SCHOOL’S OUT -- Go climb a rock

Danette Goulet

* SCHOOL’S OUT is a weekly feature in which Daily Pilot education

writer Danette Goulet visits a summer camp within the Newport-Mesa area

and relates her experiences.

Grunting, sweating and struggling to find a foothold as he climbed

higher and higher, Luke Brunda slipped -- falling away from the rock

wall. It was with tired frustration -- and a smile -- that the

10-year-old Newport Beach boy hung suspended in the ClimbX gym in

Huntington Beach.

“It’s pretty fun,” Luke said. “And it’s real good exercise.”

Like Luke, other campers struggled to conquer the walls of the dark

orange-hued cavern covered with multicolored nodules, where ropes hung

like thick jungle vines.

“I think it’s harder mentally than physically, because you always

think the guy belaying you is going to drop you,” said Nick Dilonardo,

10.

Belaying is the practice of being tied to a climber and collecting the

excess rope while securing that climber to the wall, so the pair will not

plummet if either slips off the footholds.

The young climbers were part of a camp offered by the Newport Beach

and other cities’ recreation departments. It is a weeklong program that

teaches children ages 9 through 15 the fundamentals of rock climbing,

with an emphasis on safety.

In a safety demonstration he called the “space shot,” owner Brian

Leipper began scaling a wall while Cody Barbo, 11, belayed his rope.

Leipper instructed Cody not to use the ground anchor so he could

demonstrate why it was important. That difference quickly became obvious:

A 170-pound man slips and plunges toward the floor, while the 70-pound

boy on the other end of the rope and pulley shoots up in the air.

The lesson was one of many for the would-be climbers

“They tell you a lot how to do things and if you don’t know, they’ll

keep going over it,” said Aaron Jeffrey, 12, who has moved on to the

advanced rock climbing class.

Despite the difficulty of the sport and the plethora of terms the kids

said they had to learn -- they couldn’t seem to get enough of it.

“I’m going to be a rock climber when I grow up,” said Michael Moses,

9, in a proud, matter-of-fact manner. “I started climbing the tree in my

backyard when I was like 4. It’s pretty hard work, but you have to be in

shape.”