Cam built his own bouldering gym in his suburban Canberra backyard as the sport's popularity climbs

ABC NEWS (Australia)

The sport of bouldering, also known as rock climbing, has just marked its second appearance at an Olympics Games. And as the sport's popularity continues to climb, the keenest fans are going to extremes to reach peak performance.

Transcript

00:00This set up, people all around the world have the same set up and there's an app which you

00:09can change the climbs and there's thousands of climbs to choose from.

00:12I got a bit hooked on that and decided I'd like one at home.

00:16So I just decided to build one.

00:19This is my climbing room out the back of our shed in the backyard in Canberra.

00:23Pretty much the same as building a deck or a big stud wall, I guess, and then a couple

00:29of hinges and some chains to hold it up.

00:32And I needed a roof over it, so I thought, oh well, might as well put some walls on.

00:37And then they became spots for holds and then there was a roof, so I thought I might as

00:42well stick some holds on the roof.

00:44This is like not a bad workout for sort of steeper climbing, it gets you fit anyway.

00:51My wife comes out and says hello, that's about it.

00:55My daughter will swing around on the rings and hang out with me with the dogs, but they're

00:59not really that into it.

01:01And what was people's reactions when they come, if they haven't seen this before, if

01:04they come over and see this?

01:05Oh, they probably think it's pretty outrageous.

01:08They think, my climbing friends certainly think it's pretty cool.

01:15I got into climbing mainly because my daughters got into climbing, so I had the choice of

01:20sitting down and watching or getting involved myself, so I guess I decided it'd be more

01:25fun to actually have a go myself.

01:27I think some people would describe it as playing chess on the wall, getting the right movements,

01:33getting the right position.

01:35So it's not just strength, and often the people that are the best climbers aren't the strongest,

01:40they're the ones with the best technique, the best technical expertise.

01:44When you're climbing, when you're bouldering, you can't really focus on anything else.

01:48You can't think about anything other than the climb.

01:50It's just really relaxing, it's a really good start to the day, I've got a pretty high-stress

01:55job and it just gets me very relaxed and set for the day.

01:59I started, well I'm 61 now, so I guess I started when I was in my 50s.

02:04I've told my children if I, when I start getting dementia, I'm just going to go out climbing

02:08without ropes.

02:09I love it, I'll do it till the day I die.

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