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Nick Kaz memorial thread #2

J.C.

7-Jan-2009
12:18:42 PM

On 6/01/2009 kaz86 wrote:
>Hi mike.
>iv seen nick in a shirt that was from an expo.
>im familiar with the talk of federation peak. he wouldnt shut up about
>it. im not sure if he made it or not but im sure it was on the plans. He
>was very much like that. always talking about his next rip or some other
>route, he would always talk about grades and holds and equipment that none
>of us knew but would keep on chatting about it like he was a kid that had
>just seen fireworks for the first time. we all got lectures on it but seriously
>it was like another language, we would listen and smile because it was
> funny to see a big shaggy face all excited about rocks of all things,
>many times he would keep us entertained by demonstrating how he would have
>looked on a rock face .. still makes me smile.
>we all miss him soo much

That was my fault, sorry, we've been talking for years about a new line on the nw face, starting up blade ridge the busting out through some cool roofs and up a system of smaller cracks & big blocks on the headwall. est about 18 pitches of radness all up. I'll do it one day... was going to do it in the next month but it'll be a project for another year, a tribute climb as such.

just remembering one buladelah trip when i stayed over & he did one of those re-enactments in the kitchen and everyone was laughing at his excited attempts to highstep onto a crimp rail.
that same trip he had a whole bunch of old medium format cameras in pieces strewn across the desk and we started playing with them, i was astonished by how much he knew just through having a play aroundand reading. then when we started talking about his major work (he was still at uni then) and he went off into another excited rant about the properties of optics or something, totally lost me!

J.C.

7-Jan-2009
12:47:33 PM

On 6/01/2009 wingyingau wrote:
>I don't remember his 1st 22 but I do remember how his eyes lit up as he
>talked about working some 22 five years ago, when I first met him.
>
>I also remember him launching me on Killer Boas in Nowra when he came
>off the 2nd bolt. I joked with him that he was useless and a 4ft 11 little
>girl would put the drawers on for him. He slapped me on my back and told
>me to put some weight on my fat arse.
>
>Just before Xmas when we were down at Porters, he told me his girlfriend
>(Kate) would kick my arse and we joked about how I took the prize for having
>the worst taste in men.
>
>I'm going to miss the banter, big boy!!!!! Save your fat arse jokes until
>I see you next time, by then I should have one and you'll have to put the
>drawers on for me.
>
>Jess

you DO have the worst taste in men, sorry if any of them are reading! :P
he loved the 'im too fat' line but he stopped using it on me when we discovered that i was slightly heavier. we were both heavy oafs but he always outcranked me!

while we're on memory lane, jess do you remember that time me, nick, chris & pete were climbing at wave wall & came around to hassle you & carol? i saw pete the other day for the first time since that day, hasnt changed a bit :P

kaz86

7-Jan-2009
1:04:26 PM

I remember the first pair of climbing shoe's he bought.
i was around at a friends place where i was learning gung fu. he turned up in his old red RX7 wit the exhaust pipe witch made it sound like a glorified lawn mower. he told us how "awesome" the shoes were and then prceeded to give us a demo by climbing the outside of the brick building he made it about 2 steps up the wall when he fell off backwards and into the corrugated iron fence behind him and bounced onto his arse. he pretended like he ment to do it. he still swore that he ment to do it when ever i brought it up..

J.C.

7-Jan-2009
1:56:22 PM

haha was that the old rotary? damn that was a fun car

kaz86

7-Jan-2009
2:03:35 PM

yeah man. it was sweet to drive. nearly died a few times in it but still a good car.

It as me that helped him out with the paint job for it.. i was the guy that reversed into his car and then had to spend the time rubbing it back by hand and painting it. He was right about it ,, i never want to do that again im much more careful.. lol 2 days after fixing his car i reversed into the folks Mercedes...

kaz86

7-Jan-2009
2:42:30 PM

Just confirming that Nicks Funeral is definitely on this Tuesday the 13th of Januray 2009

For Details Please PM me


shay

7-Jan-2009
5:45:35 PM

We were extremely saddened when we heard about Nick's accident. I never had the pleasure of climbing with him, but always enjoyed chatting with him in the gym and at the crag. He was a top bloke indeed.

May you rest in peace and we will always remember you. Our thoughts are with his family and close friends.

Sheila and Damien.


garbie

7-Jan-2009
6:22:29 PM

Condolences to Nick's family from the staff at St Peters.

Nick was one of the regulars and he's already being missed - it will seem strange that we won't be seeing his smile around the place any more.

An example of his generosity and sheer enthusiasm for climbing: he was always trying to get me to come up to Buladelah - whether to sandbag me or not I don't know! But I now regret I never did take him up on it.

Mike


JMK

7-Jan-2009
8:14:33 PM

My condolences to Nick's family. I never met them but I did climb with him several times a couple years ago just before he moved to Sydney. I always meant to catch up for a climb again but it never seemed to happen. Every time we met in Blackheath Carpark we would say "yep lets do it" but time seemed to get away.

Nic was so full of life and will be sorely missed.

Jonas Kuginis

wingyingau

8-Jan-2009
12:27:04 AM

>you DO have the worst taste in men, sorry if any of them are reading!
>:P
>he loved the 'im too fat' line but he stopped using it on me when we discovered
>that i was slightly heavier. we were both heavy oafs but he always outcranked
>me!
>
>while we're on memory lane, jess do you remember that time me, nick, chris
>& pete were climbing at wave wall & came around to hassle you & carol?
>i saw pete the other day for the first time since that day, hasnt changed
>a bit :P

Now, now, Josh, let's not back stab those men from my past here!!!! I'm sure others would also agree that they made a mistake by messing with trouble like me!!! ;->

It's funny you mentioned about that day at Wave Wall when you delinquents were loitering around the crag as usual, because Nick and I were just joking about it before Xmas. I could tell he really cared for Kate though.

I'll see you guys on the 13th when we see the "fat boy" off. I'll try not to cry as I think he would rather see us talk about climbing baiters, planning the next climbing trip, hooking up with potential climbing partners and taking the piss out of each other.

Jess


tnd

8-Jan-2009
8:24:30 AM

Hi all

I'll be heading for the funeral from the eastern suburbs of Sydney on Tuesday morning. If anyone needs a lift or wants to share a ride PM me and we can arrange something.

octave

8-Jan-2009
10:56:13 AM

Firstly, condolences to the family and friends of Nick. I am not a climber but I became interested in this forum when the name Paul Bibby came up. I am an Ultralight pilot and Mr Bibby recently published an article in which he used blatently incorrect statistics in relation to aviation fatalities, after many of us wrote to SMH and The Age they were forced to print a correction. I would urge anyone who is disturbed by the methods of Mr Bibby to make written complaints to the editor.

Regards
Graham

J.C.

8-Jan-2009
11:32:36 AM

hey Jess I actually get along fine with your ex's, im having a dig!! ;)
see you on Tuesday munchkin


IdratherbeclimbingM9

8-Jan-2009
12:03:04 PM

I too offer my condolences to Nicks family and friends.
I did not know him other than through his many contributions to Chockstone (that I appreciated), but feel that we are collectively diminished by this sad loss of a climbing comrade at such a young age, who was obviously a positive influence and inspiration to many others.
Rod.


vwills

9-Jan-2009
5:22:35 AM

Just got out of the Kiwi hills yesterday night and heard from someone there was an accident at Pierces. Overcome with sadness to find out it was Nick.
Carol, Jess and I climbed with him at Porters only a week before Christmas and he was his usual ebullient, enthusiastic, nice all round guy- tucking into a bacon and egg roll to start the day, throwing away his classic line"you'll cruise this", he was getting climbing fit again and looking forward to getting out in the New Year.
Memories flood back of trips to Buladelah, Port Stephens, Kaputar and the Bungles. I might have ribbed him for carrying a pillow up to high camp in the Bungles, but he didnt hesistate to lend me his down jacket after finding out I had spent the previous night shivering away. We waltzed up Cornerstone rib together. (Theres a photo on flickr of him looking pretty rapt with the day).
He was mature and thoughtful and kind. He was a safe and considerate climber and an allround great person.
My deepest sympathy to Nicks family, who he clearly loved and respected and talked about a lot, his close friends and Kate.
At the moment I cant really find the words to express how much poorer the world is for Nicks passing, but how glad that I am that I knew him.
Vanessa

kaz86

9-Jan-2009
3:55:00 PM

such wonderful stories.
im really looking forward to meeting all you giuys that are makin the trek here to say your goodbyes.
we are puting together his power point show now. struggling to ind appropriate songs.. seems his taste in music was as hard to find as he is in photo's..

just wanted to also let u know that I did an interview with " the glebe " newspaper, there will be a special tribute to Nick appearing soon. also MuMzy did an interview with our local paper and there s a tribute to him in the Maitland mercury.

at present im working on tribute album witch will be posted on my facebook for all to see. wont be up for a while.

thanks again for all the heart felt messages. my family is trully over whelmed


Loz and Tim

9-Jan-2009
7:22:28 PM

Nick's been a climbing buddy of ours for a few years now- somewhere around 04 when the local Hunter Valley guide came out. He always seemed to be this jokative, big cuddly bear we’d bump into at a local crag around Port Stephens, Central Coast, Buladelah or on a trip to the Bluies or Nowra. One thing I appreciated about Nick was that he didn’t care how hard u climbed or who u were, if u could belay and climb rocks, he would call u a friend. His phone calls were often out of the blue and straight to the point about our next shared climbing location, while he saved the chit chat for a beer at the pub after the day’s climbing together. I only spoke to him about our plans for climbing a few days before the accident...I’m glad we had a nice chat that day and that I forced some more talk from him....he made me smile with his "so honest" style of responses, he wasn’t afraid to say it how it is.

I remember our Australia day party in 07. He wore his trademark “blue truckies bonds singlet” which he would often wear to the crag. He had just started his new job in Sydney and we joked about his toenails painted red- we soon met this new boy from the big city while we knew the blue bonds singlet as Nick, the easy-going, fun lov'n country boy from Maitland.

He wasn’t afraid to try a variety of new places, crags, or styles of climbing. He preferred to steer clear of the overseas adventures, but enjoyed exploring what unique Aussie climbing experiences had to offer. Tim went with Nick and a few other guys on one of the first houseboat trips to explore the deep water soloing (DWS) opportunities on the Hawkesbury River. It wasn’t long after this trip that Nick and Chris discovered a small pocket of “DWS”ing at Fishermans Bay, Port Stephens.

Despite enjoying the Sydney life, he still loved to return to his local areas like Buladelah with old buddies to do some bolting and climbing. He soon appeared in Crux mag at Buladelah with those colourful 80's style tights....he made us laugh that day! I remember he always admired and looked up to the older classic guys of climbing like Mike Law and local Newcastle climber, Johnny Wilde. He once said to me that he envisaged himself one day as this "old fat dude who climbed trad". Nick, I hope u enjoy the same variety of climbs in heaven as u have on earth. I hope u reach ur dreams and climb some golden trad routes at your new undiscovered destination. Spy out some new lines and destinations for us up there. We will all catch up to you some day, share a climb and remember the old times with u when we arrive. We will miss you while we wait for that day, but remember the good times we shared together mate.

Our thoughts and condolences to Nick's sweet girlfriend, Kate and to his family whom he loved very much.

Lauren and Tim (some of the Newcastle Crew)


JMK

12-Jan-2009
1:14:45 PM

If I can get off work I would like to attend Nick's Funeral - can you send me the details please. I know it is tomorrow.

Regards
Jonas


Sabu

13-Jan-2009
5:35:20 PM

My sincere condolences to Nicks friends and family. It's always sobering to learn of
another accident especially one involving a member of a close medium such as Chocky.
Regards
James.


HM33

14-Jan-2009
9:08:19 AM

I just wanted to pass on my thanks to the Kaczorowski family for hosting the fitting farewell to Nick yesterday. The huge turn out was testiment to the high regard that Nick had amongst all who he met.

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