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Prinz – The (Long Awaited) Hold Review
You may recognize the Prinz logo from Bomber Holds. Prinz bought the shapes and the logo from them and began shaping and pouring a bunch of new shapes as well. Owner Ryan came around Boulder with some samples for all the gyms to check out. He gave us a sample pack, plus I talked him into giving us a couple of edges and slopers and two bigger holds, a large blocky pinch and a mega sloper, to test.
A little bit of everything! The standard sample pack is 5 different holds and you can order one off the Prinz website to check Prinz out for yourself.
This review is in a slightly different format than the others as we started writing it a while ago. We really wanted to see how the holds held up over time and that is part of the reason for the delay. Thanks to Ryan for his patience in waiting for this review to come out!
In case you missed it, here’s the first half of our Prinz review: Prinz Initial Impressions
Prinz Review Part 2
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The Material
Prinz holds are made of urethane, and it’s the more resin-like urethane (semi-rigid) instead of super flexy urethane. Some gyms prefer this, some prefer the other, most that I know use both. We are skeptical of this type of urethane at The Spot because of our walls, but Ryan brought some in for us to try and break, and we were pleasantly surprised. Read on:
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Break Testing
Ryan knows how we break everything at The Spot and he was anxious to find out if his mix would break. Upon first glance I said yes, it definitely would break, but he challenged me to break one so we took one of the samples and proceeded to abuse it in all the ways we normally abuse holds here at The Spot.
1. The Concrete Floor
Ryan and I hurled the hold over and over at the concrete floor. It did not explode. Eventually a bit of the edge dented in and broke as you see here:
Shorn plastic. Not brittle-explody plastic. Pretty good break, didn’t interfere with the integrity of the hold, and it was easy to sand into a thumb catch. UPDATE: It’s now been broken like this for over a year and still works great.
2. The Uneven Wall
Sadly I can’t find a picture of this, but we took the hold and put it across the most concave section of wall we could find, then tightened it down. Surprisingly, the hold flexed into the concave without breaking. I loosened it and did it again. Same result. Impressive.
3. The Test of Time
Despite the strength of the holds I was concerned that over time they’d become more brittle and more prone to breaking. Not so. Our Prinz holds have held up great and I don’t think we’ve broken even one in the time we’ve had them. The edge of one has become a bit polished though:
The edge of this one has got a bit polished over time, but since we’ve got a vinyl-topped floor it seems all our holds are falling victim to this.
The hold still climbs fine and, again, we’ve got holds from every company doing this right now because the vinyl topped floor means more dust and people don’t clean their shoes. Sigh.
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Shapes
We definitely feel that Prinz is strongest in its larger shapes. Of the holds we have, the big yellow pinch is a joy to use and the huge purple feature is one of my top 10 favorite holds.
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Big Pinch #88
Big Pinch! Ours is yellow.
See it on their website – Prinz Big Pinch #88
The Big Pinch #88 is basically a large (comparatively, the size is between XL-3XL depending on the company) square cut pinch with a twist–it’s a bit of a sloper on one side and quite a jug on the other and it isn’t perfectly straight so you can use it in a variety of ways and it’s easy to tweak to make it harder or easier. The Pinch is quite comfortable and makes a good hold for any grade of route depending on how it is used. We’ve underclinged it, mantled it, jumped to it, flipped it, etc… A popular hold that we could easily use more of, and is definitely worth the $$.
10/10
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The Grip
Prinz Holds “The Grip” Feature
Our Grip is purple and we love it. The main feature is basically a big slopey edge that is pretty good once you get onto it but the large rounded bulge makes it hard to hit properly. Upside-down the volume makes a cool 3-angle sloper/pinch. It’s comfortable, fun to use, challenging, looks great, and has held up fantastically. A very solid hold. We keep finding new uses for this thing and we want about 3 more and think every other gym should get some too.
10/10
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We didn’t get any of Prinz’ other big features but he has several cool 5XL features and here are the three in particular that we are excited to check out next:
Prinz Mr. Slug
Prinz Half Moon
Big Pinch #86
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One more cool thing about Prinz–Ryan has this tattoo on his leg with all the places he’s been in the world filled in. He’s got a way to go still, but I think it’s pretty sweet!
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Other Yay:
You can get all holds with bolts or bolts + t-nuts if needed.
Large variety of weird small crimps and feet which are perfect for home walls and for mixing it up in a gym where customers are too used to a certain style of shape.
Potential spinners have pre-recessed screw points.
The features are really cool.
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The Nay:
The Prinz website shows most of their holds in 90’s multicolor. It makes it a little hard to tell what’s going on and we recommended using solid colors in the future, which it seems Prinz has been moving towards. For ordering, it’s no issue to get whatever color you want.
Some holds are martini or mixed bolts/screws.
We think their newer shapes are better than their old shapes and we can’t wait to see what other features and new holds they come out with next!
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Pricing
Prinz has recently lowered prices making them one of the more affordable brands on the market. Prinz offers gyms a 25% discount and offers free shipping to all domestic (in the continental US) customers–meaning gyms and retail customers can easily figure their total cost using the website.
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Conclusions:
Prinz makes some great big features and for their smaller holds you’ll want to pick and choose depending on your needs. Perfect for wood walls and surprisingly able to stand up to the abuse meted out at an uneven concrete-walled gym like The Spot. Ryan is a nice guy who cares about climbing, and it’s worth supporting this small company with an order.
So that’s it for now with the Prinz Review. Go check out their features and make sure to get yourself The Grip!
Joel is Off to Europe!
Joel Zerr on a fantastic FA in Tahoe
Joel has jetted off to Europe for a three-month first trip there. He’ll be climbing in Switzerland and competing in the first several IFSC Bouldering World Cups of the season. Have fun Joel! We’ll miss you!
Etch and Atxarte Holds – Initial Impressions
Etch and Atxarte sent us some holds to try out. They’ve been poured at the same facility, and the material is so far quite impressive. We’ve been Etch fans for a long time but have held off ordering new holds because their material was a bit brittle for our gym. NO MORE! These holds have the strong, flexible feel of our favorite grips from Kilter, E-Grips, Teknik, So Ill, etc… We will keep you updated on its longevity, but we are very optimistic. We’ll post more on the holds once we’ve climbed on them a bit, but here is what we got:
Etch
The feature.
another angle
This is a cool feature. It’s comfortable and cobble-like, but with detailing that makes the grip unique.
The set.
another angle
Connor set an Advanced (red tape) problem on the front font arete with these. Check it out and let us know what you think!
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Atxarte
The Feature.
bottom view
The hollow back seems good and the hold is cool. Danny put it on an advanced problem on the left river and it worked very well as a hold you could grab the top of, undercling, then throw a heel on. A nice feature for beginner – advanced problems.
The set.
The boys were pretty skeptical about these, because they’re a bit of a gimmick. They basically have jibs molded onto them. The boys felt the holds without the jibs were cooler and then setters would have the option to add the jibs if they wanted them. Ian Powell and I think these are cool, a bit different perhaps, but they work. I do also think that the boys are right, the pinch on the right especially would be sweet without the jib on it making it into a jug. It’d be nice to have the option of using it either way, and with perma-jibs you’re stuck with the jug, as it were. Also, the logo on all of these is a big crest, and everyone felt it was a bit much. Despite those small things, the mix seems solid, the lines are clean, and so far (as of the comp) they worked well.
I’ll post more once we’ve set with them a bit.
Used Hold Sale!
We are having a used hold sale right now at The Spot. Come in quick for the pick of the bunch–we’ve got some real gems out on the table for good prices. All holds are sold as-is and tax will be assessed at checkout. Enjoy!
SBS 9 Highlines & Highballs Results! + Thanks DBC!
Danny testing out one of the Advanced problems while taking a phone call.
The Highlines & Highballs comp went off last night and by all accounts it was a roaring success. Beer was drunk, burritos were eaten, prizes were won, problems were climbed, and highlines were styled.
Tyler Youngwerth on the highline
We would like to congratulate our pro final winners Michael O’Rourke and Delaney Miller for their decisive sends of the finals problems. For the men, Nick Milburn also finished the final but took second overall due to having one more fall than Mike in qualifiers. 15-year-old Shawn Raboutou took third with an amazing flash go in which he did an impressive rose move and fell going for the last hold. For the women, Nina Williams managed to match the last sloper but was unable to jump for the finish, so she took second. Lizzy Asher got the last sloper with one hand and ended up in third.
General comp results and full pro final results can be seen here: Highlines Highballs Results If you have questions or corrections, please email events@thespotgym.com.
There were many photographers on hand as well as a video team, so expect to see more media soon.
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Thanks DBC!
We’d like to send a huge thanks to our friends in Denver, The Denver Bouldering Club, for sending up their head setter TJ Kelly to help with our comp. DBC setter John Gass has helped at our last two, and as John was unable to be here for this event TJ stepped up. He set some awesome boulders–two recs, an intermediate, an advanced, and O10, and we were really happy to have him. Thanks TJ!
The DBC has their own comp coming up in January, and their proceeds will go to a good cause. If you’re looking for some mid-winter relief, check it out:
La Sportiva MIX – Awesome Setting Shoe!
Our new favorite shoes. The La Sportiva Mix.
Jake and I were lucky enough to get our feet into some new La Sportiva Mix urban approach shoes. The Mix are a mix of a low profile, good-tractioned walking shoe and smooth-toed climbing shoe. The results not only look cool, they’re fantastic for routesetting.
The toe of the Mix.
The sole of the Mix is fairly flat, like the soles of the skate shoes most setters I know prefer setting in.
The full sole of the Mix. Fairly flat, a little tread for good traction. Ours are all black. Note the smooth toe section, aka the “climbing zone”.
The “climbing zone” is sticky and smooth and works well for all those little forerunning moments in the middle of a setting day. They are really good for smearing and, if sized snugly, do just fine on smaller footholds as well. They aren’t a performance rock climbing shoe, but they beat all the running and skate shoes I’ve ever tried to climb in by miles and miles. Just look at me standing on this foot hold:
Toeing like a champ.
The shoe itself has a nice toebox–wide enough so our toes aren’t cramped but snug enough to make climbing feel reasonable. The heel is cut low but fits like a glove on both my foot and Jake’s. They are lightly cushioned–comfortable, but not floaty.
Nice socks, Jake.
I broke these shoes in by wearing them on an unexpectedly long bouldering approach (2.5 miles each way) followed by three 12 hour days straight setting for Psychedelia. The shoes were amazing–they felt great on and off the wall and ladders, I was able to forerun easier boulders and try harder moves in them, and a bunch of people asked me what my cool shoes were. Jake just got his this week, and they’re already his favorite shoes. I call it a win all around.
The Mix come in several colors of leather or canvas. Jake and I both have leather, though Jake’s (the lighter ones) are a sample only color. Other colors including the darker blue/gray that I got will be available in stores this spring. If you’re a route setter, these are the shoes for you.
Click the link to check out athlete blogs, news, pictures, and other great shoes from: La Sportiva North America.
New Holds – Capital Climbing!
In packaging. Poured/shipped by Element.
Hold shaper Chris Neal sent us some new holds to check out from his new company Capital Climbing. Here are some pictures of the holds, and where to find ’em on the walls to check ’em out. We’ll report back with a more thorough review (and the names of the sets) in the near future.
Pink Font Slopers. You can find one on the Beach and the other four on a cool outward-facing problem in the scoop just left of the River arete.
The Clasts. Comfortable rounded edges. Another angle below:
You can find these on the River, on a yellow problem mid-right river, a pink 4 by the river arete, and on a dark green 5- that runs across the left river.
Awesome feature!
Another shot of it with a wrench for size.
The feature is on the River as well, just right of the arete about head-height on the pink problem that also has two of the green edges on it.
First impressions are very positive. The texture of the holds is great, the shapes are comfortable and professional, and they are poured by Element, which we’ve had good luck with so far. The edges are a bit softer than an Aragon hold, but nothing we’re concerned about. All in all an impressive offering from a brand-new company.
Check out the holds and let us know what you think!
Psychedelia Pro Final Results!
Alex Puccio (in all pink) climbing O8 in the redpoint round of Psychedelia. Huge skull art by Hunter Damiani.
More photos and info tomorrow, but here are the top results from the Pro Final:
Women
1. Megan Mascarenas
2. Tiffany Hensley
3. Alex Puccio
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Men
1. Matty Hong
2. Nicholas Milburn
3. Garrett Gregor
Matty Hong flashing the Men’s Final for the win.
Psychedelia Schedule + Setting + Pre-Registration Special!
Psychedelia 2012
Psychedelia is coming up this weekend!
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Setting & Closure Schedule
We will strip the BEACH and the DOJO on Tuesday night starting at 10pm. They will be closed until the comp.
Wednesday night starting at 10pm we will begin stripping the rest of the gym. You will be able to climb until regular gym closing at 11pm.
The gym is closed THURSDAY and FRIDAY for Psychedelia setting and decoration. Spot members will be able to climb for free at the BRC on these days and on comp day.
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Psychedelia Saturday
Youth Psychedelia
10am – registration opens, pre-registrants can check in
11am – Youth C and D climbing begins
Noon – Youth B, A, and Junior and Raffle begin
3:30pm – Youth session over
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Adult Psychedelia
5pm – registration opens, pre-registrants can check in
6pm – climbing begins
7:30pm – beer and burrito service begins
9pm – climbing ends, raffle/costume contest start
9:30/9:45 – Pro Finals
More Raffle
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Pre-Registration!
Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday of this week The Spot is running a pre-registration special. Pre-register for your Competitor or Spectator entry and we will donate $5 of every entry for the next three days to the flood relief efforts. There is still much to do to recover from the flood, and The Spot wants to keep helping our community return to normal and get our open spaces and climbing areas reopened. If you are coming to Psychedelia pre-register to help out our community!
The Spot Bouldering Gym Psychedelia Pre-Registration
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Finally, if you are coming to the comp you’ll want to glow. You may even want to win our costume contest. Read this article: Psychedelia Blacklight Costumes – What Glows and What Doesn’t? + 2013 Theme: Day of the Dead! to learn how to make a costume that looks amazing.
See you at Psychedelia!!!
Psychedelia Blacklight Costumes – What Glows and What Doesn’t? + 2013 Theme: Day of the Dead!
One of the biggest questions people have about Psychedelia is: “What should I wear?” With this post we hope to help you figure that out by sharing what we’ve learned over the years about black lights and reactive costumes and accessories. Below are some notes and products that we’ve found that work.
When you are searching, learn to look for popping fluorescent (not just neon) and the “hyper-white” which is the nearly fluorescent looking white color you will see in some clothing, feathers, and other costume parts. This white will often glow like gangbusters, where other whites will look dull or not glow at all. Many products will specify whether or not they are black light appropriate. Key words to look for are fluorescent and/or black light reactive and/or UV reactive.
Successful whites from costume contest winners Siegfried and Roy and the white tigers, aka Matt and Sandy Wilder, Jon Glassberg and Paige Claassen.
If there is any question for glow, a portable black light flashlight is the safest way to check, or you can bring your item down to The Spot in the weeks before Psychedelia and check it out in our black light boxes. We use REAL black lights at The Spot, not just purple or UV lights, and anything claiming to react to real black light should shine like a champ.
A little black light flashlight can be used for testing. Between $6 and $15 on Amazon or at McGuckins.
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Whites
Whites!
Unfortunately many white fabrics, tapes, plastics, and other items will not glow as much as you might hope. Besides looking for the fluorescent hyper-white, here are some notes:
White clothing can go either way. Anything with a lot of white threads will often glow. Once you learn to see it, you can often tell from looking at the thread whether or not it will pop.
Some good whites here.
Screen-printed whites usually WON’T glow.
White embroidery usually WILL glow.
Cottons, especially 100% white or heathered cotton clothing, usually will glow. So will most spandex.
Bleach and bleached items will glow. There are types of laundry detergent that will cause fabric to glow or to glow better.
Glowing white cotton and lacy white shirts.
Other colored fabrics will sometimes glow very well if they have a white cotton thread base.
White thread t-shirt trim will often glow, so even if your shirt doesn’t glow your threads sometimes will.
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Fluorescent Fabric
EZ showing off his black light hairspray, face paint, and tights at Psychedelia 2007
Fluorescent fabric depends on the fabric. Fluorescent yellow is usually the brightest.
Fluorescent spandex will often glow really well.
Yep, from Target. Glow like crazy.
Cheap women’s fluorescent spandex undies from Target or similar stores will often look amazing and can be worn over tights for the short-shorts look.
Nice job girls!
Body suits work too.
Fluorescent spandex full-body suits work very well.
Fluorescent netting often looks like it should glow, but plastic-based usually won’t. Fabric/cotton based usually will.
The netting on her skirt and wings glows quite well.
It is extremely hard to tell which fluorescent fabrics will and won’t glow without the black light test.
You can get fluorescent thread to add detail to your costume. Available at Jo Anne’s and online. Glows really well.
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Accessories
Glowing wig, glowing glasses.
Wigs can go either way, depending on the base material.
Many types of white and fluorescent feather and fur will glow well.
Fluorescent poster boards glow very well and offer lots of costume options as they are cheap and easy to draw on and cut and tape together.
Cheap plastic fluorescent or black light reflective items will often glow very well and not break the bank.
We haven’t tried these, but they look like they’d be amazing! Furry black light reactive booties. Come in orange and green. Not good for climbing, but great for costumes!
These are cheap and glowed really well. Seemed to fit adult heads just fine unless you have a head bigger than size 7.5.
Notice the brightly glowing accessories here.
Creative uses for poster board. The year before these guys won the costume contest as a pair of giant highlighters.
A jet pack. Very Creative.
Spray paint and body paint will glow if they say fluorescent. Check out Casey’s radioactive man!
Casey Bates went all-out in 2007 with body paint and hair spray
Fluorescence in paint, tape, clothes, plastic, fabric, make-up, hair gel, hair spray, fake eyelashes, nail polish…pretty much anything with actual fluorescent added to it will look amazing. Use a blacklight to check!
Awesome!
With body paint you can give the impression of floating bones, wings, or whatever else you want to paint on your body.
Highlighters glow and can be used to decorate skin (not sure if it’s recommended, but it works).
Laundry Detergent with any type of bleach or bleach substitute will usually glow and cause things painted or washed in it to glow.
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Light-Creating Accessories
Glow Sticks, Glow Jewelry, El Wire, and Christmas Lights
Glow sticks or jewelry of any type and small lights in reds, blues, greens, purples, pinks, and neon yellows are appropriate for Psychedelia. Clear or white lights are interruptive to your eyes at Psychedelia and so not appropriate. The little packages of glow sticks for $1 at Michael’s Art Stores don’t work very well, so are not recommended.
Glow Stick Costume
Blacklight balloons glow fairly well.
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El Wire
Popular for Burning Man, also awesome for Psychedelia and other black light events, electroluminescent wire is a thin, flexible string that glows like nobody’s business. The power pack is small and light so you can stick it to your body or clothing without too much disruption, then use the wire to make your costume fantastic!
- The power pack is pretty small, and the ones they have at McGuckin can run several El Wires off one pack.
Available at McGuckin’s or online in various colors. McGuckin also has some light up flat strips that are pretty cool.
Or: Amazon.com: 9ft Lime Green Neon Glowing Electroluminescent Wire (El Wire) (Also available and fine for Psych in blue, neon orange, neon yellow, neon pink.)
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Glow in the Darks
Glow-in-the-dark items do not usually “pop” so they are not so good for Psychedelia. Known exceptions – glow in the dark spray paint (Krylon), glow in the dark chalk, glow stars and planets.
We used this glow spray paint to paint the knobs in the Dojo and it worked great. Probably not good to put on your skin, but it can be great for making costumes. They have it at McGuckin.
This glow paint also works well (not for your body) and is available at McGuckin.
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Gaffer’s Tape
Gaffer’s tape is a cotton cloth based tape that is normally used in stage and production work. The gaffer is the head of the lighting department on a film crew, and the lighting department uses this kind of tape to hang things and tape wires, cords, and cables. The tape is very strong and removes cleanly, unlike duct tape which often leaves residue. Some gyms use gaffer’s tape all the time, but we prefer regular duct tape for most of the year. For one reason, gaffer’s tape is generally 3-4x more expensive than duct tape per roll. A 2″ wide roll of gaffer’s fluorescent can cost $20 or more.
Fluorescent Gaffer Tape Art
Because of the cotton-cloth base, many types of gaffer’s tape may offer some glow, but only the fluorescent colors (orange, pink, green, yellow) offer the real blacklight reactivity and “pop” we are looking for with Psychedelia. White doesn’t work as well as you might expect.
We use over 50 rolls of 1″ gaffer’s tape in these four colors to tag the problems and decorate the gym each year. Some companies will offer these fluorescent bases with additional patterns–camo, triangles, hearts, stars and moons, celtic knots, and more–which give some variety; however, we usually turn each problem into its own work of art, so the specific color/pattern of the base tape is not that important at Psychedelia as long as it glows.
More tape art 2012
Also important to note, some rolls of pink/orange and yellow/green will look the same in blacklight, but others will not. This is because sometimes a company will use, for example, orange fluorescence to make the orange rolls and the pink rolls glow. The colors look different in regular light, but in blacklight the color of fluorescence is what you see, so they will look the same. We’ve had the same company send us pinks that looked orange and pinks that looked pink, all in the same batch. You can check this roll by roll with a portable black light flashlight.
Awesome. In the direct center of this picture is a hanging tire covered in fluorescent gaffer’s tape. It really glows!
Gaffer’s tape rips more cleanly, easily, and evenly than duct tape. Because of this, gaffer’s is good to use for decoration as you can rip different widths of tape off the roll. You can also purchase rolls of varying width; local tape company Identi-tape has 1/4″, 1/2″, 1″, and 2″ options and can often do custom batches of bigger or smaller rolls with patterns on them. Perhaps you’ve seen the tape they made for E-Grips, The North Face, The Access Fund, or Atomik Holds. They also provided the 2″ Caution Cable tape we used for finals tape in 2012.
Gaffer’s can make some great costume additions, as you can make things like suspenders and leashes out of it by taping two pieces together, or by taping it around existing fabric, plastic, or whatever else you’ve got going on. It won’t work well when the fabric stretches, as the stretch will break the adhesive and the tape will come off.
Where to buy: you can order gaffer’s tape online from many retailers. We get ours from either Bron or Identi-Tape. You can order online from Identi-tape here:
IDENTI-TAPE – 1-inch Gaffer Tape (different widths available, we usually use 1″ and 1/2″)
IDENTI-TAPE – Camouflage (Camo) Tape
IDENTI-TAPE – Gaffer Symbols Tape (fancy gaffers, with symbols)
Only the fluorescents–pink, yellow, orange, green–will “pop” under the black light.
Identi-tape has other awesome tapes as well for hula-hoop decoration and other uses. Some of the hula-hoop tapes glow but they are not as flexible or sticky as gaffer’s so we can’t use them for wall decoration. They might work well for costumes. Identi-tape has a black light in store so they can check for you, or they can send samples. The ones we tested (all non-gaffers) that worked were:
IDENTI-TAPE – Colorful Holographic Sequin Tape (fluorescent colors)
IDENTI-TAPE – Colored Prismatic Tape (fluorescent green and yellow, don’t know about pink)
IDENTI-TAPE – Decorative Glitter (Sparkle) Tape (fluorescent green and yellow)
“Glow in the Dark” tapes usually aren’t that great for Psychedelia, as they glow dully in the black light.
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Other things to consider
It is fairly dark at Psychedelia and there are many people. Make sure your costume doesn’t drag on the ground and there aren’t lots of protruding parts to snag on holds or poke other people. Also, if you do paint your hands only paint the backs to avoid making the holds dirty or slippery.
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Click here to check out the Psychedelia 2012 Photo Gallery for more inspiration!
So that’s it! Now you know how to make a costume that glows. What will you do? Well, for starters, our 2013 Psychedelia theme is…
The Day of the Dead!
This theme gives you tons of room to be creative, as one of the main parts of the Day of the Dead costume is the white (make sure to get glowing white!) skull mask. Beyond that, anything goes!
DOTD Pirate!
So there’s the theme, there are the tips, run with it! We’re excited to see what everyone comes up with!!!
The Spot Route Setting Blog 