Above the Smogline | Santa Barbara bouldering with Steve Edwards and Wills Young

This is an excerpt from the full length climbing film "Above the Smogline" by Richard Pelusi. Richard owns the rights to this film but has allowed Giant Rock to feature the movie on our channel. Thanks Richard!

Steve Edwards is a Southern California climbing legend. He established a plethora of classic boulder problems and sport climbs all over Ventura County and authored the definitive guidebook to the area. He was also very charismatic and extremely into fitness. His epic birthday challenges are still remembered to this day and have no doubt inspired countless other to get after it.

I first me Steve when we worked together at Beach Body, a home fitness company that makes P90X. He was high up in the company as the Vice President of Fitness and Nutrition and I was just a junior video producer. When we were introduced at a meeting I was shocked because I fully knew who he was as a climber but I had no clue he worked for the same company and he was the last person I expected to see.

This sparked a great friendship and I always relished the chance to hang with Steve and talk about climbing instead of work. He was obviously a wealth of knowledge on Socal climbing and he even drew me some maps to areas he never got to, such a cool guy.

In 2017 Steve passed away after battling with an aggressive form of lymphoma. Though he died way too young his climbs, writings and influence remain as a testament to a full life lived with passion and style.