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blackboard
Apr 9, 2003, 9:35 AM
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What do you like landing on, foam or gravel? And which is more common?
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lalamur
Apr 10, 2003, 8:39 PM
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my local gym is gravel, unfortunately. i like foam better.
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mountaingoat8
Apr 10, 2003, 8:43 PM
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i've never landed on foam, but i heard the shreaded (sp?) gets stuck on your shoes and makes a mess.
gravel is more fun - you can throw it.
-the goat-
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earthclimber
Apr 10, 2003, 8:48 PM
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We used to have gravel at my gym. It was dusty, hard to keep in its place, and impossible to clean. Recently we have switched to foam gym mats and they are far superior. They can be vaccuumed, moved easily, and provide a much softer landing.
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weaselman
Apr 10, 2003, 8:49 PM
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this one gymnasium (it wasn't climbing specific) had a 15 or so foot high very very easy climbing wall that you climbed up and jumped into a huge pit of soft foam cubes(1 ft or so square cubes). that was fun and comfortable, but it isnt really practical for a climbing gym.
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gretchino
Apr 10, 2003, 8:56 PM
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We have little stones....not sure if that is the same as the gravel you guys are referring to. Sucks to walk on barefoot, but it really isn't as bad to fall on as I thought it would be...and yes, they are fun to throw! :P
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beercanclimber
Apr 10, 2003, 9:05 PM
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the gym i got used to here in LA has a cool bouncy floor, i think its like a thin layer of some type of flooring over foam or tires. either way it's really nice, even falling flat on yer back. when i went back to san diego and climbed in a gym there i had never seen any place that used gravel and was pretty sketched about it. i hear shreded tires can be toxic over time, but id rather land on that or foam any day, rocks just suck.
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sftony
Apr 10, 2003, 9:22 PM
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My gym has shredded up tires. It's cleaner than gravel, but not as clean as foam. I like the idea of old tires being used for something rather than sitting in a landfill for a million years.
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acrophobic
Apr 10, 2003, 9:27 PM
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man all the dust from gravel would get crazy indoors...
Foam all the way. No reason not to use it.. it's isn't THAT expensive.
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w6jxm
Apr 10, 2003, 9:42 PM
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I guess I'm fortunate to have climbed at nice gyms. I never even knew that gyms used gravel All the gyms that I have gone to in nevada, utah, and arizona all foam except for one that had tires. I would have to say I could not imagine landing on anything BUT foam.
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cliffhanger9
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Apr 10, 2003, 9:42 PM
Post #11 of 38
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neither...
my gyms got the shredded tires!!
they are really deep...at least 12-18" and it makes for an awesome landing when u cant quite stick that dyno on a bouldering problem or when starting out on the slackline!! (i cant imagine trying to slackline over gravel) :!: :?: :shock:
so yea...the shreded tires are where its at....u can fall however u want without much impact, they bouce and u can throw 'em too! hehe
ROCK ON!!! http://smilies.crowd9.com/otn/tongue/tongue3.gif
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monkeyarm
Apr 10, 2003, 10:17 PM
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Reground tires suck. They are dirty, dusty, ever bit of chalk that ever spills out from a chalk bag get mixed in with it forever. After you climb at a gm with retread your boogers are black for a week from the dirt and grime you inhale. PLus it sucks when oyu land because you cannot tell the depth of the rubber so sometims it is nice and padded, and other tims you come down on 2 in of rubber and its like landing on cement.
It is better to have cement floor with a few crash pads than retread.
The best is a foam floor with a layer of rubbber ontop of it. They have it at my school, Towson University, and at James Madison University. It is the best to land on and still firm enough to walk on comfortably.
My scools old wall has gravel and it is alright, better than the retread.
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moeman
Apr 10, 2003, 10:20 PM
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My gym- Earthtreks Columbia, has this nice brand new foam padding. Its about 4 inche thick under the rope walls and a foot thick under the boulder cave. Its really soft, but the best part is that it have a fuzzy tiop, so its really nice to walk on barefoot.
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bandycoot
Apr 10, 2003, 10:51 PM
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I work at a gym that uses about 3/4 - 1" stones/gravel. I've fallen on it from 20+ feet barefoot when some bitch dropped me with a Grigri (I hate those things). I landed standing with no problem at all! My feet weren't even bruised or bloody or anything! I'm a fan of the rocks. I don't like anything that will absorb impact that has a potential to send it back into you bacause that can break limbs so I don't like the idea of rubber, and the foam at the places I've been has sucked!
Josh
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estwing
Apr 10, 2003, 11:08 PM
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Gravel Rocks!!!!
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spinnerstyle
Apr 10, 2003, 11:12 PM
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Yeah my gym (http://www.kendallcliffs.com) has shreaded rubber chips on the floor like 8"s deep. Its alright to land in but that stuff gets stuck in your shoes quick. By the time you leave you smell like sweat and tires. Not a good combination trust me.
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blackboard
Apr 11, 2003, 7:27 AM
Post #17 of 38
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The gym that I go to uses gravel, and I've grown used to landing in it. Like Josh, I've fallen from 20 feet without any injuries. I love the way it absorbs the impact by breaking away and letting my feet sink into it (adding some ankle support).
Unfortunately, this very property makes it rather ineffective against awkward falls where the weight/impact is spread over a greater area (like landing on your ass or flat on your back). Spotting is a good thing.
Then in February for the very first time, I went to a gym using foam (dense wrestling-mat foam covering the floor and several matress-sized pads of couch cushion density scatered about). My landings were kind of awkward because I wasn't used to the bounce. I was afraid I was going to roll on an ankle and sprain it, but mostly I just rocked backwards and landed on my butt. By the end of the day, I was getting used to landing on foam.
The only real drawback of the foam gym was that in order to keep their nice mats clean, no loose chalk was permitted. That completely sucked for me, but also gave me many opportunities to appreciate the soft padding when my dripping fingers greased off the holds, dumping me flat on my back on several occasions.
I remember someone mentioning that their gym used gravel, but also had drains in the floor so they would just periodically rinse away the accumulated dust and chalk. That would be perfect, and hopefully eliminate the sooty snot that I suffer from as well.
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pbjosh
Apr 11, 2003, 7:33 AM
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Shredded tires suck - they get in your shoes, they turn you, your clothing, your snot, your ears, your hair, everything black. Gravel is my choice, with big pads to haul around and place. If you miss the pad, the gravel isn't really too bad actually.
Perhaps better is a real gymnastics floor of lots of open cell foam covered with a thin (couple inches) layer of closed cel or stiffer, then some carpet or similar over that... nice!
josh
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alvchen
Apr 11, 2003, 7:42 AM
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My gym used to use these rubber pieces, that looked like leftovers from resoling. They really weren't shreaded and were in pretty big chunks. It made for an allright landing.
The gym recently converted to the foam.
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extremist4life
Apr 11, 2003, 7:44 AM
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Registered: Nov 25, 2002
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I've never been to a gym with gravel, but so far the best that I've been to has the shock absorbing floor, example: Rockreation in Salt Lake. Shredded rubber or tires suck!
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overlord
Apr 11, 2003, 9:22 AM
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foam
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holygecko
Apr 11, 2003, 12:00 PM
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The gym I climb at (planet rock, Pontiac, Mi) has really nice closed cell foam padding with like a all weather thin carpet over the top. The foam is stiff but when you land it is pretty nice, the only down fall is that if you hit a seam when you land the velcro holding all the carpet together giveas and you go right down, might even twist and ankle. never heard of gravel though thats weird, P-Rock used to have the tires I liked them better than the foam because they were more dirt-bag style, like me!
~hasta :)
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mountaingoat8
Apr 13, 2003, 12:15 AM
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Foam sux! It makes you weak. :twisted:
All you people who climb over foam are WEAK!
-the goat-
ps. and all you people who climb over tires smell funny! :P
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collegekid
Apr 13, 2003, 1:47 AM
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i climb at the same gym as bandycoot, and i hate the gravel landing. sure it's good when you land on your feet, while you are expecting it...but if you fall off center at all...it kills your hands. Just the other day, one of our strongest female climbers broke her arm on a relatively short fall (with pbc 2 weeks away). Also, it's way dusty in there. I've climbed at Rockreation (L.a.) with foam flooring....It is much much better, especially since they have a bunch of huge bouldering pads to move around.
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jono
Apr 13, 2003, 2:21 AM
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ive been to gyms with the shredded tires and gravel. ive been to one with shredded bark? that sucked cuz it got all caught in the rope. anyway i dont like gyms so i dont really care
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