EP 221: Keenan Takahashi
May 27, 2024
Photo by Eric Bissell
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:
Related Podcast Episodes:
Films:
Keenan’s Links:
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