When Caleb Ashley-Cooper was 16 he wanted to make some money to help pay for his ballroom dancing lessons, and cello lessons.
Caleb got a job at Hangtime Climbing gym in Bellville. He was trained to help new climbers, and to belay climbers. Caleb fell in love with climbing. Needing a partner to climb, he roped his younger brother Sheth in. They would climb together at the gym and they loved it.
Caleb realised that he needed to earn more money than what he was earning and, so started looking for other work. He came across a poster looking for climbing coaches. He would have to have training, which he had to pay for and then work for the climbing club for a term.
He trained to be a Beginner 1 climbing coach, getting 92%. He worked for the term and asked if he can do training to be a level 2 Beginner coach, Again he got in the high 90s. He was starting to take part in competitions with his brother, and even won a couple. He advanced quickly and trained to be an intermediate coach, He got 98%!
Caleb started taking part in the Western Cape Climbing competitions to understand what his students were going through in a competition. At this point Sheth was being coached by Caleb and also taking part in competitions. They were both selected to go into the national climbing teams and therefore awarded their climbing colours.
Caleb runs some of the climbing camps, doing his Springbok level in Scouts really helped with this. He is the Coach for the developmental National competition(2017)