Upskill Style.

The very stylish Upskill Climbing team landed in Hong Kong earlier this year to street test their new range of climbing clothing in the tough urban environment.

jjobrienclimbing was there to bring back the look.

Lee Cujes momentarily considers this black on yellow knit sweater.
Co-Director Sam Cujes vetoes: No.










Brown bomber? Again: No.

After a few false starts Lee hits the gritty streets of Hong Kong in Boulders + Nuts T-Shirt from the Upskill Store. Good choice.

Get Lee's look here.

 Boulders + Nuts T-Shirt protects and enhances in the dark canyons of Mong Kok

Upskill Director Lee Cujes actions an important style decision in the Hong Kong office and comes out on top in Slo Pony T-Shirt and G Star Jeans. Did you know the enigmatic Slo used to be a fashion designer?

The Upskill directors meet with principle style editors from jjobrienclimbing at Hong Kong's fabulous "Aqua"

Climbers, if your technique or wardrobe need upskilling look no further.

And if you are seeking stylish traveling companions jjobrienclimbing recommends the Upskill Camp in Kalymnos this October 2011. Travel with complete confidence that your companions won't roll out of the hotel looking shabby on you, every stylish travelers worst nightmare.

This will be the fourth in the highly successful series of Kalymnos climbing training camps for Upskill.

Have you been to Kalymnos with Upskill? Tell us about it.

Photos of Issy.

Issy Morgans, you know her from Sport Climbing Australia.

Here she is running through the sequence on Spoonman 28, Coolum Cave of course.

Her extensive indoor training transfers to a very smooth style, concentrated and controlled.

I was in position for shooting Big Al on Separation Anxiety when I took these snaps.

There's some nice ones, I'm sure you'll agree.

Fashion Friday. Maximum Style.

Remember Al ? He's been hanging around a bit.

Sometimes he needs encouragement.

Frey offers a few words.

Separation Anxiety starts at the little hobbit hole, so I crawled in for a fresh perspective.

Al clowned it up of course.

Do you like either of these shots?

Or does the perspective screw with you too much?

I like both, but I couldn't decide which works better.

You decide. Post a comment. Be firm, but kind.



I could look at Al all day, but over at our sister site Red Phoenix Style the girls have styled up another runway show. This time for the first anniversary of Brisbane's most wanted hair Panic Hair.

jjobrienclimbing sent Sandra Phoenix along to bring back the look.

So much hair, so much colour.

All the fabulous jewels are available online from Red Phoenix Emporium or in store at The Tribune.

Climbers, you can celebrate with me as my first jewellery design for Red Phoenix, the Omiyagi was ordered by an unknown customer in New York.

Yay for international jewellery sales!

What? You want more Al? OK just one more.

Welcome to our newest follower Bjorn Lyngwa
How do you put that slash through the "o" ?

Princess of the Cave

Here at jjobrienclimbing we've had hundreds of letters from Russell Bright asking "when am I going to get my mug on your blog"? Our original charter forbade it, but we are after all, a shameless commercial operation, and when Russell came up with the required cash, we relented.

So here's Princess Russ.

As far as can be understood this man makes a living from fish fiddling.

I hope I'm not over simplifying it but I think he makes goldfish have goldfish.



Russ earned his strength relentlessly lapping hard routes.



 Style: Hard to say. Delicate Thai hippy details, barefoot, with a well maintained sharp edged do on top.
Let's call it, Tonsai dirtbag meets personal fitness trainer.

Curiously, Russ has a proven ability to make good on steep routes without climbing shoes.

Ouch. Why would you do that? How could you do that?

 The coldest, windiest day of the year allowed me the rare opportunity to shoot Russ with his shirt on.


Route: "Evil Knievel"
Coolum Cave

Dynamic in style.
Irrepressibly cheeky by nature.

Russ the belayer: He's not watching you, he's watching Sharma. How are you going to compete with that?  

The internet hardly needs more photos of Russ, maybe just one more. 

The strong man who earned the title "Princess Russ"

PS. Welcome to our newest follower Lewis Templar, who's middle name appears to be "Danger".
That rocks Lewis. Did your Mum come up with that?

We love new gear.

  

The very wise marketing team at Wild Country (UK) were concerned about me climbing on French made gear. Not safety, style.

They are so style conscious, the Brits.

So they chose this  stunning outfit for me.

The Wild Country Ultralite Elite harness. 

And they racked it up, left and right, with their latest and totally techno-fabulous Helium quickdraws.

Climbers, you know I'm not that fussy about harnesses and quickdraws, I've used a lot of junk in my time and I never blame my gear, but when I took this lot for a burl today I felt like I was using the best.

Good gear matters.

The Helium Quickdraws are absolutely superb.

They are lighter than anything I've used before.

The dogbones are fat, the way I like them, and

the wire gate secures in an ingenious recessed fashion, no doubt made possible by tricky new manufacturing techniques.

And how good do they look?

The first matching set of quickdraws I ever bought were Wild Country, and I fondled them all the way home in the car from Brisbane.

I don't know what a quickdraw will look like in 10 years, but for now this is as good as it gets.

Thanks Wild Country, thanks Steve Foster.

Gushing, I know.

But don't tell me you guys haven't slept with your new gear beside your bed.

Good night.

jj

We have a winner.

Sorry climbers, this post suffers from missing photos. I did some deleting of online albums, turns out they were linked to here. jj

Or "Michael" as his mother prefers to spell it. Sorry Mrs. Houghton. Thanks Lee.

Have you ever seen Michael look this good?

Michael recently became a follower of jjobrienclimbing to win this sharp new Consina T-Shirt from Ubud Adventure.
Instantly transforming him from style tragic to covershot cool.
Michael already knows the superior traction and style power of Dunlop Volleys.
Fact: sign up to jjobrienclimbing.blogspot.com and you are on your way to better climbing style.







Michael climbs rocks too.
jjobrienclimbing supports Michael's choice of photo-approved brilliant yellow chalk bag.

Thanks for the support Michael.

Need more Nick? Who doesn't?

Nick absolutely tears apart the crux traverse on "Evil". I can't believe this guy. I'm still refining this sequence after 191 attempts.
Lee Cujes, Matt Cochrane, Russel Bright, Tom O'Halloran, Vinny Day, Matt Schimke, have all made the demanding ascent.
I've forgotten someone. Who?
Then he flares his lats like a cobra and dispatches "A Knee Bar Too Far" 8a

Abi and Kaylee entertained/frightened us with some Aerial Tissue work.

"Strength in Unity"

Not exactly sure who this guy is.
His mates say his name is Jimmy. But there seemed to be some uncertainty.
They reckon he is about 20. Again, not sure.
They say he remembers to bring his guitar to the crag but forgets his harness and shoes. It all sounds pretty vague. 

Style: Jimmy screams socialist chic and solidarity in last seasons "Enterprise Bargain Agreement" T-Shirt in black with yellow "2010.Your Pay - Your Call" print by the always hip Aussie label, Australian Workers Union.

Did you get a good look at me Jimmy? Spooky huh?  

The move that started it all.

Nine routes fan out from this beginning. 

Jimmy put down the guitar long enough to switch on and send Spoonman.

 Then back to guitar for songs of workers struggles and sendage celebrations.

 It never hurts to have a stab at something hard at the end of the day.