What Is Bouldering? Inside NZ’s Cool, Cultish Climbing Sport With Actor Celine Dam

In this new series, How I Move, we explore sports in leagues of their own and hobbies that do more than keep us moving — ones that foster joy and community as much as a little competition. Bouldering is a playful sport seeing growth in Aotearoa New Zealand right now, says Boulder Co director Adam Caldwell. Actor Celine Dam leads Madeleine Crutchley through a charming community of climbers and considers how the sport has enriched other areas of her life.

Celine Dam got into bouldering in the same way that almost everyone does — through a friend’s invitation.

Before she joined the keen climbers at Boulder Co in Westgate two years ago, she had a vague familiarity with more cartoonish climbs.

“I used to go rock climbing for my birthday parties when I was younger. I spent my ninth and 10th birthdays at Extreme Edge in Panmure.”

Celine celebrated milestones while zipping down auto-belay systems and scrambling over storybookish shapes (Jack’s beanstalk and fairytale characters provide sturdy footholds for young and aspiring climbers at Extreme Edge).

But that clumsy clambering was a long time ago. When I first spot the actor at the bouldering gym ahead of our interview, she is halfway up a wall.

Celine is impossibly balanced on a foothold that slopes downwards, hands locked firmly to tiny holds. As she casually hoists herself upwards, I imagine gravity defeatedly shrugging its shoulders. Maybe next time.

Bouldering is a specific form of free climbing, where people clamber up “problems” (the in-the-know moniker for the routes) without ropes, clips or harnesses. To aid in their ascents, boulderers chalk their hands and don tight, one-size-too-small climbing shoes (providing better contact with tiny, but crucial, rock irregularities).

Generally, walls and natural rock formations used for bouldering are quite short — the imitation walls at Boulder Co max out at 4.5m. Beginner-level climbs generally finish lower. It’s this height restriction that specifies a bouldering climb — it’s a far cry from the sickening alpine heights that American Alex Honnold and his ilk dare to attempt.

However, despite the thick safety mats lining the walls, indoor bouldering can still be intimidating. Neon holds are configured into complex arrangements and seasoned climbers seem to dance easily around tiny fixtures. It’s like stumbling into an origin story for a dexterous superhero.

I squint to try to spot any fateful radioactive spiders.

After her first session with a close friend, Celine found herself quickly swept up by the sport’s unique demands.

“Getting into bouldering and trying it for the first time was a really good challenge, both physically and mentally. I played football and touch and ran when I was younger, but I’ve never found a sport that makes me feel so strong — especially as a woman. I found bouldering really invigorating in that sense.”

A particularly inviting element of the sport, Celine explains, is the creativity and focus that is required. She says moving in this way feels almost “primal”.

“When I’m at the gym, I feel like all of the problems that I have inside of it go away for a couple of hours. I can focus on being present... and not falling off.”

Though the design of each route might encourage certain movements, the unique configurations of each climber’s body mean everyone needs to find out what works for them. There isn’t just one way to accomplish a climb, making it accessible for lots of people.

The sport’s embrace of a range of possibilities makes it feel, for Celine, that bouldering is uncompetitive.

“It’s not a challenge between you competing with another person, it’s you competing with the wall.”

This encourages a unique sense of collaboration between climbers. It’s not uncommon to see groups of people huddled around the bottom of the wall together, laughing, fist bumping and practising with air-climbing movements.

During our morning at the gym, it’s also evidenced by Celine’s constant greetings to friends, as well as her good-humoured glares at the staff who gently rib her about our photoshoot location — we’re set up by the kid’s wall.

“The reason why I also fell in love with bouldering so hard was because of the community. It’s such a social sport because you are problem-solving with strangers,” she says.

Celine has also extended this sense of community to a digital climbing journal, where she uploads videos of her impressive climbs to share with friends.

This amiable social community is a huge part of bouldering’s attraction for many, and it’s not surprising.

Workout environments can sometimes feel oppressive, and damaging habits encouraged by restrictive and messy cultural attitudes towards bodies and food can permeate.

Due to this, gyms can also be exclusive spaces where people are policed for their bodies or endure condescending and unsolicited explanations about exercise — Celine recalls unwanted explanations she experienced at a more conventional gym.

“I felt I was being babied through it, which I really didn’t appreciate.”

While, of course, bouldering gyms are not immune from these pervasive cultural problems, there’s an active labelling of anti-social behaviours within the community. Boulderers use the term “spraying beta” to refer to a particular annoyance; unsolicited explanations of how to climb a route.

“I think a lot of women at the gym, unfortunately — especially when they start off — get nonconsensual advice on how to do a climb. I think the thing you enjoy is figuring out the problem on your own and you only want that advice when you’ve asked for it. It’s very not cool.”

Celine says though, in her experience, bouldering communities are full of support — she gushes about Boulder Co’s tight-knit network of friends and staff.

Adam says engaging with the communities that fill Boulder Co is important. The director points to various actions that enrich the interactions with the gym, including pub quiz nights, low sensory hours, coached classes for LGBTQIA+ groups, low-cost workshops and women-led climbing.

He says it’s about making “little changes that create an environment that everyone can enjoy”.

More personally, Celine has also made a point of examining her relationship to the sport, to ensure the exercise remains well-balanced and nourishing.

“I have this tendency to get frustrated with myself at the gym if I’m not climbing as well as the expectation I have in my head. A lot of people can feel down and upset when they’re not climbing to the calibre that they expect themselves to.”

She continues, “I have to be gentle on myself, and not let it affect me too much. It’s also a privilege to boulder and to go climbing and to see my friends and I shouldn’t let it be something that gets me down.”

Bouldering has also unexpectedly impacted other parts of Celine’s life. Last year, the actor noticed how the preciseness of climbing enhanced multiple performances.

“The little details and the way that you move your body in climbing — it’s cultivated a body awareness within me, which is so useful for all other types of movement in my life. Especially with acting and honing in how a character moves.”

This was particularly evident in the roaring and tender theatre show Basmati Bitch, where Celine played, among many roles, a poet, street fighter, villainous goon and vigilant aunty. The neo-noir action-comedy involved stage combat, stunts and plenty of quick changes.

“It was such a physical show and as much as I loved it, it was exhausting. Not only the stunts, but running across three, four different levels and then getting to various sides and changing costumes. Climbing has helped unlock the possibility of me being, not just an actor, but a stunt actor or a movement artist.”

After that show, Celine was offered new roles, for movement productions and dance, which she’d never ventured into before.

She’s also started route-setting, another new potential career path (route setters are among the key staff within climbing gyms). She confesses it’s a lot of fun to set up slab climbs, which take place on walls tilted just over 90 degrees, and watch other boulderers gingerly attempt them.

“It’s generally the form of climbing that people are most scared by. It’s daunting because if you fall off, you’re going to cheese grate your face [on the wall].”

These climbs require flexibility and generating lots of tension on tiny holds. They’re very, very hard.

“I like setting stuff that is my style and then watching other people really struggle on it. It’s quite an evil thing,” Celine laughs. “I also really struggle, being quite short, with the reach during climbing, so maybe it’s out of spite, for tall people. Try this, you can’t do it, it’s too cramped for you!”

More recently, Celine has also ventured into outdoor climbing. Although she has done it a little, she’s not a fan of untethered bouldering in the more unpredictable wild.

“I find outdoor bouldering quite intimidating. It’s very scary, the rocks are whatever height they decide to be. You’re not protected because the mats are thinner. I don’t enjoy outdoor bouldering because it feels like I’m going to injure myself if I commit and it doesn’t feel that way in the gym.”

Instead, she’s taken up sport climbing, which involves lead climbing with a harness and rope, clipping to pre-installed bolts on the rock.

“I find it really special to be outside in nature, climbing these massive rocks and boulders. It’s quite surreal. I feel incredibly powerful. It’s as close up to nature as you possibly can be. When you get up to the top of a climb and you turn around and see the view the top, as you’re hanging off that cliff, it’s so insane.”

It’s a convincing pitch. Who wouldn’t be persuaded?

“Maybe I should do it,” I wonder out loud.

Celine is unwavering in her encouragement.

“You should! I’m going tomorrow. Come with me.”

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