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Wednesday, April 8, 2009
Review > Revolution > The Boss
It's a tricky one to answer... Revolution used to be (P)usher, and back when they were (P)usher they made this holds called The Boss. It was one of those holds that has gone down in history as a classic, people that have them covert them, people that never had them but knew about them wanted them and people that have never seen it and have no idea what we're talking about are none the wiser about what we're talking about.
We're talking about this:
Noodles has one of these holds in resin back in the UK, and he's always talked about getting it sent over, but was worried about it being lost in the process of coming across an ocean... thankfully Clark at Revolution is a lovely chap and he poured our hold from the original mold and sent it on over to us.... then began a conversation between Clark and Noodles about whether he should remold the hold as the original mold was a little burnt and ripped. Clark ended up on the fence about remaking the hold, so Noodles pointed out that when people see we have one and we reviewed it they're probably going to want one so it'd be a good idea to get cracking as he was going to post an image of our Boss on the web on April 1st... a urethane Boss? It was something only people could dream about, and here we are with one on the wall; poured from 1 gallon of urethane and weighing in at 25lbs, it's a monster for sure! The new remold will be lighter as it's getting a new hollow back, but it's going to be urethane not resin so it'll be nice a strong
Finally before we start the review proper, here are some images of the hold being remolded for your pleasure!
As you can see either way up the Boss is something that you have
to sneak up upon, no crazy dynos: just nice static moves to a huge huge sloper. One side is more positive than the other, but that's not saying much, both sides are pretty evil to get onto and hold.. more than doable and super fun to try to match in different combinations. After we polished the above route off, we decided to stick the Boss onto the roof to see if we could get a knee bar, or double knee bar to a long long move to a jug, you had to knee bar before you could even go for the jug; unfortunately we didn't take any video but rest assured we took some huge falls the pads when we got it wrong
Next up, we put the Boss back to it's original position. Aryane was pulling off of the floor to a Teknik pinch and then onto the Boss and then to a jug on the roof, we didn't add any feet other than at the start and then feet follow after that, which means you ended up with a slightly mental toe hook on the pinch with your hands matched on the Boss which meant you really needed to lock off and rely upon your core strength to manage to hold and then move off of it
As you can see we were playing the two hold game, with the Boss as one of the first holds, lots of different people with lots of different strengths and weakness'... but one thing leveled the field and that was the Boss
If you've been climbing for a while, especially if climbed in any competitions then chances are one of the problems or routes you've climbed have at one point had one of these monsters in it! If you're strong as hell and have good core strength or want to work on your core strength then chuck this hold onto a 15 degree wall and then place your feet carefully so that you have to move onto the hold slowly and carefully, that'll give you a good work out. If you're stronger than that, go for the 30, and good luck holding on!!
Beginners are going to learn some very important lessons from encountering this hold, they're either going to love it or hate it (most people do) but they will learn how to hold onto something that will test them whichever angle they approach it from. But if you're setting then remember to be nice and put it on a vertical wall to be nice.
Texture wise the hold is great to hold onto, no sharp edges and the pour from the original mold came out really really well. It's surprising considering the last resin of this hold was poured in 2005
JACKY
Wooooaaaa... The Boss! Have you ever seen anything like it?! Yep... just like my boss' beer gut! Large and heavy (at an impressive 25lbs), it certainly commands respect. We are the luckiest folks to have been given such a gift. Revolution was kind enough to recreate this dinosaur for our pleasure. This piece shows that the dudes at Revolution like what they do, because I'm sure they spent plenty of time to revive this one piece. Despite the fact that this Boss was molded out of the original mold, the texture remains in great quality, it won't rip your skin off when you slip from it... oh, you'll slip from it! There is absolutely no one place to comfortably hold onto the Boss, it's kinda like a classic HP40 top out. Evidently it is always nive to carry a beast in a hold collection and as such, this classic becomes essential. And for all of you that don't have it: Hahahahahhahahhahaha! :P
Hoo.... I almost forgot... there was other holds in that first route! We used a whole bunch of holds from Revolution and this leaves me unable to give an appropriate review for the load.. other than the fact that they were red and I like them. You can probably find a review for some on this site and you'll have to come back for the others
MOLLY BEARD: USA CLIMBING NATIONAL SETTER
We're talking about this:
Noodles has one of these holds in resin back in the UK, and he's always talked about getting it sent over, but was worried about it being lost in the process of coming across an ocean... thankfully Clark at Revolution is a lovely chap and he poured our hold from the original mold and sent it on over to us.... then began a conversation between Clark and Noodles about whether he should remold the hold as the original mold was a little burnt and ripped. Clark ended up on the fence about remaking the hold, so Noodles pointed out that when people see we have one and we reviewed it they're probably going to want one so it'd be a good idea to get cracking as he was going to post an image of our Boss on the web on April 1st... a urethane Boss? It was something only people could dream about, and here we are with one on the wall; poured from 1 gallon of urethane and weighing in at 25lbs, it's a monster for sure! The new remold will be lighter as it's getting a new hollow back, but it's going to be urethane not resin so it'll be nice a strongFinally before we start the review proper, here are some images of the hold being remolded for your pleasure!
First coat of silicone going onto the mold
Second coat of silicone and the hollow back
Right now that's done, we can get down to reviewing the hold. As Noodles has one of these holds he knew almost exactly where to put it... vertical? Nope; 45 degree wall? Never going to happen! The roof... well we did try that... the best place was on the box, it's slightly overhung and the Boss will be nice and slopey up there. We grabbed a bunch of other Revolution holds that were in one of our boxes and we set a route that ran from the 45, across the 30 under the box and then finishing on the Boss.As you can see either way up the Boss is something that you have
to sneak up upon, no crazy dynos: just nice static moves to a huge huge sloper. One side is more positive than the other, but that's not saying much, both sides are pretty evil to get onto and hold.. more than doable and super fun to try to match in different combinations. After we polished the above route off, we decided to stick the Boss onto the roof to see if we could get a knee bar, or double knee bar to a long long move to a jug, you had to knee bar before you could even go for the jug; unfortunately we didn't take any video but rest assured we took some huge falls the pads when we got it wrongNext up, we put the Boss back to it's original position. Aryane was pulling off of the floor to a Teknik pinch and then onto the Boss and then to a jug on the roof, we didn't add any feet other than at the start and then feet follow after that, which means you ended up with a slightly mental toe hook on the pinch with your hands matched on the Boss which meant you really needed to lock off and rely upon your core strength to manage to hold and then move off of it
As you can see we were playing the two hold game, with the Boss as one of the first holds, lots of different people with lots of different strengths and weakness'... but one thing leveled the field and that was the Boss
If you've been climbing for a while, especially if climbed in any competitions then chances are one of the problems or routes you've climbed have at one point had one of these monsters in it! If you're strong as hell and have good core strength or want to work on your core strength then chuck this hold onto a 15 degree wall and then place your feet carefully so that you have to move onto the hold slowly and carefully, that'll give you a good work out. If you're stronger than that, go for the 30, and good luck holding on!!Beginners are going to learn some very important lessons from encountering this hold, they're either going to love it or hate it (most people do) but they will learn how to hold onto something that will test them whichever angle they approach it from. But if you're setting then remember to be nice and put it on a vertical wall to be nice.
Texture wise the hold is great to hold onto, no sharp edges and the pour from the original mold came out really really well. It's surprising considering the last resin of this hold was poured in 2005
JACKY
Wooooaaaa... The Boss! Have you ever seen anything like it?! Yep... just like my boss' beer gut! Large and heavy (at an impressive 25lbs), it certainly commands respect. We are the luckiest folks to have been given such a gift. Revolution was kind enough to recreate this dinosaur for our pleasure. This piece shows that the dudes at Revolution like what they do, because I'm sure they spent plenty of time to revive this one piece. Despite the fact that this Boss was molded out of the original mold, the texture remains in great quality, it won't rip your skin off when you slip from it... oh, you'll slip from it! There is absolutely no one place to comfortably hold onto the Boss, it's kinda like a classic HP40 top out. Evidently it is always nive to carry a beast in a hold collection and as such, this classic becomes essential. And for all of you that don't have it: Hahahahahhahahhahaha! :PHoo.... I almost forgot... there was other holds in that first route! We used a whole bunch of holds from Revolution and this leaves me unable to give an appropriate review for the load.. other than the fact that they were red and I like them. You can probably find a review for some on this site and you'll have to come back for the others
ARYANE
The "Edges" are colourful and quite aesthetic, which is probably what is most attractive about them. The shape is similar to other holds I have seen before, but the texture is interesting and feels different. Smooth and not peeling off your skin (unless you slipping unexpectedly), they actually stick pretty well, much better then you would expect them to do at first sight. I would likely see them on technical face routes or slightly angled walls.
The "Edges" are colourful and quite aesthetic, which is probably what is most attractive about them. The shape is similar to other holds I have seen before, but the texture is interesting and feels different. Smooth and not peeling off your skin (unless you slipping unexpectedly), they actually stick pretty well, much better then you would expect them to do at first sight. I would likely see them on technical face routes or slightly angled walls.
As I am not yet mastering all slopers (although they don't scare me anymore), so I have a hard time comparing the "Boss" to other big slopers. I would say it's great feeling to be able to hold it with both hands while cutting loose, although this cutting loose part better short and sweet in order to stay on the wall. The hold also has some interesting bumps and curves which you can explore, for more friction and grip.
WE GRABBED SOME THOUGHTS ON THE BOSS' RETURN FROM A COUPLE OF SETTERS, MOLLY BEARD AND JODY MIALL
MOLLY BEARD: USA CLIMBING NATIONAL SETTERReturn of the Boss is a beautiful thing. I remember seeing the first one some 14 years ago, instantly asking "What the hell is that?!?!?"
and then spending the rest of the day fondling the damn thing. It was a truly revolutionary moment for me as a setter as up to this point there were no 'XXL' or massive volumes. None. Nada. Zip. I think the biggest hold I'd seen had a radial footprint of 10" and a depth of 8". Tiny by comparison! To have it being poured again is nothing short of a mouth-drooling experience.
Tuesday, March 24, 2009
Review > Revolution > Jibs
Let's go back, waay back, before there was ClimbingHoldReview to a time just after Chris had been a gleam in the milkman's eye... to a time when I'd built one of my first walls, a monster cannibalised from a campus board from a local gym. Back then the hold market wasn't all that big, or if it was I wasn't aware of many people, there was Metolius, EP, S7 and some other people that were easy to get holds from... there was this other company called Pusher. These days Pusher is a thing of myth and legend, the holds that had a little (P) on them are something to be cherished, and when they get broken they need to be mended with some super glue and a steady hand!
But, that was then, and this is now! Revolution Climbing, born out of the Pusher / Cordless / S7 days. They're still a big player in the hold market today, and I've chased them to get me holds for review since day one of this site! Thankfully they heeded my call and some holds arrived, first up of what will be a number of reviews over the coming months are three sets of jibs, we've not done much on screw ons for a while, and as they should be a staple of most home walls, and gyms alike, we figured it'd be a good crack.. as I loved the Pusher holds I wanted to see how they measured up.
The sets we received are:
I set the holds out onto the floor and go to work, as usual I had a laugh with the video:
There's one thing about jibs is that they're very space friendly, despite the fact that you're not going to move them around a whole bunch. One of my old walls had a section that was 15 degrees overhung and 20 ft high, the entire wall from top to bottom was nothing but jibs, there wasn't one single bolt on hold on there... now as jibs are so space friendly you can imagine how many holds were on that wall :)
$33 for a set of ten
$33 for a set of ten
But, that was then, and this is now! Revolution Climbing, born out of the Pusher / Cordless / S7 days. They're still a big player in the hold market today, and I've chased them to get me holds for review since day one of this site! Thankfully they heeded my call and some holds arrived, first up of what will be a number of reviews over the coming months are three sets of jibs, we've not done much on screw ons for a while, and as they should be a staple of most home walls, and gyms alike, we figured it'd be a good crack.. as I loved the Pusher holds I wanted to see how they measured up.
The sets we received are:- Pockets from their Basic hold line
- Diamonds from their Abstract hold line, set1
- Fonts from the Real hold line, set 1
I set the holds out onto the floor and go to work, as usual I had a laugh with the video:
There's one thing about jibs is that they're very space friendly, despite the fact that you're not going to move them around a whole bunch. One of my old walls had a section that was 15 degrees overhung and 20 ft high, the entire wall from top to bottom was nothing but jibs, there wasn't one single bolt on hold on there... now as jibs are so space friendly you can imagine how many holds were on that wall :)
$33 for a set of ten$33 for a set of ten
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