Song Stuck in My Head.

You ever get a song stuck in your head?

I've been listening to this song over and over to get it out of my head, but it's yet to cure it.

I find blog posts are a lot like songs replaying in my head. I think about them a lot until I finally either write it down or bang my head on the wall until my mind goes blank.

Lately I've been replaying my first meeting with Chris Sharma in my head.

He came to town to promote Dosage 1 and I went to see the movie and hear him speak after the fact. In Dosage he climbs Realization. A route he tried nearly a hundred times. I could relate to that even though I've never really committed to a route which is as involved as that. Seeing as I only boulder it was cool to imagine hiking 45 minutes up hill, doing forty some odd moves only to blow the crux over and over.

One of the main reasons I really got involved in climbing was after watching Rampage. When I saw Sharma climb it looked super fun.

After watching him climb Realization, myself and the rest of the audience were pumped. Chris had just gotten back from walking across Japan where while away he learned to play the flute. He played for a short while and at first I thought this seemed a little strange but once I realized he was quite good it was pretty cool. Needless to say we were all a little star struck.



After the show Chris stuck around to sign autographs. Myself and a friend decided we'd go up and say hi. I was going to say thanks for the show and it was pretty cool. My friend on the other hand went off the deep end.

How it went down.

Me. "Hey cool talk, congrats on the big send."

Chris "Thanks man."

Me "Looks like Squamish is going to good tomorrow. You should come up, it's going to be prime."

Chris "Really? You think it will be dry?"

Me "For sure."

Chris "Might just happen."

My friend ".... I just wanted to tell you your my hero. And you inspire me. I love you man."

Awkward silence.

Chris "Thanks man."

Well I made a run for it. Because the truth was while my friend might of aired his feelings a little too much, he was speaking what the rest of us were thinking. But in my mind he destroyed any chance of Chris seeing us as cool guys that would get to climb with him.

Well the next day I went climbing in Squamish. As I was walking by the Octagon boulder there was a huge crowd. Chris was trying an undone project while 30 people stood around and watched. I felt sorry for him. But not enough not to get into the mix. I mean a chance to see Chris climb in real life was too much to pass up. As I pushed my way through the crowd for a better vantage someone said:

"Hey Matt, get in there and spot him, the top-out's dodgy."

So I walked forward. Not only was I going to get to watch him climb but in a small way I was going to be apart of it. Man I was psyched.

Chris sent after a few more tries and even discussed beta with me as he was working it out.

Pretty cool experience. I know it seems a bit lame but if Micheal Jordan was shooting jump shots and someone said get in there and fetch rebounds for him I would jump at the chance. In a way it was very much the same with Chris.

That and he was cool about the whole thing the day before. Either that or he was thinking with all these people watching I wasn't going to tackle him and try and get a lock of his hair.

Climbing is one of the few sports where the top athletes are super accessible to the average climber.

In my travels I've been very lucky to meet and see most of the top boulderers climb that I've looked up too.

Remind me later to tell you about the time I pretended I didn't know who Fred Nicole was and got to watch him climb one of the hardest boulders in the world.

Later.