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JOSHUA PLATKO
16 years old
Home town: Matawan, NJ
16 years old
Home town: Matawan, NJ
We caught up with Joshua Platko to learn more about the path he’s taken to become the climber he is today and where he sees it going in the future. We also reflected on his experience at the first ever Gumby Circuit competition where he placed third.
Keep reading to learn about Josh’s slow burn towards success on the comp scene, his home wall set up, training methods, and what makes Josh, Josh.
Watch the Gumby Circuit video if you’re not sure whether or not you want to read up on this guy. Trust me. You do.
You started climbing when you were six and started competing at seven. How did you find climbing?
We were members of this pool club in Jersey and they put a little deep water solo wall up. It was like ten feet tall, but I got really good at it over the summer. And you know, it was really short and it was really easy stuff, but I loved it.
How did you start getting involved in teams?
Even though I was too young to join the team, I was old enough to compete with USAC. So they kind of fudged my age a little bit on the system at Gravity Vault. I joined the team when I was really young, even though I shouldn’t have.
From the movie “The Benchwarmers” 2006
Were you any good by then?
I mean, I was never very good actually. I was always actually really bad at climbing.
In an instagram post, you said you were having a hard time with climbing prior to the pandemic. What was going on pre COVID and how did the pandemic flip the switch?
When I was in D, when I was a lot younger, I had this motivation to really train hard and do good. And I was always training, but I was really short. And I blamed a lot of my mistakes on my height. I’m only 5’3 and I’m 16. So I'm not really average. Even back then I was really short, but before COVID I had just missed out on making nationals and I was basically done.
But we couldn’t do anything for months, all the gyms were closed until September of 2020, and I realized I can’t live without climbing. And so we built a training wall in the garage and we went outdoors a couple times. And yea, the training wall actually just helped a lot. I learned how to set on it and I got some volumes and stuff and I really started playing around with getting strong and training.
2024
Whose idea was it to build the home wall?
Well, so one of my friends had just put in a home wall like right before COVID started and he was getting a lot better. He would send me videos and stuff. I was like, damn, I want to get that good.
I was never the best on the team, so I really took a lot of inspiration from people my age. I always wanted to be like that. I took the idea of the home wall and begged my parents for months and months and they eventually gave in and let me put it up.
It’s not optimal. It’s not the best training angle. It’s 20 degrees, but I mean it’s still great.
2021
How do you set on your board?
As soon as we got it, I started setting really easy boulders. Like v2 v3, but back then that’s what I was sending so it was kind of perfect.
It’s not that big, but it's got a lot of holds. It was me and my friend Luke, who was also in Gumby Circuit. He came over to my house and then we started setting some really cool projects with holds that I had just gotten. And then we kept putting up climbs, you know. Two days he slept over at my house and we had a pretty good outline of a spray. And then over years I’ve just filled it in with holds. Like sandpapering down wood and stuff.
Do you make your own holds?
I’ve wanted to start making plastic holds, but i’ve taken a lot of scrap wood, jenga blocks, and stuff that I found. Just like, garbage. I have some weird obscure holds, but they’re actually really good for training. Especially like some of the junk I’ve found. Also a lot of rulers. I’ve put a couple of rulers. I even took a piece of a fence from the boardwalk down in Seaside and I put it on the wall.
Listerine Foot Chip + Jenga Pieces
You set dynos and coordination moves on your woody. People don’t do that.
Yea, people don’t do that. I have a couple paddles and a really cool six foot dino across the board.
Climbing is evolving, everything’s comp style now. So its good to set dynos as well as really cool crimp lines. It’s the future.
Do you have any projects on it right now?
The holds are terrible. Most of them are really bad, so it’s mainly a project board. I also have a little corner wall, so I usually put some warm ups in there. But ya, I have a lot of open projects. All of them are pretty sick.
There are infinite possibilities. Realistically there's a v17 on my board, I just haven't found it yet.
You seem very intentional about your training. There are climbers that just climb and there are climbers who train really hard. Where do you fall on that spectrum?
I train a lot. And I train pretty intentionally. If I see that I’m doing bad on slab, I go to gyms that have slab. Like method, goat, or stuff like that. But I’m pretty much about that climbing mindset.
I’ve worked for so long to get my crimp strength to where it is. It’s a lot of hangboarding. A lot of 90 degree lock offs. You know, I’m pretty good at routine.
It’s also stretching. I would be nowhere if I didn’t have my flexibility. I think that comes from doing ballet for ten years of my life.
I just kind of keep stretch and I keep strong. But that’s really all I do. I don’t really train too much. It’s mainly projecting and spray wall stuff.
Do you work with a coach?
Yea, so my coach is from Middletown. Sean Walsh. He’s the best coach I’ve ever had. He’s always been there for me. Even when I wasn't too great he still paid so much attention to me.
When did he come into the picture?
About when I was seven. For the first year from like six to seven I was mainly just on the lower level teams, like rec and intermediate. Once I made it to the advanced team he was always my coach. Always such a fun guy to work with. He’s the best.
There are a lot of gyms on the East Coast. Are you utilizing the different gyms?
I utilize the gyms pretty well. I go to a ton of different coaches. I went to a coach down in Virginia, Sophie, and I went to Jeremy at Method.
I’ve stuck with the same core coach. But with some of the dynamic things and some of the things that I need help on, I go everywhere. And it’s a good approach, I think. Like the TRAINING VILLAGE. It’s so many people just helping me and I wouldn’t be anywhere without them.
Is that a thing that people are doing? Or is that just you?
Not to say that I started it, but after my first nationals, I did terrible so I knew I needed to get on some comp style stuff. And I went to a couple of coaches down there and I think we got recommended the gym but not the coaching. A lot of other people that I know just go to other gyms. But i think it’s important, if you want to train at a gym , you should train like the coaches would train their kids there. It’s a cool approach that we’ve taken with my training.
But after I started working with them, a lot of other kids started going down. Also because at competitions, parents would always ask “who is he training with?” Of course my parents wanted to help these coaches out to keep them in the picture.
What role do your parent’s play in your training?
My dad was always a coach figure. He’s always been pretty good at technique. My mom as well. Even though she doesn’t climb, she knows how the body works. She did dance for a lot of her life. So she knows about balance, and she’s really good at beta. And of course I have to get to the gyms and all that. But they’re so willing to drive me anywhere.
Speaking of beta, you’re a notorious beta breaker. Why?
Since I was young, I was always short. And short people kind of have to find their own way to get around things. So I think that’s part of the reason why I like breaking beta.
And also, I think it’s important to think about everything you’re doing in climbing. So if you’re beta breaking, you’re stumping the setter and you’re helping progress the sport. So if I can beta break, and make the setters really think super hard, it’s pretty important. I think beta breaks get people super excited.
You mentioned ballet and I know you’ve been involved in theater and the performing arts. Do you think that experience has impacted your climbing? Especially with the comp stuff.
I think it definitely does. My mom’s a theater teacher, so growing up I went to so many shows, and I always see what makes people excited. You know, the type of body language.
It’s sort of intentional how I act when I climb at competitions, but I mean, the main goal is to top. So I'm not gonna let it overshadow my actual performance.
I’m sure people talk to you about it all the time, but your tongue. What’s with that?
Dude, it’s… so when I was little, I would never breathe when I was climbing. So you would see comp pictures of me when I was younger, I was always purple and wheezing afterwards. So I think the tongue subconsciously makes me open my mouth so I actually breathe in when I climb.
It kind of just started happening. I was a germaphobe when I was younger so I didn’t want to lick the wall and I didn’t really embrace it. But I realized it was helping me climb and compete.
I don’t know if it’s from me, but I see so many people doing it now. I think it’s a technique now.
I carry a little thing of aquifer with me because my lips are always chapped.
Josh breaking beta on Polish Traverse V5 while displaying his signature tongue out climbing
I want to talk about your IG hashtags. What does #nevergiveup mean to you?
Even though hashtags are a little outdated, I think #nevergiveup was the coolest thing to me. I really identified with it. And I think failure is the most important part of climbing. Even when we’re coaching I always tell the kids failure is a good thing. Whenever they're disappointed about their comps, I think of myself because I was always in that position. I was always disappointed with how I was doing.
I was never angry with myself. I was just kind of expecting more. And I think my expectation with competitions really messed me up. But being able to bounce back and keep training and get better in such a short period of time is so cool to me.
These past few years have been really cool for me. I haven't been failing as much this year and when I do fail it pushes me to train even harder.
I didn’t make finals at Dark Horse a couple weekends ago, so that was terrible. But I stepped up my training from that and I've already gotten so much stronger in the past two weeks.
In 2023 you won both divisionals and came in at 12th in bouldering and 6th in lead at nationals. What were you doing during that period?
Ya, that’s when I really took off. But honestly it wasn’t too intense. I think that’s the reason why I did pretty well.
With the way the age groups work, the biggest competitor at the time, Augie Chi, was in A and I was in my second year in B. He had moved up to A so I really had a chance to do super well. And I did. At that time I was pretty dominant. I think.
Are you competing in the adult category this year?
Yea. Last year I made it because the top six from the youth nationals make it to adult nationals. But I hadn’t done any North American Cup series comps. This year I started doing them. I did one in Salt Lake City, One in Canada and one in Hackensack at Goat. And I got 12th at Goat which was really cool.
You’ve been crushing in open comps. Ride the wave, you won. Tough Love, you were third. The Battle of the Bridges you were first. Let's talk about Beat that Heat. What does that comp mean to you?
So Beat The Heat was the first open comp I had ever made finals for. It was a complete shock to me. I got fourth the first year.. actually maybe fifth. The year after I went back and did terribly. I didn’t even make finals. But this year, dude, I did so good, I won. That was my goal for so long. It was a really cool competition. They had a lot of really strong people there so I was super happy with how I did.
And that’s the gym where I started doing training and taking it seriously. So it was kind of full circle cuz I walked into the sport rock performance institute three years ago and I couldn’t even dyno. And then I came out winning this year which was cool.
Tell me about Eagle Rock Reservation.
Eagle rock is an area in Montclair and it was super underdeveloped. There were only like two climbs or three climbs there. When he (Luke) brought me there we did a full day of trying hard. It’s not even the best quality climbing. It’s pretty choss. But it was so cool because I got to spend a little bit of time and I FAed two climbs. And they were harder than anything I had done at that time.
I was looking at your 8a. You have Pandemic V10, Bone Arrow V10, and Poison Arrow V10. Are those all your FAs?
So Pandemic was already there, but a hold broke so I upgraded it and then Bone Arrow and Poison Arrow I FAed.
Luke came up with the idea for Bone Arrow but Poison Arrow was all me.
How did you hear about the Gumbie Circuit?
I think it was from Austin. He reposted it. I’m always looking at his instagram because he’s always doing something crazy. I was like “dude”. I sent it to Luke and we started texting like “this is going to be so cool, I don’t know if they're gonna let us in.”
I was obsessed with it.
I made a whole training plan for biking. I bike to school and instead of biking the quick two mile way home, I would go four miles and immediately after would hop on the wall for a little bit. It wasn’t crazy preparation but I wanted to make sure that I wouldn't be too gassed with the bike stuff.
Josh pulling in to Story of a Hurricane V7
You guys pulled up with BMX bikes. That’s insane. I think end to end y'all biked close to 30 miles on them.
Yea, we got lost. It actually wasn’t too bad. We tuned up the bikes at a shop. Luke doesn't have a bike for some reason. So BMX were kind of our only option. We were really slow, behind everybody, but it was less of the BMX’s fault and more of our fault. Dude, we went to Harlem and went to each side of Manhattan like three times. We got lost under a bridge and we had to go up these really skinny stairs. I think the other guys were struggling too tho.
The entire time Luke and I were screaming. We were like, this is the coolest thing I’ve ever done. Being from Jersey we knew basically nothing about the city except time square and so it was really cool to get lost. I think it was my favorite part of the comp.
Did it feel like a competition?
Honestly, it just felt like riding around and bouldering. The competition was at the end. I think that was the coolest part. I got that experience of an outdoor competition, but also getting the experience of biking and exploring and getting lost and stuff. It was really cool.
Luke and I have always been friends. But that was the coolest thing we’ve done together. I got way closer with him.
Which boulder was your favorite?
Dude, that V3. It was so cool. Me and Luke got off that boulder and we biked off. The entire time we were yapping about how awesome that boulder was.
It’s the most clean line up this beautiful piece of rock. It’s in the middle of the city. Somebody was honking when I topped. It was so cool. One of the coolest things, yea.
Can you describe each competitor with one word?
Luke: Super funny
Austin: GOAT
NASIF: Also super funny
He’s actually the funniest guy I’ve ever met. He said some things and I’m like, I don’t know if you can say that. He’s the craziest dude.
Jonny: Steezy
That guy was actually really cool. He’s that New York City climber.
What can we do to make the GC better next year?
I think you could make it more accessible. I think a lot of people deserve to have this experience. So maybe if you did two categories. You know, elite gumbies and then just like gumby gumbies.
I’m never going to forget it and I want more people to get that opportunity. Honestly, I would be fine not doing it next year if it allows more people to do it… Ahh, I still wanna do it again.
So where’s your climbing going?
In the future I want to be more of an outdoor climber. I basically want to be Austin in the future. I want to be winning almost everything. Podiuming a lot, you know. Even with the USAC stuff, just crushing and being at the top. I know it takes a lot of work, but I think I’ll put it in you know. And I think I could get to that level. I think I’m on the trajectory if I just keep pushing a little bit.
Do you have your sights on the Olympics or the larger scene outside of the more local stuff?
It all depends on how I do at team trials. That’s the most important thing to me right now. As long as I can do pretty good and get my athleticism up and get super strong in the next couple months, I could get to that level. As long as I have one goal. I always need a goal in mind. I don’t think I’ll make the Olympics but I think I can make it to a world cup one day.
Keep reading to learn about Josh’s slow burn towards success on the comp scene, his home wall set up, training methods, and what makes Josh, Josh.
Watch the Gumby Circuit video if you’re not sure whether or not you want to read up on this guy. Trust me. You do.
Early Days:
You started climbing when you were six and started competing at seven. How did you find climbing?
We were members of this pool club in Jersey and they put a little deep water solo wall up. It was like ten feet tall, but I got really good at it over the summer. And you know, it was really short and it was really easy stuff, but I loved it.
How did you start getting involved in teams?
Even though I was too young to join the team, I was old enough to compete with USAC. So they kind of fudged my age a little bit on the system at Gravity Vault. I joined the team when I was really young, even though I shouldn’t have.
From the movie “The Benchwarmers” 2006
Were you any good by then?
I mean, I was never very good actually. I was always actually really bad at climbing.
In an instagram post, you said you were having a hard time with climbing prior to the pandemic. What was going on pre COVID and how did the pandemic flip the switch?
When I was in D, when I was a lot younger, I had this motivation to really train hard and do good. And I was always training, but I was really short. And I blamed a lot of my mistakes on my height. I’m only 5’3 and I’m 16. So I'm not really average. Even back then I was really short, but before COVID I had just missed out on making nationals and I was basically done.
But we couldn’t do anything for months, all the gyms were closed until September of 2020, and I realized I can’t live without climbing. And so we built a training wall in the garage and we went outdoors a couple times. And yea, the training wall actually just helped a lot. I learned how to set on it and I got some volumes and stuff and I really started playing around with getting strong and training.
Home Wall:
2024
Whose idea was it to build the home wall?
Well, so one of my friends had just put in a home wall like right before COVID started and he was getting a lot better. He would send me videos and stuff. I was like, damn, I want to get that good.
I was never the best on the team, so I really took a lot of inspiration from people my age. I always wanted to be like that. I took the idea of the home wall and begged my parents for months and months and they eventually gave in and let me put it up.
It’s not optimal. It’s not the best training angle. It’s 20 degrees, but I mean it’s still great.
2021How do you set on your board?
As soon as we got it, I started setting really easy boulders. Like v2 v3, but back then that’s what I was sending so it was kind of perfect.
It’s not that big, but it's got a lot of holds. It was me and my friend Luke, who was also in Gumby Circuit. He came over to my house and then we started setting some really cool projects with holds that I had just gotten. And then we kept putting up climbs, you know. Two days he slept over at my house and we had a pretty good outline of a spray. And then over years I’ve just filled it in with holds. Like sandpapering down wood and stuff.
Do you make your own holds?
I’ve wanted to start making plastic holds, but i’ve taken a lot of scrap wood, jenga blocks, and stuff that I found. Just like, garbage. I have some weird obscure holds, but they’re actually really good for training. Especially like some of the junk I’ve found. Also a lot of rulers. I’ve put a couple of rulers. I even took a piece of a fence from the boardwalk down in Seaside and I put it on the wall.
Listerine Foot Chip + Jenga Pieces
You set dynos and coordination moves on your woody. People don’t do that.
Yea, people don’t do that. I have a couple paddles and a really cool six foot dino across the board.
Climbing is evolving, everything’s comp style now. So its good to set dynos as well as really cool crimp lines. It’s the future.
Do you have any projects on it right now?
The holds are terrible. Most of them are really bad, so it’s mainly a project board. I also have a little corner wall, so I usually put some warm ups in there. But ya, I have a lot of open projects. All of them are pretty sick.
There are infinite possibilities. Realistically there's a v17 on my board, I just haven't found it yet.
Training:
You seem very intentional about your training. There are climbers that just climb and there are climbers who train really hard. Where do you fall on that spectrum?
I train a lot. And I train pretty intentionally. If I see that I’m doing bad on slab, I go to gyms that have slab. Like method, goat, or stuff like that. But I’m pretty much about that climbing mindset.
I’ve worked for so long to get my crimp strength to where it is. It’s a lot of hangboarding. A lot of 90 degree lock offs. You know, I’m pretty good at routine.
It’s also stretching. I would be nowhere if I didn’t have my flexibility. I think that comes from doing ballet for ten years of my life.
I just kind of keep stretch and I keep strong. But that’s really all I do. I don’t really train too much. It’s mainly projecting and spray wall stuff.
Do you work with a coach?
Yea, so my coach is from Middletown. Sean Walsh. He’s the best coach I’ve ever had. He’s always been there for me. Even when I wasn't too great he still paid so much attention to me.
When did he come into the picture?
About when I was seven. For the first year from like six to seven I was mainly just on the lower level teams, like rec and intermediate. Once I made it to the advanced team he was always my coach. Always such a fun guy to work with. He’s the best.
There are a lot of gyms on the East Coast. Are you utilizing the different gyms?
I utilize the gyms pretty well. I go to a ton of different coaches. I went to a coach down in Virginia, Sophie, and I went to Jeremy at Method.
I’ve stuck with the same core coach. But with some of the dynamic things and some of the things that I need help on, I go everywhere. And it’s a good approach, I think. Like the TRAINING VILLAGE. It’s so many people just helping me and I wouldn’t be anywhere without them.
Is that a thing that people are doing? Or is that just you?
Not to say that I started it, but after my first nationals, I did terrible so I knew I needed to get on some comp style stuff. And I went to a couple of coaches down there and I think we got recommended the gym but not the coaching. A lot of other people that I know just go to other gyms. But i think it’s important, if you want to train at a gym , you should train like the coaches would train their kids there. It’s a cool approach that we’ve taken with my training.
But after I started working with them, a lot of other kids started going down. Also because at competitions, parents would always ask “who is he training with?” Of course my parents wanted to help these coaches out to keep them in the picture.
What role do your parent’s play in your training?
My dad was always a coach figure. He’s always been pretty good at technique. My mom as well. Even though she doesn’t climb, she knows how the body works. She did dance for a lot of her life. So she knows about balance, and she’s really good at beta. And of course I have to get to the gyms and all that. But they’re so willing to drive me anywhere.
What Makes Josh, Josh:
Speaking of beta, you’re a notorious beta breaker. Why?
Since I was young, I was always short. And short people kind of have to find their own way to get around things. So I think that’s part of the reason why I like breaking beta.
And also, I think it’s important to think about everything you’re doing in climbing. So if you’re beta breaking, you’re stumping the setter and you’re helping progress the sport. So if I can beta break, and make the setters really think super hard, it’s pretty important. I think beta breaks get people super excited.
You mentioned ballet and I know you’ve been involved in theater and the performing arts. Do you think that experience has impacted your climbing? Especially with the comp stuff.
I think it definitely does. My mom’s a theater teacher, so growing up I went to so many shows, and I always see what makes people excited. You know, the type of body language.
It’s sort of intentional how I act when I climb at competitions, but I mean, the main goal is to top. So I'm not gonna let it overshadow my actual performance.
I’m sure people talk to you about it all the time, but your tongue. What’s with that?
Dude, it’s… so when I was little, I would never breathe when I was climbing. So you would see comp pictures of me when I was younger, I was always purple and wheezing afterwards. So I think the tongue subconsciously makes me open my mouth so I actually breathe in when I climb.
It kind of just started happening. I was a germaphobe when I was younger so I didn’t want to lick the wall and I didn’t really embrace it. But I realized it was helping me climb and compete.
I don’t know if it’s from me, but I see so many people doing it now. I think it’s a technique now.
I carry a little thing of aquifer with me because my lips are always chapped.
Josh breaking beta on Polish Traverse V5 while displaying his signature tongue out climbing
I want to talk about your IG hashtags. What does #nevergiveup mean to you?
Even though hashtags are a little outdated, I think #nevergiveup was the coolest thing to me. I really identified with it. And I think failure is the most important part of climbing. Even when we’re coaching I always tell the kids failure is a good thing. Whenever they're disappointed about their comps, I think of myself because I was always in that position. I was always disappointed with how I was doing.
I was never angry with myself. I was just kind of expecting more. And I think my expectation with competitions really messed me up. But being able to bounce back and keep training and get better in such a short period of time is so cool to me.
These past few years have been really cool for me. I haven't been failing as much this year and when I do fail it pushes me to train even harder.
I didn’t make finals at Dark Horse a couple weekends ago, so that was terrible. But I stepped up my training from that and I've already gotten so much stronger in the past two weeks.
COMPS:
In 2023 you won both divisionals and came in at 12th in bouldering and 6th in lead at nationals. What were you doing during that period?
Ya, that’s when I really took off. But honestly it wasn’t too intense. I think that’s the reason why I did pretty well.
With the way the age groups work, the biggest competitor at the time, Augie Chi, was in A and I was in my second year in B. He had moved up to A so I really had a chance to do super well. And I did. At that time I was pretty dominant. I think.
Are you competing in the adult category this year?
Yea. Last year I made it because the top six from the youth nationals make it to adult nationals. But I hadn’t done any North American Cup series comps. This year I started doing them. I did one in Salt Lake City, One in Canada and one in Hackensack at Goat. And I got 12th at Goat which was really cool.
You’ve been crushing in open comps. Ride the wave, you won. Tough Love, you were third. The Battle of the Bridges you were first. Let's talk about Beat that Heat. What does that comp mean to you?
So Beat The Heat was the first open comp I had ever made finals for. It was a complete shock to me. I got fourth the first year.. actually maybe fifth. The year after I went back and did terribly. I didn’t even make finals. But this year, dude, I did so good, I won. That was my goal for so long. It was a really cool competition. They had a lot of really strong people there so I was super happy with how I did.
And that’s the gym where I started doing training and taking it seriously. So it was kind of full circle cuz I walked into the sport rock performance institute three years ago and I couldn’t even dyno. And then I came out winning this year which was cool.
Josh Outside:
Tell me about Eagle Rock Reservation.
Eagle rock is an area in Montclair and it was super underdeveloped. There were only like two climbs or three climbs there. When he (Luke) brought me there we did a full day of trying hard. It’s not even the best quality climbing. It’s pretty choss. But it was so cool because I got to spend a little bit of time and I FAed two climbs. And they were harder than anything I had done at that time.
I was looking at your 8a. You have Pandemic V10, Bone Arrow V10, and Poison Arrow V10. Are those all your FAs?
So Pandemic was already there, but a hold broke so I upgraded it and then Bone Arrow and Poison Arrow I FAed.
Luke came up with the idea for Bone Arrow but Poison Arrow was all me.
Gumby Circuit:
How did you hear about the Gumbie Circuit?
I think it was from Austin. He reposted it. I’m always looking at his instagram because he’s always doing something crazy. I was like “dude”. I sent it to Luke and we started texting like “this is going to be so cool, I don’t know if they're gonna let us in.”
I was obsessed with it.
I made a whole training plan for biking. I bike to school and instead of biking the quick two mile way home, I would go four miles and immediately after would hop on the wall for a little bit. It wasn’t crazy preparation but I wanted to make sure that I wouldn't be too gassed with the bike stuff.
Josh pulling in to Story of a Hurricane V7
You guys pulled up with BMX bikes. That’s insane. I think end to end y'all biked close to 30 miles on them.
Yea, we got lost. It actually wasn’t too bad. We tuned up the bikes at a shop. Luke doesn't have a bike for some reason. So BMX were kind of our only option. We were really slow, behind everybody, but it was less of the BMX’s fault and more of our fault. Dude, we went to Harlem and went to each side of Manhattan like three times. We got lost under a bridge and we had to go up these really skinny stairs. I think the other guys were struggling too tho.
The entire time Luke and I were screaming. We were like, this is the coolest thing I’ve ever done. Being from Jersey we knew basically nothing about the city except time square and so it was really cool to get lost. I think it was my favorite part of the comp.
Did it feel like a competition?
Honestly, it just felt like riding around and bouldering. The competition was at the end. I think that was the coolest part. I got that experience of an outdoor competition, but also getting the experience of biking and exploring and getting lost and stuff. It was really cool.
Luke and I have always been friends. But that was the coolest thing we’ve done together. I got way closer with him.
Which boulder was your favorite?
Dude, that V3. It was so cool. Me and Luke got off that boulder and we biked off. The entire time we were yapping about how awesome that boulder was.
It’s the most clean line up this beautiful piece of rock. It’s in the middle of the city. Somebody was honking when I topped. It was so cool. One of the coolest things, yea.
Can you describe each competitor with one word?
Luke: Super funny
Austin: GOAT
NASIF: Also super funny
He’s actually the funniest guy I’ve ever met. He said some things and I’m like, I don’t know if you can say that. He’s the craziest dude.
Jonny: Steezy
That guy was actually really cool. He’s that New York City climber.
What can we do to make the GC better next year?
I think you could make it more accessible. I think a lot of people deserve to have this experience. So maybe if you did two categories. You know, elite gumbies and then just like gumby gumbies.
I’m never going to forget it and I want more people to get that opportunity. Honestly, I would be fine not doing it next year if it allows more people to do it… Ahh, I still wanna do it again.
Up next for Josh:
So where’s your climbing going?
In the future I want to be more of an outdoor climber. I basically want to be Austin in the future. I want to be winning almost everything. Podiuming a lot, you know. Even with the USAC stuff, just crushing and being at the top. I know it takes a lot of work, but I think I’ll put it in you know. And I think I could get to that level. I think I’m on the trajectory if I just keep pushing a little bit.
Do you have your sights on the Olympics or the larger scene outside of the more local stuff?
It all depends on how I do at team trials. That’s the most important thing to me right now. As long as I can do pretty good and get my athleticism up and get super strong in the next couple months, I could get to that level. As long as I have one goal. I always need a goal in mind. I don’t think I’ll make the Olympics but I think I can make it to a world cup one day.