[Dave Flanagan]

I think I know what a cusp is, but what's a guppy?

[andy_e]

[Dave Flanagan]

Is the cusp on the left or the right?

[r-man]

Never heard cusp used in climbing. What is it?

Guppying is cupping an arete, or similar shaped protrusion, with the thumb pointing down.

[Bonjoy]

You've never seen Stone Monkey?

[r-man]

Yes. Apparently my memory has cusp-shaped holes.

[r-man]

So what's a cusp? Same as a guppy?

[andy_e]

Is a cusp an upside-down guppy and a guppy an upside-down cusp?

[andyd]

Just been reading about beach cusps. They're semicircular shaped depressions if that helps.

[SA Chris]

I've got a mouthful of cusps.

[fatboySlimfast]

cheese and onion cusps

[andy_e]

Are we on the cusp of some punning here?

[SA Chris]

cheese and onion cusps

Are you a Kiwi?

[SA Chris]

Are we on the cusp of some punning here?

No. I always thought the cusp was part of your tooth (or memories of old biology lessons may be failing me).

[tomtom]

I had a school friend who could never say crisps... he had to say crispys instead. Very odd.

Beach cusps are semi circular shaped depressions with little 'embayments' and 'horns' with regular spacings found on a beach. Caused by different flow (and subsequent sediment transport) patterns when waves break then retreat...

http://www.sciencemag.org/content/260/5110/968

[andy_e]

Whoa, we're on the cusp of sedimentology here tomtom! Chill out!

[r-man]

So nobody knows?

[GCW]

I think your amswer is "no".

[Jaspersharpe]

You've never seen Stone Monkey?

"Where's that cusp? Oh there's a bit of laybacking here."

[r-man]

Or maybe, but that definition is a bit vague.

Interestingly, I see

SMEDGE a sloping edge.
SCRUM  to scrape the foot ie. not to put it in a particular place.
LARGO to jump for the starting hold.

Are these terms widely used by climbers in Ireland? I like smedge, though I've never heard it used over here. Scrum could possibly be the same as scum, as in toe-scum? Largo I've never heard - French start is the only phrase I know for that move.

When climb-speak develops dialects, you know people are spending too much time talking about climbing...

[SA Chris]

What's a Gusp and a Cuppy?

[Dave Flanagan]

Not widely used. Most of those I found on the web. I think Scrum is just a typo of scum.

I would consider a cusp as "A grip used on protruding holds in which the palm is pressed into the far side of the hold while the fingers wrap around the top."

Johnny knows.

[r-man]

"Palm pressed into far side of a hold" - sounds like a guppy. But if you move the same hand and hold across to the other side of your body, the palm is no longer pressed into the far side of the hold. Description is a bit restrictive!

Whilst making lots of hand shapes in the air, I just realised it's also possible to do a thumb upwards version of a guppy, which unlike the standard guppy, can only be used with palm pressed into the near side of a hold.

[GCW]

Somehow I feel we are trying to pointlessly subdivide the Pinch!

[r-man]

No, very different! A pinch squeezes a hold between thumb and fingers. A guppy is basically a hand wrap, with added friction generated by automatic elbow torquing.

Pinches could definitely be subdivided...fat pinches are the bane of the small-fingered, while crozzle pinches are the revenge of the small-fingered. Then there's the friction pinch, which necessitates a strong yet un-hasty and even application of force, as opposed to the edge pinch, which yields to instant and unfaltering aggression. And then there are the various thumb catch combos, which elevate otherwise miserable holds to quasi-pinch status...