Review > Atomik > Fonts 21 pack & Steep Wall Fonts

Kenny over at Atomik asked us after our last series of reviews what we'd like to see from them, as we loved their Font shapes so much, especially the XXL Font Sloper we suggested they make some more Font shapes and make some packs with them... and what did they go and do?? They only went and shaped a bunch of new Font holds.... HELL YEAH! Not only that the holds we had last time where poured from G1 (Generation 1) molds so the texture was pretty harsh... this time (and for their entire range from now on!!) these holds came from the G2 molds... DOUBLE HELL YEAH!!... so we'll see how the texture go's for the review.. let's introduce the holds we've been playing with:

21 hold Font pack, medium and smalls

Steep wall Fonts, 5 pack

These holds arrived and went straight onto the wall, there was no messing about! I wanted to see what the texture felt like on these shapes, they'd felt pretty good when they were on my desk at work so I was keen to get onto them as soon as possible... and know what? Perfect for the size of the holds, the smalls and mediums have just enough texture that you feel like you're going to be fine, and then Steeps feel the same, it's about how you grab these holds!

As you'll see in the video, we're playing on the smalls are fair amount on the overhung section of the wall, they're small and slopey in most cases so it's pretty hard going most of the time. The stand out holds are the steeps as they can go most places, the red one we have on our box got a lot of attention (and still is) just because it's so nice to hold onto, it's not in the nicest position, but where it is and how you get onto it is a very interesting move :)






These holds are going to be very good for beginners as the areas that you're going to want to grab isn't at first obvious, so they'll teach people about body movement if you set with that in mind. Where these holds will shine is going to be technical slab climbs where balance is going to be key, they're fun on traverses but the going does get tough the more the wall gets overhung, the smalls are super hard on our 30, there's no way they'll go anywhere near the 45. The reason the 45 is in there is because of the large steeps that we have as well, once these are on a steep wall you're going to have to be very delicate to grab the right spot and hang on... so therefore in our book a bunch of fun



SEB
I don't climb anywhere near as much as Chris and Noodles, and I hate small holds... but these seem to be an exception for me (maybe I was just strong that day) as I managed to get most of the way around the route without feeling like my fingers were going to explode. Small holds, as I'm a big guy are my nemesis, I avoid them, but these were very nice to climb on... I just wish my footwork was better so I could finish the route

The 51 pack is $219.99 includes bolts, t-nuts and shipping to lower 48 US states.

The 21 pack is $49.99 includes bolts, t-nuts and shipping to lower 48 US states.

There is a sale on right now... the 51 pack is $199.99 about $4 a hold i.e: CHEAP!

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TDB Wallpapers

Here are some TDB wallpapers, all images courtesy of Francois Lebeau

If you click the images they should open up in the correct size for you to set them as your desktop backgound!

Wallpaper 1

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JEZ > Review > Climb It > Top out Slopers

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Review > Entreprise > Jug'R-Nots & Small Patina Edges

Noodles has had a pretty long history with Entrepries as he's from the UK and has had his own indoor walls for around 15 years or so. He was pretty keen to see the new urethane shapes that Boone Speed had (re)shaped for them, if you've never heard of Boone then you've either been hiding under a rock for years or aren't as old as Noodles. He's a World renowned climber that put up or climbed many many hard test pieces back in the day, these days he's turned his hand to shaping and is a rather good photographer... if you're feeling skeptical about his shaping skills just remember that he shaped for (P)usher and the entire line of EP holds were reshaped by him in 2003

What we received from Ent were three sets, two of which we'll be looking at today (the third will be reviewed early next year), the ones that concern us are:

Medium Jug'r-Nots

Small Patina Edges

Both sets stand out from the get go, the Jug'r-nots because of the texture thats on the holds and the Patinas because they remind us of some other shapes that we received a little while ago, if you've got other Patina sets from other company's get these in the same color and they'll fit into the line nicely!! Before we even bolted these holds onto the wall Noodles was looking at the Jug'r-nots very closely, in fact a little too closely... whenever this happens it means that there's something that's bothering him, in this case one of the holds has a problem. The texture as you can see from the image above looks harsh, but that's not the part you hold (for the main part), it's just there for show, but on one hold, it is the area you hold and there was one specific area that really caught his attention!
"This is going to rip your skin off" was what he said, he showed me this one little raised bump that is close to the edge and is quite sharp... "They should reshape this hold and get rid of that bump, it's going to rip skin and dig into fingers!", ah more words of wisdom :) And I agreed, there is one hold that has a problem that needs to be addressed, so we went over the rest of the set with our hands to see if we could find any more obvious problems before we started hauling on them, and there are areas that are going to really dig into your fingers if you're using the granite like texture as the part to grab, if you're using the area you're supposed to grab then they're fine. The Patinas got a pretty good going over as well, and there are a couple of holds that look like they're going to be sharp but because of the Patina shape your fingers slip into a comfortable position and there's no problem!

Overall both sets climb pretty well, these shapes aren't as comfortable as some shapes on the market and the urethane although strong feels slightly rougher on the ol'fingers than a lot of holds that are on the market. But that comes down to personal preference more than anything else.. we found that extended sessions on the holds does take off a little bit of skin and that we had to stop climbing earlier than we wanted.

The route we set was an interesting mix of moves that allowed us to grab the shapes in a variety of positions and over most of our wall (we avoided the roof for once), and when Seb came over he managed to flash the sequence first time, which is a pretty rare thing. Once the congratulations died down we stopped and chatted about the holds, Seb weighing in quote vocally about the shapes, our comments are at the bottom of the review as per usual.



Good friction, positive edges and large enough to get a good grip both these sets are suitable for a variety of terrain. The route that I put up went across the overhang and into the vertical wall and even when I put the holds on less than optimal angles, we were able to get through the sequence with no sweat. These holds are great for pinches and I think that climbers from all levels will be able to increase their pinch strength training on these holds.

For the most part the Jug'R-Nots are positive jugs with a couple being closer to steep wall crimps than jugs. When you go check out the Entre Prises site they suggest that these holds be set on vertical to 45% overhanging terrain but we would go as far as putting them up in the roof.


SEB

• Well priced
• Colour easily matches other sets from different companies
• Good on most angle walls
  

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Review > DRCC > BFD's

The Detroit Rock Climbing Company, or the DRCC are new... how new? Well we're the first people to get their holds in Canada, these guys despite the fact that they've been in the climbing world in different capacities for years have only had holds on the market for a very very short period of time. I've been talking to Vince for a long while, since I found their site, I've been a real pain asking when they were launching, asking for sneak peaks of holds and generally making a nusience of myself :) Well once they launched and got some holds out the door a package arrived... a package that i've been looking forward to seeing... Welcome the DRCC's BFD's

From left to right we have: BFD Crimps, BFD: Edges & the BFD Sloper, together these holds are the Divoted Series... and we've been having some fun, well I was having fun listening to Chris hit the deck on the last move for a few hours... man that last move on the route I set stopped all of us for a while there, until you figure out where you feet want to be, where your hands need to be and you just crank up and catch the last hold... watch the video and enjoy our pain for a few minutes!

Ok so I set an interesting route, I was trying to make it harder than it had to be... I made sure there were some nice balancy moves, some power moves and a stinker of a final move :) Overall I don't think that we've had a route that's stopped us for most of a session in a while, it was part holds and part setting that caused this :D But that aside, these are nice holds.. the texture is super good for your skin, the shapes are friendly and the rubber backing means that they sit super flush to the wall!

There's not a great deal (if anything) that you can say about the shapes from the DRCC that is bad, or could be contrived as being bad... we looked and looked, had a few beers and thought about it and came up with nothing...... THAT is surprising for us, just as surprising as the shapes themselves. There are enough holds in the range to make even hardcore hold freaks happy, and when you look at this you're going to get excited.







A dog is a mans best friend, slopers are a climbers best friend.. we keep saying it, infact we say it so much we probably sound like a broken record! So one more time, for the cheap seats... slopers will make you strong and won't wreck your fingers!
The BFD slope is a beast, super hard to hold onto on a vertical wall and then flip it and it puts your route / move up about a grade... yup, V2 to V3 with the turn of a wrench and a spin of a hold! On anything past 30 degrees over we're having trouble holding on, but trial and error (plus the new 45 wall we're building) will see us conquer this hold on steep terrain! This hold is all about where you place your fingers, and how good your core tension is.. you'll get a workout, it's not what we'd call a "beginners" sloper (I'd err more towards the BFD Edges), but if you love the slopers then you'll love this one aswell... it's just haarder than most!






Edges is an interesting term for these holds!! They are edges, but really big edges with big smooth radii, I'd call them slopers.... These guys will take you all the way to 45 degrees, and if you're super super strong past it into the really steep terrain! The holds are primarily flat, but we think they're reall nice friendly beginner style slopers (you can match most of them), don't get us wrong they're amazing edges aswell. They're going to be easy going on a vertical wall, and then the going (as you can see from the video) get's really interesting on a 30 degree overhang, see everyone hitting the floor on the last few moves of the route, that's these edges for you... super fun climbing, super interesting move and yet our fingers don't complain! Now if you want to make life really hard, turn the holds upside down (from the obvious grabbing area) and see what happens.... brutally hard to hold :)





If these are crimps then this is the way holds for indoor walls should be made from now on in... I don't think I saw one person crimp on these holds, not one... they're more openhanded then you'd expect rather than bear down super hard and tweak your fingers! There isn't a sharp edge on these holds anywhere... not one... some sides are flat, some sides are slopey, but always with a nice rounded edge so you can position your hand whereever you want! We think that these are more sloping edges than anything else, they're so well designed and shaped that if you really want to you could crimp on them, but as they're so comfortable you'll just open hand them. These guys double as some pretty fun pinches, we've had them all over the place and they double / triple as slopers / pinches and edges depending upon which way you turn them.... it's a three for one! You'll be able to haul to 30 degrees over without too much trouble, but once you hit the 45 over you're going to want to have the hold rotated to the most positive side :D



EVE
"Put yo' hands up fo' Detroit....I luv this city!" No but seriously, good job! These hold are loads of fun. Challenging yea, but not impossible! First of all they are absolutely beautiful, inside and out, with cute colors and fun features. Actually, the features are a bit deceptive. Some look like obvious 'finger grooves' but once on the wall, are absolutely useless! Fun! Secondly, they feel nice. Not too rough, and honestly nothing very realistic but hey, if you want rocks, go outside! Lol! So yeah, Detroit's new line is a pleasure to climb with, but I don't think it's for beginners....well not if you want them to like rock climbing! Like I've said they are slightly deceptive, so I think a minimum of technique is required to get anywhere with them.

Review > Nicros > Burly Bits / Diff Tex Footchips

We've have had the pleasure of reviewing some sweet holds in the past month, some big jugs, some not so big jugs and slappy sloppers, but now we're going back to my personal favorite the crimps :P Enter the Burly Bits from Nicros.If we want to get technical, the Burly Bits aren't all crimps. The set was designed by Kimberly down at Nicros to simulate the feel of granite. Although all these holds are small (three fingers at most) they aren't all crimps. The set includes pinches and (for lack of a better term) slopes. Enter stage right the Diff Tex foot chips from Nicros, the perfect compliment to the Burly's:So we took the two sets of holds and put up a route at our local gym, Allez Up. If ever you get a set of the foot chips in your possession you`ll realize that its going to take a laser sight on your shoes to pinpoint the good part of the hold, we had a lot of people with sloppy footwork get some air time! The holds are ideal for mad balance moves and are great for face climbs and that is where I ended up setting my route, it started below a fairly large bulge, went up and over the top and then straight up a vertical wall to it's conculsion, if your footwork was bad then you were going to have a hell of a time getting to the top, even though the route was only graded 5.9+

You would think that the Diff Tex foot chips are dual tex but they're not they have a textured area and an non textured area (Editors note: isn't that dual tex?), which is different from a Dual Tex hold, confused? So where we... here's what the Nicros site says this about them:
"1 Tick footchips offer a little more texture and varies the location of the texture when compared to the No Tick footchips. We offer three different sets of the same shapes that sport both a "textured" area as well as an "untextured" area with the texture located in different areas of the hold. These holds force you to really look at your foot placements. Isn't that what improved footwork is all about? Technical Course Setters rave about these footchips!"
Ah see, these are different from normal footchips! Nicros are being sneaky!! So these aren't your normal Dual Tex foot chips these are really really deciving... more than you think, they should pretty well be in most setters bags we think, especially as there four different variations of the same shapes!! Yup FOUR, one set textured, one set with practically no texture, and then two sets with small areas (like we have) but in different places, so you can leave up the same handholds and just switch the feet!! Would we be so mean to do that?? HELL YEAH, i'd bring a chair and a cup of coffee and watch people just get spat off of the wall :)

The Burly Bits on the other hand are dual tex! They're all made with the textured part on either side, and can be used as pinches, while the center part is smooth. It doesn't make much difference when you're using them as hand holds but there will be no smears when it comes to your feet. After bringing them back from the gym you could see the rubber on the textured part of the hold only. The crimps are bigger than you would expect due to some of the large incuts but they can still bite the fingers a little, not in a "ow ow ow" way, but in a positive way that lets you know you're on the hold properly! The sloping shapes from the set would be best on a slab. Once again balance is needed to navigate these holds.

And onto our wall :) We had them on the wall before they went to the gym, and we were having a hard time with them on the 30 degree overhang, they're do-able, but you really need to hold on! They make for some great powerful climbing, and again when you pair them with the footchips, you're going to be screaming to hold on and to get your feet on the good part of the hold. It's well documented that Noodles doesn't like crimps, he likes his fingers and would rather leave the superburly (HA!) climbing for outside or when he's competeing, but that being said even he thought that they were some pretty interesting shapes, with a good mix of shapes.











When we brought the holds to the gym they where set on a vertical wall. Most people could get through the climb and there where no complaints about the size but when you put them on any kind of overhang, look out!!! The crimps are bearable and the little "slopers" are only good for your feet. Some people did come back with the comment that the hold shapes felt a little too similar from hold to hold, it's a interesting point and one that we looked at once we brought the holds home, there is a degree of similarity between some of the holds but as they're all crimps with a small variation in size we can see why people think this! (It's also because we did have some duplicate holds up there aswell :P) Overall it was fun watching people try to grab the footchips rather than some of the holds to get up the route... wrong move!!

If you need to set some technical balancy moves on a slab or vertical wall these are something you should look at, if you want crimps for anything past 30 degrees overhung we suggest you give them a miss.... hopefully Kim-Burly will shape some more of the same style holds that are better suited to steeply overhung walls :)

The footchips can be used anywhere, they're going to tax peoples footwork to the absolute limit, from vertical to steeply overhung terrain we're having a hoot and will probably pick up the other sets pretty soon... they're that good!!



EVE
Ok, so I don't want to sound like a hater but... What happened there? First of all, these holds are ugly! It's like they tried to go all 80s about it (which I would luuuuuuuv) but then chickened out of it last minute and ended up with lightly colored wannabe tie-dyed swirls on a easily dirtied boring white background! The hand holds are shaped alright, crimps being crimps they're not comfortable per say but fairly easy to stick to. Gives a nice challenge, for me! The foot holds on the other hand are a bloody nightmare (great, the Brit rubbed off!) Either I'd slip right off or, when I'd find something more usable, I'd have to hang there, looking like I've got a twitch, trying to land EXACTLY at the millimeter where your toe fits nicely. Personally, I like a little more flexibility. It should be noted that the swirly Burlys were much more appreciated (by me mind you) on the boulder than on the wall. I think it's because having the right hand sequence is crucial to success with these holds (since your feet seem to hang there for show more then for support) and if you screw up on the wall, it quickly becomes a long power route. No good for my girly arms! Conclusion....you want a challenge? There's a challenge! I hope you don't use much leg flexibility and balance work when you climb though! (Editors note: Chris' route at the gym was all flexibilty and foot work, and it was wicked)

• Great for setting
• Big pinches, small pinches, crimps... mini slopes, this set has them all
• Footchips are super technical, you will end up with great footwork!!
  

CONS

• Could pop a tendon on an overhang, crimpings baaaad!
  
• Some of the shapes do feel a little similar to one another
  

PRICE
Burly Bits are $27.97 (Normally $39.95 THEY'RE ON SALE!) for 10 holds
Diff Tex Footchips are $37.95 for 10 holds, there are four different sets for your setting pleasure!