Spent a day mountain biking with Dave and Mat it was sick, haven't felt so scared from doing an adventurous activity in quite a while :P
I felt a bit uneasy at first but as I went through the day I was doing things I didn't even think were possible to do on a bike!! I just switched my brain off and let myself balance naturally on the bike. Really awesome!!
I was riding a 3 grand bike and a body armor suit didn't expect that ,haha!
Good times , here are some pics :)
action pics! ( this is the start the day so a bit tame, on the steep bits didn't have time for cameras!)
all 3 of us!
Had an awesome training session on sat improved lots! gonna make a video soon i think!
Then on Sunday I went climbing to Burbage North, with Dave,Katie, her boyfriend, friend and Kate. Again a wicked day soo nice to touch proper rock again and the scenery was beautiful! It was a really nice sunny crisp day, perfect!
Here are some pics!
Dave!
pose!
Katie.
going to Austria SNOWBOARDING! next week, ahhhhhhhh! :D
Well I haven’t updated this in a long time, not really sure why? Anyway lots of big changes from when I last posted.
Most important for me is my BACK is now BETTER ,it felt fully healed in June, good times :D I do however suffer niggly injures all the time it seems :S atm its my toes but it’s not really an issue. I have a problem with my rotator cuff as well in April partially tore my infraspinatus, doing a cork .. it obviously hasn’t healed right as I have have impingement. Which does affect my climbing quite a lot but I should be seeing a physio soon and I have a basic idea of how to rehab it.
Big changes with my Uni and course, basically i hated Geography it was boring, in many ways pointless and overall I could not engage with the course. In January I was basically ready to throw it all away but then I thought I’ll stick it out till the end. After many months of desperately thinking what the hell I wanted to do with my life I made the decision that I would like to do Physiotheraphy as a career having really stuck a cord with the profession after seeing many people about my back. Problem was getting onto the course having no A level sciences. I was going to quit my degree at the end of the year , then live work and study in Sheffield just doing A level biology. I discussed this with my parents they weren’t so impressed, they convinced me to stay on and do A level biology at the same time, would have been tough.. I was pretty nervous when I told my parents I wanted to quit because its a BIG decision but to be fair they were pleased that I had the initiative and was thinking about my life..
So I had reluctantly agreed i would carry on with Geography as well as A level Biology then rack up more debt by doing a physio degree.. I thought I had it all planned out it was a relief in a away , i wasn’t so happy last year, demoralized by injuries and not being able to train and confused about what I wanted out of life. I’m the kind of person that doesn’t really want to just float through life I like making and achieving my goals, in all areas of life, this wasn’t to say I was depressed by an means I was happy, as I love the Uni lifestyle but course was more important in my eyes.
So in the summer holidays around July ish, my mum met her friend who works for Sheffield Hallam physio department supervising people on placements. She told me to just ring up admissions explain the situation and see if I could get lucky?? Anyway i spoke to Rachel the admissions tutor and she said if you pass your 1 st year of uni at 60 % then do some work experience then she might consider me. I did 2 weeks work experience which was really good. It gave me good insight into the profession, I only averaged 55% which is bad but when I did NO WORK last year it wasn’t really a surprise lol after sorting all this out, I then rang again and managed to convince her to let me on the on the course, I was very surprised and very happy!!
The course itself is very interesting and relevant to me!! I actually enjoy going into Uni it seriously makes a massive difference. The people on my course are nice and interesting people. It’s awesome! I had my first test last Monday I find out in a few days how I have done, so *cross fingers*. I want to do well I am treating this as a fresh start I genuinely feel lucky to be on the course, so I am working hard not to fuck this up!
Moving on, Summer 2008 were probably some of the best days of my life. I basically decided not to really work as I wanted to enjoy my summer, thus meaning getting out of Leek as much as possible!! lol, having saved up a little money working as a steward in Sheffield. Money wasn’t really an issue..
• My first trip was Jersey, to stay with Dom . It was good week lots of activities, crazy golf :D flipping in the sand dunes! , Cycling, surfing , bowling and a bit of drinking. generally just chilling out with good friends.
Kids on the beach :D
First time ive been to a Foam Party lol
• Just spending a day back home, I cycled to Lissess with Scott and Alex it was awesome, then we trained for nearly 2 weeks, met soo many cool people. I also managed to do the famous down cat to cats on the staircase. Something i have wanted to do since I saw it, Its was very scary but fun. Having been to Lisses the year before though i wasn’t so bothered about doing all the “famous” stuff , i was just happy training and chilling out, really good times!
i love this Picture , Thanks Kev!
This video which Scott made somes it up :D Winner!!!
• Another day back home then it was the TRACE gathering which i really enjoyed did good training and it was really cool to meet new people and be in an environment where everyone was so obsessed with Parkour haha, lots of fun stuff non training related happened as well such a posing as Trace reps and scaring people in tents. Generally just really good times.
• After probably 2 days at home it was time for my annual London Trip, to go down to the 3run family Jam, again awesome massive thanks to Alex Dagget for letting me stay round his house and generally being awesome! Slept over at Basingstoke gym which was immense as well :D felt really quite inspired after this trip to improve my acrobatics and streetsunts :D!
• Then 2 more days at home I worked at V festival, 3 shit days and 1 good day!! One of the shit days was my birthday I spent 15 hours checking bags for alcohol, it was fucking wank! However on the Sunday i was given a good job , i.e. stand there next to the stage and look busy. On that day I saw Kings of Leon, Prodigy, Muse, Maximo Park, stereophonics and lots more which kinda made up for the shitness of my birthday. Then I did earn 380 quid for doing very little so I can’t really complain too much!!
• Finaly when i got back i saw my family for the first time in about a month and a half lol as they had been in france for 3 weeks the same day as i went to trace. It was good, then me my brother and my dad went to Wales for a week climbing in Snowdonia. I learnt how to lead on traditional routes I really enjoyed it, good trip!
• After a few weeks of dossing /training at home, I went To Barcelona for a week with Mart , Steve, DIBDEN and Alex. It was a really funny trip, I also trained a bit, amazing spots and architecture! It was pretty expensive though!
random street entertainment on Les Rambles.
Also i got the chance to train a lot with all my mates from Stoke big thanks to Toby, Rich, kai, Leon and Tom. It was cool i really enjoyed that. I made a video of the summer, you will see footage from most of the trips i’ve been on, hope you enjoy!!
Got back to Uni in September its been nice to see all my friends again. Since i have been back I have been non stop busy, studying, Training, going out with friends and also OTC. I wouldn’t have my life any other way, I HATE BOREDOM!!
OTC is basically army cadets except its better and you get paid for it, some bits area gay like drill and the uniforms but it is also really quite sociable as well as a pound a pint bar haha! I should hopefully be getting paid to do a parachuting course in the near future, cant wait!
check me out!! lol
dont worry no plans to join the army :)
Anyway life is good at the moment I feel lucky to be in this position, I’m also thankful to all my friends new and old.
Disc is back in place!! all the refered pain from the right hand side of my back has gone, only a little remians on the left. More of the exercsies and sleeping on the floor should solve this. Then i should be back to "normal" :).
Just been skiing it was soo siick such a good time , heres one of my favourite pics from the week! Great snow,Skiing, weather, nightlife and people = fucking amazing time!!
exams soon done no revsion must get my arse in gear, shud be training parkour again sooon!! going to start training for a half marathon aswell which is in may.Also have my one arm chins fairly consistant now still can't do it from deadhang yet soon...
Its doing wonders for my back :D i think the disc is back in place for sure now will check with physio next week! the muscles are pretty fucking sore but i have to push through the pain else the disc wont get better.
Got an inch closer to box splits today which is pleasing still awful though:P but im working on it..
end of 2007 i thought id list some things ive done which im happy about..
# Got a job and finaly money # Got Decent A level results # Got into Sheffield uni which i was extremley happy about # Passed my driving test # learnt to tumble # Taught myself to snowboard # Went to Lisses :D # Met lots of cool people and aqquired a vast list of nicknames lol # The importance of respecting your body learnt a big lesson there!
Back was nearly better!! slept on it funny, woke up did a little bit of parkour went climbing majory fucked it over again gah!! i think the disc is still back in place i dont daren't check in case it messes the muscles up even more.Im bogged down with uni work at the moment so im not really thinking about my back anyway which is probably a good thing!!
Going skiing in January with the uni maybe a bad idea?? with injuries and upcoming exams but it will be siick!! :D
Prior to this new injury i have been running about 4 times a week im feeling so much areobicaly fitter :)
In August, I went to Lisses with Kai, Danny, Scott and BenNuttall.com. It turned out to be the best parkour trip of my life, not only the parkour but the fun atmosphere between all of us as a group added so much more to the trip than I had expected .Literally the first thing I did on arrival of Lisses was climb straight to the top of the Dame du Lac haha, Scott shortly followed me up. We both stood on the top in awe; however we hadn’t at this point considered the difficulties of getting down. Rather ironically deciding the left hand “easy” way was too scary to go down, we both went down the most dangerous ways instead not a great idea.... Scott went down the middle and I went to the right then skirted across down the back. We soon came to realise that the left hand way was the easiest as we both went up numerous times lol. The Dame du Lac came to be my favourite area to train in Lisses/ Evry as it just had endless possibilities of linking movements together it was a real joy to train on. On my first day in Lisses I felt a little daunted in some way at the scale of the “famous” obstacles and movements, everything was so much bigger and awkward than it looks on film so much respect to the French guys. However as we adapted to the environment, I managed to do quite a few movements which really did test my ability for example some of the big precisions and cat pass precision in Evry. I felt great about training that week as my back was giving me hardly any trouble . The only thing that was bothering me was the fact my arms were wrecked virtually all week, more than likely due to the fact I had done so little parkour over the previous few months and done a distinct lack of conditioning: S. I can’t really remember what happened now, day by day but basically it was an epic trip which really pushed my parkour level up to where it should be. Enjoy the video :D
I started Sheffield Uni in late September, I’m having an awesome time I just love the student lifestyle and the independence. I‘ve made some great friends and had some awesome times. I’m literally never bored except when I’m doing work :P which isn’t that often tbh I need to pull my finger out and do more. The course is going alright so far the first year of geography is very general so it gets better in the 2nd and 3rd year but still I am enjoying it. One thing has started to annoy me my diet has got quite poor and I’m not eating enough fruit and veg and I’m eating too much greasy pizza haha and drinking a lot more alcohol than I ever did at home :S but I guess it’s part of the experience. In terms of doing much parkour and climbing I haven’t really got going, due to a sprained wrist and partially dislocated shoulder and of course my back :/. My shoulder is now better; my wrist is nearly getting there. I have had a bad back for 7-8 months and its affected my training so much especially acro, it was a weird injury sometimes it would feel fine then others I would barely be able to move, it has definitely affected my quality of life over the last year.... However I can now see light at the end of the tunnel, bizarrely from the yesterday night’s drunken antics, where by friends drunken rage caused me to be pushed over in my chair. Rather strangely the impact of the fall appears to have clicked my disc back into place .I know this because I don’t feel any pain leaning right back anymore its quite refreshing after 7-8 months of lower back pain. I still have a few muscle strains in my back which are quite painful but they will go over time the main disc seems to be ok (Y) *touch wood*. So the plan is now to spend a few months light training no impact and lots of back strengthening exercises. I’m starting Pilates next week and I’m doing lots of swimming and running about 3-4 times a week also I will now place a greater emphasis on flexibility work. This is all of course after my bruised tail bone heals which another thing was caused by the fall. It basically hurts to move and will probably take 6 weeks to heal properly, so lots of swimming is in order. Swings and roundabouts eh :P. I will keep my back progress updated. I can’t wait to properly train parkour again 100% and of course acro :D. I’m also going to actually start using the blog regularly now, so keep checking if you care at all lol. That’s it for now...
18 year old male currnetley at sheffield uni, enjoys parkour,acro, rockclimbing and skiing/snowboarding.
Other intrests include reading,camping,nights out/clubing with freinds,music,films and editing and many more :)
