progress:

The coupling has arrived from Japan for the machine (2 days late), and it's been installed, so we're hoping to be distributing boards again by the end of next week (pending confirmation off Dave)

However the media and climbing side of beastmaker is going strong. A macbook saviour ping ponged its way up the country via UPS (as well as back and forth to our house a few times!), and now the backlog of 1 years worth of footage is being sifted through.

First up we have a St Bees installment featuring some new and some rare blocs. And even though i stumbled upon Tim's crack right at the end of the day, after trying some other tasty projects. I sullied up some punt-power to make sure that the chance to climb one of the nicest 7c's in the country (when DRY!) didn't escape me. And what a crackalacking problem it is, not a jam in sight and tasty pockets and footlocks. The experience was added to by the tide creeping closer and closer on each go, with a few close calls nearly turning the pads into skim boards.

 The other footage is from when pedigree champ Feehally swept by for a day and climbed everything at the crag, so he fettled off a few projects for good measure. 

This was my first pop at editing HD with decent software so it's a bit rough round the edges but things should smooth off gradually vid to vid.

We've tried to set viewing standards at >7c, or interesting new problems, as that's what i'd prefer to watch if i had the chance. I'm keen on keeping the edits simple and just trying to capture the banter and atmosphere of sessions outside. As it's no surprise that west coast gimps eclipses over produced eye candy like "pure". Critical vid analysis will be much appreciated, as i even find myself skipping though quite a lot of vid sections these days if my attention wanes. 

In Conclusion:

Beastmaker will be a non fictional business again by the end of next week.

Beastmaker now subjects people to moving pictures, with a curveball guerilla style.

breaking the bows and making waves

Post cliffhanger myself and Ned headed upto the county/ the lakes for a bit of winding down. This was good for me as i could enjoy the beauty of climbing outdoors whilst healing up my finger on some stress free sends. It also gave Ned a chance to unwind from all the pressure of competing and get keen for rock again until comp season starts again.
The weather wasn't all too great but we made do and chose venues wisely. Visiting the bowederstone on my 22nd birthday brought back memories of me climbing there when i was 14 and finding problems like power pinch desperate. Although ironically it was one of the few problems which escaped me today due to my finger disagreeing with the top crimps. I still came to realise how much progress has been made over the past 9 years that i have been climbing. The same goes for Ned and to illustrate a point i thought i'd highlight his ticklist from 2 days climbing (sorry Ned), one at Bowden and one at the Bowderstone. Guide book grades have been used in brackets, our opinions being the main grade.
Day 1. (22 degC, still and muggy)
pockets traverse (7c), 2nd go
7b+ (7b) sitter through it. flash.
severus snape 7b (7b+). flash
staggered sit start. 7c+/8a (8a)
the crack. 7c/+ (8a)
sprung. flash. 7b+/c (7c)
transformer LH 3rd go. 7c (7c)
Day 2. (rainy but cool)
impropa sitter 7c+ (8a)
grand opera sitter, local sequence 7c+/8a (8a)
special cases 8a (8a/+)
phantom of the opera (rocking straight off the ramp) 7c+ (8a)

sometimes you can lose sight and not realise how much your improving, yet old venues never lie. We really think we're onto something with the way we train. Our boards are more a sounding board (excuse the lack of synonyms) for an approach to training if you just hang it in your house along with other bits of gear it will do nothing except be a rather nice looking innanimate shelf. Yet put some time in and get your head round it and it should come to life. An ideal if you will. we try to make good our promise of our company name and we (currently) stand proudly by these ideals.

What's in a name?
give us a few years and hopefully we'll show you...

special ned

special ned, originally uploaded by Beastmaker. inc.

tour de force

Phew, well this last week we've really been testing the "Busy" part of "business" i guess that's why you don't call it a 'laziness'. hmm where to start...
Well first off slack arse McFeehally decided he wanted to do some 'traaaiiining' for some circus event called cliffhanger, so that left crippled McVarian doing 100% of the post production workload. As well as deciding which lucky people get the latest batch of 34 boards (this will increase alot...soon... trust us... we've just had more ball ache than the peleton after a mammoth road stage these past few weeks and our new workshop has a circuit breaker that's about as on edge as Beaker from the muppet show playing a fairground hamer whacking game, but it'll all be sorted by Uber Beast Bowering as soon as new parts arrive (we to are victims to the courier services)).
So anyhow, 12 boards were bequethed to the nice chaps at cragx for their pullup comp, AKA the testosterzone. and 2 of our boards got punted onto some more than worthy beasts who can do 37 pullups in a minute!
Meanwhile in the big top opposite a drama was unfolding. The women's finals saw little miss oh so casual Whittaker saunter up the first 3 problems, only to fall victim to the evil north korean known as 'Dee-ouchii fingaping' on the final move of problem 4. Thus leaving the comp wide open going into problem 5. Leah's jet propelled determination saw her sinch up a crucial bonus hold on problem 5, the crux move on which, brought about the harsh realisation to Katy that she does in suffer a tad from a lack of gunnage in her armoury! Effort Leah!
Oh and a big shout out to Katy Piddock, Katy Who? the Katy who decided she'd do a spot of training in the matrix this year, and found herself crushing in a national final, inspiring, tall trees can indeed grow from the smallest of cracks in the pavement! ( philosophy from sensei 9A doorjam Ben)
Speaking of a lack of Gunnage, Barrans appeared to forget his usual jet propelled forearms, leaving him looking more than human on this reachy set. One of the best finals (and most viewed) ensued with him and wobblebuns feehally (finding an excuse to shirk off work) neck for neck into problem 4. Dave realised that all the holds were just small crimps and walked all over it, where as Ned decided to try and find silly technical solutions when the answer lay in straight up brute power, after FINALLY manning up Ned decided to drop the last move to make it really close, with the crowd on edge, Barrans proceeded not to lock upto a winning bonus hold in time. leaving Ned the chance of stepping upto the plate. Now old Ned would no doubt have buggered it up here, but in the last few months there has been a true beast emerging out of sheffields cellars. New Ned saw that the moment was special and could feel the crowd's expectation bearing upon his not inconsiderate back. So Ned pulled on... slapped the first move, and discovered that he is still a bit spack and slapped a blank wall. After a brief pause and some stern thoughts, Ned pulled back on and tore the holds into jugs. Locking what everyone else struggled to reach and firing all six cylinders to the top of the problem thus beating the Russian roulette of comp climbing.
Champ is still Champ, and he gets the only current staff t shirt for his troubles (whoopee!) see podium picture for details.


In all fairness Barrans pushed Ned right to the end, and after bridesmaiding him for most of the year it was good to see Ned step it up a notch and get one back. I gave Dave a fingerboard as a bit of a consolation prize (we're psyched to work with him anyway) but it didn't seem to console him too much. Shout outs have to go to the "ever orange" Gaz Parry (3rd after wobbling up 8a-8c routes for months!) keith 'straight up powerhouse' Bradbury, who kept it real by using as little technique as possible and nearly qualified, and to Audrey for some good commentary (thank the lord).
Great comp though and it can only improve if it's a world cup next year, hopefully that way the prize money might actually not take the piss by being less than the dyno comp, what a bleedin piss take that is, these guys train all year for ONE event and get landed with a whopping £350 for their efforts, the fact that they will compete whether there is prize money or not is a moot point, what is important is for someone on some commitee somewhere to respect their efforts enough one day to atleast match those jumping "athletes" in cycling gloves...
Tour de force indeed.

heating up:

The workshop is getting there now, most of the major jobs are done, and there has only been one small setback from the move which is a broken coupling on the machine, this is fixable though, and all in all things are shaping up pretty shippy. We aim to be up and running again ready to show face at cliffhanger this weekend, we should be posting 2000series out again after the event finishes. With the 1000 series following suit soon after, production will be much more efficient once we're fully operational this time and we should be set up for a good while.

As i'm sure you'll remember, to pass the time whilst the machine was outof action, myself and Ned decided that we'd put our 4years of hold wittling experience to use. Well the setting of these holds has now been completed and our vision of a "perfect board" has been realised for now. That said every "artist" needs a canvas (we see ourselves more as finger painting kids who got carried away). So the Depot have supplied us with a 4.5m wide monster, now it still needs a bit of touching up but we're pretty happy with what this collaboration has resulted in, its lead me to think about moving to Leeds just to consistently train on it as it really will be like having power handed to you on a plate to eat up. That said you'll need to be munching 7b to taste the appetizers and about 7c+ - 8b to make the most of it, if your not don't criticise it for being elitist, get strong in the other areas of the center and then appreciate the fact that you still have a medium to push you onwards, rather than stagnating. We plan to finish the board off with some trial wooden holds made off the machine, although this aspect of beastmaker is definately more the exception rather than the rule at the moment. Amazing boards have yet to proove their worth in commercial venues but if they can bring cellar dwellers back to walls by offering something which is better than can be made at home, then they can only be good for bouldering centers, not to mention giving people a bit of inspiration once in a while.

unless you've been caving for the past week then you'll have noticed that it has been a bit too "thailand" for training hard of late. I found myself using an electric lilo pump to funnel cool air out the service pit inorder so that i could have a fingerboard session the other night. After 1 day back in thumberland though i've already spied up some summer projects. One of which is an old line of the mighty Earl's which has to be one of the most impressive walls i've seen anywhere, ever, effort Andy!

although some anti ethical Karma smote me down today whilst on a cycling mission to town after a tour de france style slide out on a rather soggy corner at around 20mph, unfortunately for my wallet (but fortunate for my body) i slid along nicely on my arcteryx soft shell and so it is only my arse cheek which looks like something out of a butchers meat bin. Fingerboarding it is for a while then, ooh how apt.