the shizzle > diet, training and injuries

Climbing Walls and Gyms. Rules that drive you nuts or make you leave.

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Oldmanmatt:
What’s your worst wall experience? Or general gym nightmare?
I was once asked to leave a gym because, apparently doing front levers and muscle ups was “intimidating the other customers” ( I was travelling and it was the only gym I could find in walking distance from the hotel).

I have retired from “The Business”. I sold my wall almost two years ago now. I started in the business at 16, in 1987 (when I got my LEA instructor’s ticket. Boy was the world different before the Lyme Bay incident) as the climbing instructor at the new Sports Centre, with a wall that was lumps of Granite sticking out of the sports hall wall and a scaffolding bar/figure of 8 combo belay rail (top rope only). Oh, and a concrete “chimney” in the corner. Me and a few mates peppered it with these new things called “bolt ons” that we’d discovered being cast by some hippy bloke in a garden in La Palud during one of our summer holiday, South of France, bolt clipping and illegal drinking trips (nobody was old enough to drive, let alone drink. Trains and hitching and the lad who was already shaving doing the supermarket run).
Anyway…
I’ve been in and out of the climbing wall business, between bouts of “real career” ever since. I owned, built and ran my wall for a decade, when life put me in a position that my real job just wasn’t practical anymore. I also managed and operated a roped facility for the local council for a couple of years besides my own operation. As for using walls, I’ve been using them for about forty years at this point. I went to the opening of the Foundry, for example. I helped build Alien Rock (iirc, the fourth dedicated climbing wall in the UK and only a few years after the Foundry opened).
I feel like I know the business. Maybe I’m being arrogant, but I have just returned to my apartment after a rare public tantrum. That is, I was pretty blunt with a climbing wall manager; it was still a pretty “English” tantrum. I went as far as saying “this is bloody silly” quite loudly.
When I came back to Dubai, almost two years ago now, I started climbing at the bouldering centre Rock Republic. I was living out towards Jebel Ali and it was 10 minutes from my apartment. It’s pretty good. A bit scruffy, holds could do with cleaning a little more often, pricy by UK standards; so perfect, really.
But I had to move to the other end of the city, because an hour’s commute each way to the yard could easily double with bad traffic.
Now I live 10 minutes from the yard, but 45 from Rock Republic (on a quiet day).
So, there’s a wall less than 10 minutes from my new apartment . I was injured and not climbing the first  few months after moving, but finally went to check it out about 10 days ago. It looked pricy online, but figured I’d buy a ten entry card or similar.
So, it’s about 4.6 Dirhams to the Pound. A single entry is 125 Dirhams (£27!) but I only planned a once a week session, so.. Membership starts at 680 Dirhams for a month. Definitely not worth it for me, I spend around four months of the year outside the UAE and travel a lot besides and frequently find work/life gets in the way.
Plus, on line, you could only book a one hour drop in session. Figured they just hadn’t updated their website after Covid. 🤷🏻‍♂️
Nope, you have to book online (I walked in), even though the session is actually now a day pass. I couldn’t just pay and enter, but I could sit and do the online thing and then come straight in and stay as long as I wanted.
Fine, fine, ball ache but fine (change the fricking website already).
You have to do the induction course. Ok, that’s fairly normal. Having to do an instructor lead warm up seemed a bit much, but proving you can tie in, safely clip in to the auto belays etc etc is perfectly expected and acceptable blah blah.
Took 20 minutes. Then I could get into their fairly good training area and have a quick boulder afterwards.
A bit ott, but fine.
Then I couldn’t get back in last week, so didn’t return until today. Just wanted an hours training. I thought the online booking thing was just for the first visit, disclaimers and waivers etc, so I just walked in.
Nope.
Sit down and do the online stuff on my phone. Ok, they have my booking I can come in (eye roll). Then the lass hands me a harness. Oh, I say, no thanks, I’m just going to train a bit and boulder. She gets flustered. I have to sit and wait for the instructor to do the induction. I say, no, you remembered me, remembered my name, from when I registered and did the induction ten days ago.
Nope, you have to do the induction every time you come in, unless you buy the monthly.

Whaaaat!

Cue tantrum.

The manager came over.
No, sorry, it’s policy. No exceptions, even if I came every day.

I just left, with bad grace and the “this is bloody silly” comment a bit louder than I intended, actually.

The 45 minutes to Rock Republic suddenly seems more than worth it. I mean, screw the fancy cafe and  sofas. Ten minutes filling out forms, ten minutes waiting for the instructor, twenty minutes of warm up and patronising lecture every time I want to train or spend £146 a month? For maybe four sessions a month?

Fair dues: I got a text from the bank as I was driving off, to say they’d refunded me.
So, there’s that.

thunderbeest:
And some customers give me a strange look when I ask them to put their shirts back on, even though it's only 15 degrees C at the Kilter board.. (37 pounds a month for 2000 sqm)

Oldmanmatt:

--- Quote from: thunderbeest on March 24, 2024, 03:39:04 pm ---And some customers give me a strange look when I ask them to put their shirts back on, even though it's only 15 degrees C at the Kilter board.. (37 pounds a month for 2000 sqm)

--- End quote ---
Yup.
This place do a Family annual for ~£2500 or, as I see it, two return flights to the UK on Emirates and four first class train tickets from/to Heathrow to Newton Abbot and change.
Around 500m². Busy though. This is the land of more money than sense, to be fair.

rodma:
I'm fairly sure (but I often misremember) that eica used to make it the boulderer's fault/ responsibility if they ended up above some toolbag wandering under them.

I also got in trouble there for speeding up (an amazing cartwheel of a yeet, one for the ages) some unsupervised child that was running in circles around the arena boulders, that had I not sped up, my missus would have landed on their head (it was a slo mo barn door and I was spring her, the kid ran between me and the boulder). Needless to say, the staff threatened to throw me out, I took this irrationally and asked why the hell they weren't floor walking to stop that sort of shit in the first place.  I didn't back down, nor did the member of staff, they thought my behaviour was completely out of order. That was 10 or so years ago, I think I've been back once since then.

Wellsy:
Fiend-bait thread detected

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