Month: April 2018

Sport Climbing in Australia has grown significantly in recent years.  In 2017, this lead Sport Climbing Australia (SCA) to split our National Lead Titles into Open and Youth competitions to accommodate the large numbers.

Queensland is the first state to adopt this into their state titles having held the Open Lead Titles on 10-11 March, 2018 and the Youth Lead Titles over the weekend on 21-22 April, 2018.

Congratulations to Jessica Buchanan who represented Victoria in the Youth C category coming 12th overall!

To view the full results, click here.

Sport Climbing Victoria are always striving to grow our sport and ensure we are recognised at an elite level.  We attend many functions to achieve this behind the scenes.  Board member Roisin Briscoe attended one such event last night:

As a new budding Olympic sport, Sport Climbing Victoria were delighted to accept an invite to the Victorian Olympic Council (VOC) Annual General Meeting (AGM) and Awards Cocktail evening held at the Kooyong Lawn Tennis Club.

Upon arriving there was an instant sense of awe to know I was in the room with past Olympians who have taken their sport to the highest level.

The evening started with the Olympians Club of Victoria AGM which was chaired by President Leon Wiegard OAM.  Clearly comfortable in the role, Leon had the room under his spell from the moment he started.  He had a way of making the AGM fun and was finished with the formalities in lightening speed.

This was followed by the VOC AGM who also moved through the formalities at a brisk pace to ensure more attention could be given to the awardees of the hour.

There were three awardees to be honoured last night which was followed by recognition of William Alstergren QC who was recognised for his work as the former Vice President of the VOC (pictured top right).

The first honour was awarded to Thomas Sweeney of Tennis Victoria for the Julius Patching Sports Official of the Year Award. This award is to honour an official who has gone above and beyond in their sport. In 2015 Thomas Sweeney was also awarded the Official of the Year at the Vic Sport Awards.

This was followed by an induction of Life Membership to the Victorian Olympic Council.  This was awarded to Raymond Weinberg AM, who designed and manufactured the first Australian Olympic lapel pin in 1952 for the Helsinki Olympics among many other accomplishments.  This was accepted on his behalf by daughter Michelle Weinberg (pictured bottom right). Michelle mentioned that there is no such thing as an ex olympian – I look forward to the day one of our athletes gets to make that claim.

The final honour for the evening was the Order of Merit of the Victorian Olympic Council awarded to Nicole Livingstone OAM (pictured top left).  Livingstone is a three-time swimming Olympian and has recently taken up the role as the Chief Executive Officer of AFL Women’s – a passion I share with Nicole!

This concluded the formalities and guests were encouraged to mingle with the dignitaries.  Naturally, I headed directly to Warwick Waters, Executive Director, to talk all things climbing, making sure I mentioned our Youth Olympic hopeful Ned Middlehurst and VIS athlete Oceana Makcenzie. It was humbling to have Warwick offer his full support to climbing – I am sure I will be in touch soon!

-Roisin Briscoe, Vice President, Sport Climbing Victoria.

Ever wanted to take your indoor climbing outdoors?  Victoria is lucky to have skilled guides operating from Melbourne, Geelong, Mt Arapiles and the Grampians to get you there.

Sport Climbing Victoria spoke with Aaron Lowndes of the Melbourne Climbing School on where he came from:

In 1996, a 14 year old me saw a plain, vertical-only, unpainted-plywood climbing wall in my school’s gymnasium and I knew immediately that this was the sport for me. I pestered our PE teacher until he let a small group of us use it at lunchtimes.

With Mr Clarke teaching us how to use the ropes, harnesses and carabiners (there were no belay devices), a passion was born and rock-climbing has been a part of my life ever since. Initially, of course, it was only a hobby – accounting was the path I chose through university, and I almost wholly resigned myself to following that career to a wealthy retirement. Even so, I always fantasised that I would love to teach rock-climbing “for real”, for a job instead of voluntarily through clubs.

I eventually sought out the Guide and Instructor qualifications through the Australian Climbing Instructors Association (ACIA), but even with that certificate in place, it took me until mid-2015 to work up the nerve to leave the suit-and-tie-wearing auditor job I had and to begin planning the Melbourne Climbing School.

I am now a husband and a proud father, and split my time between being a stay-at-home-dad three days a week, and running courses and trips on the other four.

– Aaron Lowndes, Melbourne Climbing School.

For more information on the Melbourne Climbing School and to book a course, click here.

Victoria is an exciting place to be with many events and programs to further develop your climbing skills and techniques.

Katie Kaminsky chats to Sport Climbing Victoria about one of these programs:

The Northside Women’s Workshops are in their third year, covering a variety of topics including yoga for climbing, hangboard training, how to write yourself a targeted training program, mindfulness for climbing, introduction to dynos, technique classes, Qigong through hula hooping and how to minimise the risk of injury – my favourite! These sessions are run fortnightly on Saturday mornings from 8am-10am at either Brunswick or Northcote Northside Boulders, and have common themes encouraging confidence in women climbers through education and practice.

In previous years, I’ve run generic workshops on injury including how to rehabilitate hands and how to promote strong and resilient bodies for climbing.  This year we’re getting more specific – shoulders were discussed a few months ago and forearm tendons will be explored in May. The workshop environment lets us explore some of the theory behind climbing physiology and anatomy and then tie that in with on-the-wall technique, training exercises and concepts. It’s a privilege to facilitate and participate in such fun and empowering dialogues – get climbing, ladies!

-Katie Kaminsky, Physiotherapist and Sport Climbing Victoria Board Member. To find out more about Katie, click here.

For more information on these workshops visit the Northside Boulders Facebook page.

Make sure you check out our Calendar for these and other events and programs running in Victoria.