I wrote this a few weeks ago and never did anything about it:
"When one of the organisers of BIC Fest were looking for someone to feature on their poster, I knew there was only one man for the job, Sinclair!
Several months ago, he turned up the wall with a regular member and a mutual friend who was there to try climbing herself. As everyone got ready I asked Sinclair if he was climbing himself, he politely declined saying he was just the driver for the evening; he had just come down to watch. The obvious question I had to ask was, "Why not have a go?"
I don't think he expected the question and didn't have time to formulate a suitable excuse other than a subtle nod towards his leg. This wasn't going to wash and we soon had him on the wall. A few hours of climbing later he came up to me, to ask how he could go about becoming a full member at the wall. A few weeks on and he was fully trained, registered and climbing regularly at both The Climbing Academy and Redpoint, Bristol.
So what extra measures did it take to get him climbing? Nothing. Absolutely nothing at all, bar asking "Why not have a go?"
As I said earlier, when we thought of people for the poster there was only man for the job. It's a doubled-edged sword that comment, on the one hand there's no-one as enthusiastic and happy when he's on the wall as Sinclair as you can see from his grin in that photo, but on the otherhand there are so few people in a similar situation who've had the chance or belief that they can get involved - that's what BIC Fest is all about, showing that there really aren't the difficulties or boundaries that you might imagine in getting into climbing and having go."
"When one of the organisers of BIC Fest were looking for someone to feature on their poster, I knew there was only one man for the job, Sinclair!
Several months ago, he turned up the wall with a regular member and a mutual friend who was there to try climbing herself. As everyone got ready I asked Sinclair if he was climbing himself, he politely declined saying he was just the driver for the evening; he had just come down to watch. The obvious question I had to ask was, "Why not have a go?"
I don't think he expected the question and didn't have time to formulate a suitable excuse other than a subtle nod towards his leg. This wasn't going to wash and we soon had him on the wall. A few hours of climbing later he came up to me, to ask how he could go about becoming a full member at the wall. A few weeks on and he was fully trained, registered and climbing regularly at both The Climbing Academy and Redpoint, Bristol.
So what extra measures did it take to get him climbing? Nothing. Absolutely nothing at all, bar asking "Why not have a go?"
As I said earlier, when we thought of people for the poster there was only man for the job. It's a doubled-edged sword that comment, on the one hand there's no-one as enthusiastic and happy when he's on the wall as Sinclair as you can see from his grin in that photo, but on the otherhand there are so few people in a similar situation who've had the chance or belief that they can get involved - that's what BIC Fest is all about, showing that there really aren't the difficulties or boundaries that you might imagine in getting into climbing and having go."
No comments:
Post a Comment