Tauranga teens scaling new heights

ROCK CLIMBING
As little tackers, they were scaling the adventure playground or clambering up the nearest tree. Now four Tauranga teens are making a sure ascent in the ranks of competitive climbing.
Jesse Offner, Amanda Speed, Wiz Fineron and Adam Steens all have national age-group titles under their belts and will soon be getting to grips with the world's biggest venue, at the world youth championships in Scotland.
For Offner, the trip to Edinburgh's International Climbing Arena in September will be a chance to step it up after this year claiming his first New Zealand title, which he's already clinched with a round to spare.
Sweeping clean in the under-20 division at the first three national rounds, the 17-year-old competed at last year's youth worlds in France and knows the global event is a tougher prospect altogether.
"Gyms overseas are all about twice as high as in New Zealand. They have better quality [climbing] holds, but the climbs in France were probably the hardest indoor ones I've done." Offner finished 51st in the field of 100 at Valence.
Now Year 13 at Tauranga Boys' College, he first tried sport climbing when his dad, a keen climber, took him along to club sessions at local base the Rock House four years ago.
"I started because I liked being up high. As a kid, I always used to be climbing around on the playground."
Offner, Speed and Fineron all made the trip to the 2009 youth worlds and, this year, Steens joins them in the 12-strong New Zealand team.
The Tauranga foursome are coached at the Rock House by Ken McPherson. Competition sees climbers given a specific route and usually a time limit, and they are scored on how far they get and the difficulty of the holds used on the way.
Like Offner, indoor climbing was a natural progression for Speed. "I saw it advertised about four years ago and thought it would be a good way of burning up my energy. I'd been climbing things my whole life - trees mostly," the 17-year-old says.
In Year 13 at Tauranga Girls' College, Speed may be light on muscle mass but she's gone from strength to strength in competition, winning the Oceania girls' under-18 title plus the New Zealand Cup series in 2009.
Her worlds performance was the only hiccup, timing out on her first climb and placing 49th. This year she's aiming for a semis spot, which would put her in the top 21.
The fear of falling and being smacked against the wall as the clip-rope pulls taut still lingers, though. "When you're climbing above your clip, it's definitely a factor. You have to put that aside ... I don't think anyone can say they haven't been scared."
Fineron and Steens are the young bloods, both 14 and in Year 10 and 9 respectively at Tauranga Boys'. With two consecutive New Zealand under-14 series and national championship titles, Fineron now has a firm grip on the under-16 series and is guaranteed at least a share of top honours. Come September, he'll be out to better his 44th placing at last year's worlds.
A stint in Golden Bay last summer with Offner, Speed and Thompson brought his highlight in outdoor climbing - a challenging rock face classed grade 28, the highest level any of the Tauranga youngsters have conquered.
Steens has three national series wins in under-12 and finished runner-up in under-14 at last year's Oceanias. Following in the footholds of brother Michael, who went to the '05 youth worlds, he says the Edinburgh event "should be awesome".