Tension Climbing Flash Board
Aug 17, 2017 19:17:44 GMT -7
MarkAnderson, daustin, and 1 more like this
Post by erick on Aug 17, 2017 19:17:44 GMT -7
SO I threw down a ton of cash and bought myself a full "tension board" I will write up a review after I have had a full training season on it but so far it seems to be like a significant improvement over the moon board as a training tool. Along with some other stuff the guys at tension threw in a "flash board" when they sent me all their stuff so I thought I would write a little review. If you have not seen it here is a link with some great photos...www.tensionclimbing.com/hangboards/flash-board
I do guiding work over the summers and regularly will be unable to train for weeks. So having a small portable training tool to keep my fingers strong seemed like a God sent to me. When the flash board arrived and I held it for the first time it seemed like a work of art more than a training tool (like all their products) and it seemed cruel to abuse this thing in the way I was planning. It is ingeniously thought out and has a huge variety of uses for how small it is. The beauty of this thing is that on one side the edges are flat but if you flip it over the same edges are now incut. I generally am a super lightweight hiker but when I'm guiding all my weight restrictions go out the window. But luckily the flash board took up little space in my pack and weighed very little so I had no problem taking it on my trips with me.
Getting the board setup in the backcountry took a little bit of work. It needs to be high enough to actually hang from but low enough that it is easy to disattach the board and invert it to switch between incut and no incut holds. This takes some work to figure out and find an appropriate place. I usually ended up using the bear bag hang as my hangboard spot as well.
Before I used it I needed to decide what hang protocol to use. I went with Steve Bechtel's 3-6-9 hangs since they are super simple and would only require a timer. I trained my fully open, half and full crimp grips. I would warm up with a series of core exercises, pull-ups and hangs on the three grips I was planning on training. Once it was actually time to do my workout the grips always feel secure and gentle on my fingers. Even the .33" crimp edges did not hurt my fingers in the way that the RPTC can. This does have a downside I will get to later. Just after I got the flash board I left on a 12 day leadership training trip with 9 students, immediately following this trip my wife and I were leaving for a two week trip to Wild Iris and I was hoping the flash board would keep my fingers in good shape for the finger destroying routes I would find there. During the 12 day trip I was able to get in four workouts and they were always a pleasure, I could not think of more inspiring places to hang on little edges. After three climbing days at Wild Iris I can honestly say finger strength has in no way been holding my back. With a few more long trips coming this fall I am super excited to bring the flash board with me to keep my finger strength up when I can't do anything else.
But there are a few things that make backcountry flash board workouts less pleasant than they could be. First, if you live in the PNW like I do and you are needing to throw a rope over a tree branch to do a HB workout, the branch you use will almost certainly flex a good deal. This makes weighting the hangboard kinda hard on tiny edges since your board will sag into position while you put full weight on it, less than ideal and my fingers blew off on a few occasions during this "weighting" process. Static hang positions would be ideal but can rarely be found. The one in the picture required me to hang a cord with foot loops for me to step in and lower the board enough for me to actually grab since the whole setup would sag 3' each time it was weighted.
Second, now that I'm climbing at a place with super sharp holds I do feel like the beautifully skin friendly holds of the flash board did not really do my fingers any favors in the way that I feel like my RPTC can. The RPTC has such abrasive holds that I think it conditions my skin for the rough holds I come across while climbing. My skin was baby soft when I arrived at Wild Iris, and I'm paying the price a bit.
These complaints really have very little to do with the design and use of the flash board (which is nearly perfect) and I'm super happy with it and look forward to using in the future. If you have any questions about it let me know...
After some real time training with the this I'll leave you all a full review.
Eric
I do guiding work over the summers and regularly will be unable to train for weeks. So having a small portable training tool to keep my fingers strong seemed like a God sent to me. When the flash board arrived and I held it for the first time it seemed like a work of art more than a training tool (like all their products) and it seemed cruel to abuse this thing in the way I was planning. It is ingeniously thought out and has a huge variety of uses for how small it is. The beauty of this thing is that on one side the edges are flat but if you flip it over the same edges are now incut. I generally am a super lightweight hiker but when I'm guiding all my weight restrictions go out the window. But luckily the flash board took up little space in my pack and weighed very little so I had no problem taking it on my trips with me.
Getting the board setup in the backcountry took a little bit of work. It needs to be high enough to actually hang from but low enough that it is easy to disattach the board and invert it to switch between incut and no incut holds. This takes some work to figure out and find an appropriate place. I usually ended up using the bear bag hang as my hangboard spot as well.
Before I used it I needed to decide what hang protocol to use. I went with Steve Bechtel's 3-6-9 hangs since they are super simple and would only require a timer. I trained my fully open, half and full crimp grips. I would warm up with a series of core exercises, pull-ups and hangs on the three grips I was planning on training. Once it was actually time to do my workout the grips always feel secure and gentle on my fingers. Even the .33" crimp edges did not hurt my fingers in the way that the RPTC can. This does have a downside I will get to later. Just after I got the flash board I left on a 12 day leadership training trip with 9 students, immediately following this trip my wife and I were leaving for a two week trip to Wild Iris and I was hoping the flash board would keep my fingers in good shape for the finger destroying routes I would find there. During the 12 day trip I was able to get in four workouts and they were always a pleasure, I could not think of more inspiring places to hang on little edges. After three climbing days at Wild Iris I can honestly say finger strength has in no way been holding my back. With a few more long trips coming this fall I am super excited to bring the flash board with me to keep my finger strength up when I can't do anything else.
But there are a few things that make backcountry flash board workouts less pleasant than they could be. First, if you live in the PNW like I do and you are needing to throw a rope over a tree branch to do a HB workout, the branch you use will almost certainly flex a good deal. This makes weighting the hangboard kinda hard on tiny edges since your board will sag into position while you put full weight on it, less than ideal and my fingers blew off on a few occasions during this "weighting" process. Static hang positions would be ideal but can rarely be found. The one in the picture required me to hang a cord with foot loops for me to step in and lower the board enough for me to actually grab since the whole setup would sag 3' each time it was weighted.
Second, now that I'm climbing at a place with super sharp holds I do feel like the beautifully skin friendly holds of the flash board did not really do my fingers any favors in the way that I feel like my RPTC can. The RPTC has such abrasive holds that I think it conditions my skin for the rough holds I come across while climbing. My skin was baby soft when I arrived at Wild Iris, and I'm paying the price a bit.
These complaints really have very little to do with the design and use of the flash board (which is nearly perfect) and I'm super happy with it and look forward to using in the future. If you have any questions about it let me know...
After some real time training with the this I'll leave you all a full review.
Eric
So this point matters. Thanks a lot guys!