Climbing to the top of the Rock Climbing world

On any given day you’ll find Santa Barbara Rock Gym busy with climbers of all levels, ages, and experience. On most of those days you’ll find 12 year old Pablo Winder doing what he loves, climbing. Pablo not only has natural climbing ability, but has also combined that with an intense focus and drive to get better. That focus and drive are a big reason why Pablo will be competing in the USA Climbing national championships next month in Colorado Springs. Pablo got his first taste of competitive climbing in September of last year when Santa Barbara Rock Gym put together a climbing team. As the team traveled the Central Coast for competitions at other local climbing gyms, it became apparent that Pablo was a natural talent. He placed in the top 5 at each of the competitions he participated in, with 4 first place finishes, and even started to rank near the adult competitors. He opened 2014 by finishing first in the Regionals (Southern California) and second in the Division competition (Western united States), which stamped his ticket to Colorado Springs to compete for the National Championship. Santa Barbara Rock Gym owner Will Russ has watched Pablo’s dramatic progress over the last year, “Watching Pablo’s improvement is exactly the reason we opened this gym, so people can fall in love with climbing. He is in here almost everyday because he loves it, and it just so happens that he’s really good at it too.” With only two years of climbing experience under his belt, Pablo has a lot of room for improvement and great potential to continue climbing at a very high level.