Born in 1971 in Atlanta, Georgia, Ian remembers that his love of climbing started very young, when he was three or four.

But it was a difficult childhood, in that his father who was an alcoholic took his own life when Ian was 10.

Ian and his mum then moved to Texas, where he really started to get into climbing as a teenager.

He climbed competitively, even travelling with the US national team at one point, before dropping out.

“I wanted to be a contender, but I was just not destined to make a living as a professional,” says Ian. “I still wanted to be involved in the industry, so I decided to do something else.”

With a background in design and fine art, that something else was making holds for indoor climbing walls.