IMAGINE HANGING ON FOR DEAR LIFE, bone-white hands gripping the rough side of a rock tower jutting out from the sea. Should you slip, the only way to break your fall would be to plummet hundreds of feet into the waters below.

The more timid would think twice about the risks, but for professional rock climber Chris Lindner, there’s little to be afraid of when it comes to Deep Water Soloing.

“You just fall, make a big splash, and start the climb all over again,” says the 24-year-old San Diego native and 2006 Western US Bouldering Champion. He’s into the specialized form of rock climbing.

On a recent trip, he scaled limestone formations in Halong Bay, Vietnam. Lindner—whose parents went into rock climbing as a family sport—began climbing at age 3, was on a magazine cover at age 4, and has never stopped since then.

His pursuit of tougher, more exciting challenges has brought him across North America, Patagonia, Spain, and now, the Philippines where he’s eyeing such destinations as Montalban for climbing and Siargao for surfing.

Science behind it

This rock climber could be clambering across a near-horizontal rock wall, or sleeping while suspended off the side of a cliff. Where some might see only sheer recklessness, Lindner stresses that there’s a science behind it all. “I’ve seen kids with huge arms who just try to climb headlong,” he recalls, “but then they waste their stamina. Technique and persistence are always better than brute force.”

He says the work is 70 percent mental and 30 percent physical because every new terrain poses its own challenge. Before anything else, it must be visualized and analyzed step by step in one’s mind.

That’s exactly what Lindner lives for. “In mountain climbing, the aim is to reach the peak. But in sports climbing, I don’t aim for the peak. It could just be tackling that one wall, that one part of the mountain, and enjoying every bit of it.”

Culture

The moment he reaches a new destination, Lindner avoids the usual tourist circuit of museums, restaurants, and landmarks, and instead immerses himself in the culture; he lives with the locals. “For example I met up with friends in Barcelona, and stayed with them,” says Lindner.

He raves about the global community of friends he’s made from rock climbing.

He goes native. He eats whatever the locals eat. While Deep Water Soloing in Vietnam, he stayed on a boat for five days, on a staple diet of seafood. Unwinding after a long day of climbing, he realized that a simple hand gesture of holding a beer mug and tipping it meant the same thing to both him and his Vietnamese hosts: cheers!

In his travels, Lindner also gets to promote Sanuk, the surf and outdoor footwear line he uses. He says the company’s hallmark Barefoot Un-technology suits his outdoor lifestyle. He likes its comfort, lightness, and durability in varying terrain and weather conditions. “I’ve even given them (Sanuk) some ideas for future designs,” says Lindner with a big grin.

To know more about Chris Lindner, visit his website at www.chrislindner.com.