Personal Thank You note.. .
Dear Friends, climbers from near and far, fellow organisers, helpers, local authorities and government agencies, visitors and all.
Firstly a personal thank you to make the recent Rock On 2 a success. It was the special combination of each and every contribution that made this event what it was. Awesome has been used to describe the event.
Climbers left the event with a smile from ear to ear. There were those who had to be forced into their transport to catch their flight upon being lowered from their climb. Then there were those who hung around and chatted and left the festival site at the very last minute as their transport was honking away. A few found their first love for climbing and are hungry for more.
The Rock On 2 – marathon sports climbing festival held from 23-25 September, 2011 is a follow on from Rock On 1. Eunice and I had a dream of re-starting climbing here in Kuching and together with the 1st BELIA event held Rock On 1 on artificial walls in Sarawak’s premier shopping mall. It was a very tame affair as we had to start promoting the sport from scratch. The support for the first event was hardly sufficient to cover costs and thanks to the personal contribution from close friends, this came to reality.
We again looked to running this event but wanted to shift a gear up. The most important thing was to find a weather proof venue (last year’s event got rained on lots) and we came back to none other than home climbing ground at the Batman wall. The venue was big enough to hold live concert, run food, drinks and souvenir bazaar and had the perhaps the most important component – the natural climbing walls.
We realised that we did not have sufficient climbs and in the months coming up the event Alex, Noh and Malcolm went on a bolting frenzy. Eight new climbs around the Fairy Cave area were put-up form easy 5Bs to 7A.
The
event had to benefit the local community who are ancestral custodians of
Gunung Kapur that houses Fairy Cave and the four main climbing areas at
this mountain. The villagers set-up food and drink stalls sold souvenirs
and had live music as entertainment. The last time they had a festival
was well over ten years ago and now Rock On 2 gave them reason to feel
good about themselves and build up a sense of pride for the area. The
festival also attracted none adventurous visitors.
Gunung Sireh aka Chalk Mountain
A strong sense of pride is what is needed to raise local awareness for conservation and respect for public facilities. We had an uphill struggle with vandalism and social problems and our next plan of action is to work closely with the community leaders in addressing social and youth issues.
We had in fact been working with the villages and communities in this area for twelve years. It started with running tourism awareness courses, the setting up of homestays and then the first phase of bolting routes on Batman wall with a bunch of Aussie climbers that included Garth Miller and Simon Wilson.
During our quiet years, Chien Lee and Glen MacNair had been slowly adding new routes to the area but there was little activity between climbers and the villages. Alex Holke moved to Kuching and with his German enthusiasm started bolting new routes (started with Laba-Laba 6C+ in 2009). This added to the climbing wave that was to come and had now arrived.
It used to be that the local crag had more ‘ang mos’ than locals, but that has now changed. There is a core bunch of local climbers who are improving as the months go by. What is more important is that Noh, Ateng and I have caught the bolting bug. Whenever we see a wall, we see the lines and that would translate to more climbs.
But alas, we know that bolting is a very expensive affair and we are hoping to work with ringbolt manufacturers as well as other supplies to put up more climbs and attract climbers here so that we can build a local economy around climbing to benefit the local villages. Why? We hope to address social issues by creating work for the younger people here, instil a sense of pride in them and perhaps one day raise a local Adam Ondra or Chris Sharma. In that respect, we would set-up a boulder wall at the village community centre for their kids to play on from parts of Rock On 2’s artificial climbing wall.
We managed to raise RM 591 from contributions from beginner climbers who climbed the artificial wall. The fund goes into St. Patrick's Church Building fund. This church is the parish for seven villages in the Krokong areas.
Climbers hand over the funds to Paramount Chief Michael Dihoi at the Batman Wall.
We had mooted the idea of this event since last year but working within the ‘system’ can sometimes leave us in tatters. Meetings needed to be held, holidays get in the way, people are out of their office and reasons are endless but this event would not be possible by the combination of many. Firstly, thank God Almighty.. as all things worked out well in the end.
For the local climbers, we wish to thank Alex and Noh our climbing buddies who through thick and thin hung out with us and shared in the same vision. Dato James Dawos and Dr. Jerip Susil, who supported the many efforts needed in the villages. Mary Wan, my ex-colleague at the Ministry of Tourism Sarawak, for pushing the little seed fund to make the event possible. My friends Larry Sng, who loves sports, and Michael Saweng who had helped us countless times along the way all through these years. The people at Krokong led by Paramount Chief Michael Dihoi, Samjun and Joseph as well as the government agencies, sponsors X-Fab, HILTI and Red Bull. Lastly to our good friends at Climb Asia, Halil, Yu Seung, Jubs and Chuan for taking time to come to Kuching and assisting us in so many ways.
So what’s next? Where do we go from here? The dates pencilled for next year are 9 to 12 August. It is going to be a real competition. There would be 6 or 7 routes up for on-sight comp and a good number of boulder routes including some roof problems. None-competitive climbers can still come and climbs and we would award supplementary prizes in recognition of their efforts.
With a more structured and ‘serious’ event, it is hoped that we can secure corporate sponsors and attract more climbers. Hilti Malaysia had supported us with glue for the next few routes. Who knows, perhaps we can add an outdoor gear retail to the stalls at the event. We’ll also need to be selective about the rock bands that will be performing at the nightly concert.
In conclusion, make a date, grab that free flight seat, train and come for Rock On 3! We’ll be seeing you soon.
Malcolm & Eunice
Please see pictures on our FaceBook site: http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150307694039822.349229.726959821
SK Jong's Photography Part 1: http://skjongphotography.blogspot.com/2011/09/rock-on-2-festival-part-i.html
SK Jong's Photography Part 2: http://skjongphotography.blogspot.com/2011/09/rock-on-2-festival-part-ii.html