Review > Metolius Climbing > Wood Grips

Back in the day eh? I guess we're going a bit back in the day as I Noodles, Jeremy, whatever is the person writing this review.... it's been a while since I've done this, normally I just edit the videos and edit the videos... add my comments etc. This time it's all me... so back in the day for me, back in the day for you because last time we looked at these holds was 4 years ago and we only had a few of them and then there's Metolius, one of the oldest companies out there for when it comes to making grips for climbers

So it's back back back in the day :)

This time we have 24 of these holds, 24! That's a bunch of holds... so before further ado lets show you what we're talking about:

We have a mixed bag as the walk through shows, a little of column A and a little of column B... 24 wooden holds that well with the way we set kind of put us through the ringer. First of all we set a very long route with all of the holds that was a pump fest at best. Then because I'm a genius I decided to set four boulder problems that could be linked together as one nice long problem.

 Were either of these problems a wise move?

Well yes and no, and this is on no account of the holds being the problem. Normally we have a process for playing with new holds, we set simple problems and then string them together and then we set the long route. This time we went the other way with it and normally we get to grips with the holds and then we kind of know what we're getting into; this time we fk'd up a little. We learned in the process of this review to keep to what we know... do it the other way :)

So wood grips, some people say that they're no good, some people love them. We've got some of the heavy varnished ones and now we have the non varnished ones and we love them equally; for long sessions where you just want to work endurance on the wall there really isn't much to complain about, sure you don't get the grip and they're no good for really training for the outside (texture wise) but for pottering around and just working hard there are few holds that really come close.

Of course like the above says there are downsides to these holds but they're really minor things that aren't that much of a problem... you can't use these guys outside, they'll just suck up moisture and will become useless quickly; if you loose the little washers then you need to get some more (we glue ours in because we got fed up with loosing them) but they're all comfortable holds and wood takes set screws easily.

Wooden holds, like I said in the walk through "is mother natures dual texture", it really is and these holds although not being dual texture are no texture... good for the skin, no harsh chemicals are used making them and as they're made from off cuts of wood from a furniture factory they are kind of recycled. So generally it's a win win situation that's for sure.

So obviously changing our M.O around didn't work out.. but how did the holds climb?
VIDEO HERE OF US CLIMBING
You can see, once you get past the epic titles (that someone will complain about, sorry I was having some fun) that the holds climbed really well, we, well I, set hard and nasty to start with because we're all of a grade over here that it should be possible to take the four problems and then link them into one route. Thus far that hasn't been done because you're so pumped from the first third of the route that when you actually get to the last "problem", which is also the hardest, you're just done. Even Mark D couldn't finish it and he's the strongest tallest guy that comes to play.

Overall we had fun, no one got hurt and our skin stayed intact.

SUGGESTED USES:








Stick them anywhere indoors, the 24 holds we have have been all over the place since we received them and the shapes are so big and friendly that you can hold 90% of them on the roof... it may not be easy going but it's not impossible. There are actually 50 holds in the entire range and they come in packs of 5 or 25 (maybe we lost one of them... hmm); so there is a bunch for you to choose from, we've had a blast playing with them because as we all know variety is the spice of life and these holds when set properly can be super easy or super hard, it's your choice

OVERALL BUILD

• Number of holds: 25
• Type (Bolt / Screw Ons): Bolt
• Price per hold (set price divided by number of holds): 179/25 = $7.10 per hold
• Color: Wood
• Bolt placement: Center
• Sanding: Good, it's all over the holds!!
• Hollow backed: No
• Soft back (Rubber backed): No
• Texture: Wooden texture
• Set size: Small to large
• Versatility: Great
• Pre-drilled screw holes: No
• Shaper: TBC
• Weight: TBC

These holds are a little rough and ready, but that's part of their charm; they're not the best finished holds on the planet but they do get the job done. They could be sanded down to be a little smoother in places to make them just look at little better, it won't really make much of a difference to how they climb

All of the shapes have nice rounded profiles that are nice to your digits, you're not going to get off of the wall complaining about your skin being ragged to hell. When you're really bearing down on the holds you can get a really good grip even when the holds are chalked up. If you look at the texture it's pretty even across the board, you're grabbing onto wooden shapes so if you want texture grab some sand and glue and add it where you want it, it's pretty simple and these holds are probably the easiest to customize for your needs, if you want a little more incut?? Grab some sand paper and go at it!

These holds aren't the cheapest out there (we thought that they were a little cheaper to be honest) but our original holds have been around for four years and they're still going strongly, there's no reason why these holds won't do the same.

No set screw holes is something we always complain about and as usual we'll give you our normal rant. These holds don't have set screw holes, but you can add them yourself and as per usual it's something that we feel should be added at least to the larger more prone to spinning shapes.

WHAT ARE THEY MADE FROM:
Wood

PACKING / SHIPPING:
Good

RATING:
Noodles:
It's going to be tricky for me to write comments because I actually wrote the review this week. All of the above has been talked about with the crew for a while with people adding their little bits and pieces of things that they feel should be added.

So, what to talk about?

Sod it, lets talk about these holds.

I like them, I actually asked Metolius to send them to me because I wanted to add an addition to one of our first reviews which to be honest this is something that I'll be doing from time to time on here. I'll try to look at at least the first years worth of reviews and will try to update them, either through putting the holds through the process again or be just updating the original review; I haven't decided which way I'm going to roll with this yet.

So wood, it's an interesting medium that's for sure, it's one of the best for making home made holds when you don't have the budget to buy new shapes and it's something that over time gets better and better to hold onto. Our original wood grips didn't get to be fun to climb on until we got them all dirty and chalked, now they're still hard as hell on a steep wall but they're a little more doable on the whole. As these holds aren't varnished they climbed really well from the start, there wasn't a bedding in period before they started to climb well.... and that's why we set smaller routes before the big ones!



The holds, when we review them, are used from new for months at a time before we actually weigh in and write a review.... holds, like a new set of home speakers need time to bed in, these don't, straight out of the box they were just good to climb on. Sure they're not the best looking mofo's on the planet but they're simple and clean and at times when the moon is just right, the music puts you in the right mood and the candles flicker in the breeze a little... that's what you need, you just didn't know it :P

Now the all important question: Do I like them? Yeah I do, I don't like the over $7 per hold price tag for them that's for sure because they're not that hard or complex to make, but I do enjoy climbing on them!!

Mark D:
So, what we have here is a set of classic climbing holds, just this time they're wood. I have to say, from my experience on them, they don't have the problem that I usually get on wood climbing holds; and that is that they don't seem to get slick once I start sweating. Some wood holds become ultra-slick as soon as I heat up or it starts getting warm and so far I haven't seen this happen with them.

The texture isn't a problem, they don't weigh too much and they fit pretty much everywhere. For a go everywhere set, I like them. They weren't created as the most creative holds shape wise but given their purpose they live up to it.

On top of their overall good quality, I also like the fact that we are using wood here, because I am getting tired of climbing on plastic come this time of the winter. Good holds, more ecological than the classic urethane or resin hold and a fine addition to any gym or home bouldering wall.

PROS:

• YADDA

CONS:

• YADDA

Review > Friction Climbing > Comp Holds

Alight, we're back. 2012 the year that the World is meant to end; does anyone actually use the Mayan calendar? No, well shut up then :) So we figured that as the WORLD is going to end we'd start the year with a bang... with something that's not for everyone but fits into what we've been training for!

For full disclosure, the holds we grabbed were the second set poured and Friction Climbing didn't know if they were going to go into production (so most of the niggling issues we have with our holds have been fixed) So please take the comments and opinions that are in the review with a grain of salt!

What are we training for? Comps, it's comp season and occasionally we pull our asses out of bed at the crack of dawn and we go and drive for a while and we hit a Tour De Bloc comp. We know you know all about them because we mention when we're going to be there :) There are two things about these holds and Tour De Bloc that link them together... Luigi. He's the guy that runs the TDB's and he also owns Friction Climbing and that's where these holds come from; we grabbed some early versions last year and now it's time for us to weigh in on them. So lets start the ball rolling and get the show (as it were on the road):

Friction Climbing: Chrome Dome 1

Friction Climbing: Chrome Dome 1

Friction Climbing: Dome Pockets

Friction Climbing: PK Pinches

So, three sets of holds that have been built for comps, which is an interesting thought when you think about it... holds, even comp holds (unless sold in super small quantities to routesetters) are going to be easily recognized very quickly by anyone that competes in anyway shape or form, the name is more of a suggestion (for us) of what these holds will be useful for, a way to categorize what kind of hold you're buying, rather than a "what they should be used for" type of slogan!

Despite the name, these holds are pretty versatile, all of them, the pockets are pockets (well designed) the pinches are pinches and the slopers are slopers. There's not much in it, other than the dual texture that is the thing that will throw people for a loop.

Lets look at the sets one at a time before we start climbing on them:


Dome Pockets:

Pockets are the hardest hold to shape by far, people will throw out more foam shaping pockets than any other shapes. It's a fact and a hard learned fact for most people that shape holds, a well shaped pocket is a hard thing to do, these pockets are nice and comfy for the most part and have been well thought out

PK Pinches:

A pinch is a pinch is a pinch right? NO! A pinch is a pinch, but add dual texture to them and then you get a PINCH where you can't use the meat of the hold (unless you're sneaky) as a hold, as something to grab. Adding dual texture to these shapes just upped the hard factor by 10

Chrome Domes:

A sloper.... blah whatever. But no Friction has the foresight to slope up the backs slightly to stop any finger wedging around the back between the hold and the wall, that's a good thing it means that you can't cheat the move that's been set!!!

So what did we do? Despite the short video we used these holds a bunch (sorry HD problems) we even had them at Allez Up on the bouldering wall. We set so many routes with these holds that it is hard to keep count on what we did and didn't do, we used them in different combinations on and off for months of training. One thing that can be quantified with these holds is that they're not easy! The pinches are wide the slopers on a moderately sloping wall is a test of skin against plastic and the pockets are super comfortable. Noodles backed off of the pockets pretty early on as he doesn't like pockets in any shape or form but despite this he did continue setting with them for us; he managed to make a simple looking problem into a core strength work out and that's where these holds do stand out... they make something that looks simple a couple of degrees harder than anyone would expect.

All of these holds are over a pad in depth but even when you're on a 30 degree wall on the Chrome Domes and you've got all of your skin on their surface you're going to be trying to find the sweet spot so you can move and sometimes that's harder to find than you'd think.... the texture on these holds isn't super aggressive so you have to take that into advance, you will need to brush these holds a bunch because otherwise your ass is getting high fived by the pads :P

SUGGESTED USES CHROME DOMES:









A Chrome Dome in the UK is someone that is bald :) Bet you didn't know that! These holds are finger friendly to the Nth degree, you're not going to have much trouble hanging them until you start into the realm of 30+ degrees, from that point on they become hard to hold and you really need to bite down on them. These holds aren't for everyone because their use does become a little limited after a while but they are some of the most evil slopers out there right now. Keep it simple and you'll be fine

SUGGESTED USES PK PINCHES:









When asked about these holds some of the CHR routesetters said that they're not that economical and they feel a little awkward and that's coming from the guy that will ulitmately set with them in a comp setting. Sure the pinches are wide as all hell but if you look at them as edges and little crimps then they're pretty versatile and if you've got monster paws then you can wrap your thumb underneath with little or no problem, all our small handed brethren beware!

You can pull these on a 45 if you don't set too crazily


SUGGESTED USES CHROME POCKETS:








Pockets are something that in our mind most of the time should be left to the outside, Mother Nature does them better than anyone can shape.... BUT, yes we said but, these are very well shaped pockets, generally there's a good side and a bad side and you can sometimes work that sneaky match in there. 4 out of 5 of these holds for the fairly strong climber can pull them on a 45, then on a 60 you're using them more as an opposing option more than anything else. Beware with these if you intend to stand on them because these holds (more than the others) will spit your feet off. These holds are not for novices in anyway shape or form unless the wall is vertical or a slab

OVERALL BUILD CHROME DOMES:

• Number of holds: 2
• Type (Bolt / Screw Ons): Bolt
• Price per hold (set price divided by number of holds): $60 each
• Color: Yellow
• Bolt placement: One is through the center column the other is a little off
• Sanding: Good
• Hollow backed: Yes, again one hollow back is great the other is bad
• Soft back (Rubber backed): No
• Texture: Dual texture, the grippy part isn't too aggressive
• Set size: 2XL
• Versatility: Ok
• Pre-drilled screw holes: No
• Shaper: Luigi Montilla
• Weight: 2.2kg

Big open handed slopers are a thing of beauty and these are definitely that, you will have no problems with your fingers with these guys. They're pretty if you like holds. No set screw holes is an interesting one, they should have been included on these holds and the Chrome Pockets that's for sure; maybe even in the pinches... it's a little detail but some gyms in the US won't buy holds without set screw holes because of their insurance.

The hollow backs do take the weight down, why one of the hollow backs was only half done is a mystery and one of the drilled holes almost missed the center column. The color on the holds is nice and even across what we received and despite not being the brightest yellow out there (ours are a pretty earth tone) the nature and size of the holds makes them stand out.

When undercutting these holds and getting up above them you will notice that you can just about stick on the dual texture but when you slip (and you will) you will leave a nice big rubber mark from the soles of your shoes, on one problem the holds ended up looking like someone had been wearing mascara and had been crying; thankfully it wasn't too hard to clean off.

OVERALL BUILD PK PINCHES:

• Number of holds: 5
• Type (Bolt / Screw Ons): Bolt
• Price per hold (set price divided by number of holds): $48 / 5 =
• Color: Yellow
• Bolt placement: Center
• Sanding: Good
• Hollow backed: No
• Soft back (Rubber backed): No
• Texture: Dual texture, the grippy part isn't too aggressive
• Set size: Medium
• Versatility: Good
• Pre-drilled screw holes: No
• Shaper: Luigi Montilla
• Weight:0.7kg

Despite the comments that these holds are a little awkward they are good pinches, they will train your pinch strength up a few degrees!! All the holds are well sanded and nice and flat, the bolt holes are well placed to stop spins and despite not having a set screw hole they were fine.

Again the color is fine and even.

 OVERALL BUILD CHROME POCKETS:

• Number of holds: 5
• Type (Bolt / Screw Ons): Bolt
• Price per hold (set price divided by number of holds): $55 / 5 =
• Color: Yellow
• Bolt placement: Well placed
• Sanding: Good
• Hollow backed: No
• Soft back (Rubber backed): No
• Texture: Dual texture, the grippy part isn't too aggressive
• Set size: Medium
• Versatility: Not bad
• Pre-drilled screw holes: No
• Shaper: Luigi Montilla
• Weight:1.9kg

We always add that training hard on pockets isn't the best thing for you, despite being some of the best pockets on the market you still need to be careful as you can get caught out on these guys!! Most the lips of the pockets are nice and rounded so finger problems when you pop out of them isn't too much of an issue.

These holds do have a nice profile on the wall and the outside is nice and slopey making thumb catches hard but not un-doable. We say this because you can get a little purchase on the dual texture, but not much.

Again colors are fine, sanding is great and the holds performed much better than we'd have expected

OVERALL BUILD ALL:

These holds, remember kids are made for comps, that's more of a suggestion in our minds than anything else. Despite being heavy across the board these holds to stand up to a bunch of abuse, the dual texture has a couple of runs in it here and there but other than that they're well formed holds!

Pockets, like we've said are a hard thing to get right and these are done exceptionally well. We can name all the good pockets on the market and these hit the list with no problems. All of the holds have a nice defining line between the texture and the slick that make the holds look really nice.

Other than the obviously bad bolt hole and the half arsed hollow back on one of the Chrome Domes there isn't much to complain about. The holds are pretty well thought out and work really well

As usual we send these reviews to the company in question before they go live so we can grab some extra information and to make sure that everything's correct...  here's what Luigi said about the lack of screw holes on the holds; "Lack of the set screw. We chose not to put one as the made sure the bolt placement was in the optimum position. Our Material easily accepts a screw provided that it is pre drilled" We agree, the bolt hole placements are exceptionally well placed but set screw holes should be there from the start. The only holds that did spin in our tests were the pinches because we have a huge temperature difference in our wall so holds do loosen up

WHAT ARE THEY MADE FROM:
Poly Urethane

PACKING / SHIPPING:
Very good

RATING:
Noodles:
We love getting in on holds when they're fresh, second pour is pretty damn cool when you think about it. The fact that these holds have hit production is a bonus because without feedback it'll be interesting to see what we thought actually matched up with what Friction Climbing have actually done!!

Dual texture is a wonderful thing, I really enjoy it, love climbing on it because as a setter / reviewer I can set what I want and know that if someone is going to cheat the move they're going to have to work really hard for it :) Same goes for me, when I think about setting, I'm very careful when it comes to playing with pockets because I'm kind of scared, mainly for my fingers so when reviewing these I did back out a little on the pockets or fell off because I wasn't giving a full go at it. I'm a wuss, but rest assured I went as hard as possible on the other shapes.

The pinches are a little awkward, but they're totally doable, add angle (like most holds) and it gets harder and harder. Matching is a beatch but when you pull it you have a great big grin on your face because you feel like you just pulled off the impossible

Slopers, I think everyone knows I love slopers... I love training on slopers, I can climb hard with little risk of injury to myself. The downside to slopers is I do tend to fly off of the wall at warp speed because I'm so focused on what i'm doing and it basically means that my spotters earn their beer

These holds could be, and should be, expanded into a larger range of holds. Smaller (wall space) pockets, slightly larger (grabbing surface) pinches and a smaller range of slopers to really round it out.

As always would I recommend the shapes. If you have an open mind, the pinches are the most versatile, the slopers are a little large if you have a smaller wall and the pockets are as good a pocket as we've seen in a long long time. We have another set coming up sooner rather than later which are the crimps that we basically did some really stupid things with to see how far they'd go.

Basically, base opinion, if you're having a comp this year look seriously at these holds.... oh the colors have been made brighter as well now!! Awesome

Chris:
I didn't spend much time on these holds at the home wall, I spent more time on them at the gym when we lent them. The problems that Fred set (although he is a man of few words in this review) were super fun to play on and really took some working to complete... working is never a bad thing as getting to the top gives you a sense of accomplishment and lets face it at the end of the day you feel a little stronger for getting it :P

I didn't like the pinches all that much but the pockets are great and the slopers have that nice lip at the back that stops little cheating fingers. Good work Luigi!


Fred; Head Routesetter at Allez Up:
Finger friendly. Ideal for comp setting because of dual texture. Good for any angle. The pinches are a little awkward and not ergonomical

PROS:

• YADDA

CONS:

• YADDA

Review > Chalk Buckets > The Update

This is an update as sometimes more gear arrives on our doorstep, in this case we have two more buckets to add to the list of buckets. One is from Practical Climbing the other is from VLine, we've put them through the same tests that the original test pieces were put through so our results remain inline with the original findings.

Lets get started again shall we? For sake of ease the new buckets have been added to the top of the list.

Review > Holdz > Comp Handz

Here's a little intro from your friendly neighborhood Climbing Hold Review owner, Jeremy. I feel we've pulled this review into a new realm, we have some pretty big hitters commenting... every heard of Percy Bishton? He's a big gun in the UK scene... then there's Jacky Godoffe he's a 20 year professional routesetter... then there's Dave Bursey, head setter at Vertical Reality who happened to wander into Montreal and ended up having an epic evening with me... then there's of course our comments and Dustin Curtis' as well, he gives a good competitors look at these holds. I'd like to take the time to thank everyone for taking the time in adding their thoughts to what is a really unique set of holds... enjoy the read, I've enjoyed editing the videos and the text.

Ah another Holdz review, they're kind of few and far between if you ask us... we take our time on all of our reviews but when Steve sends us something it's always interesting to get his holds up and running to see what's going on. Noodles has a particular love of Holdz holds, probably because he's from the UK and he owns a great deal of their holds at his other home wall.

This time we knew what we were getting ourselves into, we've seen these holds, we've climbed on these holds at competitions and we knew what was going to be coming... the end result of these holds is more mat time than usual because these holds are something a little bit special

Review > Climb It > Ribbed Slopers

It used to be "from the twisted mind of Jason Kehl" that you got some interesting shapes, and although this phrase can still be applied to JK it also seems to apply to Louie Anderson these days in more than one way.

First the Climb It line of holds was expanded this year, we reviewed the Tufas, a set of holds that we said are Climb It's best yet (You can read that review: here) and then in another box a little while later came these holds:

Review > Rock Candy > Trilobytes Medium

Three people, one full time and the others are part time... how do they do it? How in hells name do Rock Candy pull off top class climbing holds time and time again? We know how they do it, attention to detail, they have an almost obsessive obsession with sending out a quality product time and time again. Knowing that we're reviewing their holds means that we know that they know that we know that they're not going to be  sending us a bunch of crap, so of course we check through our little network of spies placed all over the World that have Rock Candy holds to make sure that what we say is correct :)

We do this for most holds we get, bar a few that we know aren't big enough brands yet, to make sure that when we say Rock Candy is a brand you can depend upon that we're factually correct . Right enough waxing lyrical, this week can you tell what we're looking at (if the post title wasn't enough)...

Trilobyte: Strangely is a fossil, a particular fossil that looks like this:

and then you look at the holds themselves:

So the name is pretty apt, the holds do actually have a "Trilobyte" feel to them, what do you think came first the shaped hold and then they found a name? Or the shaper saw a trilobyte and then shaped from there?

What you're getting is a set of holds that are going to work well all the way to 60 degrees; they're sublime on a 45, easy enough on a 30 and just plain easy on anything less than that. They're mainly crimps and edges, edges on the shallower angles and as you crank up the angle they get a little more crimp... but super friendly crimpy because the grabbing area is big enough that you're never really full on bearing down like you would on thin holds, in fact you could almost almost call these holds mini jugs because although they're not full on roof ready they do feel juggy on the shallow angles

So we set, and the video mainly consists of a route that we set that never was finished, after the holds were moved and used on different problems they went straight back on the wall in their original position and they'll stay there until the problem gets done. It's not that it's a hard route, it's not, there is just one move where you come from the 30 to the 45 that involves what Bobby calls a Ninja Kick move, you need to settle yourself and then you have to let loose and NINJA KICK the crap out of the flat wall (preferably on a hold) to stop yourself from swinging back, the swing back is the killer because that's when you're going to hit the floor...

Why? because where we set the hold (its the first one on the left hand side profile image above) as a side pull it is a) hard to match and b) on such an angle that it pretty well dictates that you only have a very very short amount of time holding on to it before you just fall off any way :) Big or small, wide span or short everyone got kicked off of this move... the Trilobytes didn't take any sides, it's neutral (in a political sense) it's not racist, it's Belgium, Switzerland even, it doesn't take part in any conflict, doesn't care who you are it will kick everyone's ass. It is it's job, to be an incut climbing hold on a wall and to be impartial to who grips it. Judge for yourself:

These holds are so friendly that we ran laps one afternoon just cranking this route, trying and trying and trying to get the last two moves and we all walked away with no injuries and no complaints about the holds. We ended up on that day in the wall for four or five hours, at least two of them was spent chucking ourselves at that one route and the cross move on the 30 degree wall, then there's that long move that stopped Bobby a few times... poor little bugger he doesn't quite have the length to make that move statically but he tried and tried and still didn't complain about the holds. In fact he liked them so much that he has reset with these holds more than once because he likes climbing on them (normally he's particular about what he sets with)

Now at the same time as climbing on these we have another set that are in for review at the same time, they're called Cellulite and when you get both sets together they you're in for a whole lot of fun... but more about that in the next Rock Candy review!

SUGGESTED USES:









$7.80 per hold is a little on the steep side for these holds and that's on the steep side of steep but this is where the holds shine. Shallow walls, pah!, waste of time unless you're being devious and setting where you have to grab the little ribs on the outside of the hold, at that point you're making some very very interesting routes trust us, we know how devious you can be on a vertical wall with these holds.

If you're needing something to beef up your shallow angle walls then you can probably look away now, if you're looking at a set of holds for 30+ degree walls then grab a set of these (and maybe the Cellulites) because you're in for a good solid burn on these holds, if we can run hours on the same route on BOTH sets then chances are you can as well, the only finger friendly holds that allow you to do that are some of the DRCC's, Tekniks (most of them) some of the Climb Its (Tufas and Ribbed Slopers) and a bunch of others when you look at the set specifically. Rock Candy are playing with the big boys some real big boys and doing a bloody good job of it.

OVERALL BUILD

• Number of holds: 5
• Type (Bolt / Screw Ons): Bolt
• Price per hold (set price divided by number of holds): 39/5 = $7.80 per hold
• Color:Orange
• Bolt placement: Middle
• Sanding: Awesome
• Hollow backed: No
• Soft back (Rubber backed): No
• Texture: Light, it's the shape that gives the grip
• Set size: Medium
• Versatility: Very good
• Pre-drilled screw holes: No
• Shaper: Tony Reynaldo
• Weight: 2.5lbs

Tony Reynaldo's principle of life is "give back more than you take"... amen. He's giving back  through So Ill and Rock Candy , he had (or has) a blog on Dead Point Magazine and he runs a gym called Kinetic. He's been around in "the game" for a while, what we know him for is shaping... and he's a good shaper that's for sure.

He's done a bunch of holds for Rock Candy and he's one of those shapers that means you won't see a different version of the same hold for a different company down the line, he keeps it fresh which is a good thing

Rock Candy, let's roll through the list:

• Great color as always, no fade out to the edges
• Bomber sanding, it's probably your wall that's not flat because the holds are smooth and level
• Washers are all well set
• Logo, yup it's on there
• Texture, it's light but the shapes allow you more grip than you'd expect
• Screw holes: we missed them because they're not pre drilled, they kind of got lost in with the shaping of the hold a little. 

So far so good! So what can we complain about? What can we mention that takes these holds down a notch or two?

Nothing, there's nothing wrong with these holds. There are thumb catches a-plenty and we've hauled on them for hours on end, on overhangs, trying the same move time and again and haven't worried about it in the slightest. We won't say that they're perfect holds because everyone has a different style. Sure these holds may not be to your style but they fit in and are great to climb on.

The only problem (we may have lied slightly above) is maybe the price, $7.80 for a hold this size does start sounding a little steep and people may baulk at that price per hold. Mediums when they're around $5.50 each is kind of reasonable... but that's the price a medium hold goes for these days and even though we're complaining this price is still better than most other company's pouring urethane...

WHAT ARE THEY MADE FROM:
Urethane

PACKING / SHIPPING:
Awesome

RATING:
Noodles:
Wow reading the introduction to this (which I wrote) makes me think I'm reading too much Hunter S Thompson, I got off on a weird old track, sorry about that. But I think the point is well made, these holds are unbiased; they're neutral holds, nicely incut holds that are easy to pull on, they're flattish so pretty neutral... it probably would have been easier to just write that, but hell I was off on a track and rather than just write "these holds are incut and flat" I wrote something a little more poetic :D

These holds allow you to take huge liberties with moves, huge moves with little worry for skin. We took these holds too far with the one move that we keep talking about but we all still kept hitting it time and time again and no one complained about "burning" of their hands... nuff said really.

As I'm the one that runs the site and it means I'm the one that talks to the people Nathan who owns Rock Candy and I talk from time to time... he's had a new addition to his family of late (congrats again) and yet he's still managing to pull of great holds. That is part and parcel of someone that knows how to manage their time and from their shaper and molding process.... crap shapes = crap holds. My hat is taken off to the entire team because since 2009 (I think) when we first reviewed some of their holds to now there's been nothing but up and up in quality of what we see and what you see in gyms and on home walls.

Ok so base line, would I suggest you the home wall owner get these holds, invest in these holds as it were. Are these holds worthy of your money or are they going to be thrown away after a few weeks like a childs once loved toy?

I love them, I think the outer texture is a little OTT, but that does allow for some interesting thumb catches and some interesting matches. Like we said, these holds are more versatile than you think and you need to think a little outdoors to get the most from them because to bring the beauty out of them you need to be able to set and to be able to set subtle, but if you're the other way inclined then you can go big, but no too big with these guys

Chris:
I missed the ninja kick incident, but I tried that route a bunch of times and it was... and still is beyond us. Rock Candy again have made a great set of holds, I've enjoyed climbing on them and will continue to enjoy them for years to come (or until Jeremy takes them down)

My only issue with them is the texture from the shaping that goes into the gripping areas, I have slightly larger hands and I found that my tips got a little worked; but I've not been climbing as much as usual and my skin is a little girly these days :P

If you want hard with these holds use them as undercuts because they're super hard to hold when they're like this... not super super hard but they definitely make you work for the send, overall these are a good set of holds... if I had to choose between these and say the other holds we've reviewed from Rock Candy it'd be a hard choice between these, the Cellulite and the Ruffles

PROS:

• More versatile than you think
• Good size, don't clutter your wall
• As always a great color

CONS:

• Screw holes aren't pre-drilled

TSUN

Review > Uncarved Block > Lucky Seven Incuts

When someone says that a hold is "hard to hold on a 45" we'll test that, when a set of holds comes enclosed with a note saying "if you can hold onto these on a 45 then you're strong" you know full well (as should we these days) that someone is issuing a challenge, someone is laying down the gauntlet  and that we're going to try to do it for good or worse.

The holds, ah the holds:

When you read the Uncarved Block website and the brief blurb they have there they offer this advice:
"Lucky 7 Incuts. There is nothing lucky about these subtlety incut holds at all, if you are using them on steep ground and hanging on, it is because your skilled and not lucky, but we needed a name and there is 7 in this set! Built in screw holes to aid in rotation prevention to boot!" and then you watch the video:

And you realize apart from one of the start holds they're not even pulling THEIR OWN HOLDS ON A 45 lol


So what this review is going to boil down to is going to be "can these holds be pulled on a 45?" and "Why aren't the makers of these holds pulling down on these holds on a 45?"



From the get go we knew what we were in for, you just touch these holds... read the note and know that you're in for a rough time on a 45, on a 30 it's plain to see that that's where the positive (if you can call it that) pulling is going to be over. These holds are incut, but not to the degree where hauling on them on steep angles was ever going to be easy! Uncarved Block as we've pointed out time and again make some of the most ergonomic shapes on the market, the only people that beat them is Teknik for finger friendly hard as hell but so nice to grab onto holds. Uncarved Block is the Teknik of the Southern Hemisphere... they both are stand out company's, and now UC has switched to urethane the climbing is so much better; but there is a small contingent of one person here that still loves their resin shapes (and that's funny as I'm writing the review :P) UC has a huge line of holds and there isn't a single line of sharp rip your finger tips off crimps in there, they have crimps but even those holds are nice to grab onto.


Whatever Uncarved Block are doing, they're doing it well... if you need further proof read some of our other reviews:

• Large Edges: here
• Blades, bolt on AND screw on: here
• Mickey Finns: here
• 30 degree set: here

I don't think the word sharp is even used in any of those reviews (Some of the reviews need to be reformatted btw, sorry about that).

So the Lucky Seven Incuts.
Incut: check
Seven: there are seven holds here
Lucky: ah that's the point is it not? You have to be lucky to hold these holds on anything over a 30 degree wall or you have mad core strength and fingers of steel... we tried, oh we tried and most of the footage hit the floor. BUT I was feeling a little bit spicy from writing this review so I decided to give it that one last go,  I decided to limit the route to something not completely mental and to not throw myself at it for hours at a time... so just 30 minutes of trying to unlock a very simple sequence on our 45... thankfully it's pulled first attempt... so the holds can be climbed on a 45 but the "oww" from me says it all, they're bloody hard

VIDEO
 SUGGESTED USES:








Fred came over and saw these, even without climbing on them he stated that they'd be great holds to use on volumes in a comp setting. That's some pretty high praise from our sponsored routesetter (he's asked to borrow them for an upcoming comp already)


So first impressions do make an impression, we'd agree, without the note saying that they would be hard on a steep wall we could see that without even bolting them up, how hard was the question... bloody hard is the answer. We'd also agree with Fred, these holds (much like the rails and the Mickey Finns) would make great competition holds but they'd also make a nice addition to anyone with shallow walls because they're small but on a shallow angle positive enough to allow most people to grab them. If your commercial gym has a wall where you top out then these holds would be perfect up there, likewise for any gym with a slab. Don't put them anywhere near a wall that's over 45 unless you're super mentally strong or they're being used as footholds!

OVERALL BUILD

• Number of holds: 7
• Type (Bolt / Screw Ons): Bolt
• Price per hold (set price divided by number of holds):
• Color: Ours are orange and blue
• Bolt placement: Middle
• Sanding: Good
• Hollow backed: No
• Soft back (Rubber backed): No
• Texture: Skin friendly
• Set size: Small / Medium
• Versatility: Limited
• Pre-drilled screw holes:
• Shaper: TBC
• Weight: 0.80kg

Every time we see new Uncarved Block holds it brings a smile to our faces. We know that we'll have to stretch to find something to pick on; in this case it's one minor detail that we'll come to.

When you get these holds the texture is just superb, grippy but not madly so, it gives you confidence in your hand placement without having to brush the route after each attempt; chalk also comes off easily when you do need to clean them a little. For us finding them on the wall isn't a problem as the colors that they came in (blue/orange backed) shows up well against what is sometimes a wall of blue holds.

The shaping is great, the holds are friendly to grab and fit well into a fairly natural position when you clamp down, even the inset logo is nicely placed so that it doesn't end up under your thumb when you're pinching down, even if the logo is under your thumb it's flush to the gripping surface and isn't a problem. These holds are also small, so they don't clutter up your wall and all of the holds have a nice pre-drilled set screw hole to stop them from spinning (these holds are pretty hard to spin)

So wheres the problem? Aha! The sanding on two of the holds isn't quite perfect, there is a small lip that if you were so inclined you could use of a little bit of extra purchase. Too be honest it's a minor point and if you're using this edge then chances are you're working hard and need it :)

All of the holds have well placed and square bolt holes and they take a normal bolt as they're nice and well sunk into the hold so there's no chance of catching anything... the holes are so well placed and drilled that when you use a normal bolt it also eliminates the hole as a sneaky cheat!

WHAT ARE THEY MADE FROM:
Urethane

PACKING / SHIPPING:
Great

RATING:
Noodles:
Every time I write about Uncarved Block two things spring to mind. Men at Work and VB oh and nice shapes... yeah yeah that's three things, whose counting?

I love a good challenge, and I love a good hold; I think that both have been well documented by now :D When these holds arrived with the challenge I figured that we'd take it up... hell, we'd crush it and laugh. How wrong was I? Pretty damn, ass kicked... kind of...................................

Uncarved Block keep upping their game they put out lots of holds and thus far they've not deviated from ergonomic shapes, friendly holds or a fair price (apart from one of the pockets on the 30 degree set that I think should be destroyed and kind of refuse to put on the wall anymore, not because it's not friendly, but because it's so friendly I want to do stupid things with it and then end up hurting myself; plus if I'm training I'd rather not play with pockets) What more could you want from a company? Hell their website seems to know that I'm from Canada and helpfully changes all of their prices to Canadian dollars and i'm not even logged in; how helpful is that??

Would I suggest people buy these holds is what these comments basically boils down to? Yes, they're small non wall cluttering holds that are great to 30 degrees. They'll test you and your skill if you want to push yourself and you'll have fun doing trying whatever you set, as per usual I'd like there to be more of these holds... can you imagine the Lucky Seven Slopers? I can envision the note that will come with that set " you'll never even hold onto these" and again I'd take up the challenge... when are they arriving? I'll chill some VB :D

Chris:
I tired the 45 route (thank god the footage got thrown away) because it was a session of ass, mat, ass, met and repeat. It wasn't fun, maybe we set too hard, maybe we weren't strong... maybe maybe maybe.
On the 30 all of the routes that i've climbed have been pleasant, super fun to climb and more importantly as I don't have time to climb so much any more.. finger friendly. Even on hard routes on the 30 when I have to reach I've always been able to clamp down

How Jeremy pulled those few moves on the 45 is pretty good, he didn't even use the side wall (read: cheating) sure he only pulled a few moves but a few moves was enough, non of the holds were huge the biggest one is the last one of the set. I'll be trying that this weekend that's for sure.

So small, well made, finger friendly holds... enough said right?

PROS:

• YADDA

CONS:

• YADDA