Review > Redpoint Holds > Various

 Kaleb Thomas; Head Routesetter at Crag X recently collaborated with Noodles and B.A Gear on a setters bag that we've been working on.... they recently hosted a competition and as he's part of the CHR family he wrote a review on some of the Red Point Holds that he received for that comp. It's a little different format than you're used to but he goes through a bunch of holds in quick succession, enjoy:

So Recently at Crag X (The gym in which I set) we held a big bouldering competition, and one of our sponsors for the comp was Red Point Climbing Holds out of Kelowna. We used this opportunity to pick up a few holds and see what these guys are all about. We bought several sets of holds, which I will individually touch on, but first, lets cover all the “non-hold related stuff”

WEBSITE:

Their website certainly is nice looking website, its flashy and the home page definitely stands out. That unfortunately is not all that makes a great site for a hold company. In todays day and age a hold companies website is very important and I think Red Point has a little work to do to refine the site. The site itself is a little slow to load, and I find myself waiting for commands and things to take affect, I have used the site on two different computers from two different Internet sources and have consistently had problems. The layout is simple and relatively easy to navigate, what I would love to see is better organization of the holds. Drop down menus for hold type or size would be a nice touch, and I think they should re-arrange what holds appear first to give the “money” sets a spotlight on the front page, while pushing some of the less inspiring stuff to the back. Just a few thoughts, but I surf a lot of hold sites and the ones that standout standout for a reason.

PACKAGING AND TURNAROUND:

Two-week turn around on an order of this size is pretty good, they are close to us, but I have a hard time believing the owner, Nikita is not quick on the draw. Expect good ship times from these guys, though I am curious to see how there one man operation will deal with a higher volume of bigger orders as the company grows. (Editors note: Red Point isn't a one man operation, Dave is the hollow back master and pouring monster and Aaron is the main shaper for the company)

The packaging was excellent, every hold was individually wrapped in paper, and the box was JAMMED with packing peanuts, everything arrived in sound shape, though the box was HUGE! And it may have saved everyone a little money had it been a little smaller…

Lets get into the holds…

THE MORTUM ANSA:

This hold is exactly as its advertised, big huge jug, nothing super special but this thing is definitely big. It has a nice big rounded radius, which is nice; I find a lot of these BIG SUPER JUGS don’t have the friendliest edges… which is so frustrating. We set a huge dyno to this for our comp and people seemed to like it.

My only concern with this hold is that there is NO SET SCREW HOLES!! I had to pre-drill them myself which is fine, But a massive jug like this causes a lot of leverage and holes near the top of the hold are imperative to safely attach holds like this. Get with it! Everyone… all you hold companies that do not do this START. I don’t know how often ill say this….

Overall…  a great hold, I would recommend it, but make sure you have a countersink bit handy.

THE GREASE PANS:

This is a cool set of slopers ranging from pretty good to really bad. We used them on a slight overhang on one of the hardest problems in the comp and they suited this well. I have definitely seen shapes similar to these, but I think Red Point has done a good job with this style of hold. They are a little more deceiving then the picture shows, there is definitely a few little tricks involved with these guys, and if it’s your first time climbing on them you will probably have a hard time. Id really like to get these guys on some volumes as I feel like this might be what they were shaped for. Definitely one of the standout sets on the website and our crew were all pretty excited when we unwrapped them.

 

THE BRIMSTONE SLOPERS:

This set, in my opinion is the raddest set that Red Point has on their website. They are a little smaller then I expected but man… These are really awesome holds. Lots of opportunities for false grips and odd hand positions to spice up any boulder problem. As with the grease pans, our whole crew had to molest these babies before they ended up on the wall. I would love to see Nikita turn this whole set into a line. Original, comfy, thought provoking and straight up rad. Definitely a good offering from this small company, zero complaints! I’m sure as you are reading a review your thinking “it can’t all be good?”… Order the holds and we can fight if you disagree!

THE ERGO JUGS:

Okay… So most of what we got was good, but I have to say these underwhelmed me. I was actually excited to see some nice rounded jugs on the site but I had two problems with this set… a) they were a lot smaller then I had thought (admittedly my own fault but still…)_ and b) Id have a hard time calling two of these holds “jugs” and I guarantee someone doing a beginner lesson would not call two of these jugs. I think this set has a lot potential, but I think a re-shape of the smaller holds, and a well thought out expansion of the line could really make this a top seller for Red Point. Good start… now keep going!!

THE FEET SANDSTONE FOOT CHIPS AND SLIVERS:

The slivers are an excellent set of screw on feet, not two chunky and not too shallow, they are perfect feet for that ever-important 5.8-5.10+ range. I see myself using these babies a lot. As well, Nikita tells me he pours his feet in a harder, stronger mix, You can see in the picture they are visually different from the hand holds, I am definitely curious to see how long these last, but at first glance they appear pretty damn solid.

The sandstone Foot chiplets are another solid set rounding out Red Points line of feet, anyone who knows me knows that I think good footholds and good jugs are the foundation of any hold line and these guys are doing pretty good. Like the slivers these guys aren’t too chunky, but they also give you the option to turn them around and make them really bad.  I do have one major concern with these holds. The space between where the bolt rests and the back of the hold is WAY to thin on most of these holds, I don’t know if I got a shallow pour or what and its hard to see in my

Picture, but I am curious to see if these guys stand the test of time.

OVERALL:

Everything seems well re-enforced and I do not forsee any major problems. If Red Point could get the Mortum Ansa hollow backed I would be happy about it though… it's a little heavy

We got all our holds in Yellow and it is a good yellow, very similar to the colour that friction pours, which is great because my Friction order just showed up… and everything we ordered from Red Point has a similar style to a lot of the stuff Luigi pours at Friction. I'd love to see some of there other colours, but it’s a luxury I don’t have right now

Texture was good, great for my preferences but everyone is different. Not as soft as Teknik or E - grips but not nearly as gnarly as So Ill. We haven't had these long enough to see how well the texture wears, but the urethane seems tough, so my hopes are high!!

PROS:

• Great colours and overall build contruction
• The shapes we got were interesting and fun to climb on
• Customer service… after the website. Was awesome and they arrived at the gym quickly

CONS:

• No set screws, Shallow pours for the feet
• Website needs some work
• I found the line “limiting” in the sense there wasn’t that much I wanted to buy, but i think that will get fixed over time

BOTTOM LINE:

We plan an doing another order from Red Point but we will likely wait until they beef up the line a little bit. Looking forward to see where this little company ends up!