EP 221: Keenan Takahashi — ‘The Gold Standard’, Learning From Limit Moves, and the Origin Story of ANTIGRAV

The Nugget Climbing Podcast

Keenan Takahashi is one of the top boulders in the world. We talked about the origin story of his clothing company ANTIGRAV, the importance of carving out space for creativity, establishing his latest V15 FA ‘The Gold Standard’, watching Sean Bailey send ‘Devilution’, unclimbed king lines in Bishop, shifting his focus to meaningful hard climbs, his stubbornness, why trying limit moves makes him a better climber, learning the macro from the micro, accessing try hard, why he started training, upcoming goals, and much more! I’ve wanted to talk to Keenan since the very beginning of the podcast, and this turned out to be one of my all-time favorite interviews.

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Show Notes:

thenuggetclimbing.com/episodes/keenan-takahashi

Nuggets:

(00:00:00) – Intro

(00:02:47) – Kalkoentjie

(00:06:22) – Buried in admin

(00:09:48) – What Keenan’s life looks like

(00:15:25) – Taking space

(00:18:08) – The origin story of ANTIGRAV

(00:28:02) – Selling an emotion

(00:32:47) – Making a climbing pant

(00:34:12) – Creating value

(00:37:56) – Exclusive brands

(00:42:12) – The small drop model

(00:47:48) – Committing

(00:49:50) – Climbing better than ever

(00:55:15) – The Finnish Line

(01:00:13) – Jimmy Webb’s development in Tahoe

(01:02:00) – Chasing dream lines

(01:03:20) – Satisfaction

(01:07:57) – 10 more things

(01:10:23) – Devilution

(01:15:51) – Unclimbed projects in Bishop

(01:18:23) – The Gold Standard

(01:43:47) – Stubbornness

(01:46:20) – Learning from one limit move

(01:49:33) – Learning the macro from the micro

(01:51:52) – What he learned from Spectre

(01:53:52) – Surrounding himself with stronger climbers

(01:55:12) – V15 at 50, and working weaknesses

(01:58:30) – Trying hard

(02:08:11) – Passion and relinquishing obsession

(02:10:22) – Cultivating fun

(02:14:47) – Measuring progress

(02:20:52) – The Dark Side

(02:23:47) – Ireland plans

(02:28:38) – Wrap up