Melloblocco part 7: More news

So I've been checking out the weather for the Val Masino area. It's supposed to be sunny for the entire event. That surprises me, because every time I come to Europe it pisses rain the whole time.

I'm getting on the plane Saturday morning, but I'm going straight to Germany, the land of beer and Lederhosen and sick-ass cars.



After a few days up there, a gang of us will be going down to Italy for the Mello shin-dig. And my man Jansen Gunderson will be showing up too.

Jansen will be shotting some photos for an article about Melloblocco in an upcoming issue of Rock & Ice Magazine. He's a really talented photographer with a more subdued style, who shoots stuff like this...



...and this...



... so with a photographer like J, the Melloblocco coverage won't be another "posing-superstar-visual-spray-session". It will actually have some class.

Melloblocco - part 6: '08 Video

Here's a video from last year's Melloblocco event. Most of the narration is in Italian, so if you can't understand, just pretend that they are talking about how cool you are.


Melloblocco from Radio TSN on Vimeo.

Melloblocco part 5 - Boulder Bus

Here is yet another cool Melloblocco related piece of news. A crew of guys in jolly olde England have a service called "The Boulder Bus"

It has standard trips from England to Fontainebleau and they even drive across the Atlantic Ocean all the way to Oregon, which I assume is correct, unless there is some crag in the UK called Portland.



OK, I guess there is a Brit crag called Portland. But I prefer my theory of driving a bus across the Atlantic, because that would defy physics, which is really cool.

Anyway, this year (as they've done for previous Melloblocco events), they are offering a shuttle service from the Milano airport to Val di Mello. I don't know if they have some kind of inclusive service all the way from England, maybe you should contact them.

And by the looks of it, this rig is NOT some jingus, piss-smelling Greyhound Bus. It's fully decked out: a few beds, DVD player, Xbox, little kitchen, etc.

Melloblocco part 4 - tutto arrivato

Hell Yes!

I was almost certain that there would be some kind of massive fuck-up with the shipment of gear to Italy. But it has arrived. Thank You God.

So now I have to deal with the flight. Yes, I already have the tickets. What I mean by "dealing" with the flight is a combined 12 hours of sitting in a tiny-ass seat.

Oh yes, one more thing, Fuck Delta. The United States airline companies are gradually going out of business and it's their own damn fault. The only way that I can bear these flights is with one of two options: seating in the roomy emergency aisles or lots of Jack Daniels.



Here's Delta's genius plan: If you want to sit in those coveted emergency aisle seats, you have to build up enough mileage with their airline to cover the distance between the Earth and Saturn. And the only way to build up those miles is by enduring Delta's shittyness.

The last time I flew to Europe, I went on SwissAir. The difference between SwissAir and any American carrier is like the difference between riding in a Rolls Royce and riding a donkey covered in shit.



Seriously, SwissAir rules. It was unbelievable. Each seat had it's own little TV screen with the option of 4 or 5 movies to watch and a selection of video games. I spent half the flight playing Tetris, which is way better than watching the latest Julia Roberts lame-ass-romantic-comedy on Delta.

The seats were comfortable and they actually reclined. Even the food was good. Not AlItalia good, but at least edible. And the stewardess looked good, for a change.



Well, not that good. But you get the point.

Our unbelieveable weight-loss program!!!

Are you tired of pills and diet supplement scams? Are you too lazy to get off your ass and get some exercise ? Do you really, really, really like cheeseburgers?

Well here's the answer you've been waiting for: The Revolution Hollow-Back Diet!

Scientists at Revolution World Headquarters have developed a new hollow-back to lighten your load. Don't believe us? Here's proof from one of our satisfied clients...



That's right. The old Boss poured from polyester resins, using the old hollow back, weighed close to 22 pounds.

But with The Revolution Hollow-Back Diet, using our burly polyurethane resins, the Boss now weighs only 12 pounds!

Alright, I'm sure we all had a good laugh with that "diet program" bit. But here's what you really want to hear...

Yes, The re-molded Boss does weigh 12 pounds, which means less shipping and of course, less cost.

The retail price of the Boss is $99 American bucks. Comes with the bolt, too. And if you work for some kind of wholesale-viable entity (i.e. Climbing Gym), our standard wholesale discounts apply.

So give us a call or fax or e-mail or carrier pigeon or Morse code. Because this Sumbitch is ready to go...

...and here it is.

This is a photo of the first re-molded and revived Pusher Boss. We cleaned the new mold, poured it and popped it just about an hour ago. With the new hollow-back.

In other words, it's ready.

I'll add some pricing and weight info in a few minutes.

In the lab...

The Boss has finished the molding process. I told you it was time-comsuming.

But I just put on the last coat today. So tomorrow, We'll do the fiberglass shell (which supports the silicone mold) then I'll get it poured. With the new hollow-back. That means we'll know how much it costs.

Thanks for being patient. But I'm sure you will be physced with the end result.

Melloblocco part 3 - It's out the door

166 cubic feet of kick-ass Revolution bouldering gear. That's 4.7 cubic meters for you metric-system-types. All for sale at Melloblocco.

So bring your money. Any kind of money; Euros, Dollars, Rubles, Ducats, Pounds, Francs... we're like Switzerland, we'll take any kind of dough.

This doesn't mean the stuff has arrived in Italy. It's just out of this place. It's in God's hands now. Or at least in the hands of the Italian Customs and Import Department, who think they are God.

I'm probably jinxing this whole thing by writing about it. So I'll shut up now.

Melloblocco part 2 - Shit that would never fly in the USA

So here's more info about Melloblocco that I think is really cool.

This event takes place in a "Y" shaped system of valleys. The left branch of the Y is called Val Masino and the right branch of the Y is Val di Mello. The whole area is closed to automobile traffic during the 4-day event.

You can't drive up and down the valley? Why is that cool? Because of this: "The Municipality of Val Masino ... grants a free-of-charge network of minibus-shuttles."

Get it? Free bus rides to the different bouldering areas. For 4 days. What is really impressive is that this service is offered by the local government. Try making that happen here. It's hard enough just getting access to cool crags, much less a free ride.

It would be even more bitchen' if they use this bus:



Now I'm not one of those douche-bags who claim "everything is sooo much better in Europe". True, the food is better, most of them speak some kind of heavily-accented English, and you can drive really fucking fast on their roads. Other than that, it rains all the time and everything is too expensive.

But this kind of cooperation from a government really impresses me. They get it. For the public servants in the USA, this concept (promoting a local climbing area, which brings more visitors, which brings more money to the region) is as difficult and abstract as quantum physics.

Here's another one:



What's so cool about a couple old guys doing yardwork? The caption on this photo says "Cleaning of the brush by Comune di Val Masino workers".

Get it? The local government is actually PROVIDING THE SERVICE of cleaning new bouldering areas. And by the looks of it, this one is sick...



See you there!

Melloblocco 09

So I'm sure you're wondering why we don't update this blog, or the main website, or the Facebook page as often as we should. The answer is easy: we're getting our shit together for the largest climbing event in the world.

It's called Melloblocco. The longer title is "Il Raduno Internazionale di Sassisti (International gathering of Boulderers)". It's an annual event, now in it's 7th edition, taking place in the granite valleys of Val Masino and Val di Mello in Northern Italy. When we say "largest climbing event in the world", we mean Large: 4000 in attendence last year. No shit.

Check it out: http://www.melloblocco.it/index.asp?lang=en



Revolution is one of this year's sponsors. That means we will be setting up a big-ass tent and selling our wares, right in the middle of everything. We are preparing a couple of big shipments of gear and shipping it off to Italy in the next week or so.

More news about this later on...

Boss, 2nd coat & hollow-back

We've had time to throw on another coat of silicone on The Boss. Yes, I know this is an incredibly boring thing to read. It's even more boring to do the actual molding work.



We are also working on a new hollow-back (the thing that creates a massive cavity on the backs of huge holds). When The Boss was made of polyester, the hollow-back couldn't remove too much plastic, or it would compromise the over-all durability.

But Polyurethane is way stronger, so we can have thinner side-walls on the hold. There is a "rib" down the center of the hold, for a little more structural integrity. We will have to wait for the first pour to see how much plastic is removed, and therefore, money saved.



If you look at this hollow-back, imagine that this is the "void" area on the back of the hold. That sounds like something Buddah would say: "Imagine if something was nothing". That's deep, yo.

The Boss, 1st coat o' silicone

In 2005, I poured what I believed was the LAST EVER Boss. And I gave it to Mike Call, since he shaped it. I figured he may want one for sentimental reasons. But he's not all sappy like that.

But we've had a few requests in the last few months to pour The Boss. Unfortunately, the old Pusher molds are really burnt out, even a few rips in places. And pouring Urethane into a mold that had Polyester usage can damage the mold even more.

So considering that we had some extra silicone, and there is no shortage of Pusher bills still to be paid (seriously, you would not fucking believe the dollar signs involved), we have decided to remold The Boss.



If you're interested, give us a little time to get this ready. Molding is a very time-consuming process. We are also making a new hollow-back, which will dramatically lower the weight, and therefore the price.

There's a long back story involved with The Boss, if you're interested. I'll see if I can get MC to write about it. But that guy is always busy with his films, so I can't promise anything.

Boss Resurrection

We all have collective fond memories of The Boss; the massive girth, the influence it had in it's community and how it has not been forgotten in these many years past. But the bad news is that Sorrell Booke (aka Boss Hogg) passed away in 1994, and he ain't coming back.



But we do have some good news: modern science does allow us to revive a different Boss.