embarrassing encounters with pros...

so we all know what happens...there they are... the pro you've always wanted to meet... play it cool man play it cool...just act natural like you see them all the time...and right when your about to make a friendly greating and introduce yourself you trip on your laces and fall right on your face :) so this thread is for stories of times you've looked like an idiot in front of pros

mine?

mammut bouldering championship in new jersey. i was watching the pro finals and paul robinson and daniel woods were sitting right in front of me about 5" away facing the crowd so they couldn't see the routes. chris linder was pulling the final moves on one of the harder problems, in my excitement i screamed "GO CHRIS!!!" and as the word chris came out of my mouth so did a large spray of saliva all over daniel woods :( he tried to non shelantly wipe it off with his t-shirt but you know he was thinking " omg that kid just spit on me!"

so there ya go :) post away :)

I had my eye on flyin' hawaiian at Rumney all summer long. Finally the day came to go and flash it. It was the friday before the Nor'easter Climbing fest and I wondered if we would see anyone. My partner thought it would be cool to hit 3 climbing areas in one day. We left from Dover and headed to P-tuck. After about an hour we went to his local bouldering area in Merideth. All the while the only thing I could think of was Flying Hawaiian. Finally 5 hours later we were on the approach, almost out of water and pretty worked. My head was down as I head up to Waimea. I had dry mouth so bad and who is the first person i see? Lisa Rands. Breathing heavy, sweaty and mouth full of cotton I wheez out a "hhhey" and walk by completly awe struck. Two steps later I hear Lisa say to Emily Harrington who stepped out from no where, "did you remember to bring water?" Embarrising right. I wanted to warm up on Waimea but i would have had to ask Tim Kemple to move. I gazed up to see Daniel Woods working Jaws II belayed by Dave Graham. Vasya V. and Joe Kinder just chillen near by. I felt like i was in a dream. Also I had forgotten how to climb. I could hear them talking about the climb as i entered the dihedral. I'm a 5.12 climber but I two hung the hawaiian that day.

I lived in Boulder too long to give a sh$% about pro climbers. I used to be starstruck, now I don't care. They're just people.

guideline #1

roadcutclimber wrote:I lived in Boulder too long to give a sh$% about pro climbers. I used to be starstruck, now I don't care. They're just people.

exactly

so if you were a basketball player that had dreams of being in the NBA and showed up at your local court to practice ball handling and Larry Bird and Michael Jordan were playing one on one you'd say "there just people" and wouldn't be the least bit affected

I misunderstood the tilte of this post. I was hoping to see some comments from Hugh Grant or Marion Berry.

Hampton Uzzelle wrote:I misunderstood the tilte of this post. I was hoping to see some comments from Hugh Grant or Marion Berry.

LMAO!

Dailey wrote:so if you were a basketball player that had dreams of being in the NBA and showed up at your local court to practice ball handling and Larry Bird and Michael Jordan were playing one on one you'd say "there just people" and wouldn't be the least bit affected

yup

i fell off a boulder problem at mt evans last year and accidently grabbed melissa lacosses tit, wasn't really that embarrased, could have been any tit.

Dailey wrote:so if you were a basketball player that had dreams of being in the NBA and showed up at your local court to practice ball handling and Larry Bird and Michael Jordan were playing one on one you'd say "there just people" and wouldn't be the least bit affected

Daily, I think you missed Roadcut's drift a little (and based on his last response, he doesn't quite understand it either). It's because he's encountered so many burly climbers over a prolonged period of time that he's somewhat inured to them. (His casual "yep" about Michael Jordan and Larry Bird was glib; it depends on whether he plays at a gym that sees a lot of NBA players. If so, maybe no big deal. If not, he'd be staring like the rest of us. ("I used to be starstruck") It's the prolonged exposure that dims the shine over time.

But there's a different variable that matters too. There are current pros, and there are legends. Even if you see a lot of players, Bird and Jordan are special. (That's kind of anachronistic--it should be Bird and Magic or Jordan and...?)

Bumping into the latest puller of 5.14 or V-whatever wouldn't excite me as much as seeing someone who raised and changed the sport. Robbins. Bridwell. Bachar. Hill. Who today? Sharma? Caldwell? Huber?

Even though I don't play enough to see the big dogs very often, it takes more than a pro to raise my pulse.

EDIT: Hampton, that was funny.

Hampton Uzzelle wrote:I misunderstood the tilte of this post. I was hoping to see some comments from Hugh Grant or Marion Berry.

Marion Barry arrested for stalking recently

I guess I need to clarify my responses (for what reason I don't know), I just get sick of revering great athletes in any discipline. I'm just not sure how important "sports" are at all. Lance Armstrong, Ron Kauk, Michael Jordan or whatever. Your experience on the planet is just as unique and important as theirs is. I call this unique perspective maturity. It is rare and not encouraged.

Idolizing people is a little lame.

Edit: But to honor your post I will relate an instance.

While climbing the east butt of el cap I found myself at the same belay with Hans Florine. I said in newbie excitement "Hey aren't you Hans Florine?" He quickly climbed away without saying a word.

That's a fair point too. It's a different nuance from your first post. And though I generally agree with you, I still see a place short of hero worship for acknowledging--and being impressed by--truly exceptional accomplishment in most endeavors.

EDIT: And now I'll edit to honor your edit. :) Yeah, a wide range of human decency out there, too. I agree with you that character is to be admired most; and that it bears no particular relationship to other forms of skill. There are good and bad climbers, ballers, artists, etc. And there are good and bad people. And it's important not to confuse one with the other.

True dat Shawn. Showing respect to these people IS important, but its gotta go both ways.

I had one pretty recently actually -- at this year's Teva Mtn Games in vail, CO.
I've always kind of had a thing for the Red Devil (Gabriele Moroni) -- particularly when I saw him competing at the 2008 Bouldering World Cup (first time I had ever seen him in person). Well, this year I decided was the time to grow some balls and chase some tail. I caught his eye during the qualifiers, but chickened out when he finished climbing and was hanging out with a couple other competitors after.
So I waited until the next day. I missed the semi-finals (cause I was checking out the freestyle kayaking), but saw him before the finals and grabbed his arm before he could saunter off. I did a little small talk tango (he speaks OK english, but in case you don't know this kid, he's Italian), and asked him if he got into the finals, and he said No -- I wasn't expecting that so I started to stutter 'sorry' and ended up sneezing 'cause I got so nervous.

Well, for those of you who don't know me, my sneezes could register on the Richter scale, and the amount of snot produced could easily be seen from space as a hurricane. Suffice to say, I didn't ask the Red Devil out as I tried to mop him up.

I was in Squamish a couple of years ago, and I saw this guy at the campground parking lot showing his girlfriend? how to rig something or another with this rope system tied to the back of his open trunk. We talked for a minute and he said he was doing the grand wall the next day, and they were going to be using a backpack as a haul bag. I figured the guy must be kind of a noob to be using a haulbag on the grand wall. My friend and I had just done the route that day, and we talked about it a bit, I remember telling him to double up on #3s for the split pillar (.10b) unless he liked running it out on wide hands, etc. Then he said he was going to try to free the route and I was like "you can't climb 5.13, can you?" and he said "sometimes..."

Anyway, we ended the conversation and I thought he was a little crazy, since he didn't strike me as the hardman type. My friend had to tell me later that the guy was Adam Stack, and that he was a well known badass climber with multiple el-cap free routes and such. Adam was super nice though, and thanked me for my "beta" after he did the route the next day, I was definitely a little embarassed.

Leah Miller wrote: he said No -- I wasn't expecting that so I started to stutter 'sorry' and ended up sneezing 'cause I got so nervous. Well, for those of you who don't know me, my sneezes could register on the Richter scale, and the amount of snot produced could easily be seen from space as a hurricane. Suffice to say, I didn't ask the Red Devil out as I tried to mop him up.

HAHAHAHA that one was awesome!

Many years ago, I was climbing in the Ouray Ice park during the festival weekend, which is very crowded and can incite "crag rage". So by this point in the weekend I was pretty sick of noobs TR'ing all the good lines. I was leading a route between the bridges which was known as the "Lead Only Area". As I was topping out I noticed this chick lowering in from the top to TR, so when I topped out I mentioned to her belayer, a blonde, rugged looking guy, that this area was for lead climbing only. He was very polite and thanked me for the info.

When his partner topped out, they graciously moved on...well, she moved on, anyway to take her place of honor (being last year's champ) as the last competitor in the finals of the mixed competition. It was Kim Czismazia, and Conrad Anker had been belaying her while she warmed up for the comp.

To make matters worse, it turned out that they had just recently "re-zoned" the ice park that year, and it was indeed OK to TR in that area. I was a total douche. I've never seen Conrad again, but I hope some day I'll bump into him so I can apologize for that.

I don't have one, but did hear of a funny story someone else saw. It went something like: Lynne Hill was doing a video session bouldering some stuff I think on HP40.

They had a couple guys with the cameras and set ups, pretty clearly were professionals at work. Apparently some dude came up and started giving Lynn massive amounts of beta, completely oblivious to the situation. Supposedly he went on and on, and would try to show her what to do, but of course couldn't do any of the moves.

I got the Hershey Squirts while Sharma was belaying me on Constantine's Crotch in Norway...needless to say, I lost my Prana endorsement.