Proudly South African Climbing Podcast Launches

There are many great climbing podcasts available to climbers – recording history, sharing news, and addressing topical issues. They are an important aspect of the climbing community and its development, but there were none from South Africa. Until now. ‘The Send Space’, debuting on 26 May 2021, is a proudly South African climbing podcast and a space for our local climbers to tell their stories, record history, share beta, and inspire others. It also aims to provide a platform for the community to share ideas and concerns as the climbing sector inevitably grows and changes. 

Three local climbers have gotten together to bring you regular episodes featuring climbers and adventurers from around the country, documenting their adventures, sends, fears, failures and lessons learned. Hosted by Mienke Richter, with content and production support from Matt Chapman and Aimee Clarke, the trio look forward to bringing entertaining and insightful content to curious climbers everywhere. 

The first episode features Chris Cosser, South Africa’s male olympic competitor ahead of the 2021 competition season. Listeners will get to know Chris, learn how he has prepared for the Olympics, hear his advice to new climbers, and get his take on where the climbing industry is going. “Chris was the ideal first guest, and was almost more of a co-host which really sets the scene for this show, since we aim to inspire debate, discussion and collaboration in our community,” says Mienke. “We have many more episodes in the works, including one with Erin Sterkenberg, our female olympian, and her coach James Barnes.”  

Other episodes in the pipeline include:

• The middle sibling of climbing performance: Mind Matters with Allister Fenton, Coach at Friends and Allies
• Going for a world record, with Thomas van Tonder, Red Bull OCR Athlete
• Attempting #Dreamline: Fears and failures, with Terence Vrugtman, Adventure Life SA
• The gender gap in routesetting with Kent Jennings, Head Routesetter at City Rock

Episode 1 can be found from 26 May on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and on most other podcast platforms. Interested listeners can also find “Episode 0” (a clip from the first episode) in which Mienke explains the inspiration and vision for the podcast. 

Visit www.thesendspace.org to find out more, or follow @send.space on Instagram. 

Get in touch and suggest topics, guests and hot debates for the team to tackle!