The second round of Blokfest was held at seaside resort and home to fish'n'chips Brighton. Our hosts at Boulder Brighton were awesome, the experience they have gained from their own yearly competitions shone through. Holding the event there gave many London climbers an excuse to make the journey south and check out one of the best dedicated bouldering centres around. Local DJ Crispy was on hand to provide tunes throughout the day and Matt Cousins headed down to attempt to maintain his 100% record at Boulder Brighton events.

Yet again we were blown away by the turnout, a huge youth turnout where the kids compete as one for the Junior title but afterwards we also split them up into their national and international age categories so they can compete with their relevant age groups.

The youth category is always a closely fought battle and this time Cameron Mcloughlin took the male and Hannah Slaney took the female titles. Many of the kids showed the adults a thing or two on some of the shared boulders. When it came to the more fingery and technical problems the kids shone through, cruising the vertical V5 where the adults had to fight hard with tiny holds.

In the senior qualification Jon Partridge and Leah Crane dominated the field to qualify in first place. Unfortunately due to a family birthday party JP had to leave, and stepped out of the final opening up the comp for the rest of the finalists.

In the Women’s final Leah Crane and Alexia Bash were neck and neck through the first two boulders. When it came to the final boulder Alexia cruised the dyno and flashed to the top to take the title and her first senior Blokfest win. For Leah she finally looked tired after a long day and an overnight journey back from Font, she slipped down to 3rd unable to crack the dyno.

Boulder 3 for the men and women were mirror images of each other. The ladies' dyno was in fact harder but the top of the men's most definitely made up for it. Matt Cousins powered through to first place with two flashes but was unable to unlock the triangle guppy hell that was the 2nd holdless boulder to take 1st place and uphold his 100% Boulder Brighton record.

A massive thanks as ever to our series sponsors DMM and Marmot and the Boulder Brighton round sponsor Beyond Hope who supplied some excellent prizes from Metolius and Evolve. As ever Climbskin and Powerfingers were on hand to provide skin care and injury prevention/rehabilitation advice. Obviously these events would not be able to happen without all the volunteers, Boulder Brighton Staff and sponsors. 

The next event will be a Christmas Cracker at The Castle Climbing Centre on December 13th. Afterwards it will be time to swap climbing shoes for dancing shoes and relax with a beer or two at The Castle Christmas party. Live music and DJ’s will provide the entertainment along with some of the worst moves on a dance floor ever seen by climbers.

Watch the video of the event below: