Wednesday, October 1, 2008

International TreX Games. Busan 2008







Another whip whirlwind weekend adventure allowed us to travel south to Busan. This city by the sea is more like an overflowing metropolis strung along by bright lights and race car commuters. I, along with a cluster of climbers slash English teachers had the ultimately unique opportunity to participate in the 2008 International TreX games as sport climbers! The name comes from a blending of Tr from Traditional, e from e-sports and x from extreme sports (that's me!). The event is promoted as a “global community sports festival” only recently adding relatively new sports in addition to culturally traditional sports.

Along with Pro skaters, BMX junkies, inline skate fanatics, we were stuffed into BEXCO waiting to try our callused hands at the colourful plastic oh-so precisely drilled in front of our eyes.
Now, not to divulge how extraordinary we all climbed the puzzling V5 problems, our competition was stiff. Watching Popeye-armed Asian women campus up the 45 degree construction gave me hope in the double X chromosome. Not only the women, but the men as well put us westerners to shame. Regardless of the results, we sure were able to entertain ourselves (especially on the all night pub crawl that followed delivering us to the sunrise). Fun. That word seems to flood out of my mouth at every turn of a corner still.

I have been reminded of two things this weekend. First, always try to find the moments that make you smile in every situation and second, once the competition is over don’t hesitate to let your inner beast unleash. The competition was an incredible, a once in a life time opportunity.

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