The Full Johnny Dawes Interview

Matt Samet (Editor, Climbing magazine)

4th October, 2007

This has been read 26,899 times

"Fiercely intelligent, iconoclastic, dancing to the eternal vibrations of the rock that the rest of us just pull past —Johnny Dawes, 43, the irrepressible English climber who brought solid E8 (Gaia, an E8 6c at Black Rocks) and the world's first E9 (Indian Face, E9 6c, 150 feet of technical, 5.12c death at Clogwyn D'ur Arddu) to the world during his manic blitzkrieg in 1986.

Today Dawes, who continued to bust standards open into the late 1990s, climbs (and well), though he spends much of his rock time imparting his singular knowledge, in his so-called Master Class seminars. He's the Stone Monkey, the Leaping Boy, Off his Head, Bold as Brass Monkey."

Read the full interview at Climbing.com

This post has been read 26,899 times

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Comments

Will Hunt

4 Oct, 2007

I think we now know who ate all the pies. Bet he is still the shit though.

biscuit

4 Oct, 2007

I bet he is but he appears to have taken interview master classes from John Prescott. It's either been typed up badly or he speaks a lot of gibberish.

JGW

4 Oct, 2007

I didn't think it was gibberish - a bit strange possibly, but articulate, and seemingly quite raw. Climbing have had a series of great in-depth interviews going for a while now, all of which have made fascinating reading. It's great that they can get so many amazing climbers - really some of the best ever - to open up in that way. I don't think you could get sportsmen in many other disciplines to do the same. John

1234None

4 Oct, 2007

Alot of it IS gibberish to the mere mortal (including me!) - I'm sure it makes sense to Johnny though. The fact that he just "thinks so differently" to most other climbers is probably one of the things that made him so exceptional.

Michael Ryan

4 Oct, 2007

And not forgetting JOHNNY LIVE ON ROCKTALK 6.30pm: 14 Jun 2001 Which was organised by Jude Calvert-Toulmin "When you can't hang on a hold but only just, it's possible to hang on the hold by using the process of jugification. If you swing your centre of gravity at the right time the hold can be made momentarily good enough. Really fast Crouching Tiger type movement can render any piece of rock into a contextual hold if rotational energy is used. Check-out the martial art of Bagua. There are also tales of Tai-Chi masters who are able to make themselves very light. At times when I have been fully immersed I have been able to be much stronger than I am physically. I believe desire and familiarity with the crags's rhythms can untap super-normal performance. This is why I climb. To find out what I really am." http://www.ukclimbing.com/forums/t.php?t=2488

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