Well I’m climbing again. I’m finally climbing again, but it’s strange. I thought I would be happy but I’m not. I thought climbing a V0 would be the best feeling in the world after not being able to climb for 8 months but it feels shit. I mean I’m happy I can do stuff again but my shoulder still hurts and I can’t move it how I want cause the surgeon has made my shoulder tight (so it does not dislocate again). I have climbed in the gym and I have climbed on rock for the last 2 weeks now and it’s been a roller coaster of a time. I’m happy one minute and I feel upset and depressed the next, its cause I’m happy to be in the gym and out on the rock with mates again but when I pull on the wall I feel like shit cause every move I do my shoulder either hurts or I can’t move it to the position I want or it’s just too weak to keep my body on the wall.

I have thought more than ever about quitting climbing in the last few weeks and it makes me upset. I know I will eventually get stronger but I have so much work in front of me and I’m still not sure if my shoulder is going to be up to the job.
I’m going to keep on with the rehab and climbing as much as I can to try and get strong again but my issue is I don’t just want to be able to climb hard or as hard as I used to I want to push my body to the next level and I’m worried my shoulder won’t be up to it.

Climbing for me means so much and I want to be able to climb for the rest of my life but for me now if I can’t climb the things I want to climb and can’t pull down as hard as I can cause my shoulder won’t allow it, then I’m not sure I want to climb again.

I will give it a good go and try and get strong and back to where I was and I will try and take my climbing to the next level.
So the hard work continues…

The Balkans is under threat by a company that wants to set up a ropes course and flying fox around the area. The Balkans is one of the best bouldering areas in Sydney and NSW.
The details can be found here: http://savebidjigalreserve.net
Please send emails to the council in support of stoping this project.

My mate Phillip (beast) Schaal from US and of A, last week sent Jade V15 in Rocky Mountain National Park.
Its the fifth ascent of this amazing looking boulder.
Bloody great effort mate.
For some pics of the send go to phillip's site,
www.phillipschaal.blogspot.com
and for the video head to,
www.momentumvm.com

Five Ten have come out with a new shoe.
Cant wait to get my feet into these things BEASTS.
check them out at www.fiveten.com

Ok, so it’s been far too long since I have written a descent size entry but you can hardly blame me. My shoulder is still healing and I have not had a lot to report.

It’s been 5 months since I have climbed and it’s been 4 months since my surgery. But I do have some good news; my shoulder is getting better and better every week. I have been doing my physio and it looks like it’s paying off. The movement in my shoulder and the strength of my shoulder are on the up and up and that’s all I can ask for.

The surgeon told me I should be climbing again in 2 more months, so a few weeks ago I started working on my body tension again and now I have started working on my grip strength as well. Although I have been riding my bike I don’t get the same feeling that training for climbing gives you. The feeling of your whole body being strong and in tune has got to be the best feeling you can have. Its like Arnold Schwarzenegger said in the classic movie Pumping Iron “When I’m at the gym it feels like I’m cumming”.

I have also been super busy writing the Grampians Bouldering Guide with my mate Dave Pearson. It’s looking great and it’s almost finished; we just need to do some finishing touches and it will be off to the printers. The guide has been a big effort and it’s set to be one of the best bouldering guides that’s been made. Ok, so that’s a very big call but this thing is rocken its going to be full colour A5 format.
I can’t wait for it to be finished and in the shops.

The Grampians has some of the best bouldering in the world and a bouldering guidebook is well over due so I’m very happy to tell you there will be one released very soon.

While I have been recovering I have had a lot of time to simply think. “Think about what I want to do with my life.” I am finding that as I get older, life seems to be going faster and faster and it’s a scary thing. I mean there is sooooo much to do in this world and the time we have here is not very long.

I still have so many things I want to do in life but especially in climbing. I mean maybe I should be thinking about getting a real job? Maybe I should be thinking about buying a house? Setting myself up for a comfortable life when I’m older? But I know if I don’t do what I want with my climbing now while I’m young I might never have the chance again.

Ok, so I could go the other way, like work now have a great home, some little grommets running around a nice car with a big TV and a comfy lounge to sit in after I waste another beautiful day working my ass off to pay a mortgage and when I’m finally ready to retire, go climbing, “That’s if my bodies up to it then”? I’m not saying this is not a good life to live its just not the life that I want to live.

I know some of you will be reading this thinking, “Yes Chris, but life is not that easy!” or “Chris, you’re living in a dream world.” But the truth is, Life is that easy! I mean, it should be that easy. I’m not stupid, I know we have to work, I know we as humans have created a world where we all need money to survive. But why do we have to work our asses off in our best years (by best years I mean the years when our body’s are at their strongest) Why not do it the other way around and have a blast now and work later?

Life can throw things at us that we do not expect. You could end up working your ass off all your life just to have your life cut short by the many millions of way to die. Life can be ended just as fast as it was started. I hope I don’t need to tell you Life is precious and if I do need to tell you that, maybe it’s time you quit your job, stop letting your possessions own you and go do what you have always wanted to do and enjoy life?

Maybe I’m just rambling on, but the past 5 months I have not been able to do much because my shoulder has been buggered and I have realised that if I want to do something I really just have to go for it and even if it does not work out at least I won’t be sitting in front of my big TV on my big expensive couch with a shit load of debt with my name on it wondering what could have been…

I think life is good when it’s not too predictable and I think its easy to predict what my life would be like if I worked all my young years away with a 9-5 job and all the possessions a man could want, BUT WAIT, BOOM, here comes a bus and it just hit me and now I’m dead. My point is that life is never predictable lots of people want it to be predictable but its just not so, that’s why I want to go for it and enjoy it now and for as long as I live.