Ep 22: Noah Makaiwi - Hidden Heroes: Volunteer Belayers

That's Not Real Climbing

Noah is the Assistant National Belay Coordinator of USA Climbing and has volunteer belayed at events nationally and internationally at IFSC youth worlds in 2022. In this episode, we'll learn about how to get into volunteer belaying, some interesting tidbits on belay devices and catching falls that you may not have thought about before, what the differences are belaying different paraclimbers, and some bad falls that he has had to witness.

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Guest links:

Instagram

USA Belay Instagram

Reference links:

First draw falls at USA Team Trails

Belay shoe clip incident mentioned from Discord

Leg caught in rope Youth Worlds

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Timestamps of discussion topics

0:00 - Getting into climbing and belaying

8:43 - Any certifications needed to volunteer belay?

14:53 - Belay devices

21:01 - Climbers falling + getting lowered at the same time

23:34 - Do you get paid to belay?

25:58 - Belayer prep for a comp

37:03 - Do athletes ever get to choose their belayer?

48:29 - NO belay glasses?!

51:49 - Differences between youth, elite, para

1:00:28 - Tandem belaying in paraclimbing

1:03:01 - Nervousness while belaying

59:22 - Team boulder arena com

1:08:46 - Climber interactions

1:11:11 - Bad falls during comps

1:17:06 - How to become an IFSC belayer

1:21:13 - Discord Q: Common bad practices belayers need to stop doing

1:26:52 - Discord Q: Have you ever had to remove a volunteer belayer?

1:29:54 - Discord Q: Have peopled ever submitted appeals for being shortroped?

1:31:27 - Discord Q: Thoughts on the double Fisherman or Yosemite tuck?

1:33:20 - Closing thoughts/where to find Noah