Ah, thanksgiving..... how I missed it. So last Thursday I got to sit down with the Natti clan and have my first proper Bird Day in 3 years. It was (duh) AWESOME! We had turkey and venison and peas and parsnips and stuffing and cranberries and yams and well... you get the idea. We ate a LOT of food. As often happens, there was a bit of a break after dinner and I fell asleep on the dog's bed. Apparently both of my sister's kids AND their new puppy were climbing all over me... with no reaction at all. I was gently woken up for dessert time, where we had THREE tastey pies to choose from (pecan, cran-apple and pumpkin) as well as ice cream. After round two (and a few adult beverages) I decided to sit back down on the dog bed. Bad idea! Around 7pm my whole family told me to just go to bed as that they were sick of listening to me snore.
Besides the big day.. all has been good. I haven't goten much rock climbing in due to work, weather and hunting but I'm still really enjoying being home and having my fam and (old school) friends around.
Hope everyone is well. Luv to the world!

Though I was not there to actually witness it.... I would like to say I have seen the video footage of my mate Safwan Zainal, a proud member of (the unofficial) Team Palmy climbing crew, sending Shrty's dyno at the Highball wall over the recent Queen's B'day weekend. I'm not sure how many others have sent this line.... but as that ol' Saf is our resident "fly" guy, it seems fitting that he nailed it. Fionn Claydon also FINALLY put to bed his long standing project and nailed Golden Showers Direct (not static though).

New Website!

A new bigger and better Waitomo Bouldering website is now live. Check it out www.h-townmassive.wetpaint.com

It includes a gallery, online guide, recent news and a page to post new problems.

ideas and/or feedback would be appreciated.

cheers

james

easter at the hill

horizontal problem at cave stream! (matthias the german FA??)

total classic warm up at flock
bit of night bouldering at flock, 'orange aid' V6

lewis sending 'the pheonix' V7 3rd go

rad V6 at flock,

On the back of this boulder, i brushed up and sent a cool line. sit start to traverse on slopey holds then sideways dyno to a jug, top out the bulge. ended up being v9 (thought was going to be harder, but holds came up well after a wash and sun had gone down). Called it 'Moonshadow'.

bringing the raddness at flock!

hey, doesn't sound like much is happening up h-town way?! so i'd thought i'd try and inspire you with a few good times at flock hill.

The early start I'd planned for with Pete, Seamus, and Ivan, didn't really do much as it was already blazing by the time we got up there. None the less we got into it hoping to find some shade during the day. I started having a play on sunset arete, but nothing really happened. A few meters to the left is a classic V8 called hipster, got pretty close but still a little hot for the fat pinch.

Ivan on Hipster

Then headed over to Captain Contact V7, got agonisingly close to sticking the dyno to crimp, again come back when its a bit colder.

Up the hill to try Cartman V8, (has the most wikkid slopers ever!) . I battled a bit because its powerful moves at my full span, but made some progress in the end. Just killed my skin.

After some lunch, Pete found a V9 he'd heard about called Orbital. It starts off two slopey 'holds' on an overhanging prow, clamping feet, then a crazy dyno to a huge jug. Such a fun move! Both pete and I dispatched pretty quickly.(suited me i guess). checked out a sit start, will be super hard!come back in the depths of winter to have a crack.

heres Pete on Orbital

Saw Udo Newman at the end of the day, and Pete demoed his new V10 called Saucerful of secrets for the camera.

check out undini.com for recent photos of spittle hill comp (lewis is in a few) .

go send something!

j

Waitomo NBS 2007 Report!

Well, what a great day the 2007 Waitomo NBS turned out to be. 114 climbers, shit loads of kids, good weather, plenty of strong climbers and good times had by all!

The biggest and Best NBS event so far.

Thanks to all the H-town massive crew that came along and helped especially James who was the man and a massive help to me (thanks heaps bro!). He just got pipped for first place by the Czech strong man who came out of nowhere to take the day.

The local Waitomo kids all loved it (cheeky little monkeys the lot of them! Haha) and the Stubbs as always were there have a wikkid time as well.

The only downsides of the day was that we ran out of tomato sauce for the BBQ and also ran out of softdrinks for the kids plus our mate “Rob” put on a fine show of grade A fuck knuckle knob head behaviour and managed to annoy nearly all of us. Oh well, some mothers do have em!

Thanks also to to John Newby for all the good work on the guide which was then finished off by James – everyone loved em! Word up to Lewis with a fantastic 3rd place as well. You are one of the H-Town Massive! WORD!

I'm sure Mr Jenkins will be gunning for the top spot next year. He's in secret training already!

Here’s a few photos showing the day. Good times!

Here are the crowds! Millions of them all wanting to boulder boulder boulder!

Safety breifing time "And Rob, by the way there is a big tomo you can go and fall down over there"......

Crowds everywhere but very little pushing and shoving!

Our man Claude enjoying himself!

After all his efforts James needed a little sleep after he finished climbing.

And here is our strong man winner! Good work bro!

And Lewis won the magjic FFA hippy climbing pants. Choice!

Waitomo NBS 2007 Getting Closer!

Hey Team,

Just a reminder – The Waitomo NBS is only a couple of weeks away. I’ve got the ASG hut booked for the H-Town Massive so let me know if you want a bunk for the night.

Sweet!

David

Here's a shot of a random waterfall we found the other day - to make up for my lack of climbing lately....