So on Sunday, Lisa and I decided to do a little light climbing out at Mt. Diablo. The afternoon started well. We had to run to San Francisco because I had to do a little work at a terminal of a machine that didn’t want to connect to the network before we went, but that only took like 10 minutes. When we got to Diablo, we both realized that we have no idea where in the hell we are going so we decided to roam around the park and mark things in the GPS. We stayed in the Rock City area and there were a ton of people on the main paths. We stumbled upon Sentinel Rock and decided to go off the path and hike to the bottom of it. Once we got to the bottom after quite an adventure we found a quiet spot and put our stuff down. We decided to climb a bit of it and just have some fun on our first outdoor climb together. So I did a hard little problem on the side of the rock face.

As I went to move to the next position my right foot slipped and all my weight was on my right hand and the tiny ledge. I heard a snap in my wrist that seemed to hurt for a second and then went away.  I finished the problem and all was fine. Then Lisa decided to do a taller and easier route on the wall. As lisa was cleaning her start holds, a shower of yellow droplets came down the rock face… What is yellow, and smells like piss? You got it, someone was pissing off of a cliff above! If you know Lisa, you can only imagine how mortified she was. Luckily, the scream caused the shower to stop and the golden river flowed a less resistant path down the rock face about 10 yards away. Lisa climbed the rock anyway (partly because I think she was going to go and kick some ass but they were gone… I have never seen her climb that fast).  Then she came down and I did the route.

By this time we had been in the park a couple of hours and it was time to head home. So we trekked back using the GPS and followed a different trail. It was very pretty. We got back to the car and headed home. When I got home, my wrist started hurting… it just got worse and worse… I don’t know what I did to my wrist but it still hurst really bad today. I had to wrap it up just to make it feel better. I think I am going to see the doctor about it later this week. All in all though, it was a really fun Sunday afternoon and I would say it was worth the hurt wrist.

Last night I finally found a pair of rock climbing shoes that I like. Over the past month, I have been trying to find a pair of climbing shoes that fit my foot that I liked. I have Morton’s foot (when the second toe is longer than the big toe). It seems that almost all the serious climbing shoes on the market are designed with an asymmetrical toe box causing one of two things to happen… First, my outer toes end up curled up in the toe box… or second, I end up with a shoe that has a lot of air in the heal. Neither is good in my book.

So, last night, I found a shoe that seems to fit my symetrical toe configuration amazingly well! Evolv’s Demorto shoe. The shoe fits my foot well, doesn’t cause the toe curl and is a high performance shoe! What more can I ask for?! So tonight I am putting the shoes to the test at the gym to see just how awesome the Trax rubber is.

So I have made my decision about what gym I am going to join. The Bladium outweighs the YMCA almost two to one. My final deciding factors boiled down to two things.

First, I spoke to a few friends that are black belts in multiple martial arts styles. They all told me that going from one style of karate to another is easier than going from one art to the other. I assumed it would be harder because of being “set in your ways” so to speak.

Second, and more importantly, pay attention business owners… Customer service and staff attitude! The staff at the Downtown Berkeley YMCA were all generally unhelpful. I called there and spoke to three different people through the coarse of a week and they all didn’t care about keeping me or losing me. I would say that the staff at the YMCA had the same attitude as the staff at the Local Wal-Mart - Hate their jobs, hate their customers, and hate their managers. So Screw you YMCA! I don’t need you!

On the other hand, The Bladium’s staff were all more than helpful. Dave Gonzalez is an awesome guy. He helped me get setup as a guest member to try the place out and hooked me up with my membership. By far, the best guy there so far, is Charles. Charles works at the rock wall. He teaches and certifies belaying and he stayed late TWICE for Lisa and me! He was there a half an hour after he was supposed to get out of there to certify us. I would like to see anyone at the YMCA have that kind of dedication to their members. Hell, I wasn’t even a paying member yet! Plus, he is genuinely nice and happy. So, I say it again, SCREW YOU YMCA!