MARTY KARABIN'S MESSAGE TO ALL CLIMBERS

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karabin museum

Trad climber

phoenix, az

Topic Author's Reply - Jul 25, 2011 - 01:42am PT

Steve Grossman, The Dolt Purple Spider Nut #6 is amazing! Thanks for sharing the pictures! I have only seen it in the black and white photo copy that Gary Neptune sent me years ago. Finally I am seeing the actual color. Thanks! The next mystery is finding out how rare it is and how rare the #10 Trunut is.

If possible, can you give me measurements of your #6. Is it 1 1/8" x ?

Susan, I still consider you the strongest local Female that year you competed. Jim should still get slapped for slipping in that girls scorecard when she never paid to compete. Those Penuttles were great! I purchased a few or more containers in support of Amber's camp experience.

Rock on! Marty

Steve Grossman

Trad climber

Seattle, WA

Jul 25, 2011 - 10:56am PT

Inch and an eighth in diameter and inch and a quarter long...

If this is your first sighting, then rare it is, me bucko!

karabin museum

Trad climber

phoenix, az

Topic Author's Reply - Jul 27, 2011 - 09:05am PT

T-Shirts from the Phoenix Bouldering Competitions

karabin museum

Trad climber

phoenix, az

Topic Author's Reply - Jul 27, 2011 - 09:07am PT

So what killed the Phoenix Bouldering Contest?

So I don't shoot myself in the foot here, I will say, "In Martys opinion," The Phoenix Bouldering Contest stopped because of two words, Control and Greed. Jim Waugh didn't necessarily create the bouldering contest himself, it was a growth of ideas from many people which channelled it into a successful event. Two other minds that helped the PBC grow were David Gunn and Sandy Draus. Plus Debra DePiero, Tim Penner, Saundra Murphy and many others. Jim was the overall director, and the weight of the entire event running smoothly was on his shoulders. Jim was lucky that he had great people working for him for free, who knew many people in the industry that helped obtain sponsorships, etc. For example, my Xwife is in the publishing business so putting together Media packages for the PBC was an easy task. My passion and persistence got the TV crews to cover the comps. Susan Peplow knows everybody in the climbing industry so getting sponsors was easier, but a stressful task to say the least. Richard Horst and Greg Varela love to find and create new boulder problems, so they were course setters for the comp. Jim had many friends that were already working in certain fields of businesses that directly correlated into the departments of the PBCs needs.

Control and Greed. Over time the Phoenix Bouldering Contest grew to over 600+ competitors and around 1000 spectators all camping in one area. It was massive, but somehow it was very organized. However over time the comp became a dumping ground for manufacturers to get rid of their factory defect products, also known as factory seconds. The deals were amazing! Climbing shoes for $25 a pair, ropes for $60, triple fold crash pads for $75, any size climbing hold for $2 each, back packs, clothing, carabiners and whatever a climber needed was there at the PBC. I know every year I brought along $1000 to spend knowing the deals would be there, and I always overspent. What was happening is that the local climbing stores in Arizona, and the states surrounding Arizona, noticed a huge decline in their climbing product sales. Nobody needed backpacks, crash pads, ropes, or shoes. Remember this is back before the internet was around, or when the internet was just starting to gain speed. Jim had sponsor contracts with the sponsors that were showing gear which stated that they should not be selling gear, just showing their products. Many sponsors respected this since they did not want to sell their products outside their promises made to their retailers that carried their products. Other sponsors kept up with the dumping of their seconds. I never saw the harm in this until I owned a climbing store myself, then it dawned on me the damage the PBC was causing to the retailers.

Dave Baker, the previous owner of the Summit Hut in Tucson, eventually brought this awareness to all of the climbing stores in AZ, CA, NV, TX, and NM. All of these stores agreed to not carry any products that were SOLD by sponsors at the PBC, that found it okay to dump their gear and undercut their retailers. This became a big problem! One example is that PrAna clothing brought along hundreds/thousands(?) of pieces of clothing to the PBC. Once the PrAna booth was opened, these thousands(?) all sold within three hours. If you were not in the line before Friday night, the PrAna booth was totally empty by then. PrAna brought along massage tables and had poster signings to keep their booth having climber interest for the final days of the comp. I am not picking on PrAna because I am dedicated to Beaver, but this example shows that all of the competitors knew how the "schwag and deal" system worked, and how quickly so many items were sold. On the Sponsor contract, the sponsor had to remain at the comp for the entire three days, but some still unloaded their gear quickly and left leaving an unoccupied booth at the comp. Other companies still unloaded hundreds of pairs of shoes even though they agreed not to do that anymore. It was becoming a total carnival of destruction to the PBC organizers. The competitors however found it to be a dream come true. I am no Saint when it comes to this dreamy feeling. I too spent every penny I had on the deals. The majority of the sponsors were really cool about the whole situation so don't get me wrong! This was the best Bouldering competition in the world, but it only takes a few bad apples to ruin the entire basket.

Control and Greed. In 2003/2004, the mine located on the hill 1/2 mile up the road from Oak Flat Campground, was causing problems for the PBC. The mine was not the overall problem where the mine, Resolution Copper Company, generously was waving a big wad of cash to become one of the PBC sponsors. This was great for the PBC organizers since everybody was always working for free on the event. The extra cash could relieve some of the developing tension felt by the volunteers massive responsibilities, and the PBC competition scrapped by every year without hardly putting any money in Jim's pocket for his efforts. But this new Mine sponsorship idea did not sit well with others. Many sponsors threatened to drop their commitment to the PBC if the Mine was a sponsor of the event. The Arizona Mountaineering Club backed off saying if the Mine is a sponsor, you loose over one hundred volunteers. The City of Superior stated that if the Mine is NOT a sponsor, you will have no trash service, nor will you have no outhouses or anything from the City of Superior as support. With no trash service or outhouses at the event, the Tonto National Forest would not give the necessary permits to have the event on their land. Jim just wanted to have a simple huge climbers festival, but it was everybody else that eventually started calling the shots. Jim's event went out of control and fell into many heated bickering fights between Organizations, Manufacturer sponsors, and City departments. It is interesting that Jim stood back from the fight as the Mine continued to wave their cash to keep the competition alive. Not many sponsors were willing to give more cash to save the competition, nor did they want the Mines cash to be involved.

This beautiful event was dead! Control and Greed took over the Phoenix Bouldering Contest, instead of everybody just playing nice in the playground sandbox. Once politics is added to anything, you might as well just place a cement slab where the sandbox used to be, because the fun will never resume without some outside force controlling it. Jim was the one that should of had control since it was his competition. Others eventually did not see it that way. Jim Waugh eventually moved away from the USA, and now happily lives in Thailand. He has been, and still is, the Climbing organizer for the Asian X-games.

karabin museum

Trad climber

phoenix, az

Topic Author's Reply - Jul 27, 2011 - 09:35am PT

I do not believe Yates ever created the Big Dude #4, there are only a few Big Dude #5s created.
Mainly #6 and #7 was created.

ChampionSleeper

Trad climber

Phoenix, AZ

Jul 27, 2011 - 10:12am PT

Great stuff Marty. The results from the 17th PBC are pretty impressive. It's cool to see the local climbers holding their own against the pros and soon to be pros. Happy to see that Caldwell beat Graham too!

I would say keep it up, but I'm not getting anything done at work now and its all your fault!

karabin museum

Trad climber

phoenix, az

Topic Author's Reply - Jul 28, 2011 - 01:32am PT

I found a few of my nut tools. I know I have more somewhere.....

karabin museum

Trad climber

phoenix, az

Topic Author's Reply - Jul 28, 2011 - 01:33am PT

karabin museum

Trad climber

phoenix, az

Topic Author's Reply - Jul 28, 2011 - 01:34am PT

karabin museum

Trad climber

phoenix, az

Topic Author's Reply - Jul 28, 2011 - 01:34am PT

Acer

Big Wall climber

Jul 28, 2011 - 02:55am PT

I am liking this thread a bunch.

Thanks Marty.

Fritz

Trad climber

Choss Creek, ID

Jul 28, 2011 - 11:40am PT

WOW!

That is a great collection of nut tools.

Thanks for taking the time to dig those out, photograph, and post here!

ChampionSleeper

Trad climber

Phoenix, AZ

Jul 29, 2011 - 11:44am PT

Crazy stuff. Some cool features in those. My ideal nut tool would have a nice hand bashing surface, an integral carabiner gate, and a wrench for tightening bolts.

What are the wingnuts for?

How do spring loaded tools work?

Also, Page 4 is unacceptable.

Morgan

Trad climber

East Coast

Jul 29, 2011 - 08:31pm PT

^^^
It's called the TORQUE by Metolius.

Clint Cummins

Trad climber

SF Bay area, CA

Jul 30, 2011 - 04:46am PT

The original nut tool was a Lost Arrow and a hammer! :-)
They still belong in the piton and hammer parts of the collection, though.
Multi-use tools....

karabin museum

Trad climber

phoenix, az

Topic Author's Reply - Jul 30, 2011 - 07:22pm PT

The 2 wing nut Nut tools are used together to create a longer tool to retrieve cams that are jammed too far back in the crack. These two tools shown are made of aluminum and titanium by AZ's own Chuckwalla Company. Chuckwallas are the name of the first Tri-nuts created, which were somehow manufactured by Omega Pacific around the Chuckwalla patent.

The two spring loaded devices are used to retrieve cam devices that are jammed in the crack. The spring and wing nut lock keep tension on the cam lobes keeping them closed, while the climber works hands free with other tools releasing the individual cam lobes and removing it from the crack. In theory this works great, but I have gone after many stuck cams and it is not as easy to get them out as one may think. For stuck cams I use this spring device, two coat hangers with different hook bends on them, and a second person using a Chouinard crag hammer. A gent by the name of Peter Dorrestein of AZ was a master of removing stuck devices. He created tools to unscrew the cam axle bolts and then removed the cams lobe by lobe.

I have a Chouinard Long Dong which looks like the Dolt nut tools above but shorter. I believe it is presently in the display at the rock gym. They basically are a longer Lost Arrow piton with no pick notch.

In addition to these nut tools shown, Stephane in Corsica has 20+ more other nut tools that I am still searching for. Forrest Bam nut tool is one of them. Boo Dawg has a Dolt leather nut tool holder shown in the Dolt Stories thread.

Sorry but no History lesson this week or next week. Slider history is next so be ready! This week was my 47th birthday which my kids used my wallet to create the fun at Wet and Wild water park. Totally awesome fun!!! Next week is the OR show in Utah where I will be busy catching up with friends!

karabin museum

Trad climber

phoenix, az

Topic Author's Reply - Jul 30, 2011 - 07:30pm PT

For my 47th Birthday I decided to put on the Bridwell shirt. The jeans are what I wore back in 1981, 1982 in high school in Michigan. I had many hippie clothes that I wore throughout my Junior and Senior year, and listened to over one hundred different Jimi Hendrix albums. That's just another collection that's packed away in storage. The Bridwell shirt is off to the OR show where it will be on display at the show, then it is being shipped to the Yosemite Museum where it belongs.

Fritz

Trad climber

Choss Creek, ID

Jul 30, 2011 - 08:22pm PT

Marty: Great photo and great destination for the shirt. Hopefully, I'll see it, and maybe even run into you at OR. My appointment schedule doesn't lighten up until Sunday.

Thanks for all the great photos!