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Athlete or Model? 29-Jan-2015 At 11:34:53 AM wallwombat

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SBC is a 20 year old self-professed "professional climber'' currently studying digital marketing at the Uni of Arizona. She is hot, wears tiny little outfits when she climbs and sponsors love her.

She has a huge (mostly male) following on social media.

Apparently she climbs indoors 300 days a year and outdoors about 20. She boulders at a grade around V7.

She is a bit like the Anna Kournikova of comp climbing in the states, although that's probably being a bit unfair to Anna K.

Like Anna, though, she makes more money from sponsorships and endorsements than she does from winning climbing comps.

I think Bishharat's point is she defines herself as a "professional climber", when there are really talented climbers out there who have to juggle work with climbing and don't have the luxury to be able to call themselves pro climbers.

Personally, I think she is exceptionally good at what she does - digital marketing of herself.

It helps that she is hot and wears next to nothing when she climbs but that in itself is probably not enough. Alex Puccio, for example is also pretty hot, also wears tiny little outfits and climbs V13. She wins lots of comps in the US, yet probably cant call herself a "professional climber" as she lags behind SBC in the digital marketing game, in which SBC is an absolute expert.

Good on SBC, in that respect. I think she should call herself a professional digital self-marketer who models and climbs. Even in this day and age, it's almost impossible to be a "professional climber" - there would be none in Australia.

NB: I wouldn't even call James Kassay a professional climber. He owns a climbing gym and I imagine that's where most of his income comes from.