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BK ATHLETE RIKU IN JAPAN: Trip to Okinawa and preparing for competitions
Boulderkeskus’ young star of the athlete team, Riku Sinivirta, moved to Japan at the end of August 2021 and he has been sharing his everyday life with us ever since. In his fourth blog post, Riku is sharing with us how his holiday trip to Okinawa went and what were his latest competition experiences like.
Okinawa
“Right at the beginning of April, our family got to go for a vacation in the Okinawa archipelago, where we stayed for about a week. There, I got a good rest in the tropical climate and got to see the beautiful nature. I had thought about climbing outside in March and April, but unfortunately I never made it. I found out about two upcoming climbing competitions, so I changed my plans and trained for the comps.”
“We flew to Okinawa from Kansai Airport and the flight lasted about an hour and a half. From the plane we saw beautiful coral reefs of which Okinawa is famous for. When I arrived at the airport, I immediately felt the really humid and warm air, reminiscent of Thailand. From the airport we drove north to the Onnaso area where our accomodation was. The first days were rainy, so we stayed inside most of the time.”
“When the rain clouds had passed, we went kayaking to an uninhabited island from where we could snorkel with a guide. The water was incredibly clear and there was life everywhere. Colorful fish and corals here and there, as well as big starfish and giant sea sausages. The best part was to be able to see clownfish in the wild for the first time. They were really beautiful and they were looking at me in a funny way from their anemone.”
“I had always thought clownfish were really sensitive, but one of the clownfish approached my face every time I went close to it. I’ve never seen such a colorful and living sea anywhere else. According to our guide, the further north Okinawa you go, the cleaner and more beautiful the sea becomes.”
“We got to learn even more about marine life at the Churaumi Aquarium. The aquarium is famous for its Kuroshio Sea main tank, where whales and rays are kept with many other fish species in the same tank.”
Okinawa Churaumi Aquarium
“After having enjoyed the sea enough, we visited Yanbaru National Park to explore the jungle. Yanbaru is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and covers a large area of Okinawa. There we saw a lot of butterflies and beautiful dragonflies as well as an endangered eel in the river which the park ranger had never seen before. The jungle plants in the park were funny-looking and you could hear beautiful birdsong everywhere.”
“On our last days of our holiday, we visited the southern city of Naha and revisited the beach in the north.”
Competitions
“After returning from Okinawa, I immediately started training for the upcoming competitions. On April 24th, I participated in an open format competition at Addict Climbing Gym in the prefecture adjacent to Kyoto. On May 3rd, I again took part in a competition at Roots Climbing Gym in Tokushima.”
“Because I had only climbed once in Okinawa, my body felt heavy and my climbing didn’t go terribly well in the beginning. In addition, my endurance had also decreased a lot. This of course made me nervous, but all I could do was climb a lot in order to get the movement back.”
“The first week I trained mostly endurance and power endurance so that I would be able to climb a lot in the Addict Climbing open race. I soon got back to my normal climbing condition and it was time to start maximum power training and comp simulations. The training went well and in my opinion I was well prepared for the Addict Climbing open race.”
“Addict Climbing is located in the neighboring prefecture of Kyoto, Mie. On the way there, I was on a high-speed rail for the first time. The journey was really nice and although the train was very fast, I didn’t notice it at all. The qualifiers lasted two hours and the higher the grade you climbed, the higher score you got. Right from the start, when I saw a member of the Japanese junior national team warm up on 7C+ and 8A problems, I realized that there was no way I was going to win. In spite of that, I tried my best and climbed three 7C+ and five 7Cs, which unfortunately was not enough to get to the finals. In order to make it to the finals, you had to get more than 8,000 points. In other words, you had to climb at least five 7C+ problems. I only got a little over 6,000 points.”
“Even though I didn’t make it to the finals, it didn’t bother me much because I had climbed as well as I could. However, I was really weak compared to the others. It was a great experience to see many skilled climbers of different ages and realize that I have to train even harder to get to their level. Now I’m just getting ready for the next competition and I hope I’ll climb a lot better there.”
Follow Riku and his journey in Japan and Finland on his Instagram account @ri9_blueriver.