C fairly now i feel based on the weight of history and the current swing of trust; however my past ascents dont disregard them, due to the timestamps and what we knew and thought of as a local community at that time. Eitherway, if you get strong, Aidans problems are totally doable as demonstrated by the uncut footage (me and Jack have repeated some of his lower 8's in the film from this summer) and the lakes has plenty more to tell yet. Its a really exciting time and i feel the film captures that fresh new feel of the latest generation in the sport perfectly. give me more of that anyday for psyche and inspiration.

[Fiend]

Great explanatory post as usual Dan. If you managed to do paragraphs it would be a... World Class post 

[A.Greenhorne]

There’s still plenty of bog roll on the shelves if you need to clean that nose Matt