UKBouldering.com
the shizzle => news => Topic started by: shark on March 31, 2014, 03:22:17 pm
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An appeal from Mina...
Did you enjoy spurring on the GB Bouldering team in 2013? With Shauna’s sterling effort in 2012 and 2013, it will be exciting to see what she can produce this year…perhaps a World Cup win? Perhaps we will have a British World Champion in 2014? I also placed in the top 10 overall, knocking on the door of the finals…fingers crossed I’ll get in this year ! Will Leah be up there too? And in the men’s we have Nathan Phillips, fresh from winning European Junior Gold, how will he fare in his first year in the seniors alongside the likes of Dave Barrans and Stew Watson?
Here’s the catch……
Some of you may have heard about the GB Bouldering team’s recent loss of funding from one of its main sponsors. The original funding situation allowed us to send some climbers to some competitions, with a varying level of financial support. This support came from two places: the BMC and a financial sponsor.
The latter of the two has had financial problems of its own and has ceased trading, which means that they could not fulfil their side of the contract and the team budget for 2014 was suddenly cut in half. The team had already been told which competitions they had been selected for and how much funding they could expect through the team budget. This all had to be reversed, and has a direct impact on who will be able to attend the World Cups this year.
At the moment, we have Shauna, Nathan and myself lined up for the first few competitions and the hope is that we can raise some money to support us to get there and to help others to attend later World Cups.
This is where we need you. We have set up a Crowd Funding Project (see link) where people can, if they wish, contribute to the team’s funding. The project aims only to replace the amount lost (£8,000) and we have 8 weeks to do it. The Crowd Funder works on a donations/rewards basis so depending on what you donate, you will get something in return as a “thank you” from us.
The other catch is that if we don’t meet the target, we get nothing…..eek. So please, take a look and help us out if you can!
Here is the link: http://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/-Support-GB-Bouldering-at-World-Cups/ (http://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/-Support-GB-Bouldering-at-World-Cups/)
Mina
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We've kicked it off with a £500 donation.
Best of luck to Mina and the team in hitting their financial and climbing targets.
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The question is, who have you picked to coach you? :whistle:
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The question is, who have you picked to coach you? :whistle:
be interesting to see if the coaching finally gets you up the Oak.
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The question is, who have you picked to coach you? :whistle:
This one.
TBH I'm treating it more as a date than a coaching session
(http://i.imgur.com/AyBPNd6.jpg?2)
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Fund the GB bouldering? :lol:
I don't know what you heard about me
But a bitch can't get a dollar out of me
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Nobody wad/smite, it's so apt!
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Is 39 Denses love child.
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39 cent
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39 percent body fat more like
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Is 39 Denses love child.
Can't be, uses upper and lower case ;)
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Tried to donate but PayPal link wasn't working :shrug:
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It's working now. So get to it!
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So was Lonsdale the sponsor? Seems prominent on a lot of their gear?
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So was Lonsdale the sponsor? Seems prominent on a lot of their gear?
Isn't lonsdale a sub-brand of sports direct? So not sure they can actually go bust, although sports direct could can it I suppose?
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No idea of their financial setup, but it's the only prominent logo
https://www.thebmc.co.uk/the-british-senior-bouldering-team-need-your-support (https://www.thebmc.co.uk/the-british-senior-bouldering-team-need-your-support)
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So was Lonsdale the sponsor? Seems prominent on a lot of their gear?
Yes, according to Dave on UKC http://www.ukclimbing.com/forums/t.php?n=583015&v=1#x7725298 (http://www.ukclimbing.com/forums/t.php?n=583015&v=1#x7725298)
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So was Lonsdale the sponsor? Seems prominent on a lot of their gear?
Isn't lonsdale a sub-brand of sports direct? So not sure they can actually go bust, although sports direct could can it I suppose?
unsure of the ins and outs, but my best guess is that Sports Direct have licensed the brand name of Lonsdale out, and as we know unknown company has now gone bust.
As for the fundraising part of this, i'm all up for the British team and having them represent GB climbing/bouldering etc, I know fundrasing, in general, but on this instance to go to comps [on jollies around the world partly paid for by someone else] is hard and at times really difficult esp when during these finacailly tough times.
can they too not go around the country and do exhibit fundraising comps/shows of their climbing skills? all get together and set at some wall somewhere for a setters fee?
I'm guessing they're doing their own bit to increase that £8k once they hit their mark. but atm all i'm seeing is them begging and not much else.
maybe i've been a bit hardened over the past few months struggling to keep my business afloat, keeping a roof over my family's head and putting fresh food on our table. if i had any spare cash i may put in a couple of tenners for the younger member to get out to get experience points.
that's how i'm seeing this push for funds.
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I don't think they are looking for money for people on the breadline, rather those with a few quid that they won't miss.
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So was Lonsdale the sponsor? Seems prominent on a lot of their gear?
Yes, according to Dave on UKC http://www.ukclimbing.com/forums/t.php?n=583015&v=1#x7725298 (http://www.ukclimbing.com/forums/t.php?n=583015&v=1#x7725298)
Cheers O Stubby One.
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Looks like the target has been exceeded (by £4 as of writing).
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So was Lonsdale the sponsor? Seems prominent on a lot of their gear?
Yes, according to Dave on UKC http://www.ukclimbing.com/forums/t.php?n=583015&v=1#x7725298 (http://www.ukclimbing.com/forums/t.php?n=583015&v=1#x7725298)
It is/was Lonsdale China that was the sponsor, separate company from Lonsdale UK.
It is up to £8064 now.
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It is/was Lonsdale China that was the sponsor, separate company from Lonsdale UK.
Who, I assume, sponsor the Chinese bouldering team.
What logo's going to be on the team kit now? Someone please tell me it's UKB's and we get to pick a slogan to accompany it.
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It is/was Lonsdale China that was the sponsor, separate company from Lonsdale UK.
Who, I assume, sponsor the Chinese bouldering team.
What logo's going to be on the team kit now? Someone please tell me it's UKB's and we get to pick a slogan to accompany it.
Nope they don't sponsor the Chinese Team, they sponsored GB to get cred in China.
I suspect the tops are already printed so no UKB logo.
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I suspect the tops are already printed so no UKB logo.
I recon they should spend the £4 on some Sharpies... :great:
(http://www.cultpens.com/acatalog/Sharpie-Fine-Asstd-12.jpg)
ps: Virtual wads all round to those who donated...good work.
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It is/was Lonsdale China that was the sponsor, separate company from Lonsdale UK.
Who, I assume, sponsor the Chinese bouldering team.
Nope they don't sponsor the Chinese Team, they sponsored GB to get cred in China.
That was just a joke about Chinese Lonsdale sponsoring the UK team and British Lonsdale sponsoring the Chinese team. Obviously not a funny one though.... Cheers for the reply.
Gutted that we won't get to see the team wearing some kind of wolf/ pain au raisin design. ;)
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It amused me to see that whilst all of the other 'packages' sold out - those containing RockFax guides as 'rewards' were rather under-subscribed :D
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I'm intrigued by this thing, so I have a question for those who donated: What made you want to donate?
(Secondarily: would you have contributed if this had been trying to get funding which had never been on the cards? Do you think you would have contributed if they'd been in the same situation but for a trip instead of the comp?) I just ask because I thought they were on crack when I saw it on facebook - asking climbers, who I think of as tight bastards, to fund you going on a climbing trip?? - but clearly was completely wrong, given how much money they've made. And I don't feel guilty raising the question now they've hit their target.
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I have a question for those who donated: What made you want to donate?
Personally I didn't think too much about it as it seemed the right thing to do. They are representing the country, are performing well and were backed into a corner at the last minute and had the gumption to organise and make a direct appeal to the climbing community.
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People are obviously not as tight as you thought!!
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I'm intrigued by this thing, so I have a question for those who donated: What made you want to donate?
(Secondarily: would you have contributed if this had been trying to get funding which had never been on the cards? Do you think you would have contributed if they'd been in the same situation but for a trip instead of the comp?) I just ask because I thought they were on crack when I saw it on facebook - asking climbers, who I think of as tight bastards, to fund you going on a climbing trip?? - but clearly was completely wrong, given how much money they've made. And I don't feel guilty raising the question now they've hit their target.
It's for great britain innit, not for them to go on holiday.
If they'd said, yeah, I wanna go on some holiday so I can do my project, it's really nails, I'd have said, get a fucking job.
If they'd said, look I know it looks like a holiday, but it's not, I'll be in the hotel room eating chicken nuggets then chundering with nerves, and hopefully I'll stick it to some swiss/austrian/germans, but I might not do, but by God I'll give it some beans, then I'm all about where the fuck is my credit card!!!?!?!?!!
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This is what I find interesting Lund - fundamentally, what is it you consider different about competing than trying a project? The training investment, financial investment, mental investment and nerves don't, to me, seem to be fundamentally different, which is why I was so surprised it's done so well, and why I'm quite happy to say I've got no intention of contributing without feeling guilty about it. To my mind, the fact that they choose to climb in comps on plastic and someone else chooses to climb outside on rock is just a personal choice. If Randall and P Widdy lose their sponsors I aint about to give them money for a trip..
I appear to be more stingy and/or less nationalistically minded than most, or others are like you and see the competition aspect as making it different.
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It's a hang over from 2012 if you ask me - wear the GB vest and people start to wave the flag. I'm a bit surprised that they raised the money so quickly, as like you, I thought climbers were a right stingey lot in general. I also feel that there must be a fair few who miss the team aspect that's in other sports, so when the chance came to get behind Team GB, they took it.
Really pleased for them all mind, I'm sure it will give them a big boost to know so many people are not only cheering them on but also willing to back them financially.
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I'd donate towards a trip that involved Barrows free climbing Trango Tower or something equally gnarly. As long as it was filmed...
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:goodidea:
The first time I ever went ice climbing I knocked half a tooth out by hitting myself in the face with my ice axe. With natural talent like that, what could go wrong in the mountains...
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To be fair they've done it in an intelligent way by offering a variety of things in return its not like they are just taking the money and running off round the world. The signed guidebooks are a particularly good idea IMHO.
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I gotta say thinking on Dave's question, there are a number of reason I donated and in no particular order, here's my current stream of thought.
It does make me feel proud watching our guys do well, Shanua has been excellent and to watch her win a world cup would be awesome.
Mina's seems to be going from strength to strength and again I hope she does well, as I do for all the team.
I also like the idea that I'm support what someone loves (as a climber I can empathize with the plight) and what sometimes becomes all too
consuming, (and I'm just shit : ) but I imagine when you can climb at this higher level and commit the time & motivation this feeling must be amplified, so to try and help someone reach their potential is cool. Tie this with the fact I get motivation watch people crush, not just on the world cup scene but from any vids of trips & local hard stuff they produce is all good baby.
& as a final note, in the end if the tax man hasn't got it, or our democratic system hasn't found a way to drain it out of me, I get personal gratification putting it to a good cause (at least it is in my eyes)
Just some thoughts on the question & of course I'm only speaking for myself only & no animals were hurt whilst writing this.
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This is what I find interesting Lund - fundamentally, what is it you consider different about competing than trying a project? The training investment, financial investment, mental investment and nerves don't, to me, seem to be fundamentally different, which is why I was so surprised it's done so well, and why I'm quite happy to say I've got no intention of contributing without feeling guilty about it. To my mind, the fact that they choose to climb in comps on plastic and someone else chooses to climb outside on rock is just a personal choice. If Randall and P Widdy lose their sponsors I aint about to give them money for a trip..
I appear to be more stingy and/or less nationalistically minded than most, or others are like you and see the competition aspect as making it different.
I understand what you are saying but I think comps are slightly different. When I go away on a trip I have trained hard etc for what I want to achieve but when I am away it is still a bit of a holiday and I reckon this is true for most people. Yes I get nervous on red points and annoyed if I fall off but it isn't the same as a competition. I have done WC's and I choked, I was awful. It felt so much harder than bouldering outside to me, both mentally and physically.
Also even when I am training the hardest I have ever trained Mina is still doing loads more than me. At the moment she does 2-3 sessions a day 5 days a week with 2 days off and on those days she runs and stretches. She is ridiculously strict on what she eats etc. She is good outdoors and puts a lot into outdoor climbing but the energy, effort and hard work she puts in for comps completely eclipses what she has to for outside.
I think the point you have raised is valid though and I am glad/I hope this doesn't turn into a slagging match and it can be discussed sensibly. Crag X discussion group at the weekend ;)
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Also on another note I know how hard Tom and Pete train, if sponsors cut their trip budget a month before a big trip that they had been working hard for and they decided to crowd fund I would donate actually. That is only because I know how hard they work though and once again I don't reckon many people train as hard as those boys!
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This is what I find interesting Lund - fundamentally, what is it you consider different about competing than trying a project? The training investment, financial investment, mental investment and nerves don't, to me, seem to be fundamentally different, which is why I was so surprised it's done so well, and why I'm quite happy to say I've got no intention of contributing without feeling guilty about it. To my mind, the fact that they choose to climb in comps on plastic and someone else chooses to climb outside on rock is just a personal choice. If Randall and P Widdy lose their sponsors I aint about to give them money for a trip..
I appear to be more stingy and/or less nationalistically minded than most, or others are like you and see the competition aspect as making it different.
The national identity doesn't hurt and the comparison between funding here and funding for Olympic sports, football etc makes bouldering team GB look pretty cheap.
That said, I don't think the difference is between indoors and out. If the GB team competed outside, they'd still get support (caveat=ethics). I don't even think it's really about nationalism. I think it's about having a team we can identify and relate to competing in our sport. Someone we can support and be proud of, even when they fall (after all, how many millions of people support football clubs at the other end of the country!).
At the end of the day Alex, you're in it for yourself. Self-centred and driven. Climbing is often like that. But it doesn't really tug the heart-strings, or make people want to fund you. The point below about tom and Pete is a good one - they're actually a strong team, if a small one, and they're nutters with a sense of humour (Pete at least :doubt: ) that people can relate to. And they entertain us.
The only reason anyone would fund you is to make you put your clothes on in the foundry. But I suppose you could do something about that with time and the right approach
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I do find it slightly bizarre that we can find several million over the last few years to fund the Skeleton Bob team which has been awesome and may well inspire people to get involved in various sports, however in terms of direct British public participation is probably around...ooo, I'm guessing just based on UK facilities, zero? But they can't come up with a few grand to support UK bouldering with it's recent track record in world class level comps and with tens of thousands of regular participants across all ages. :shrug:
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I'm guessing just based on UK facilities, zero?
You mean you only go to Llandudno for Parisella's? :clown:
(http://jnlllandudno.co.uk/files/2010/11/adult-child-toboggan-2010.jpg)
Its only an invitation to donate, if competition climbing doesn't interest you and you don't want to donate no one has said you are obliged to. I've zero national pride and no interest in spectator sports (except snooker :-[).
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I do find it slightly bizarre that we can find several million over the last few years to fund the Skeleton Bob team which has been awesome and may well inspire people to get involved in various sports, however in terms of direct British public participation is probably around...ooo, I'm guessing just based on UK facilities, zero? But they can't come up with a few grand to support UK bouldering with it's recent track record in world class level comps and with tens of thousands of regular participants across all ages. :shrug:
To be fair the dichotomy between GB Olympic funding versus GB climbing funding might be partly to do with the public perception of 'climbing' being the image peddled by monied wankers on everest, and not that of dedicated athletes training hard in the gym in order to perform well in a competition with clearly defined rules aimed at identifying the best on the day - i.e. the commonly understood idea of sport.
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and that's a very unfortunate photo...
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and that's a very unfortunate photo...
Yowza!
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I'm intrigued by this thing, so I have a question for those who donated: What made you want to donate?
for what its worth
As a £10 punter what made me want to donate was watching the various youtube videos of the comps over the last few years. I found these entertaining and inspirational and were a major part of me getting back into climbing after a twenty year lay off :) . The flag waving thing was not so much of an issue.
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Amazing response. I hope that they exceed it with alot of money, so they can have at least a beer or two after a good competition. And indeed, a bit strange for the government to not invest more, or via the BMC or via some other means.
In Belgium, we only have one competitor in lead, Anak, but I have the impression her funding goes smooth. We have our climbing federation, but also something called BLOSO which funds the training and competition of top athletes. Strangely, our bob team and our top ice skater also had to do crowdfunding to go to Sochi, so it seems the situation here is the reverse from GB. Climbing is better funded than winter sports ...
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Amazing response. I hope that they exceed it with alot of money, so they can have at least a beer or two after a good competition. And indeed, a bit strange for the government to not invest more, or via the BMC or via some other means.
Really? Given the other (Olympic) sports which have had their funding cut I'm not surprised at all.
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Lottery funding of sports in genral is an interesting one. I saw David Florence (white water canoeist who our company sponsor) talk recently, and he said so much of funding for some sports is solely dependant on the performance of the top athletes. He's the top performer in the WW team, and currently ranked 1 in the world, but a lot of the funding for the entire sport will depend on his Olympic performance.
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Im the member of a small bouldering facility in Macclesfield, we have 33 members. We all decided that donating to help the GB bouldering team was a good idea so we gave them £750.
We are a BMC registered club as well as being CASC registered (Community Amateur Sports Club). We take full advantage of these benefits so its only right that when another club is in need we do our best to help... So we did.
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I was pondering this regarding Sport England funding, what's stopping a 'team' registering as a 'club' with strict joining criteria ie. can climb 8b?
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We do get Sport England funding through the BMC but that is split between all the teams and each pot of money has stipulations to where it can be spent ie. for grassroots development or coaching expertise's or elite teams.
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A massive thank you to everyone who has supported us!
We have raised our target and this gets us back to where we were before our lost funding!
We are now able to part fund 3 team members for the full season and 7 team members to 4 European events. We couldn't have done his without you!
We didn't expect to hit our target in one day! - the Crowd Funding was supposed to run for 6 weeks. We had a meeting last night and decided that we will keep the site running up until the first World Cup in 3 weeks so that if people want to keep donating then they can. All further donations will continue to go towards travel costs for the team, reducing the level of self-funding for team members.
We all felt that the climbing community has been amazing and really come through for us.
Thank you all so much!
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Almost at 9 1/2 K!
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Quote from Mina on the BMC website "We are also trying to organise getting a logo on our kit that reads something like "Supported though Crowd Funding by amazing people".
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When I saw this originally I thought the same as Barrows, "Do they really think this will work?" I must say that I'm pleasantly surprised it has done so well. I would wager part of this stems back to the work the team GB members (Mina, Shauna, Ned, Et all.) have done working in the community and involving themselves professionally doing talks, slideshows, CAC, etc. They've indirectly built a platform for Team GB which other climbers think is worth supporting. They've also set the stage for the next generation of climbers to do the same.
Im the member of a small bouldering facility in Macclesfield, we have 33 members. We all decided that donating to help the GB bouldering team was a good idea so we gave them £750.
We are a BMC registered club as well as being CASC registered (Community Amateur Sports Club). We take full advantage of these benefits so its only right that when another club is in need we do our best to help... So we did.
This makes complete sense to me, and my first thought was that climbing gyms should be the ones supporting team GB. After all, they're likely the ones benefitting the most directly from the athletes spotlight.
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and that's a very unfortunate photo...
Ha. Don't want to know what slackline googled to find that...
At the end of the day Alex, you're in it for yourself. Self-centred and driven. Climbing is often like that. But it doesn't really tug the heart-strings
I stuggle to believe that those on the team are competing for altruistic reasons if that's what you're implying?!
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At the end of the day, I'm happy for Mina, Shauna, Dave and others that they are backed up by a great GB community. Respect. I don't see that happen so fast in Belgium. :great:
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and that's a very unfortunate photo...
Ha. Don't want to know what slackline googled to find that...
toboggan llandudno (https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=toboggan+llandudno&num=100&safe=off&client=firefox-a&hs=grw&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&channel=sb&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ei=F_Y8U5HLD4iqhAfnxoGYBA&ved=0CD4QsAQ&biw=1671&bih=887)
Don't tell me you've spent time working problems in the cave but never been up through the gardens to the ski-centre and toboggan run? :shrug:
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and a new euphemism is born "pulling your brake lever".....
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Don't tell me you've spent time working problems in the cave but never been up through the gardens to the ski-centre and toboggan run? :shrug:
Dry ski approach followed by an ascent of the 175m long XS girdle of Craig Pen y Gogarth 'A Winter's Tale' and a cuppa in the caf to finish - it's like a destitute version of a day in the Mont Blanc massif.
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An all round good news story for my money. It got me thinking a bit. Firstly should we do this every year? And I wonder if they will perform better as a result?
http://www.timeticks.co.uk/2014/04/we-are-all-in-this-together.html (http://www.timeticks.co.uk/2014/04/we-are-all-in-this-together.html)
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Also even when I am training the hardest I have ever trained Mina is still doing loads more than me. At the moment she does 2-3 sessions a day 5 days a week with 2 days off and on those days she runs and stretches. She is ridiculously strict on what she eats etc. She is good outdoors and puts a lot into outdoor climbing but the energy, effort and hard work she puts in for comps completely eclipses what she has to for outside.
This is good to know because I had worried that the 'Team' was a collection of solo enthusiastic amateurs applying ad hoc training they read on the internet.