Yesterday was the White Spider Climbing Centre‘s 2nd birthday and to celebrate, they put on SEND, a bouldering competition featuring many other twists to make it a great day out for all.

10am saw the “Fun” competition start. Now this was open to all adults and junior climbers, including performance squad members up to 14 years old.
The problems were varied and tough! Set by Percy Bishton, Yann Genoux and Evie Cotrulia the problems were always going to be of a good calibre, but the real test pieces and great competition blocs were saved for the “Elite” competitors which started at 1pm. This was open to all those that were competition climbers including squad members above the age of 14 and GB members too. They were in with a chance of winning £1000 cash!!

I was there along with some of the Surrey Sports Park squad who featured both in the “Fun” and “Elite” category. For us, this was a good chance to see where we all are at the beginning of our new programme – specific weaknesses and areas for improvement – ready for team and individual climbing coaching sessions.

The squad performed well and as expected had certain weaknesses, we can go away and focus on. They loved the problems and the other features – such as a Slackline masterclass and high-line, the “leap of faith”, Wild Country Crack machine, mobile pizza oven, face-painting and some great DJs.

The squad went around in little groups – Kat, Rosie and Maddy; Issy and Fin; Jake and Rob, then the older ones all seemed to muck in – Phoebe, Rachel, James and Sam.

Each squad member had highlights, but it was great to see Issy Adams win the female youth competition (Fun) and Jake Collins come in 3rd for the males.
The older members were against adult competitors, such as Gaz Parry, Jon Partridge and Matt Cousins, so it was good for them to get beta and be inspired, as well as getting some tips for some of the problems, but non of them made the finals – next year!

Sam did perform very well and impressed the top boys and GB team too.

Thanks to all involved in organising for making it a good competition and day out for all ages – and the setters for their great blocs!

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