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Review > Atomik > Sandstone Jugs and Patina

The long wait is over. We took a little vacation due to injuries and the call of the outdoors but we finally got around to the second installment of the Atomik reviews. This time around we have the Sandstone roof jugs...

...and the Patina's.

The holds vary in size from XL to medium according to Atomik's website. The roof jugs and regular size jugs not only get their shape from sandstone cliffs but have the texture to match, like all of the Atomik holds, these ones will also remove a few layers of skin (see our earlier review here for our views on the texture) As for the patinas, they look like something from the oceans floor, some kinda hybrid crustacean coral looking thing. I felt that the texture on the Patina are a more forgiving, when in fact it's just the shaping of the holds that makes them feel this way, even thou these shapes do have some nice dual-texture areas. Its obvious that the Sandstone roof jugs are huge (not huge like the War of the Worlds, but two hand huge just the same) so it came to my surprise that the first time Noodles hangs on the hold he hurts his hand, followed by two weeks off on the doctors request (Editors note: it wasn't a request, she told me I'd rip the entire tendon if I climbed), now you know why it took us so long to get this review out :P
We actually had this problem up more than two weeks ago and in the video you can spot the exact moment that things go wrong.

We didn't let the size of the hold dictate where it was going to be placed on the wall so we have roof jugs into patinas back to roof jug, this makes for an interesting traverse across the roof. The Patinas are big enough for the roof but I can't manage to hang off of one hold, it feels like it's big enough but just isn't, you can see Noodles hit the floor and look back up! THAT'S the hold that is very deceptive. The regular size jugs are quite deceiving and it says right on Atomiks website "the design concept offers a deceiving jug that forces the climber to learn how to hold it on steep terrain" There are a couple of jugs in our roof sequence and at first we figure that it was going to be easy (Bear in mind we didn't expect an injury either!) but the layer effect of the sandstone can make the holds feel mediocre on the roof.

And now its onto the overhang! We put in some long moves to make things interesting.and my only complaint is texture. When you throw yourself at the hold, you're bound to lose some skin, but at this point it's the nature of the beast. The holds we first reviewed from Atomik have been at Allez Up for a month now and now that there have been lots of traffic on these holds they have mellowed out an awful lot!!

SUGGESTED USES (BOTH SETS)



We're saying you can put the Patinas and the Sandstone jugs anywhere you please on a wall. The sizing means that they're fine on roofs and pretty much anywhere you want to chuck these holds. Most of the holds can be matched, especially the Patinas that in some cases are nice double jugs.

All of these holds are incut to a certain degree. The smallest set are the Patinas and we have one on the roof but I wouldn't consider them a roof hold, although we've had smaller holds up there :), it's more than big enough to hang off of! As for the jugs, they're good everywhere. The regular Sandstone jugs vary in size and are all made for one hand. You could match some of them, and others would be sketchy in the roof if you're trying this.

OVERALL BUILD
Again, look at the original review because there's not much else to say other than what we've already said: None of the holds have any problems with their backs, they're smooth. There were less bubbles in the urethane than in the Font sets, so the mix is good and strong and these have been tested to over what you're going to do with a wrench, so you're probably not going to break any of them when setting a route!

These holds are RED, not RED, so they're going to stand out! I'll say it again, Atomik have their base colors down. They do have an amazing hue to them, if we could get the red and the yellow in a swirl then we would because that would be some seriously loud holds... like peoples dress sense in 1985! That's how bright they'd be!!!

If you want to see what we say about Atomiks texture go here, and read it. We're not going to go on about it again :) But put this in your mind, climb on the holds... if you don't like the texture, sand them down! The holds are a great price, so if you need to fill a wall with holds but don't have a huge budget the Atomik shapes should be a place to start shopping

RATING
NOODLES SAYS
Argh, ripped tendon!! I'm not saying that it was the hold that did this to me, it was partly the move and my complete lack of footwork that did it!! You can hurt yourself on any hold, on any move, climbing is a dangerous very tough sport on the body, we had the video rolling and you can see the look of pain on my face. It wasn't fun, and it's still not healed completely but it is getting there. I've never fully made it across the roof on this route, I've got close but no medal for me thus far I'm afraid.

The original route which is the first part of the video was changed whilst I took a few weeks off to make it easier with more feet, there was no way I was going to attempt that move again and risk killing my finger again. Now its "slightly" easier, but not much and getting into the roof is nicer and much smoother! The holds are all positive to a degree, and I'll agree with what Atomik say about the jugs being hard to read, they are, and it does take a few attempts to learn how to catch a hold the correct way for a sequence! I like this, I think that having holds that are a complete gimme are good, but part of climbing is learning how to read sequences and finding the most efficient way to cruise through that sequence, so I'm applauding Atomik on that, I was caught out and I've been hanging off of walls for 22 odd years!!

I'm not going to lie, the texture tore some skin off, so these holds are going to the gym so that other climbers can give us their opinion on the holds... and so they can make the holds smoother for us :P I like the holds, they're not the biggest jugs, but they're also not the smallest, they're a good size for beginners or for someone that has a steep wall and they just want to run circuits to get super strong, the fact that you have to think before grabbing is a good thing that in the long run will make you a better climber!

CHRIS
I'd like to say again that I was shocked when noodles hurt his finger. I honestly thought that he was putting on a face for the camera. Since we had jugs to play with, we set the route to be a warm up and after we sorted out our foot holds it was just that. To say that the roof jugs are huge is an understatement and if you`re novice climber you shouln`t be using these anywhere except on roof or very steep terrain in my opinion. Of course you could set a wicked dyno on the jugs if the height of your wall permits :)

You can get your fingers into the jugs right up to your second joint and even deeper on the roof jugs, but the Patinas will only allow you to get the tips of your fingers (or to the first joint) into the pockets and are more like pinches than jugs. It's an interesting mix of shapes :)

The holds that we received are all in bright colors and they stand out in the gym. We set a couple of routes last month at our local gym and they`re getting a lot of traffic. My ego says that people are climbing them due to the setting but my intuition says its the colors. Now that the holds are getting a bit of traffic they`ve evened out on the texture front, no sanding for us :P

PROS

• Good for any angle...
• Jugs are good every where
• Patinas are also good on any angle
  
• Packing was second to none!, no breaks or burrs
• Good for beginners, they can be put anywhere and the Sandstone jugs aren`t a gimmie hold, they`ll make the climber think more than a normal jug
• Price, most the the Atomik ranges have a great price!!
  

CONS

• The texture will need some time to wear down or you'll have to lessen it on some holds
  
• Some of the holds aren't for complete beginners, as they're a "thinking mans jug" rather than a grab on and haul jug, so you'll have to be careful with what and where you set with these (but not too careful!!)
  
• Some of the shapes do have semi sharp angles, so some care is needed when dynoing to these holds
  

PRICE
Sandstone jugs are $59,99
Patinas are $46.49

Atomik

SUGGESTED USES - JUGS

SUGGESTED USES - PINCHES / SLOPERS





The pinches again are very positive, they've got a nice shape to them and when they're on steep or very overhung terrain the texture helps them out a lot. There's nothing super bad to say about them, they remind me of Font, which was the purpose behind the shapes.
If I can haul a long move on a roof with them then they're pretty damn good, you just need to find the sweet spot.

The slopers again are pretty damn good and are some of the best representations of font shapes that I've seen in a long while, big and open handed, they're tricky to hold on the vertical and crazy hard on anything that starts to run into an overhang, which is the way we like it. As usual with Font style holds its always where you place your hands and fingers on these holds that determines how easy or hard they are to stick.

Both sets of holds are pretty positive even though they are slopes and pinches, but they're harder than they look, terrain aside. It depends upon your strength and climbing style that will determine how well you're going to go on these. Foot work is going to be key as is good core strength.


OVERALL BUILD
I could have sworn that these holds were resin, but after checking with the site and Kenny over

RATING
NOODLES SAYS
Yowser... texture, texture and once again texture! I wasn't expecting that, even when we were

CHRIS
Yup. I agree. The texture is pretty agressive although it was a nice relief when I got onto the big blue slope on our newly built box:) The slopes and pinches seemed to soak up the chalk more so then the jugs on the roof.

As you can tell by the video the first green pinch is tricky to get onto and I was able to get low on it to push out to the jugs sequence. Out of all the pinches that we received the best one was on the roof....obviously! The jugs is that they are big enough for one hand and they can be a real challenge to match on the roof. The problem got a facelift after we bolted the box onto the wall so the big blue slope got put onto the face of the box and the small slopes got put around the sides. In our original sequence we needed to match on the last jug but now I can forget about the match and Big Blue as a foot (much to noodles disaproval LoL) and I'm away with completing the problem.

PROS

• The fierce texture works well on the slopers, on the jugs it's so-so, it's a little bit much. But you can comfortize the holds with some sandpaper to make it to your liking. Commercial gyms WON'T have a problem as traffic will do the work for you!
  
• Nice shapes with no burrs, other than the obvious Font shapes
  
• Good for any angle...
• Jugs are good every where
• Slopes and pinches will be good up to 30 or 45 (strength depending)
  
• Packing was second to none!, no breaks or burrs
  

CONS

• The texture will need some time to wear down or you'll have to lessen it on some holds
  
• The texture does take shoe rubber really well, so hard to clean off
  

PRICE
5xl Fontainbleau Roof Jugs: $47.49
XXl Fontainbleau Sloper: $19.50
6 Large Font Jugs: $41.49
7 Font Jugs: $38.49
5 Mini Font Jugs: $36.99
The pinches weren't a full set, so you'd have to ask for a price on those

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new logos

Asana > The Eye of the Oracle

Here's a sneek peak at Asana HQ and the making of their new monster hold... The Eye of the Oracle!!

1: The mold before any rubber has been poured onto it









2. Top down of the mold in its new home, it`s looking at you!!









3. Scrapper building the rubber box









4. Pulling out the hollow back









5. Removing the box









6. Pulling out the foam shape









7. Cleaning the mold with a high pressure air line









8. Polishing :P









9. First pour, not bad!









10. Dobby getting all animal on it!

Review > Contact Climbing > War Of the Worlds 2

When we posted these holds on the news section there was a reaction to them, some positive, some negative. So much so that Dale (from Contact) offered his email address and phone number so they could bitch at him rather than anonymously on the comments section, the neigh sayer didn't get the number and Dale stood by Contact's creations... and know what... rightly so.

Seeing the images of the holds doesn't really do them much justice. I was expecting some weird looking jugs, and what I got some people would class as a novelty hold but what these holds are is function over form, yes they've been sculpted to look like alien space ships, and yes some people may find this a little weird, but what the sculpting doesn't take away from is their function. Contact made some huge ass jugs and then made them look like alien space ships, hell So Ill mold telephones, so alien space craft isn't really out there...It doesn't take 5 seconds to guess where these holds were going, it's obvious once you see them that these puppies are roof dwellers, they can be put absolutely anywhere and you don't need to worry about how they're going to be... bomber is going to be the word of the day!
As we've got our new box up and kicking we figured we'd come out from under the box to one of the holds set as a side pull and then have a chuck across the roof (it's about 4ft to the hold) and see how that went... getting across was fine, getting back was a different kettle of fish!! It's easy if you use the side wall, so we took it out for fun.

The biggest of the holds is a huge double handed butterfly that has huge jugs on either side, that are more than matchable whichever way you fancy grabbing them. The other holds are just as large, except they're single sided not double sided, but whichever way you do look at the holds (and we'll say this a lot) they're huge, they're some of the biggest bolt ons that we have and have seen. Barring stuff like Climb-It's "Sleeping Giant", but that's a piggy back hold that takes other bolt ons!

SUGGESTED USES



The answer to this question is "where not to put them!?!", they're one of those holds that is a gimmie in any situation, roof's, super steep overhangs, they're going to be great pretty much everywhere. If you have a roof and want to set an easy route for beginners these will be go to holds for your setters, anyone should be able to haul on these holds pretty much anywhere

Incut is not the word I would use for these, hand eaters is a better description on what these holds are... super comfy once they've got some chalk on them bomber monsters from another planet.



In fact I'll go so far and give them a film rating, yup, they're rated E for Everyone! No parents needed, no having fake ID, just get them and you'll see just how big these holds are!





OVERALL BUILD
Excellent, which is what we've come to expect from Contact. Even with these holds being big the backs are well sanded and sit flush to the wall. The bolt hole and screw holes are nice and clean and well situated (we're yet to put screws in). Even with the intricate design of the holds they're well molded and look great. Texture does take a little bit of time to even out with chalk build up, but its in no way a bad thing and the holds don't rip your hands to shreds

There are a couple of minor points, I'm not all that keen on the color. As these holds are huge I'd want a brighter color if I was buying them, but bear in mind we didn't specify a color, ours are the green you see in the images. If I were you ask for the brightest color that Contact rock as it'll be worth it.

The final point is the way the holds were packed for shipping, they were in a box surrounded by paper, which means the holds can move about when the post people use the parcels in their care as a party pinata. It's something that they need to look at, but nothing that can't be fixed in a few minutes.

RATING
NOODLES SAYS
There's not much I can really add, it's been hard to review three holds, but that being said it was a pleasure to do so. Bug jugs are always tricky, they're holds that you swing about on and if the texture isn't just right you end up taking skin off, thankfully Contacts texture translates well from their small holds to their big holds, add chalk to these holds and then it's not even noticeable! When I added these holds to the news section there were some negative comments, and these I feel have been put to bed, yeah Contacts made some holds that are a little funky, but they're better than if they were up there and we're just plain old hunks of urethane, this is especially the case with these holds are they're massive and you notice them right away!

My one gripe is the color, but it's super minor and nothing that's worth much of a mention. These holds are the same color as the Hex holds we reviewed a way back so in essence we're extended the set and now it's easy to rock both sets in longer routes. If I were buying them (like we said) I'd go for a brighter color so they really stand out, the red that Contact does will really make them pop out.

If you're looking for some monster jugs for beginners, or something you can chuck to and not worry about having to be super exact with your hands then these will do the job and then some.

CHRIS
Definitely function over form. These green invaders will spice up your wall, aesthetically and in function. I don't know if the guys from Contact did it on purpose but I realized that if you invert the holds you can use the features as crimps or better yet a massive (there it is again, MASSIVE) pinch. As noodles pointed out those same features can be used to match or bump.

When we set for a review we try to user only the holds from the set. We're lucky on the fact that we have a massive box on our roof so we could do that interesting move from under the box to the front. Even when we set for long moves, these holds are huge and it would take a blind man to miss these monsters.

In the roof, the holds are bomber. If you're like me and freak out a bit in roof sequence, these holds will help in getting rid of that psychological hex. One, two, three moves and you're on the other side.

As for the colour I don't really have any problem with it other than the fact that many companies do not carry this shade of green so if you set in a gym you can't exactly match the colour....no big deal.

What else can I say? They're massive, huge, juggernauts, monsters...you get the picture.

PROS

• Texture doesn't rip your skin to shreds
  
• Nice shapes with no burrs, you can even match some of the alien features if you're feeling up for it
  
• Good for any angle... ANY ANGLE!!
  

CONS

• If space is low then these could be too big...
  
• Colors not the best (but this is upto you)
• Packing needs a little bit of a look at
  

PRICE
Three holds for $85, but they're monsters!!

volx