Tension Climbing makes wooden climbing holds. Why wood? That's exactly what I wanted to know. I've long known that I'm a fan of climbing on wooden holds, and I have my reasons, but I've never put even remotely close to as much thought into it as the guys over at Tension have.
In this episode, I sat down with Will Anglin (from Episode 12) and Ben Spannuth (who also designed the "bam! board") to discuss their products, the reasoning behind their shapes, what their favorites are, and more. They just released two new hangboards: "The Grindstone" and "The Grindstone Pro." If you're in the market for a board, you want one (or both) of these. Trust me. We go in depth on these two boards as well as their brilliant travel/warmup board "The Flash Board," their campus rungs, and even touch on their upcoming "Tension Board." I had to stop Will from saying too much... he's just so excited.
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Tension Climbing makes wooden climbing holds. Why wood? That's exactly what I wanted to know.
Let's face it, there are some really bad ideas out there. Myths that people cling to. New methods of "training" that just aren't thought through. Trends that are fun to jump into, but really aren't helping you.
This fall and winter as I've traveled, I've heard the same question over and over while I'm foam rolling in the evening: "Whoa! Why didn't I think of that?"
It's here. The one you've been waiting for. The Moon Board Episode. And that's not all. We recorded the conversation, sent it to the man himself, Ben Moon, and then Skyped him in to get his opinions. Legend.
When it comes to training, and training for climbing in particular, it's incredibly rare that a product hits the market that I really feel is a game changer. On average, most products are just a reshaping of another, equally useful (or useless) product. Many of these "NEW!", "AMAZING!!", "GUARANTEED!!!" products quickly end up as toys for circus tricks or drunken contests.
When it comes to climbing holds, I'm currently singing the praises of Kilter Climbing Grips. Kilter offered to send me a few sets of holds for review, and shortly after, a box arrived containing some of the nicest, simplest shapes I've seen in some time.
My first visit back to The Engine Room was with the goal of finding new max boulder problems. I needed bad holds. BAD holds. And so, the Bumper Pads from Vision Climbing.
The Transgression Hangboard by Eva Lopez, and it's little brother, the Progression, are the first commercially available hangboards in some time to depart from the "little bit of every grip type" design.
James and Lynette from Vision Climbing were nice enough to send over a set of their Acid Rain Pinches for our reviewing pleasure. Shaped by Chris Neal, the set comes with 5 small pinches, all pockmarked with “erosion” dimples.
But a dual textured hangboard? Since you only use specific parts of the grips anyway, is there really a point to having the dual texture?
If you want to be physically prepared for rock climbing, you need to concern yourself with the following components: