OK, first, some background: When were you born?
February 4, 1985.

Where did you grow up?
In Canberra (Capital of Australia). 

When and how did you get started climbing?
I started climbing at the end of 1999, when I was 14. I turned up to my local climbing gym with some friends, later that day bought my first pair of climbing shoes, and haven’t looked back since. 

Where do you live now?
Currently my wife and I are homeless. As crazy as that sounds, we packed up our house that we rented in the Blue Mountains and headed off on our [current] eight-month climbing adventure. We’ll decide where we want to live when we get home, later this year — whether that be in Australia or possibly another country. 

How are you feeling? You’ve had some issues with split tips, is that right?
I’ve just begun an eight-month world-climbing trip, so I’m feeling really good at the moment. I’m currently on the first leg of my trip in Hueco Tanks and then I’ll be off to Bishop. Then I head over to Europe for five months, then off to South Africa...

So far in Hueco I’ve had a really good time, but my skin has been in pretty bad shape from day one so I haven’t been able to do as much bouldering as I wanted. Before coming on this trip I had a bad injury. Climbing in Hueco has helped me get some strength back, as lots of the problems are very physical. 

The climbing scene in Australia is considerably smaller than that in the US or Europe. Is that just because there are fewer people? And how would you compare the Australian scene to the US scene?
Population would for sure have a lot to do with why climbing is not as big a sport in Australia, although climbing in Australia is definitely growing and slowly becoming more recognized. Although the scene is smaller than in the US and Europe, it’s also kind of cool — most people know each other, so you feel like your part of a community. On the other hand, it can be frustrating that there aren’t more climbers to help develop new areas. It can also be hard to find someone to go out bouldering and training with, so I find myself bouldering and training by myself a fair bit. As most of the population of Australia lives on the coast, surfing is a really big sport and it’s harder for grass-roots sports like climbing to get a good foothold. In places like Europe a lot of the population lives closer to mountains and rocks, so maybe that’s another reason climbing is not as big in Australia. All that aside, Australia has some of what I believe to be the best climbing in the world... “So Where The Bloody Hell Are Ya?”

Have you used your magic thumb wrap in Hueco?
Haha my magic thumb wrap it still under development — it should be ready for release in 2010. But Hueco has definitely been a good testing ground for it.

What do you do for a living?
I co-own a Rope Access company in Sydney. I’ve had to do a lot of travelling for work, to places like China. I spend a fair bit of time away from home and climbing. Before I came on this trip I’d been working in Australia up in QLD, which is about a 13-hour drive from my home. I was away working for about four months with hardly any time off, so I could barely do any training. It’s really frustrating, as I know I could be a lot stronger... but I also have to make money, so I can go climbing and make this trip possible.