Guest Blogger Andy Mann

The future of climbing lay on the finger tips of today’s youth. The next Chris Sharma and Alex Johnson’s are out there among us and already cranking double digit boulder problems. I spent a day out shooting photos with members of TEAM ABC this month in the bouldering mecca of Hueco Tanks State Park in El Paso, Texas. Among this talented and spirited group of little crushers were Shawn (11) and Brooke (8) Raboutou, children of, and coached by two former World Cup Champions: Robyn Erbesfield-Raboutou and Didier Raboutou. Aside from myself giving into the overwhelming energy to act 11 years old again, which I did most of the day, I was able to snap some fun pictures of the crew sending hard. Highlights of the day included Brooke and Shawn sending/flashing the classic V8 “Mr.Serious.” (Shawn shortly thereafter added the V10 sit start, and Brooke went on the send a V9!)

So, I was reminded again not to take climbing, or anything in life for that matter, too seriously and that there is no reason that I can’t be 11 years old whenever I’m out enjoying the rocks and sun! Thanks PrAna for your support in today’s youth climbing and for helping the family of climbing along. Please enjoy the pics and don’t act your ages!

Cheers – Andy

Tags: Bouldering, Climbing, Didier Raboutou, fun, Hueco Tanks, Mr.Serious, Robyn Erbesfield-Raboutou, Team ABC, youth

This entry was posted on Thursday, February 11th, 2010 at 1:00 am and is filed under Culture, Rock Climbing, Training. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.