More Vietnam!

Ah the island life. Relaxed atmosphere, great seafood, relaxing on boats... life is great!
Things have been continuously amazing here despite my knee injury (don't worry, its all good and I am climbing again albeit carefully) and many good times are being had.
I have been working on the boats alot taking people out Deep Water Soloing and climbing on the islands.
My good friends Lee Cujes, Simon Carter, Monique Forestier plus Coco, Sam, Tamara and Audrey are all here climbing, boltoing and doing photo shoots. Yesterday we headed out into the bay for a day of  deep water soling at Fisherman's Way and Unemployment Wall... good times! I took the biggest jump I have ever taken too. Topped out a 17 metre 5.8 and jumped from the ledge, so much fun but so terrifying! haha
Here's a few pics... I will see if I can get Mr Carter to donate a few pics for this blog for you all, I'll keep you posted  :-)

Monique and Coco

Cruising to the crags with a basket boat and kayaks in tow



Me less than half way up the 5.8 warm up at Fishermans way... you finish and jump from the ledge way up diagonally right from me... EPIC!



The Candlestick aka The Polish Pillar

Simon and Lee scoping out photo angles

Jen chillin' on the boat... lifes hard

The ever smiling Mr Cujes

She is obviously always very busy around here lol

Heading home into a brilliant sunset

Sarah on a long lunch break, us Slo Pony staff have it pretty easy  ;-)

Nora... hilarious personified

Psyche and Physiotherapy...

Hey kids!
Things are rockin' out here in Ha Long Bay! Plenty of guiding work (I use the term 'work' losely here... hanging out on a boat in paradise, kayaking, climbing and bolting new crags isn't exactly work haha) and plenty of fun. We have started bolting a cool amphitheatre on an island about 30 minutes basket boat ride from Tiger Beach. It doesnt have a name yet but it will have maybe 20 routes in the end from maybe 5.8 to 5.14+, from vertical to ludicrously steep and from 1 to 3 pitches long. Plus we have 2 deep water soloing wall to develop right next to them if the water is deep enough there. Psyched.
One little set back though. I busted my knee climbing it Butterfly Valley this morning. It's not too bad so hoepfully I will be all good in a few days but I just have to keep it elevated and iced for the moment and then see how it feels tomorrow... fingers crossed!
The crew from China Climb arrived yesterday too. They are here to run a sea kayaking trip next week so town is full of fun folk right now and more are expected soon... psyched!!!
Heres a few more pics  :-)

Jen climbing 'Big Brown B-Hole' 5.12a at Ben beo Harbour, right next to our apartment

Slo - man, myth, legend

Life is hard...

The wall we are bolting at the moment, you can only get there by basket boat

Awesome!!!

Do you like it steep?

Climbing and kayaking at Moody's Beach

The return to Ha Long Bay, Vietnam!

 So after meaning to get back down here for nearly a year I am finally back in Ha Long Bay, Vietnam!

I have come back down here do get a few things done - bolt new routes, help out my buddy Slo at Slopony Adventures while they are busy with guiding work... and go deep water soloing.

My friend Jen and I headed off from Yangshuo a week ago, trained it to Nanning then bussed to Hanoi. We stayed with my good friends Linh and Mandy for a night, ate great food and drank amazing coffee then headed out to Ha Long Bay the next morning. We have spent the last 4 days mostly out in Lan Ha Bay guiding deep water soloing, kayaking, rock climbing on the beaches and swimming as well as 1 morning guiding climbing out in Butterfly Valley.

Today is a day off and we are going to climb on a wall right next to our apartment and see if we can't find a project or two each... psyched! Tomorrow might be climbing out at Butterfly Valley then back to the bay the day after that to start scoping out then bolting a new wall on an island out there.

Oh, and we got a Minsk yeaterday haha. A crazy Russian motorbike for cuising the island. It's a little hectic and exciting, so fun haha

I'll keep you all updated as much as possible, but for now here are a few pics

This is the sunrise view from our apartment window... amazing!

阳朔攀岩节 - Part 2 - The Rest

So the 阳朔攀岩节 (Yangshuo Climbing Fetival) went really well. All the sponsors and volunteers worked really hard and everything went off without a hitch. Great slide shows from the sponsored athletes, an awesome bouldering comp and a rediculous Halloween afterparty to top it off!
We had a great time setting the routes for the bouldering comp and in the end they worked really well, splitting the field nicely and entertaining the crowd. And I had a blast MC'ing the bouldering comp too, such a good time, really looking forward to next year!
It's hard to describe everything really well so instead here's a few pics to give you an idea. Good times indeed...

Kre - legend

Yo yo yo, MC D in the house! haha

John and Andrew

Route setters doing their thing

Fred - another legend

My man Yuji Hirayama - yet another legend

Sponsors adds galore...

Me (walking on the green mat) MC'ing the preliminary round of the boulder comp

Amber topping out the womens preliminary problem 1

Kelly on the same problem

Street side slacklining

My man Abond. 14c climber. North Face Athlete. Hero