[RichardB]

Cheers Graeme. Will pop over and give it the punter test then and give Z a bit of support

[Percy B]

Tomorrow

[dave]

On the subject of all banks existing to fuck you over, don't be surprised when in the next few years they all start to charge £25 a month for a current account - it will happen. How the fuck they think they can morally charge you for you lending them your money is beyond me. When it happens i'm buying and old matress to keep all my bananas in, and a briefcase handcuffed to my wrist.

Banks used to charge for current accounts, they still do in the USA from what I can gather, and for things like processing checks.  They stopped because they were making so much money on fees, credit cards and loans that offering free current accounts was a good way to entice people in to use the bank.  Now that people are claiming unfair charges back and fees are being set lower they need to make their money somewhere else, so yes curent accounts might start having fees with them, 0% interest deals on credit cards might stop, and all the unsecured lending might tighten up a lot.

You're not lending the banks money in a current account any more.  They don't borrow money off their current and savings account holders to lend people for loans and mortgages.  The use the carry trade for much better margins, and only need a tiny fraction of actual money compared to what they can lend out.

The banks maintain internet banking, telephone banking, switch cards, cash machines, branches, standing orders, direct debits all for you and your current account, and at the minute they give it you for free.  If they're not making money out of current accounts, why should they not charge you for them?  You can keep your money in a suitcase all you want, they won't care, but you'll still need a current account for your wage, unfortunately.  Hopefully if/when that happens they'll offer a complete internet based current account with a lot lower fees. 

Sorry about all this being off topic.

at the end of the day whatever they're doing with money in current accounts (investing it etc) is going to give them a  return (they're not in this business out of the goodness of their hearts), and then they may be loaning that return out to borrowers and making a profit on the interest charged, then loaning some of that profit out and making more profit on it ad infinitum. Whatever the long and short of it they make money from the money in accounts, or they wouldn't be paying you interest on it. And its not as if banks are just scraping by, barely making ends meet. Corporations like HSBC and RBS are some of the most profitable on the face of the planet. HSBC make about £12 billion a year in profit, the CEO earns summert like the best part of a mil a year. Call me cynical but if they were charge us for all current accounts then it won't be to pay for Mr Barclay's little jimmy to swim with dolphins before he dies of lukemia, or to enable Mrs LloydsTSB to feed her 6 starving kids, it'll be to buy them all another ivory backscratcher, Cristal and solid platinum dildos. All this and it still takes them 5 days to clear a fucking cheque.

What i'm saying is it wouldn't kill them to keep current accounts free, and to give small businesses starting up a break. for a kickoff they could pay for us all to have a free account for life if they scrap fucking shite annoying TV ads. yes i'm talking to you RBS/halifax....cos we'd all be paying for that shit one way or another.

double sorry for this being off topic

[Obi-Wan is lost...]

double sorry for this being off topic

 

So you should be, the most positive [happy happy joy joy!] thing to happen in Shef for ages and everyones ranting about bloody banks! Go and start a miserable downer thread some where else. 

Meanwhile, back on topic, so this new wall then.. has anyone mentioned yet that it's the fookin dog bollocks?
 

[north_country_boy]

Is it really the dogs bollocks? I think not....

[a dense loner]

ps: Get well soon Sammy! Poor lad is a bit run down after soo much hard work.

sammy? is there something you're not telling us tobias?

[JR]

Corporations like HSBC and RBS are some of the most profitable on the face of the planet. HSBC make about £12 billion a year in profit, the CEO earns summert like the best part of a mil a year.

double sorry for this being off topic

try well over doubling that, stephen green earns about 2.6mil after bonus plus 8.5mil into a pension...  some of the senior managers earn a mil.

anyway, back to topic...

[Monolith]

Are there any snaps from first day opening circulating?

[Bowie]

on the climbing works blog.

[(woz)]

Travelled down from Leeds specially last night. Wow. Here is the definitive review(most of which has been said before):

Bad Points:
Comp wall and fixed board closed
Lack of basic problems (due to comp wall and fixed board closed)
Lemmings who seemed intent on throwing themselves underneath me whenever jumping/falling off

Good Points:
Lots of (excellent) problems.
Huge
Friendly staff
Good holds
Campus board
Great location
Fun atmosphere - definitely less cliquey than the other sheff walls seem to me
Comp wall and fixed board closed - Made me want to come back next week
Lack of basic problems (due to comp wall and fixed board closed) - made me work on technique

I can see myself going there a lot over Christmas.

[sasscotty]

Great job with the comp problems guys!
Weren't feeling too good today but the problems were amazing, great job guys!

[RichardB]

Any results for the comp anywhere? Didn't get across as I was on wife taxiing duty.

[north_country_boy]

http://britishclimbingteam.com/results/british_team_trials/british_team_trials_boulder_2006_-_sheffield.html

[RichardB]

Thanks for the info.

[Jim]

look at uncle in joint 37th 
dobbin in at 13th

[Paul B]

I went down the wall again last night and enjoyed the comp problems, nice and burly and not a volume in sight! (on the comp wall).

However im very unsure about a couple of things:

The training Board:
I tried climbing on the training board and to be honest the hold selection seems completely wrong (to me at least). Almost every hold is a strange one, I can't really see the use of foot long sidepulls and big Hueco's on a board like this. Adjusting on holds and hitting the 'good' bit shouldn't be a problem when your traininig, and definately shouldn't get in the way of just bearing down.
I understand that this board is to be aimed at everyone who wishes to train and that your not going to stick a load of blocks of wood (that look like a dog has had a good chew) on your nice wall, but I really do think if it is to be useful for training then a LOT of the holds need changing, i'm not talking about removing all the jugs or the juggier holds as like i said before its surely aimed at all training levels, im talking about the purple ripples etc. It just seems like this board is very similar to the rest of the wall in style?
There also didnt seem to be many basic flat edges (maybe its just me?) everything seemed just a bit too funky with lots of holds paired as thumb catches.
Footholds:
One obvious way of making a problem harder on a board is to use little footholds but this only works if it forces you to do things differently, the sheer amount of screw-on footholds on the board means that doing this is more reminiscent of anything for feet and a lot of them are extremely positive. One way that you can avoid this is by picking one bright colour and putting a rough spread of screw ons on a board (maybe two types? one poor, one a bit more positive?). At the minute this is impossible unless you eliminate almost all of them.
I thought I better write this now as if theres any chance of change its before everyone sets their own classics.
On a positive note there were a lot more pockets on the board this time, nice on Sam.
I hope this doesnt get taken the wrong way as I'm amazed by what you have managed to build in such a short space of time and its quality.

[Turboman]

Just to add my 2p worth.  I agree with everything Paul has said.

I was really hoping for a more basic strength orientated training board but there are far too many 'funky' hold and not enough basic crimps and straight pull pockets.  If you're going to temp me away from the Foundry it needs to be more basic.

On the plus side the campus board is the dog wotsits 

Overall a superb wall, great atmosphere too.

[Percy B]

Cheers for your feedback. All relevant points have been noted, and we'll see what we can do. Please remember that The Climbing Works is not, and never will be the School or any other 'serious training' venue. Our fixed hold board is only 30 degrees overhanging, and therefore not really steep enough for many anyway (as several folks have already mentioned). We would like the Works to have everything you need to become a better boulderer, and we reckon we're not to far off the mark. Having never felt the need to use a training board, I don't really know what you folks want to pull on, and left much of the setting of this board to people with a lot more experience of this sort of thing than me (Jamie Cassidy, Sam, etc, etc). However, if its too funky for you, we can make it more basic. Its not a problem. Its not like there isn't enough funky climbing elsewhere in the place......

[Paul B]

Cheers Percy... I didn't think i'd get chance to get in before the end of the semester or else I would have talked to you or Sam more directly. As it turned out I ended up there tonight! (unfortunately not climbing... that new orange problem near the crack looks good, the one with the huge sloper at the top! Hopefully i'll get a chance to pop back before the week is out).

[SA Chris]

The training Board:

I know i sound like a backwater country bumpkin, but what is a training board? Surely any wall used for training is a training board? Is it like a system board?

[dobbin]

A training board should be basic and allow you to train to failiure.

Chaps - change the pics on your website. In my official role as Sheffield's representative in Leeds and ClimbingWorks plugger I keep showing people the website and all anyone says is - it doesnt look finished! now you are in and its all working, the most current pics are on the blog.

If Mr Heason can do one of them panoramic view things that would be a good introduction to the site?

[GraemeA]

Matt has been away for the last week, hence no updates.

[Doylo]

Our fixed hold board is only 30 degrees overhanging, and therefore not really steep enough for many anyway (as several folks have already

30 degrees is steep enough if the handholds and footholds are small enough. This angle is probably more realistic for climbing outside than the school 50 board or other steep boards. Personally i think the Climbing works doesn't (yet) cater for the hardcore climber and thats a bit of a shame considering its the worlds biggest bouldering wall. Don't take this the wrong way as i wish Percy, Graeme and Sam the best of luck with this project and i hope it is very successful. Just wack some wooden crimps and pinches and screw on footholds on the training board and you'll receive my custom 

[Obi-Wan is lost...]

look at uncle in joint 37th 
dobbin in at 13th

Congrat to all the strong girls and the... strong GIRLS! 
(Look closely at this page http://britishclimbingteam.com/results/british_team_trials/british_team_trials_boulder_2006_-_sheffield.html )
some kind of classic Freudian typo!

[Johnny Brown]

Don't get it. Are you being fooled by a yellow jacket?