Three Ball Comp Entries

Three Ball Climbing ran a competition with some of their holds before the holidays, all you had to do was buy a set of their holds and then submit a short review of them with some pictures and then they'd get the cost of the set refunded. We figured, as the reviewer(s) had done a bunch of work we figured we'd post them up on the site.... so we've got three reviews, on two sets of holds, the Hover and the Mantis sets :) The reviews have only been edited slightly (by me) for editing purposes.... otherwise they're untouched!

The Hover: Review by Joshua Vance
I really enjoyed climbing on the Hover set. The holds are all very deep giving you an opportunity to get a good grip every time you reach for them. They are fairly comfortable, though after climbing on them for a while, they are a little rough on the fingers. Some of that may be due to the amount of hang time to get the pictures taken, though I felt that the holds were extremely easy to hang from. The hand holds themselves are all very good size and shape. There is plenty of room to get a big hand in and not worry about missing a finger, and therefore falling on your back. The value of the holds is very good. At just $10 per hold, you are getting a ton of hold for very little money. I would consider buying another set of them in fact. I would definitely recommend them to a friend or anyone who has a roof to climb on. I put the holds close together to test them out,
but they will be spread out over the wall to make a very challenging climb. I hope this review helps. Thanks for the great product.

Joshua Vance

The Mantis: Review by Mark Petnuch

My FedEx guy was here before 2PM, holds went up an hour later, then climbs and got a couple photos before the snow and cold comes in tonight. Pretty much the end of my outdoor wall season.

Here's the beta: My wall is outdoors, plywood, east wall is about 110 degrees, west is close to 130. So they are 10 and 40 degrees off vertical. 12 to 18 ft. high in most spots. Sorry I couldn't clear off the wall of other holds. Tried to edit out the photos to some degree. One (w8) is a full blown shot of the steep wall. Got a couple close ups of them, and your old fist and footie holds are in there too on the east wall. And I even painted the little '3 balls' in red on each one! I've only got a 10 second delay on the digicam so did the best in racing up to the holds to get some photos.

Evaluation: Holds are bomber on the less angled wall, no problem staying on them,even with a tweaked finger joint. None are too big to be a jug, but also not too small to wear out your tendons or fingertips. On the steep side at 130 degrees, well they get pretty challenging. I'm not the best at sloper / incuts on a steep wall and prefer some bomber jugs, great crimps or sharp edges at that angle. Never got up high enough, fast enough, to show my feet with the 10 second camera self timer. I plan to rotate them in my hold cycle, and probably put them up on the steep side to mess up someone working on a project here next summer. Holds have large screw anti-spin holes but I didn't need to use them at this point.Texture is just right, slips a little at they get steeper. All shoes do fine on them for footwork. Several of the larger holds have nice underside edges that make for great thumb catches to help the fingers stay put on upper side sloper. Lots of repeat similarity in the set; maybe a few sharp angles to a couple holds, or one much larger hold would add something different.

Hope this helps you in your evaluation of the set. Thanks again for a fast delivery.

Mark Petnuch

The Mantis: Review by Joshua Vance
I placed the Mantis set on a 45 degree wall and set up a very easy route. At my climbing ability level, these holds were extremely difficult for me to hold on to. I was only able to make one move and that was while holding on to the largest 4 finger hold with my left hand. The pockets are not very deep and therefore, I was not able to make transitions at that steep of an
angle. I think the set is a good value though at less than $4 per hold, the set has a good mix of holds as well. I enjoy these holds at a higher angle, like 60-80 degrees and was able to climb them much more efficiently. My friends climbed on them as well and as we are about the same skill level had very similar feelings. I would recommend the set to a friend, but I will have to improve quite a bit before I am able to climb them at 30-45 degrees. Thanks for making a great product!

Joshua Vance