Far Out Son of Lung...

Needed: Creative Inspiration

I need a muse. I went to the ABS Bouldering Competition at Summit on Saturday with a desire to cover the comp and do some more freelance work. I went to the comp, I watched and I took in as much as I could. Chatted with the kids in the comp, met some folks and did some things... All in all I came away from it feeling good about some ideas, but the comp itself won't get any coverage from me. I don't want to talk about who placed where or who sent which problems. I want to talk about people, I want to see who these folks are and what motives them and drives them to climb hard and compete, but I don't care much for the comp itself.

I met a kid, about 17 years old, named Nicholas. Nicholas was a wealth of information and I got to talking to him about what he would want to read aobut in a magazine. He and his friends said that good descriptions of the problems would be fun to read, but also talking about the teams. What are the training procedures used and what kinds of things do they do to get better at bouldering and climbing? Youth climbing doesn't get much coverage, so maybe that's an angle?

I'm thinking I need to get inside a team, get inside a training program and talk about what makes these kids tick as opposed to which climbs they've sent. It is interesting to see what they are sending, but at the same time I'd rather know more about them as people. That, of course, is not going to be easy. Trust is a huge issue and getting them to open up honestly won't be very easy.

I also met a photographer at the event, a guy named Owen that is fresh out of photography school in California and looking to make a name for himself. I need to give him a call, get some ideas between us and see what happens. To that end, I'm also in touch with a guy named Shannon that wants to get together and chat about some ideas for stories. I'd like to cover longer term stuff like following a team through a race season, maybe a local pro like Ty Howard. He may have similar ideas or something entirely different, but working in unison we might come up with some really killer ideas, who knows?

I need to talk with Shan Moore again as well about freelance and things. Mostly, I need some direction, some inspiration and some focus. I need a plan. Suggestions?

posted by GreSam @ 12:04