New Holds – Habit & Uncarved Block + Quick Update UPDATED

We got a sweet tester care package from a company called Habit. Habit is selling all kinds of climbing gear and pouring holds from a few different companies, including Uncarved Block (the ones with the little Ying-Yangs) from Australia, and Habit-brand holds. The holds are being poured in Salt Lake by our friend Leif and his company Proxy Productions. Habit sent us a ton of holds, as well as self-tapping screws and a couple of t-shirts. Thanks guys! We are excited to see how the holds work for us.

Check out their site here - Habit Climbing

Impressions so far:

Texture – Very nice. Fine and comfortable. Held chalk well. Not slick.

Mix – Urethane blend. Threw one at the concrete floor and the edge chipped a tad but overall sturdy. Did not break.

Logo – The plastic ying-yang is a little weird. Not interruptive, but maybe an unnecessary expense? We think they should try googly eyes instead.

Shapes – Some are awesome, some seem a little awkward. Excited about the green jibs. The black pinches and small rounded edges are cool, as are the red blocks (which look sort of unoriginal but are actually really interesting and comfortable and I’ve never felt any quite like them before.) The roof jugs (big, blue) are comfortable and cool. The big blue slopers seem…ok, not amazing. The two gray holds a the top left are really cool. I will write the real names for each of these sets when I write about them in more detail, but if you are around the Spot, we set with some of them on the Beach today. That brings us to…

Quick Setting Update

We set a bunch on the Beach today. We are setting on the Beach again tomorrow, and probably Wednesday as well. I will update again in the next 2 days. UPDATE from Tuesday – more Beach problems!!!

Check out the Habit  and Uncarved Block holds and let us know what you think!!!

New Hold Company – Bee Hive Climbing

http://www.beehiveclimbing.com  ~  beehiveclimbing@gmail.com  ~  Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada

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This company out of Nova Scotia is the newest addition to The Big Hold Company List and The Big Hold Company List North America. Check out their website to see more, but here is their sample set:

Bee Hive Climbing Holds Sample Set. There is no visible bolt hole but apparently the center skeleton thing will have a bolt hole and is a hand or foothold.

 

 

 

 

Big Hold Company List Update – Flathold

flathold.com  ~  info@flathold.com  ~  Biel/Bienne, Switzerland

From Switzerland and World Cup setter Manu Hassler and his friend Mathieu Achermann comes this new-to-us hold company. We just now heard of ‘em, but flathold looks to have some pretty interesting shapes including:

Nussgipfel

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Hole in Wood

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And, well, we’re not 100% sure about the shapes, but the name is interesting…

Clit

For the rest of the hold companies, check out The Big Hold Company List or use the drop down menu to browse by region.

Buuda Holds

They have some sweet looking features, like this, the Bib Fortuna

A new hold company has been added to the lists!  Buuda holds, out of Mexico. According to their website they are high quality machine-measured polyurethane with a 5 year warranty. They are shipped from Laredo, Texas, so they are shipped domestically to those in the US and Canada.

buudaholds.com  ~  sales@buudaholds.com  ~  877.430.2808  ~  México

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We do not yet have any personal experience with these holds as we just found out about them but taking a look around their website I have seen several sets and holds that look pretty awesome.  Shapers include well-knowns like Louie Anderson. Has anyone else used them yet?  What do you think?

Dunes XL

Erosion Set

The Volcano by shaper Pedro Calzada

DRCC Semifinals Start NOW!

Get down to The Spot to watch our wildcard winners and pro invitees try to climb their way into finals at the DRCC Semifinals.

DRCC Little Master on the DRCC Master. Featured on Semifinal #???

Wanna know first hand who’s making it into finals?  Wanna see some sweet DRCC shapes in action?  Then we’ll see you at the Spot!

Settin’ Climb-It Finals!!!

Stephen, the head setter

Climb-It Goodness!

Green footsies galore

So yesterday and today we spent out at Boulder Reservoir setting 10 amazing finals problems with all Climb-It Holds.  Usually at a big event a hold company only sponsors one or two problems, but Climb-It had the idea to sponsor the entire finals, and they sent us a bunch of sweet florescent holds in several colors so they’d really pop on the wall.

Sweet Climb-It feet and crimps, in orange!

Guest Setter Max from Boston

Right above is a picture of Max Zolotukhin.  Max is originally from Florida, but he’s been living in Boston where he’s head setter at The Boston Rock Gym (Heart of Steel bouldering comp ring a bell for anyone?).  He used to compete a lot, but now he mostly sets.  So far he’s done a killer job with The Battle in The Bubble.  So get psyched for his unique style of setting problems!!!

Jonny making adjustments to a hold...

In addition to Max, Stephen, and Kevin, the Spot’s own Jonny Hork, Jon Glassberg, and myself have been turning wrenches and running problems.

The sweet warm-up wall in competitor isolation

One of the biggest problems with many out of gym comps like this one is finding a place for competitors to warm up.  Josh Paton (our extremely functional facilities manager, among other things) got a friend to help him design and weld this baby.  It’s a really nice woody, and we might be selling it after the comp, so if you’re interested drop us a line at shout@thespotgym.com.  Hopefully the competitors will get super warm on it so they can pull off all the crazy problems we set for them.

We almost lost these footholds cause they blend in so well!

Oh yeah, and the rain?  It’s actually been nicer at the Res than it’s been in Boulder.  I was surprised to find the deluge down here in Boulder this evening when we stopped setting.  It was sprinkling there, but it wasn’t so bad.  Here, it’s soaked!  Good thing everyone is inside at the Spot enjoying all the awesome citizen’s redpoint problems and pro qualifiers that Carlo and his crew set.  4-10 pm, if you’re not there you haven’t missed it yet–get down to The Spot and climb!!!

More Sneak Peeks and a Brief Construction Update

Hokay, so we finished the DRCC semi-finals today and the citizen’s crew is hard at work RIGHT THIS MINUTE setting the redpoint comp for you all. That might not sound dramatic right this minute, since it’s only 9:39 pm, but if you read this at 2 am they’re probably still there. Thanks citizen’s/qualifiers setters!!!  Here are a few more sneak peeks at our semis:

Oh man, those mini feature jibs are amazing!!!

We messed up a little and didn’t request enough holds to make an all DRCC semis like we had planned, so we had to supplement a bit from our stock.  Be prepared for awesomeness.

Complimentary pinches...

Sweet sloper goodness...

Super Shells!

Come to the Spot on Saturday, May 15th, to see these holds, and many more, challenge some of the best climbers in America (and a couple of the best boulderers in the world).  More holds - Detroit Rock Climbing Company

Oh yeah, and here are a couple of construction pics.

The new office space

More new office space.

For schedule, etc, check the Battle in The Bubble links on the sidebar.  See you all on Friday for the citizen’s comp and pro qualifiers!

Battle In The Bubble Video 3!!!

Register now for the Citizen’s ($30) or Pro Wildcard (or confirm your Pro Invitational invitation) ($75) categories here: The Battle in the Bubble Pro Bouldering Invitational.  Citizen’s and Pro Wildcard will be a six-hour redpoint event in which the 20 highest scoring men and the 20 highest scoring women who registered for the Pro Wildcard event will win a place in Semifinals.

Friday, May 14th:

Citizen’s and Pro Wildcard  – Redpoint Format — 4pm – 10pm

Saturday, May 15th:

Detroit Rock Climbing Company Pro Semifinals — Onsight Format @ The Spot — 9am-2pm

Climb-It Pro Finals — Elimination Format @ The Boulder Reservoir!!! — 6pm – 9pm

Help us pick some Climb-It Holds!

The Battle in The Bubble’s Title Hold Sponsor - Climb-It – makes tons of awesome climbing holds.  On top of the holds they’re sending us to sponsor the finals of The Battle in The Bubble we’re gonna order some holds from them for our new wall.  So we wanna know, what Climb-It holds do you like?

Pinches?

Climb-It L B Pinches

Slopers?

Climb-It Shallow Slopers L

Huecos?

Climb-It Halo XL

Technical Crimps?

Climb-It Powertools LG Crimps

These holds and tons more are featured in their online hold store: CLIMB-IT HOLDS – Climb-It.  Check out the site, peruse the holds, and make a case in the comments for the sets you think we should get for our new wall.

Battle in The Bubble Title Hold Sponsor Announced!

Climb-It Holds out of Southern California will be the title Hold Sponsor for the finals of The Battle in The Bubble.  This means they are providing all the holds for the 10 awesome finals problems we’re gonna set!  That doesn’t mean all the problems will be the same style–far from it.  We’re not sure what we’re using for the comp yet, cause Climb-it makes tons of different kinds of holds (check out their website to see most of ‘em) but some of our favorites are these bad boys:

Climb-It Southern Sandstones 3XL

The Souther Sandstone 3XL is one of my favorite Climb-It shapes.  You may recognize this one (we have a couple of ‘em at The Spot, one yellow, one orange) cause we use it all the time.  It’s big enough to match, big enough to heelhook, even big enough to mantle on, but still challenging and versatile enough to be found anywhere from vertical 3+ spots to the hardest 5 spots.  It’s Climb-It’s Boss, and one of the most awesome big slopers on the market.

Climb-It Moderate XL Slopers

We have a couple of these at The Spot as well (they’re blue) and we’re looking forward to using more.  These slopers provide a good challenge on vertical to slightly overhanging walls (think the river granite, the Font, the left and far right sides of the Dojo, and the backside and headwalls of the Hueco) but they’re a little…slopey…to be used on the steepest terrain in the gym.  We love ‘em cause they’re great for setting technical problems, difficulty deadpoints, and arete squeezes.

Climb-It Powerpinch 1

Whooo!  We don’t have these, but we wish we did.  Big slopey pinchy goodness.  They make several versions of the Powerpinch, and we want ‘em all!  POWERPINCHES!!!!!

Climb-It Patina Crimps A

These are some great technical holds–whether they’re used as gastons, pinches, or straight crimps, they’re all different sizes, some have thumb catches, some have thumb wraps, some are good feet, others aren’t, and most of ‘em have a nice lip so they can be used on steep walls (even the cave of the Dojo!).  If you’re setting a rope climb, several of them could even be technical (but not impossible) clipping holds!  Our set is yellow, and we use them all the time on problems from 3- to 5+.  Check ‘em out next time you’re at The Spot and let us know what you think!!!

Stay tuned for more info on the Battle in The Bubble and our title hold sponsor — Climb-It Holds!!!