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What got you started? 8-Jul-2003 At 12:16:43 PM (removed)

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Low water levels on the Mitchell River in Easter 1992. Life can be fickle.

First year uni, about four weeks in - I had decided I was hardcore and would go white water kayaking. Trouble was, the planned Easter trip to the Mitchell River got canned because of low water levels - too low for the key rapids. I tried in vain to convince the other MUMC members that surf kayaking was the way forward and that we should all do that instead. They wanted to go climbing as the alternative so I gave in. I would have stayed home except I had the car and they relied on me.

We got there, and started out (as you do) at 8:00pm at night in pitch darkness bouldering (me in KT-26's) on Golden Streak boulder by torchlight. I tried the mantle problem and couldn't do it. That was enough. I was hooked.

You'd wonder how you could possibly get hooked too - when my first weekend away consisted of failing on "Holdup Line" (10), succeeding on "Stage Coach" (11) and "Long Bow" (11) - all at Bushranger Bluff, then the next day failing on "Slip Knot" (19) and also failing on every single boulder problem I tried at Declaration Crag (not to mention the failures on all of the Golden Streak Boulder's problems as well).

I went home and bought a pair of Boreal Classics (hey if Wolfgang could do Punks in them ...), tried climbing up the birck walls of my parents' house ... and turfed my kayaking dreams.

Perhaps it was because I was SOOOOO bad ...