March 2006

Teknik Teamie Nick Sherman recently placed a smashing 3rd at the ABS Nationals, lets hear what he has to say!

12 questions with Nick via email....

Zoe- So you just got 3rd at the ABS Open Bouldering Nationals, in Boulder Colorado. Way to go, that's sick! Did you have any idea you'd do so awesomely awesome?

Nick- I honestly never really thought I would end up getting 3rd place. Before the comp, I kept saying to myself that my goal was to place among the top 5. However, deep inside I knew that it'd be something extremely hard to do because I had no idea how I was climbing compared to the rest of the guys in the nation and all you see is the kids' names appearing on magazines every month (and not mine!). After all, I guess the results were kinda surprising.

Zoe- Last time you competed at Nationals you placed 6th, which was also super. Did you train twice as hard this year to place twice as well?

Nick- I actually believe that it all has something to do with experience and the way your body and mind take the stress of the competition. I don't think I trained harder this year, but i did do a lot of different excercises. Also, I had a lot more experices in comps, and a more mature body (hopefully mind too! haha)

Zoe- What exactly did you do to prepare for this comp?

Nick- Drank a lot more of the super Colombian soup! nah, not really. I think that in order to expect the most out of your body for a comp you need to be in optimal physical condition and not just climb hard stuff. That's what I kinda tried to do this year, I did a lot of physical conditioning and climbing, but it wasn't just to prepare for nationals. For climbing, I'm really getting into making up long boulder problems with 10-15 moves in them and try to send them in less than three tries. If not sent within three tries of flashed, i move on to the next one and never work it again. I think that works really well for competion-style climbing. The thing that sucks is that in order to get better in Florida you have to climb twice as much and train twice as hard than any guy that has a million places to climb up north.

Zoe- You broke your back and both your feet in an accident this past year, how did this affect your climbing and how did you make such a spectacular comeback?

Nick- I was out for two months. Yeah, 8 weeks without being able to be on a wall got pretty frustating, but I guess gave A LOT of motivation to start again and train hard. It's like when you're hungry for hours and have nothing to eat, you feel like you can devaour the whole world when the tme to eat comes! When i got back i was really weak and things started slow, but all i wanted to do was climb, weak or strong. I guess the accident was good after all.

Zoe- You're originally from Colombia and started climbing hard there before moving to the United States. You competed (and won!) in your 14-15 age category in the Colombian Nationals and also competed on the Colombian team in the Latin American Championships in Venezuela. Are comps there much different than the comps in the US?

Nick- The climbing community was extremely small in Colombia when my brother and I lived there. there only about 5 kids in our difficulty age group to decide a national champion, so I guess it wasn't that hard to be frist in the 14-15 age group. However, the difficulty comp style is the same as in the US and the world cup and the crowd is just as crazy to see "people climb some walls." The latin American competition was something of a bigger scale, actually the biggest difficulty comp I've done, even though I sucked. The climbing community is growing a lot in Colombia and there's a lot more climbers and stronger people now.

Zoe- Before the comp we gave you the advice to just climb and climb and just when you think you cant climb any further, just dig in and grab a couple more holds. It seems like you must have done just that. What else were you thinking to get up those problems? When you climb do you think in Spanish or English?

Nick- The Teknik advice stayed in my mind throughout the whole comp!!! That is exactly what it was all about for me to do! About the language question, I think in a wide variety of African dialects. Naah, but that is actually a very good question other people have asked. I actually don't think about the language in which I'm thinking, but I have realized that it all depends on the language that's being spoken around me, so I guess it's all english in an comp.

Zoe- Was it wierd competing without your twin brother Ivan?

Nick- I miss my brother in climbing. He was the perfect climbing partner any climber can ask for because we climbed exactly the same and just as hard, always pushing each other to get stronger. I guess he now has "better" things to do in life and I dont mind it at all. It was not weird, actually. I realized i really enjoy having my own freedom for a weekend and doing something good and productive by myself, without depending on anyone

Zoe- We noticed in one of the comp photos that there was a Teknik Longfellow smack dab in the middle of one of the Men's Finals problems. When you got to that hold did you grab it with extra flare and panache in a true Team Teknik style?

Nick- That's funny because right when I got done climbing the problems in finals, a friend I went with said to me "I knew you were gonna send that problem because that's your hold! You use it every freaking day!" I guess i did feel pretty comfortable on it, know exactly what spot to go for! I dont think it created any advantage though, haha.

Zoe- What was the most fun thing you did while you were in Boulder CO (besides the comp of course)?

Nick- Let's see... everything. I went snowboarding for the first time ever (busting my ass 1000 times), I got my ass kicked by Mike Moelter playing some Xbox, and climbed with a bunch of strong climbers from Boulder. Ohh! And i also ate very organic! But i dont think that goes among one of the best things i did

Zoe- We imagine that you being a climber from Orlando Florida isnt totally unlike Seth and I being climbers from Edmonton Alberta, or Nels being a climber from Saskatoon Saskatchewan. None of these places are exactly hot spots for climbing, but it really seems that there must be something that works about being from a place thats so crappy for climbing. So, on a scale of 1 to 10, how much does being a climber from Orlando Florida rule?

Nick- It depends on what you base the score on. 1 because you have nothing to climb and no variety to choose from but a small wall with 100000 Teknik holds on it, all about 2 inches away from each other! Or... it could be 10 because, like you guys, some people in Florida manage to stay motivated and train even though they don't have much to climb

Zoe- Whats next for you? You're only 17 so I'm sure you've got a lot of plans!

Nick- Being stuck in Florida for a LONG time! I graduate from high school in a couple months and will be attending college here in Orlando too, so i guess things will stay the same for a while. The career I'll go for is International Bussines.

Zoe- Anything else to you'd like to say?

Nick- "Some species of lions can mate over 50 times a day." Stop reading and go order some Teknik products!