Meet Our Newest K2 Athlete & Ambassador: Kobi Gulia

Kobi Gulia is a para athlete competing in the RP2 sport class in para climbing. He has been competing since 2024, winning two Australian National Championships and the inaugural Australian Para Cup in 2026.

In 2025, he represented Australia at his first World Climbing Cup in Salt Lake City and is currently training for upcoming World Climbing events in Korea and Japan.

We sat down with Kobi to learn more about how he got into climbing and competing, and where he's heading next.

Here is an outline of the content in this blog.

Table of Contents:

In 2025, he represented Australia at his first World Climbing Cup in Salt Lake City and is currently training for upcoming World Climbing events in Korea and Japan.

We sat down with Kobi to learn more about how he got into climbing and competing, and where he's heading next.

Here is an outline of the content in this blog.

Table of Contents:

Tell us a bit about yourself and your current goals.

I'm a para climber in the RP2 sport class – there's a whole bunch of different sport classes depending on your ability. I started competing in 2024 and got the competition bug.

I did a few states and nationals and now one international World Climbing competition.

My goal at the moment is just to keep competing, to stay on the national team and do more global events.

How did you get into climbing?

I started climbing when I was a teenager through my brother who was an outdoor climber. But then I had a pretty bad snowboarding accident when I was 15 and had a big break from climbing for 7 or so years after that.

Those 7 years were a long period of recovery and rehab for me, and I'd kind of written off climbing as an option. Despite that, I was still watching videos about climbing and my friends were getting into it. Somewhere along the way my passion was reignited, and it became a huge part of my recovery.

It started off with just seeing small gains which removed some of the self-imposed limitations I had and helped me see what was possible. Getting back on the wall again has opened up so many doors for me.

How did you get into competing?

There's a social group called Queensland Paraclimbing which hosts meet ups once a month. It really started there because I got a lot of encouragement from the friends I was climbing with.

One of them suggested I should do a Sport Climbing Queensland Boulder competition in 2024. I did the Lead titles that same year, then Nationals and just continued on, but now I'm mostly focused on competing in Lead.

What was it like to attend your first World Climbing Cup in Salt Lake City?

Overall, it was a pretty humbling experience! The competition is a very big step up from what we have in Queensland and Australia – in the skill level of the competitors but also the pressure. Having said that, it was a really fun, cool experience and it was so motivating to see the level para climbers around the world are at.

I also got to meet many of the people I'd been following and watching in competitions over the years, which was surreal.

Now I'm doing everything I can to get up to that level.

We're lucky to have a really experienced para climbing route setter here in Australia - Carlie Lebreton – who sets for many of the comps overseas. She sets routes for the Australian team to train on so we can get a good gauge of what the climbs will be like when we arrive at those World Climbing competitions. I think the gap is closing for sure.

Tell us more about these World Climbing events in South Korea and Japan.

They're World Climbing Cups – part of the para series which I qualified for at the Australian Nationals.

We've got a pretty big contingent going from Australia so we'll also be doing some training days in the lead up to the comps and I imagine the other national teams will be there too. There's nothing official in terms of training though – just a bit of reactivation to get over the jetlag.

Are you thinking about the Olympics? Either in LA or Brisbane?

Maybe Brisbane – it really depends on how they do the class selections. While para climbing is included in the LA Olympics cycle, the sport classes are quite limited. They had to pick and choose, and unfortunately mine (RP2) wasn't a part of that. But the sport classes haven't been locked in for Brisbane yet, so we'll wait and see.

We can't let you go without asking about gear, so what are your favourite climbing shoes and why?

Lately, I've been climbing in La Sportiva Theorys and Ondra Comps.

The Theory is a really good soft shoe which is well suited to the style of climbing we do in RP2 which includes a lot of smearing. Having good sensitivity when it gets steeper is also really important to me. The Ondra Comp is similar but has a tiny bit more stiffness. Both are very trustworthy shoes.

Because I have a have a lower body impairment, the amount of sensitivity and trust in the rubber makes a big difference, and these two pairs are definitely some of the best shoes I've ever worn.

And finally, you're based in Northern New South Wales, where are your favourite local climbing spots?

Urbenville and Pages are my local outdoor spots, but I haven't been getting out much lately because I'm so focused on indoor training.

For the gyms, my go-tos are Jungle down in Ballina and Alpine Currumbin.