30.9.08

Jason Boyd




I photographed a climbing instructor, Jason Boyd, at Vertical Relief, a climbing gym in flagstaff on Thursday. He teaches mostly outdoor classes, and is a much bigger fan of outdoor climbing, which makes the photographs a little misleading. I took shots of him in action and a portrait just to give myself some variety to choose from. The Sun ran the top photo very large, but cropped the bottom shot into a tiny mugshot which was a little disappointing.

Climbing coach breaks down walls for his students

Flagstaff rock climbing coach Jason Boyd wants to make sure his students get more out of the sport than mere accolades




Jason Boyd's decision to study nursing likely had very little to do with the fact that he's an avid rock climber.

Still, considering the sport's inherent dangers, and his particular medical history in relation to it, that training should turn out to be very useful in the future. The 29-year-old recent NAU School of Nursing grad has had spiral fractures in the tibia and fibula -- the two bones that make up the lower leg -- of both legs, broken three ribs, shattered his left wrist and left elbow, fractured a vertebra and broken several fingers and toes.

Ouch.

Boyd said although his 18-year career as a rock climber has been interrupted on occasion by a trip to the emergency room, any pain he's suffered has been far outweighed by the joy he's squeezed out of his life on the rock.

Read the rest of Keith Jiron's story here.

1 comment:

danielle said...

I really like that first rock climbing shot--I can see his whole expression and his eyes have great catchlights. That's a bummer that they cropped the portrait in so tight. lame-o