Proud to announce that my new clothing sponsor is Friksn. Based out of Virginia Beach, VA... In their words, “The best alternative to climbing naked since 2002.” I couldn’t say it any better... I’m psyched to be working with these guys. Justin and Leo started this company in their garage and they are gaining momentum. I’ve been hanging out with them for the past two years on my trips to West Virginia and love the vibe they bring to the party and the climbing scene. We hammered out a deal this past May, and the professional relationship has officially begun. Check them out at www.friksn.com as well as their booth at the Trade Show in Salt Lake City next month if you’re able to make it. Their new line of T-shirts and hoodies are looking rather suave, I’m stoked to be representing. We’re taking over, so stay tuned.

Exactly a month ago at the beginning of June, I was returning from my month-long road trip out to the East Coast. I had a plane ticket to fly out to Australia with my girlfriend on the 19th of June, but 2 weeks prior, on my girlfriend’s last day of work (she had quit 1-month earlier), she got a call from Floyd “Money” Mayweather Jr. (the undefeated pro-boxer, considered to be the best pound-for-pound boxer in the World). She had worked with him on his last two bouts (with Oscar de la Hoya and Ricky Hatten) as his personal hand therapist. He was to fight in July and the price he pays for her to do barely anything at all is worth postponing the trip. We were bummed not to be leaving as planned, but another Summer season climbing at Mt. Charleston in Vegas wouldn’t be all that bad, so we accepted it, and begun living out of my truck up in the mountains with a storage unit in Vegas.

A week later, Floyd injured his rib during his training for the fight and they postponed the fight until September, which left us with a 5-day notice to get on our original flight to Australia. IT WAS ON!!!!!!!!!!!

We flew to Sydney and surfed a few days while checking the local urban bouldering out in Sydney. The city has a ton of little bouldering areas accessible by train/bus, so it was fun cruising around town with our huge bouldering pads while everyone was dressed up in their nice suits and pretty little outfits scurrying throughout the metropolis asking us questions about our “mattresses” on our backs.

We scored a rad little rental camper and drove 13 hours south-west to the climbing mecca of Grampians, a dream destination of mine since before Bill Clinton was in office. A few days of killer bouldering at Hollow Mtn Cave went down, and then the horrible winter weather hit and we were sidelined at the library for a few days. Deciding what to do, we drove 45 minutes up the road to another World-Class area called The Arapiles with a bit better weather. I hooked up this superb 14a in a couple tries called, “Punks in the Gym” which follows a gently overhanging (almost slabby) face on bullet hard sandstone. It’s one of the most famous hard routes in Australia with the German climber, Wolfgang Güllich's ascent 1985. I believe it was the first 14a in the World at the time which firmly cemented Australia on the global climbing map.

We’ve been camping in the “Pines” campground for the last couple days which is equivalent to the famous “Camp 4” campground in Yosemite. It’s rich in climbing history and the vibe is killer. Campfires, guitars, singing, and climbing stories all night, and then the sounds of cams, hexes, nuts, and carabiners clinking together in the morning as climbers rack up their gear for another day on the rocks. It’s climberville at it’s finest.