I had the opportunity to take one of the St. Pete tours Rob does on the choppers. He blew my mind with cultural highlights around town as well as dropping some rad science on me.

“It actually requires less energy to ride an e-chopper then the caloric intake you would need to pedal a bike around town,” said Rob.

They can also be charged using solar power and have a battery life that will last you about 20 miles. Which means, for a city like St. Petersburg, e-choppers are perfect. You can have Rob build you a custom e-chopper for around the price of a nice moped.

What I didn’t expect was how much you’re missing out on just driving a car. Even on a motorcycle you generate so much noise you are cut off from your surroundings. The e-chopper is almost totally silent and it generates a lot of conversation. We stopped at the Woo mural and Derek Donnelley, a local artist who painted Woo, casually strolled up and gave us some insights.

Of course the real question for us climbers is how can we use this to get to the crag? Well, with the 20 mile range of these cruisers we’re about 570 miles out of range from the nearest real rocks. So we took a trip to the Eckerd boulder.

With a new St. Pete climbing gym in the works (if you don’t know then now you know) that makes two climbing destinations approachable by a vehicle that uses less energy than bicycling. Take that Boulder, Colorado!

The Eckerd Boulder!

-Kyle Ligman

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Did you get any pics?  Tag us in them on Facebook.

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The season is just getting started, kids –make the most of it!

Cheers ya’ll and thanks!
Jorge Calabria
USF Climbing Club President

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When you work somewhere long enough you start to recognize patterns. Whether you’re slinging fries at McDonalds or a corporate attorney, there are quantifiable aspects to the daily grind. Sometimes these occurrences can be painfully repetitive and we feel like we’re living the not-so-funny version of Office Space. The nice thing about working at a climbing gym is that we enjoy some quirky patterns particular to an alternative sport with people that are motivated by nature’s most welcoming features…rocks. It’s hard to talk about the day to day quirks of Vertical Ventures to someone who hasn’t worked here, even to our most dedicated gym rats. So I’ve been conducting some serious studies: crunching numbers, phone interviews, compiling statistics; all to help demonstrate, in cold hard numbers, what it’s like to work here.

The Sharma Factor
It’s inevitable, almost every day that I come into work I hear/see something about Mr. Sharma and his supernatural sending abilities. During my last working week I heard/saw Chris Sharma twenty-six times. You have to take into account that this was a week we weren’t playing a climbing video with him in it so that week was actually light on Sharma sightings. Another important ritual in the gym is the fist-bump. I got eleven fist bumps during the week. I also heard “psyched” six times. Being psyched and fist-bumping are important tools of positive affirmation that we use to help promote and maintain the climbing community. But no gym ritual, it seems, speaks to the climber’s soul quite so much as staring at rock climbing’s golden boy and wondering what it would be like to actually get paid to travel all over the world and climb every day.

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    Gardener, rock climber, lumberjack. 

How do you stay strong living in Florida?

    Many of my strong climbing partners do ring workouts, campus boards, system tiles, logbooks, special diets, etc…  But me, I’m a bit of a freak of nature.  I can on occasion be spotted at my home gym Vertical Ventures as I try to not only reach, but maintain a high level of fitness.  After over a decade of climbing I have learned what works for me and what doesn’t.

You’ve traveled to many exotic locales, how does the bouldering in Australia compare with other places you’ve been?

    Currently, the developed boudering in Australia’s Grampians is not the most extensive, especially when compared to places like Rocklands, Font, Hueco, Swizzy and New Zealand.  However, with recent new route development and the potential for significantly more, this spot will soon be a world class destination.

Were you down there with a posse?

    Other than heaps of kangaroos, and my coach and sensei, “B”, I was not.  Pushing my limits would not have been possible without these pouched friends.

How long did you work on Cherry Picking?

    I can’t remember if it was 6 or 7 days.  On the first day I was able to climb up to the “cherry picking” move, but it took another 5 days to finally realize the send. 

Describe to us the day of the Send.

    Heading south to Baundik sector, a 35 minute drive from our home, it appeared to be a perfect day, but as we neared the craggy Victoria range it looked like our day might be rained out.  Since it was our last day to climb we decided to make the 40 minute uphill both ways hike through the gusty rain storms.  Miraculously, the howling wind had worked in our favor and the rock was as dry and sticky as we had yet experienced.

    Time was of the essence, so after a brief warm up I pulled on and quickly fell off at the crux.  Again.  On my second go, while bumping with my left hand to hit the crucial dimpled seam on the sloper, I completely missed the sweet spot.  I threw for the Cherry Picking slot and this time, something was different.  This time, I stayed on.  Carefully and methodically I climbed the remaining 15 ft of chikenheads and friable edges to victory. 

How would you rank Cherry Picking in terms of quality?

    For sure 4 star and as close a contender for the theoretical 5th star as anything. (so its an amazing boulder problem)

Was your beard a crucial part of the equation on Send Day?

    Unlike the chaotic nature of my beard, my mind was calm.  My beard has no comment.

Introduce this video for us

    This is video shot over the course of all the days working Cherry Picking.  In one of the segments you’ll see me repeatedly trying to readjust on the heinous sloper searching for what I thought was the “crucial dimpled seam.”  It finishes with the uncut send footage. And a few dead foxes.

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We introduce to you – The Shoe JORge.

Evolv Shaman
This past month I was given the chance to test drive the latest performer in the Evolv Sharma shoe series, the “Shaman,” and might I say that they trumped my expectations.  Contrary to initial perception, the Shamans don’t rely on the indelible climbing record of their creator to win you over, but rather on their innovative climbing shoe technology and their seemingly paradoxical fit that blends comfort and performance to make them your go-to sending shoe in your climbing arsenal.
The Shamans, designed by Chris Sharma, were constructed off an entirely new last –the last is the foot shape around which a shoe is built- with a closure system of three opposing Velcro straps that allow the shoes to accommodate a large range of foot sizes.  I have witnessed both wide and narrow footed climbers wearing the Shamans with no dead space in the shoes due to the Velcro closure’s ability to cinch the shoe tight in the right spots.  I was most psyched about the fit which, with my wide feet, led me to size the Shaman the same as my street shoes. All my toes were snug inside the toe box –as opposed to nightmarishly thin shoes which have my foot rotated and my pinky toe pointed out to the side of the shoe.  I have to admit that the first time I wore them, my feet were screaming in pain, but when I tried them on the second time, I found that the material had loosened from the heat of climbing to allow for an easy slip on feel and hugged fit. I’d recommend for the thin footed to start at their street shoe size and work down to whittle away at the dead space. Make sure that your heel fills the heel cup.  When wearing the Shamans, the first thing you’ll notice is the curved midsole under the forefoot known as the “love bump.”  This feature arches the toes into a downturned position of power, while filling in the empty space behind the toes to achieve both performance and comfort.  The area above the big toe is shaped in such a way that accommodates the “hammer toe” position of the big toe thus saving overzealous boulderers from cramming into undersized shoes to achieve the same effect.  This feature, known as the “knuckle box”, combined with the love bump makes these shoes great for steep bouldering and sport climbing.
The Shamans utilize synthetic materials that prevent stretching but also allowed my feet to breathe.  Most noticeable was the über-soft tongue material which hugs the top of your foot allowing you to cinch down the Velcro for serious sends.  The Variable Thickness Rand (VTR) technology equips the Shamans with extra rubber in the toe areas, which is especially vulnerable to wearing, ultimately adding to the shoes durability.  A month of hard gym climbing has left the sharp edges intact but elsewhere showed signs of wear as the orange Evolv lettering had began to peel off and the toe hook rubber on the right shoe had started to delaminate, a weak point in the shoe that I have seen before, possibly due to the adhesives used by Evolv but is nothing crazy glue can’t fix.  The rubber on the Shamans was initially slick, just like a set of new tires, but developed grip as they saw more use becoming as sticky as you need them to be. However, I have definitely experienced stickier.  The stiffness of the rubber made the shoes prone to skating when climbing on plastic, but reviews from climbers that have used the Shamans on the outdoor stage attest to their reliability to stick where it counts.  The heels and toe rubber allowed the shoes to hook great, contrary to my initial inspection, which felt the heel rubber to be in excess. It was ultimately the right amount to allow for sensitive heel placement
The culmination of comfortable performance and innovative technology is what makes the Shamans a great candidate as your high end shoe for the hardest climbs.  The sharp edges turn dime-edge dances on faces into effortless walks through the park and the downturn is just enough to excel at both steep and technical terrain.  If you’re longing for a shoe that can handle your unorthodox hand-foot drop-knee beta, be sure to equip yourself with the Shamans to silence the nay sayers as you top out your project.
SHOE JORGE

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