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dynamicpanda
Nov 16, 2003, 3:50 AM
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Hi, im a 16 year old all around climber from north carolina. I took up climbing about two years ago because it looked fun and wasn't an incredibly commercialized sport. At the time, I had recently quit skateboarding because I found the sport to no-longer be fun. I also quit because I was sick of how pop-culture had destroyed a once meaningful and exciting sport. I skated for about 2 years. When I started, skateboarding was actually about riding a skateboard, by the time I quit, it was more about the kind of shoes you wore and what your shirt said. I watched as a once-great sport was slowly destroyed. When I took up climbing, I found it in a similar state to what I seen when I first began skateboarding. The sport was and is one of the most incredibly fun things existing. The problem is, as time goes by, climbing becomes more and more of a commercial thing. "Climbing centered" clothing companies are appearing everywhere. This is the kind of thing that destroyed skateboarding. When it became "cool" to wear shirts from companies such as Blind or Think, the sport lost alot of its meaning. I don't think climbing will ever become as soulless as skateboarding because it is a much deeper sport. There are few feelings as good as toping out a hard boulder problem and there is no mindset as extreme as the one a climber has while he works out a hard move above a placement that might hold. Despite how fun the sport is, I do see climbing beginning to go in the same direction as skateboarding and I sure hate to watch it happen. If anyone has any comments (positive or negative) feel free to post here.
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jabarnes
Nov 16, 2003, 4:43 AM
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Sorry chap but humans are competitive beings and as long as humans climb the sport will be stratified. We live in a capitalist society where any potential for a buck is to be made, well then someone will try and make that buck. Just go to Yosemite, or read any fricken climbing magazine. They pretty much all the same. A few random articles about so and so climbing the latest 5.14a and how so and so thought that was sand bagging. Come on how many people do you know that can even climb at that level, but this is the emphasis that is placed on rock climbing. Like how many people do you know that can bust a hard flip to front side board slide down a twenty foot handrail. Probably not many but check out thrasher or the like and what do you see? So enough babbling. Climb because you want to climb, and not because it's the latest hip thing to do.
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sbclimber
Nov 16, 2003, 4:51 AM
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why do you care what others think? Do you feel the need to be a rebel, and vere away from the trends? If you truly loved the sport why would you quit just because it became commercialized? Either wear your Blind or Flip or Think shirt or dont. Who cares if you are skating in a skate shirt or not?
Same for climbing. Somebody high up at Prana is just trying to get his/hers, not sell out climbing. I know what you are saying about skateboarding but I seriously doubt climbing will ever get near there.
Do you feel like people look at you funny when you climb in anything other than a Prana shirt?
Who the hell cares? Not me.
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xanx
Nov 16, 2003, 5:12 AM
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sorry bud but if these companies bother u so much, ur missing the whole point of climbing entirely. best move on and try something else if u can't reconcile this...
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shut_up_and_climb
Nov 16, 2003, 5:41 AM
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i just made the switch from skating to climbing 3 months ago dude. best choice i think ive made, because i saw the same thing happen to skating as you. When i started getting good it was cool cause, it was just about being good, but then commercialization came upon the sport and made it main stream and everyone and their brother has to skate know, and its not about the skating, it the brands. climbing wont sell out like skating just because climbers now arnt like that, but if the sport gets big like skaitng is it will, unfortunatly happen. what can you say sh*t happens
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squish
Nov 16, 2003, 5:41 AM
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Yow. And here I was thinking that skateboarding had lost its soul at the time when I packed it in... like almost 10 years ago.
Don't worry about the poseurs, cuz guess what? If all that's on your mind is your righteous indignant concern about not being a poseur, guess what you're actually doing!
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da5id
Nov 16, 2003, 5:51 AM
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i see what youre saying, and i agree that that sort of over-commercialization sucks. i guess with skateboarding, and climbing really, a lot of the experience is hinged upon who you are with. if you are always skating or climbing with people who are in it for the wrong reasons, it can really ruin the experience. the important thing is to try as best as you can to surround yourself with good people, and to continue to do the things that you enjoy and that make you happy. it wont always be perfect, especially when you're in high school :?
theres good people out there, in every sport, in all walks of life. just try not to let the negative things get in the way of enjoying life
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dirtbagginit
Nov 16, 2003, 7:05 AM
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Commercialization of both of these sports was booming way before you got into them, unfortunately. Its just your perception that is changing. imho the key is getting away from places where it is shoved in your face, like say a crowded gym of egomaniacal plasticpullers and getting onto your favorite isolated crag, where the extent of commercialization might be your partner ragging on you for buying the red velvet chalkbag(I know... its for the ladies)
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soma
Nov 16, 2003, 7:47 AM
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I used to skateboard because it was fun. I quit because after 4 years because my knees REALLY hurt.
I climb because I love it and I'm not quiting because my elbows hurt.
Do something because you enjoy it. Not because it is a "counter-culture".
Dave
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revdeuno
Nov 16, 2003, 7:52 AM
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it seems like you are focussed on being "different from everyone else" which puts you into a category all on it's own.... if you really like climbing for what it is then you won't care about all the companies who have cleverly marketed their crap to people with more money than they know what to do with. just like with skating there are going to be tons of "posers" and whathaveyous but they are not the people bringing the sport to new levels.
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cbeltrano
Nov 16, 2003, 8:44 AM
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In reply to: why do you care what others think? Do you feel the need to be a rebel, and vere away from the trends? If you truly loved the sport why would you quit just because it became commercialized? Either wear your Blind or Flip or Think shirt or dont. Who cares if you are skating in a skate shirt or not?
perfectly said..... and such a big problem.... do you really love the sport or just love being different?.... jumping on the counter-culture bandwagon still puts you on a bandwagon. anything with a "cool" label on it will eventually become commercialized..... things get commercialized for the sole purpose of it being cool. and climbing seems to be in the midst of the commercialization craze so it's probably not the best time to take it up if you're going to leave it real soon. i think it'd be best to take your money and create your own sport... i'm willing to bet it'll be a long time before that hits the mainstream.
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neomagi
Nov 16, 2003, 1:51 PM
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a lot of what everyone said is dead on IMO. climbing is growing, there are more new climbers than ever before, and i think we are just in the beginning of a growth cycle. if you don t believe me talk to everyone else in the industry.
climbing is different than other sports i have been associated with (skateboarding, ags roller blading, running, wrestling, adventure racing, etc) in that there is an inherent sense of community. it should be noted that when i refer to climbers i am not typically speaking about folks who have climbed once or twice, but people committed to the sport. climbers will take a fellow climber whom they don t know, give them a place to sleep and food to eat, maybe even leave them with a house key while they head to work, and then go trust their life with that person. now that never really happened when i was skateboarding...
it is for that reason, that i think climbing, even with its growth will stay pure. there will always be new cloths to wear, but fellow climbers will give more respect to you redpointing 5.11/V4 than to your new prAna shirt...
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dredsovrn
Nov 16, 2003, 3:35 PM
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In reply to: Hi, im a 16 year old all around climber from north carolina. I took up climbing about two years ago because it looked fun and wasn't an incredibly commercialized sport. At the time, I had recently quit skateboarding because I found the sport to no-longer be fun. I also quit because I was sick of how pop-culture had destroyed a once meaningful and exciting sport. I skated for about 2 years. When I started, skateboarding was actually about riding a skateboard, by the time I quit, it was more about the kind of shoes you wore and what your shirt said. I watched as a once-great sport was slowly destroyed. When I took up climbing, I found it in a similar state to what I seen when I first began skateboarding. The sport was and is one of the most incredibly fun things existing. The problem is, as time goes by, climbing becomes more and more of a commercial thing. "Climbing centered" clothing companies are appearing everywhere. This is the kind of thing that destroyed skateboarding. When it became "cool" to wear shirts from companies such as Blind or Think, the sport lost alot of its meaning. I don't think climbing will ever become as soulless as skateboarding because it is a much deeper sport. There are few feelings as good as toping out a hard boulder problem and there is no mindset as extreme as the one a climber has while he works out a hard move above a placement that might hold. Despite how fun the sport is, I do see climbing beginning to go in the same direction as skateboarding and I sure hate to watch it happen. If anyone has any comments (positive or negative) feel free to post here.
Quit whining. If you are getting into sports that are "commercialized," which is good evidence that there aren't many people doing it, you are just as bad as the people commercializing them. The only reason to do what you are doing is so that you can be cool and different based on your activities.
Do it because you want to. If you are in it for the right reasons, you won't spend time worrying about the BS you listed in your post. If it is something you don't have to do, and it is not about you and your reasons, you need to move on.
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handcrack
Nov 16, 2003, 3:49 PM
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Dear dynamicpanda,
Don't worry, someday you will grow up and none of this will matter anymore.
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dredsovrn
Nov 16, 2003, 4:45 PM
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In reply to: Dear dynamicpanda, Don't worry, someday you will grow up and none of this will matter anymore.
Well said. I guess I could have been more tactful. Sorry, it's early.
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dynamicpanda
Nov 16, 2003, 4:55 PM
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I see what most of you are saying. I think I came across wrong in alot of that post. I climb because it is an amazing experiance. I just hate to see people climb because they think they will look cool doing it.
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da5id
Nov 16, 2003, 5:17 PM
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In reply to: Dear dynamicpanda, Don't worry, someday you will grow up and none of this will matter anymore.
while a little blunt, this is really true. this sort of thing bothers you much more in high school. the problem is that you are forced to deal with it so much from day to day at school, that it bothers you that much more when it invades the things you do to escape from that high school mentality. its best to keep an open mind about it all, and get the best out of what you are offered. that and only that will get you through high school with most of your sanity intact.
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mrme
Nov 16, 2003, 5:38 PM
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i stoped skating because of time commentment to college and work it started getting comercialized latter. then i found climbing and started climbing before i even stoped college and work funny how that works when you really love something....well any way i have seen climbing become more and more comersialized since i started .... and more people outside doing it... though i sport a lot of synthetic clothing at times (alot of wich is secound hand)...in the summer at the local crag i wear blue jeans and t-shirt....you should see some of the looks i get....and comments also....but in the end it does not matter i love the sport .... besides it feels great to lead someones toprop project who sets around and waits to make fun of someone who does not have the kinda cash for brand name stuff like them and its funnier when they want to be your best friend afterword and better yet if they get so discused that they leave because they can't watch....:oh yea not that i don't have cash for that cotton parana stuff ... just rather spend that money on more trips to climb.
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mrme
Nov 16, 2003, 5:43 PM
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oh yea i forgot to end it with so try to focouse on the positive things if it bugs u that much and if you really do like it don't give it up because of some wennie who thinks there the sh*t. you have those people every were in life. exspecially after high school .
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nova19
Nov 16, 2003, 5:57 PM
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as yet another person that spent far to much of his life on weels jumping of anything I thought I might be able to survive the fall from and believing that handrails were actually put their from some higher being, before I took up climbing I have to add that the majority of skaters are no older that 25 (and thats really pushing it) and with little to no drive to do anything in their lives, as apposed to the climbing community where you regularly really interesting intelligent people that have far more on their minds than teenage rebellion at the age of 30,
I can go on and on about this but lets just face the facts , climbers are far from being the name brand following cattle material that has become of sk8ers, and although there will always be posers no matter what sport you decide to take part in the majority of climbers I know would still rather drop 50 buck on a shiny new cam than a designer pair of climbing pants.
get over it, there will always be something to complain about and in 20 years well sadly be looking back and be saying something to the sorts of "wow , can you believe that we thought climbing was commercialized then when all we had to complain about was some a$$hole that bolted a crack, and got his picture taken on his FA that later became a commercial for pepsi"
go out climb and have fun
Zack
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blindslap
Nov 16, 2003, 6:16 PM
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I quite skating for the same reason. Skating had such a rich punk/rebellios past. That's why i was atracted to it in the first place. But by time i started to skate, commericialism/capatilism had started to take its hold. ALso the emphases on punk/rebellion moved to hip-hop/conformity. Don't take me wrong, i love every genre of music, but a heavy hip hop influence really brought along some changes. The X-Games came to be, backed with corporate sponsership and many people began to actaully get paid really good money to skate, and show their affiliation with a company. The exact same thing is happening to climbing. It started off as extreme, scary trad lines, ground up ascents on soft metal pitons and bowline on a coil. Slowly things started to change with the advancement of technology; we got the swami belt, clean climbing came to be and so did sport climbing and bouldering. Theres nothing wrong with sport and bouldering just like theres nothing wrong with hip-hop, but their presence and influence can be felt throughout the sport. Along with these less dangerouse, more sociable and generally more laid back styles of climbing, comes a different type of people interested in them. (Look at the difference between a high-school boulderer and a grissled wall climber) With this boom in boulderers and sport climbers, climbing has quickly become an in the spot light sport and lots of people are enjoying it. Whenever you get a mass of people doing something, someone is going to try to make a quick buck. Once again there is another sport that's covered in capitalism and i don't think there is anything that anyone can do about it. someone somewhere is going to buy some Prana pants or whatever so Prana will stay in business and continue to market it's "Climbing only" clothing etc. If you want to stay away from all this you don't have to quite sport climbing or bouldering, you can just ignore it. Dont' buy the clothes, don't read the ads. Climb for reasons of your own, and not what other people think of you.
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gatorclimber
Nov 16, 2003, 7:09 PM
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I can relate to what you're saying. There is nothing intrinsically wrong with wearing Prana shirts and Gramaci pants. If people want to spend large amounts of money to sport a label; fine, that doesn't necessarily make them bad people. Where it starts getting lame is when their behavior changes. When people start to outcast, and look down on people who don't dress in the same labels they do. All of a sudden the guy in the ripped sweat pants and Kmart tank-top isn't cool enough to talk to and hang out with.
People like to say that climbing is an "alternative" sport. But I don't think so. Maybe once it was, but now it is basically the same as basketball, football, etc with their nike and Addidas. When a sport starts to get popular enough to attract enough people it starts to move into the mainstream. Eventually if enough people join the sport you might flip on ESPN some day and see a climbing competition. Again, there is nothing really terrible about that. As more people come into the sport the culture of the sport changes, but as long as peoples' attitudes don't change and climbers are still friendly, unique people, the sport will still be great.
For all those that say that other people should influence weather you enjoy a sport or not they're right. However, that doesn't make them realistic. If everytime you go climbing you are surrounded by jerks, it tends to dampen your enthusiasm.
p.s.
All those who responded with "why are you so lame, grow up....etc, etc" protest too much. They probably wear $50 dollar prana pants to the gym and are threatened by your questioning their motives for wearing overprices labels.
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