SURF Show --> Pennsylvania

East coast touring these days with Mike. We started in Orlando FL where we worked the SURF Show with a bunch of the Gibbon Team (Hayden Nickell, Brad Schneider, Micki Ricchetti, & Chris Smith). It went really well! Sold out of all the slacklines and there was a constant crowd trying them out. Yayyy slackers!! I discovered this game called "Icing" where if you open something up and theres a Smirnoff Ice there you have to get down on one knee and chug it (apparently this is a 'bro's icing bro's' game in the words of Chris). Anyway, hysterical. See below.



Once the rest of the team left, Mike and I spent a day at Disney World! I got some fun pics with my GoPro cam of the day.

 

So now we are in Pennsylvania staying with our friends Jared and Bess. We havent seen them for about 3 or 4 months so I'm psyched! Their little girl Layla is 1 year old now :) Jared is going to continue on the tour with us until we reach the Nor'easter climbing festival in New Hampshire where we're gonna climb & slackline like crazy! Jared's been asked to photograph some of the professional climbers during the festival, so he's gonna get to watch some epic climbing for sure.

Anyway, all for now....

Surf Show Day 3 - Hangovers

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The Gibbon Team is hungover at the Surf Show in Orlando....hehe.

Accidental portrait

Just bought myself a GoPro camera and while trying to figure it out i took a pretty cool shot of myself at the ampitheatre in boulder, co.

things since may

it's been since april or may since i've written!!! a lot has happened, and i am excited to write about it all.

me on my dad's home line!

first: mike and i were sent to the east coast for some gibbon touring AND we got to spend some time in new hampshire, climbing at rumney with our friends jared, bess, and their darling baby layla! the tour was fun - we got to drive from colorado -> pennsylvania all the way to maine - into canada, and then BACK to colorado. it was tons of driving, but some of the demos were GREAT - as well as our attempt to get into canada with an enterprise van full of slacklines and metal structures. we were treated like bandits! mike almost lost it (and he NEVER gets that way). needless to say, we made it into the country but were informed that if we didnt leave in one week, there would be a warrant our for our arrest. NICE.



after the tour, we climbed. and i have to say. that week is when i actually progessed the most, ever, in my climbing. we would climb all day, almost every day. jared and mike were also up for really hard climbs, so bess and i had to try them! i lead my first 5.10, with many more, AND one 5.11a. i felt fearless! it was also great to spend time with such awesome people, i hope to see them again soon (and layla!!). please  check out www.jaredphotography.com to see some of jareds work. you'll enjoy it, i promise.

after the tour, mike was shipped off to germany for slackline events and competitions. so, i was left on my own for the first time with no place to live and no plans. being a nomad and living that lifestyle with mike as a companion was one thing, but ALONE?!  it was one of the scariest things i ever had to face. just me and my dog. what to do? for the first couple of days. i stayed with my friend evan in boulder, co. he's a ginger (just had to put that in there). evan will always be the guy who took me for my first trad climb. and it was the beginning of my obsession with getting my own trad gear! (for those of you who don't know what trad climbing is - it means that there are no bolts in the rock for you to easily clip into. to trad climb, you need gear that will fit inn the natural cracks and features of the rock, so that if you fall, that gear will save you.). my first trad climb was a 5.7 in boulder canyon at a place called "the blobs". it was a blast!!!! i now have my own set of nuts and am saving up to buy my first cams. thanks evan!

after boulder, i continued on to moab, utah (pretty much my favorite, and the most beautiful place in the US). there, i stayed with my friends brent and canyon and got to climb, slackline, and goof off for a month! in moab, i lead my second trad climb, called "lucy in the sky over potash" and it's rated 5.10a. i climbed it a bunch of times on top-rope first to feel comfortable, and then lead it trad . so terrifying, yet so amazing at the same time. i spent most of my time climbing, hanging around the water holes with my dog, helping to weave the tree nets in brents yard (see photo below) and meeting awesome people @ free lunch (if you go to moab theres a free lunch provided for anyone, offered by volunteers: please attend free lunch, u will meet amazing folk guaranteed - including a gentleman who's live for 10 years without utilizing money AT ALL).

these are the tree nets - brent taught me out to 

weave, and i was addicted!

this is my friend ross, be-"laying"

and this is my beezer, playing in the water :)

when i would get sick of moab (which was hard to do) i would drive about an hour to terry's house in fruita colorado. there, he has a sanctuary of slacklines (longlines, highlines, 100 foot chains, you name it), not to mention the location is astounding. so, i would crash there for a few days, spend my alone time, and then trek back into moab for some more adventuring.

eventually, finally, after what it felt like a millenium: mike returned! i picked him up in salt lake city, where we stayed for the outdoor retailer show with the gibbon crew! such a blast - we got to meet all of the team members from across the country (neil, micki, hayden, brad, and new  employee in the office : glynde!) glynde is 48 years old. glynde throws back flips off of the slackline. also, he rides skateboards on his hands in the middle of the night....see video below.

http://www.facebook.com/emily.sukiennik?v=app_9953271133#!/video/video.php?v=521141367040&subj=1068669277


alas, mike and i are back to colorado where we park it for a few weeks, and then fly to san diego, ca for the action sports retailer show for gibbon. which was, a blast! we stayed in this GORGEOUS house with a pool, a hot tub, a sauna in one of the bathrooms....you  name it. we had fun at the house, and also rocked it at the show. we had a competition which gathered a crowd, and hayden nickell won! congrats to him. his prize: a brad new surf line, AND to compete against alpha mike (yes, my boyfriend mike). below are a few pics fro, the show (oh - and we were across from the miss reef 2011 photo gallery booth thingy- which we gibbonized).

no caption.

that's all for now. enjoy! :-)

Moab...coolest place ever!!

Hanging out in Moab, Utah ROCKS. It is definitely my new favorite place in the US!!! Mike and I have been doing a lot of highlining and climbing here, and are staying with friends Brent and Canyon (who have so graciously let us crash on their couch). We accompanied Andy Lewis as he rigged the World Record Highline of 330 feet and have been attempting the line until a few days ago. The line turned out to be WAY too heavy to walk!! The record was 28 steps, which is surprising considering Mike and Andy are two of the best highliners in the world. Here is a video that I made summarizing the trip :)




The line was really intimidating, super loose and super heavy. The boys tried so hard that they completely exhausted themselves both mentally and physically (you shoulda seen the bruises!!) I didn't really focus my energies on the world record line. Seeing the two of them fail really didn't give me much hope. So, I focused more on the 120 footer that would be my personal record if I walked it. This line had only been rigged once before by Dean Potter, who did a B.A.S.E jump off of it. Andy rigged the line and I avoided it for about a day. I didn't want to think about it until I was actually ready and standing up to walk. When I did....I was completely in the zone. I didn't want to fall. I didn't want to have to crawl back to the beginning and try 10 more times, so I pressed on as hard as I could. I lost my balance due to fear a couple of times but fought it, hard. In the middle I had the most trouble...I started to think about where I was, the exposure, the risk of falling and having to begin again; but, then I heard Andy's voice..." calm, relax em....breathe!!!". So, i did. I relaxed and I felt my entire body let go of all its tension.  I tried to hold that until the end....and when I got there I realized that I had on-sighted Dean Potter's B.A.S.E line. EEK!!! My biggest accomplishment yet. Not only was it my longest highline, but my longest on-sight. I was satisfied. I tried to walk back, but was completely distracted by the accomplishment so I let it go and basked in the glory of beating my personal record :)

Here is a photo of me on the line!

Some other accomplishments:

Ryan Matson walked his first highline ever, along with three others! (22 feet, 47 feet, 66 feet an 92 feet)

Justin Adkins also walked his first highline and all three of the others!

Libby Sauter and myself both walked our first highline in a swami belt (meaning no leg loops....so if you fall, it could potentially hurt quite a bit).

Hayley Ashburn sent her longest highline of 66 feet!

Andrew Tysinger sent the 66 footer after quite a bit of hesitation, or what we call "The Fear"

Taylor Fool did a tyrollean on a highline: her first highline experience!

Brent and Canyon Cain both did a Tyrollean and Canyon also did some intentional whippers (he threw his body out into the abyss)!

and MUCH more was accomplished during the trip.


We also did some climbing as well, which was fun for me because I haven't in such a long while! Brent and Canyon put up some routes for us and I was honestly amazed at Canyon's ability....he's 13 years old and leads 5.13 TRAD!!! Here are some shots:

Canyon Leading

 That's all for now!! Mike and I are off to the East Coast to do demos for Gibbon and to climb/highline as well! I'll be sure to update soon.