Josiah Going to France

Josiah is going to Europe with the 13 strong (one of the biggest we've ever had) New Zealand National Youth Team in just over a week's time to compete in the Climbing World Youth Championship in Valence, France. He is very excited about going to Europe especially since he might get a chance to go outdoor climbing in Italy as part of the training that the team will be doing to prepare for the competition. In Imst, Austria, they will be attending a world cup competition which the older ones are allowed to compete in while the younger ones will watch the competition and train on the secondary wall.

Josiah has just started a blog in which he and Mum will be writing about the journey.

It will be rather different not having him at home for three weeks. I am probably going to miss him towards the end of his trip.

Josiah is the only competitor from Wellington in the team. He is training very hard for the competition.

Mum and Josiah are very busy doing things to prepare Josiah for going to Europe. This means that like before the Hangdog competition the house is in a bit of mayhem with school work not getting done because Mum is too busy to enforce it and I am too lazy to do it.

It is very interesting listening to all the stuff that Mum is reading to Josiah such as anti-doping and baggage restrictions.

The Rotorua Competition

The competition at Rotorua was lots of fun. My grandparents came up with us to watch the competition. It was very cool having the whole family competing. My first climb went really well because I topped out along with 11 other girls out of the 17 that were there. My second climb did not go quite as well because the hold I fell off was not as good as I had hoped and I didn't manage to go back down to the previous hold when I realised that it was not very good because the previous hold was even worse. I was coming 3rd equal into the final. I still need to work on my foot work because in the final I didn't think about my feet at the point where I fell off. I came third after the final. After the competition when we were at home we watched the videos my dad had taken of our climbs in slow motion and it was really cool to see the points where Josiah fell off because of his feet slipping off holds.

Last weekend we went outdoors to Turakirae Head and I got a V3 called "Palmer's Garden World". Josiah got four new climbs including a V5 flash and V6. A flash means you get the route first go having seen people try the route before whereas an onsight means you haven't seen anybody try it and haven't been given beta about it.

Hopefully I will soon be able to post some of the photos that my grandparents took of me and my family at the competition.

The Hangdog comp

The Hangdog comp was really fun except for the fact that I got 8th which was quite sad, but one of my friends C got third in her grade and Josiah got second in his. Dad also came second in his grade placing him first equal in the series for his grade. Josiah is second in the series for his grade. Over all it was a very successful competition and I believe most of the people from out of town enjoyed it too.

My first qualifier was probably my best climb because I got to the second to last hold. I fell off because I didn't get my feet up high enough to reach the last hold. In my second qualifier my foot poped off a slopey little edge which I knew was insecure but I trusted it too much. My final was okay up to were I fell off when I seemed to forget that I had feet and just went for the next hold with my hand when my feet were too far down. J, the president of Climbing NZ, let Josiah enter Opens which was really cool. Josiah came 10th and impressed everybody with how well he climbed.

The next competition is in Rotorua. I am really exited about it. Me, Josiah and K, one of our climbing friends, are training really hard because we want to do better at the next comp.