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tca bristol (Read 18396 times)

boulderingbacon

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tca bristol
October 09, 2011, 11:05:26 pm
had to write on here because went to this place today after getting rained off at cheddar and thought it was awful. The routes were set ok but i have never been anywhere so hot considering it was cold outside but even worse than that was the fact no one there knows how to use a brush and the holds were so caked in chalk it was disgusting.

b3n99

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#1 Re: tca bristol
October 10, 2011, 04:40:33 pm
I must say I'm not the biggest fan of the problems and the heat is just ridiculous! The quality of problems is definitely better at undercover rock so if your only going for a single session i would recommend there despite the fact its small!

Omar15

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#2 Re: tca bristol
October 10, 2011, 05:20:10 pm
Really? I was there yesterday and I didn't think it was too hot and I think the routes are pretty good in general. Its such a big place and there there are so many problems some are bound to not be as good as others. Have you tried some of the walls down in the south east? They all charge about a tenner and some are utterly dire!

i_a_coops

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#3 Re: tca bristol
October 10, 2011, 05:39:30 pm
http://ukbouldering.com/board/index.php?topic=11441.0

last time I went, the skin-destroying holds put me out of action before I could make any kind of judgement on any of the other stuff!  :lol:

i_a_coops

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#4 Re: tca bristol
October 10, 2011, 05:43:25 pm
but I do have rubbish skin

Duma

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#5 Re: tca bristol
October 10, 2011, 05:50:12 pm
It certainly has been brutally hot down there recently - I think this is really a function of the building rather than the managements efforts - I know they've spent considerable time and money attempting to improve the air circulation, but the fact is that it's a flat ceiling, so there's nowhere for all the hot air to go to, and compounding things it's basically mostly underground, so incredibly well insulated, and at the moment (early autumn) the massive heat sink that is the ground around it is pretty warm, so counteracting some of the effect of the outside temps. Add in that you're there on a wet sunday - so I'm assuming busy - and the heat is pretty much unavoidable.
The chalk overuse thing is prob related - it's hot and damp at the moment so people a using a lot of chalk and its sticking to the holds. Saying the wall's awful because the holds are over chalked is harsh I think - it's really an issue with the users rather than the venue - not much the staff can do other than ensure stuff is reset regularly, and TCA is one of the best walls I use for that - certainly a long way ahead of UCR.
Setting is a bit more personal preference thing - I've no problem with the stuff set at TCA, there's good and bad problems in there, but like Omar said, there's enough there you should be able to find plenty to enjoy.
Omar when are you coming back - no-one makes me feel as weak as you...

boulderingbacon

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#6 Re: tca bristol
October 10, 2011, 10:21:55 pm
to be fair i had run 12 miles in the morning so was probably a bit sweaty from that and i realize its not the staffs fault with the heat just felt it was so unpleasant it took away from the fairly descent problems. i went there expecting so much because i climb at the warehouse which is fairly poo but got to say i enjoy it more than i did at tca. The chalk on holds though was definitely down to people not brushing holds because i only saw one other person in the whole center using one. I went there expecting it to be like the works but left a little under whelmed, its a real shame because there is so much potential there for it to be amazing.

andy_e

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#7 Re: tca bristol
October 10, 2011, 11:08:16 pm
Hang on, northerners think it's too hot and southerners think it's just right?  :-\

Omar15

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#8 Re: tca bristol
October 11, 2011, 11:01:57 am
oh Duma you sweet talker, I was back on Sunday cos we were rained off in wales. I'll probably be back on the 29th for some comp action - are you doing it?

And yeah, personally I prefer climbing a bit on the hot side - I find it easier to cool down than warm up. Maybe its a southern fairy thing.

abarro81

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#9 Re: tca bristol
October 11, 2011, 11:29:39 am
It's because you want an excuse to get topless.

Duma

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#10 Re: tca bristol
October 11, 2011, 12:16:34 pm
Sadly no. Actually not sadly at all, on the 29th I'll be on the way to font for ten days!  :bounce:

Baldy

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#11 Re: tca bristol
October 12, 2011, 02:19:50 pm
While I was there, I thought the problems were pretty decent.

If they are worse now, there is a direct correlation to both myself and Omar leaving the city. And when that amount of setting talent leaves a company - the quality is always going to plummet.   :smart:

I'd agree that is does sometimes get very warm in there. Fortunately though, the mothership - which has most of the harder problems on it - is closeset to the door and therefore achieves the coolest temps. Paul has put a great deal of time into trying to cool the place down, and the money you pay for entry actually does end up going back into the business for these sort of improvements.

Omar15

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#12 Re: tca bristol
October 12, 2011, 02:26:06 pm
tru dat

Duma

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#13 Re: tca bristol
September 06, 2012, 10:23:53 am
So, thought I'd reply to this topic as it's the more recent of the two about TCA Bristol, and is in the right sub-forum, though 39's topic from way back in 2009 probably has more pertinent points made. (could we get the two merged pls mods?)

Anyway, thought an update might be of interest as it seems the inadequacies of the place as a training (rather than climbing) centre are getting sorted. Since April, they've been setting a few problems using wooden holds - these are largely flat edges and thus these problems tend more toward the basic get strong style than the fun funky blobby stuff that we see so much of in modern walls. Also, the lack of a woody that was temporarily (and unsatisfactorily) solved when the compound corner was given over to Simon's holds, looks like it is getting sorted over Christmas - there's a note on the website saying the original (rubbish) campus boards are getting taken down, and this bit and the compound corner will be replaced with a proper woody/systems board.

lukeyboy

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#14 Re: tca bristol
September 06, 2012, 12:46:04 pm
So, thought I'd reply to this topic as it's the more recent of the two about TCA Bristol, and is in the right sub-forum, though 39's topic from way back in 2009 probably has more pertinent points made. (could we get the two merged pls mods?)

Anyway, thought an update might be of interest as it seems the inadequacies of the place as a training (rather than climbing) centre are getting sorted. Since April, they've been setting a few problems using wooden holds - these are largely flat edges and thus these problems tend more toward the basic get strong style than the fun funky blobby stuff that we see so much of in modern walls. Also, the lack of a woody that was temporarily (and unsatisfactorily) solved when the compound corner was given over to Simon's holds, looks like it is getting sorted over Christmas - there's a note on the website saying the original (rubbish) campus boards are getting taken down, and this bit and the compound corner will be replaced with a proper woody/systems board.

Good news, thanks for the update. The campus board over by the circuits could definitely do with an upgrade/steepening. Would be really good if they could also put in some of the big sloper campus rung things. And I miss the woodie, that corner seems a bit redundant without one.

north_country_boy

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#15 Re: tca bristol
September 06, 2012, 01:52:11 pm
...there's a note on the website saying the original (rubbish) campus boards are getting taken down, and this bit and the compound corner will be replaced with a proper woody/systems board.

So will it be getting a proper campus board or one like the disaster at Glasgow TCA?  ;)

wolfgang

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#16 Re: tca bristol
September 08, 2012, 03:38:11 pm
praise the lord that this has been brought up.

Im no regular at the tca (bristol) but do visit on my way past every month or so.

The setting feels just plain lazy. Iv seen the 'setter' testing routes and changing them just because his shortish female climber mate can or can't do a move! This is bullshit i don't want to climb these problems to only have them changed, i want to try something that is finished.

And how about changing the problems now and again. Jesus, i know there is a lot of problems but to compared to somewhere like the castle who re-set like a muffa fuqa the tca's blocs are well past their sell by date! Rotate boys.

Just coz your the only boulder wall in your pond don't get lazy paul.

Paul T

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#17 Re: tca bristol
September 11, 2012, 11:42:58 am
Hi Wolfgang
Thanks for your comments. In Bristol we have a rotation system that sees everything in the centre (bar the project circuit) - roughly 220 problems - reset every 9 weeks. Sometimes this might be 8 weeks though and sometimes 10 depending on what we might have on during that period. Over the winter this increases with our TCA comps, private comps and the schools league. This means that we set over 1500 problems a year - I'm not sure how many bouldering walls match this but it feels quite a lot to us. After 4 years experience we feel this rotation plan is the right frequency for the vast bulk of our customers, giving enough time for our regulars to work their personal projects, but not long enough to get fed up with them. For many people though we change our circuits far too quickly - you can't please everyone all the time unfortunately, as you are probably aware from being on this forum.
We try our best to achieve a consistency with our problems and forerunning will be done after setting. Unfortunately this is not a process that happens in enough walls. We do not just add holds to make problems easier for specific people, but we will consider how both females and youngsters are going to approach the problems (especially as the bulk of the setting is done by males).
If you are ticking everything in the centre in your monthly visit then I do apologize, maybe making alternating visits to TCA and UCR will give you a few more problems to go at?

Hi North Country Boy
Sorry you're not so keen on the Glasgow board. Malc suggested that we build it at 30degrees but we settled on 25 in the end - 30 was just too extreme for us! The rung spacing is also further than normal to account for the extra steepness. It's not to everyone's taste admittedly but it is a piece of individual training apparatus that is widely used for finger strength and power gains by the Glaswegian massive.

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#18 Re: tca bristol
September 11, 2012, 06:45:48 pm
isn't the classic campus board set up around 10-12 degrees with rungs separated by around 20-22cm? When I was researching to build one those were the sizes for the moon campus board which has to be the measured standard?

wolfgang

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#19 Re: tca bristol
November 04, 2012, 09:14:58 pm
Ok, after a recent revisit may i conclude that the TCA needs some sort of competition...a proper boulder wall for a start. How do the locals get by with the height of your wall!? I would love to her from some people that have been to say the depot in leeds and tca bristol. How do you cope with the exposure and height of the depot or any other wall compared to tca?
I like short, powerful problems but they are ruined when you just traverse 3 moves at the top of the wall, just to make them longer. People don't pay per move! They or i pay for quality. "Squeezed-in " problems not only make the wall look cluttered but are demotivating when it's not a clean line up the wall. Your lack of space is compromising your quality and favouring your quantity is only pleasing those not interested in being challenged. Bored now...

Duma

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#20 Re: tca bristol
November 04, 2012, 09:56:22 pm
Yeah TCA must be shit - they've got too many problems and try to make the most of the space they have.

I only climb indoors to be inspired by the "clean lines" and "uncluttered look" of the wall - if I don't get this I slag off the wall. I prefer fewer, prettier problems in a training venue rather than more problems to try (that might allow, oh I dunno, perhaps more variety?). If I spend any time at a wall with less height I find myself completely terrified at other walls, this is clearly an issue with the wall rather than me, for which I will slag it off.

Actually, no. TCA makes the most of the space they have, for which I am grateful. I'd love it if they had another meter of ceiling height but they don't, and not only does this limitation not mean that I become incapacitated with fear if I happen to visit another venue with more height, I also appreciate suitable buildings for walls are pretty rare, and manage to grasp that moving venue is impractical. Should a problem feature a traverse to finish, which I feel detracts from it, I can also manage to drop off before these moves. I cannot however, understand how less problems would improve the wall for those interested in being challenged.

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#21 Re: tca bristol
November 04, 2012, 11:26:29 pm
Wolfgang I think you should probably just stop going to TCA Bristol.

SA Chris

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#22 Re: tca bristol
November 05, 2012, 09:57:17 am
Inspired by clean lines on an indoor wall?? I think you need a reality check. It's training ffs.

lukeyboy

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#23 Re: tca bristol
November 05, 2012, 06:23:16 pm
Yeah TCA must be shit - they've got too many problems and try to make the most of the space they have.

I only climb indoors to be inspired by the "clean lines" and "uncluttered look" of the wall - if I don't get this I slag off the wall. I prefer fewer, prettier problems in a training venue rather than more problems to try (that might allow, oh I dunno, perhaps more variety?). If I spend any time at a wall with less height I find myself completely terrified at other walls, this is clearly an issue with the wall rather than me, for which I will slag it off.

Actually, no. TCA makes the most of the space they have, for which I am grateful. I'd love it if they had another meter of ceiling height but they don't, and not only does this limitation not mean that I become incapacitated with fear if I happen to visit another venue with more height, I also appreciate suitable buildings for walls are pretty rare, and manage to grasp that moving venue is impractical. Should a problem feature a traverse to finish, which I feel detracts from it, I can also manage to drop off before these moves. I cannot however, understand how less problems would improve the wall for those interested in being challenged.

+1

Omar15

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#24 Re: tca bristol
November 11, 2012, 06:50:30 pm
"Squeezed-in " problems not only make the wall look cluttered but are demotivating when it's not a clean line up the wall.

Its climbing, not a modern art gallery.

 

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