3 new ads! Here are our three new print advertisements.

1) "Teknik Rulz" (300kb), Gripped Magazine. Concept: Seth and Zoe. Photo credit: Seth. Photo Editing & Design: Aaron. Thanks to Nels for letting us use this photo.

2) "Setting Tonight for a Better Finals Tomorrow" (100kb), for the book "The Art of Course Setting" by Louie Anderson. Concept: Seth and Zoe. Illustration: Seth. Design: Aaron

3) "Know the Holds" (160kb), ABS Insert in Climbing Magazine supporting our Season 6 Gold sponsorship of the American Bouldering Series. Concept: Seth and Zoe. Illustration: Seth. Photo: Zoe. Design: Aaron

Congratulations to Simon Villeneuve from Calgary! He just won a Mathematic hold used in the 2003 Canadian Nationals held at Joe Rockheads.

The correct answer to the contest question was: 

"Timy Fairfield shocked the crowd and competitors when he used the Arnold Muscles as massive footholds for a foothold-only traverse across a slab in the 2003 Canadian Bouldering Nationals."

Thanks to all our subscribers that entered!

HAPPY CANADA DAY! To celebrate, Aaron suggests you go and make friendly with Bill der Beaver.

It’s about time for another Teknik subscribers contest!

The Canadian Bouldering Nationals unfortunately didn’t happen this spring. So, we’re giving you the chance to reminisce and get a piece of the 2003 event held at Joe Rockhead’s instead.

The question: What was particular about the men’s second qualifier problem?

The prize: A hold that was actually used in the comp. It’s the special lime-green colour from the finals, with the Teknik stamp, chalk from the competitors, and set-screw hole drilled for the comp. Course setter Timy Fairfield has also personalized the back with a "T". A rare and valuable piece for any hold collector.

The hint: If you don’t already know the answer, you can find it somewhere in the holds section of our website.

The winner: This contest is open to all Teknik subscribers. If you’re not a subscriber yet, subscribe now. Just e-mail your answer to us and we will select the winner by random draw from the correct entries on Canada day (July 1st). The winner will be notified by e-mail and will be announced on the website.

Good luck!

The last and championship comp of PCA season 3 went down in Boulder CO May 14-15.

Team La Sportiva/ Teknik was switched up a little this time round since Nels was unable to attend due to his sore shoulder. So we got young Daniel Woods from Colorado to pinch-hit for him instead. A big thanks to Daniel, he was a worthy stand-in for Nels indeed. Seth ‘Whitepuma’ Mason and Zoe ‘Z-Fang’ Kozub filled out the rest of the 3 person team. Team La Sportiva/ Teknik finished 2nd in this event behind Team Five Ten, but took 1st in the overall season standings!

Daniel was awesome. On the Friday he out-climbed everyone and qualified in 1st place. In the finals on Saturday night, he brought his game again and finished 2nd in the finals! Wicked.

Zoe Kozub also climbed hard at the comp. Unfortunately on problem #3 in the finals she busted her ankle and was unable to attempt problem #4; too bad because it started on one of her creations- the Teknik “Mothh”… But she climbed well enough on the first three problems to still pull off a 10th place finish, even with zero points on problem #4! There ain’t no thang like a Z-Fang…

And, the “Puma was in the rooma” and once again pulled through into the finals. He finished 16th looking like a deadly ninja in his custom Verve shorts and matching headband.

Here’s a “Team Teknik behind the scenes at the PCA” slideshow, enjoy!

Here is the winning entry from our first Teknik contest.

Teknik Werd subscribers were given the chance to win a Teknik vs. Japan teesh by writing us a "Teknik" inspired haiku.

We were sent lots of haikus, some were pretty good, others pretty iffy, but ultimately we picked this one to win because it had all the elements; the 5-7-5 pattern, it had something to do with nature, it kept to the Teknik theme, and it was just real good!

We laughed, we cried, we're sending him a shirt.

To enter future contests subscribe!

Ok, so everyone’s been hassling us about posting stuff on the Teknik vs Japan tour. Here it is in a fancy little microsite, and we hope you find it was worth the wait…

Subscribe to Teknik to get a heads up on the new werds plus additions to the site.

Also, as a subscriber you'll be able to enter all the cool contests we're gonna throw... try to win some good stuff off us!

But wait; there's more! If you subscribe now you'll get a sneak peak at the Teknik vs Japan microsite two days before anyone else. Thats right, m-i-c-r-o-site... plus we'll be giving away a Teknik vs Japan t-shirt as a prize for our first subscriber contest.

Konichiwa! We're back. Teknik has returned from Japan! (So call us up and order some holds.... we have to pay for all the legwarmers we bought).

Check back soon for the "Teknik vs Japan" Gym Tour werd! We had a crazy fun trip.....

Teknik sponsored the PCA SLC Slam 2 in January. These comps keep getting better and better, and Team Teknik had loads of fun. Kudos to everyone involved.

We were a little worried on the way down when our connecting flight to SLC was cancelled. The airline put us up in a hotel (hehe), and managed to get us on a flight the next day. It worked out well, we arrived a few hours before we had to compete, and we all put in solid efforts.

The finals went well the next day. Seth got a new PB, and Zoe did well coming off a 4 month break from climbing after ankle surgery. And Nels won! It was an exciting comp. Nels flashed a problem that no one else did (the NKR1 was on it so he just had to do it!). And Chris Sharma and Keita (from Japan) both did a problem that Nels didn’t do. So it was a closie, eh!

Teknik joined up with La Sportiva for the Team Event. Same players as usual (Seth, Zoe, Nels), just a new name. Team La Sportiva/ Teknik pulled off a tie for 3rd place, and is ranked 1st in the overall season rankings. Yay!

And of course, the after-party was great….

We'll be away from Teknik until February 23. We're going to SLC for the PCA, then on to Japan! We'll be regularly checking our email while we're away, so please feel free to contact us for infos or whatevs. We will be taking orders via email or fax to process when we return.

Thanks! Seth and Zoe

We're going to SLC for the winter PCA. Wish us luck! Then after the comp... The plan: Japan! Seth, Nels, and Zoe are leaving straight from the SLC PCA for the "Teknik vs Japan Gym Tour".

They will start in the Osaka and Kyoto area to check out comps at a couple gyms. Seth and Zoe will help set for these comps, and Nels will compete. Then there will be "sessions" at gyms around Tokyo where they will battle the locals style vs style on their home turf. Dai Koyomada will be there to take them on at the "Big Rock" gym, and Yuji Hirayama will take them on at "T Wall". Yowza!

The Team has been preparing for the trip both on and off the wall. Zoe made some "judo-chop" style sushi, and Nels is learning how to use his chopsticks... hopefully he'll get it figured out before they go!

It has taken over three months to build it and we have finally gone gold and launched the new site. This site is the fourth version since we started over 4 years ago and is all-new for 2004. The new site contains over 1,100 files (all hand crafted) for a total of 12MB worth of goodies.

The site has new areas as well: Werd (for news from Teknik), Order (for better information on how to buy Teknik) and About Us (our contact details and who we are). You can also link to all of the hold categories from every page in the site. The holds are displayed in an easy-to-use console. Click around and see what you find.

If you want to keep up with Teknik we also have a Werd mailing list. All you need to do is give us your e-mail address and we’ll keep you in the loop when there’s news to tell.

Happy surfing, and if you have a bug or want to shout out some praise, send it to the webmonkey (and be nice).