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Chockstone Forum - General Discussion

General Climbing Discussion

Author

New climbing gym in Western Sydney


garbie

18/01/2010
9:44:37 AM

Work will soon start on our new climbing gym in Villawood. Its at 850 Woodville Rd next door to Bunnings and just next to the railway overpass.

It'll be around the same size as St Peters with 14m height.

We hope to open around September. We'll post more info as we go.

Mike
Sydney Indoor Climbing Gym.

citationx

18/01/2010
2:43:07 PM

Interesting. Quite close to both the Bloc(k?) and Wetherill Park. Will you be targetting actual (outdoor) climbers or more the general public?


garbie

18/01/2010
3:42:51 PM

We try to cater for everybody. The various types of customers tend to come in at different times anyway. There'll be some great climbing for climbers. I'll post more on the design later, but there'll be more steep and moderately steep climbing than St Peters. But we're also keen to have more fun things for kids also. Not being outdoor climbers, they're not hung up on having things that approximate rockclimbing - they'll climb anything interesting.

We hope to grow the numbers of indoor climbers in the West so I think the other venues will benefit in the long run.

SteveH

19/01/2010
9:00:23 AM

Wow! Thats exciting news. Need a manager?! Plenty of people to go around, more gyms = less people
on rock... right?! Maybe a little skewed, but thats my view. Majority of indoor visitors will never do more
than a day trip on rock to tick the box or get the t-shirt.

devlin66

19/01/2010
11:32:38 AM

Is that a problem though. More people getting off their butts and doing something is better than breeding generations of fat phuchs.


garbie

19/01/2010
3:41:17 PM

On 19/01/2010 SteveH wrote:
>Wow! Thats exciting news. Need a manager?!

We'll be needing plenty of staff, various roles, so anyone who's interested, PM me.


garbie

3/02/2010
12:14:11 PM

Here are some more details:

http://www.indoorclimbing.com.au/villawood/villawood.html

Mike


Winston Smith

3/02/2010
12:41:21 PM

Villawood air conditioned!

How about some extractor fans in the men's bogs at St Peters?


garbie

3/02/2010
12:57:37 PM

There's one there already - just got to push the button if you're finding it a bit whiffy...


Winston Smith

3/02/2010
1:07:01 PM

In five years I've never heard/seen/noticed a fan activated.

Maybe a big sign would help highlight its existence.

I'd suggest that the thing should be on all the time.

Some nights it's so filthy in there - smell and humidity - that I can't stand to go into the place.


garbie

3/02/2010
1:09:43 PM

OK fair enough we can wire it so its on all the time.


nmonteith

3/02/2010
1:55:12 PM

On 3/02/2010 garbie wrote:
>Here are some more details:
>http://www.indoorclimbing.com.au/villawood/villawood.html

Cool - the new gym is within 100m of where I buy stainless steel!

citationx

3/02/2010
2:38:50 PM

On 3/02/2010 nmonteith wrote:
>On 3/02/2010 garbie wrote:
>>Here are some more details:
>>http://www.indoorclimbing.com.au/villawood/villawood.html
>
>Cool - the new gym is within 100m of where I buy stainless steel!

and it's 2km from where i currently live... but i'm moving out... to within 2km of the st peters one!
you'll still have my patronage, shame that the order of existence wasn't reversed...


peterc

3/02/2010
11:09:10 PM

Mike - how many ropes do you think you'll be putting in?


garbie

4/02/2010
10:07:00 AM

On 3/02/2010 peterc wrote:
>Mike - how many ropes do you think you'll be putting in?

There'll be around 100 topropes and 30 lines of draws.

Are you still in Qld Pete?


peterc

4/02/2010
10:28:10 AM

Sounds really good Mike.

Yep, living in Brisbane - and loving it.

I'll drop in for a visit next time I'm in Sydney.

Pommy

8/02/2010
9:25:38 AM

Rant Mode On:

Will the new gym be called "Kidz Partyzone 2"?
After my annual visit to St Peters yesterday, it's seems the management is solely focused on squeezing in as many kids parties as possible.

So we drive and hour and a half to get there, and yes it's a rainy Sunday so you'd expect it to be quite busy. We get there and it's pretty crowded, but there are a few ropes free, so we pay our cash (and my partner a $4 joining fee? - sounds like something from the big 4 banks) and go inside.

The 6 or 7 free ropes are actually out of order because........ it's raining!
wtf - does it not normally rain in Sydney??
Do the ropes have to not work in drought conditions before they are deemed too fluffy and have to be replaced??

Anyway, no problem, I have a lead rope in the car and most of the lead walls are free. So I ask a staff member if they can give my partner a quick check so she can get her lead pass, and get the usual bullshit story about how busy there are, but they'll try and fit us in.
Four hours and numerous polite requests later ("sorry we can't do you now, we have a party coming in a 4:00, and 5:00, oh and another one at 4:30) we are still top roping crowded vertical walls.
It would have taken, what, 3 minutes to do the check? I spent much more time than that telling confused mothers which end of the rope they should be holding.

And either the grades are very soft there, or my onsighting skyrockets when I'm pissed off.

Rant Mode Off:


garbie

8/02/2010
10:24:48 AM

Hi Pommy

Ouch.... publicising your new gym on Chockstone really has its drawbacks ): - I guess I
should appreciate the feedback though.

I'm sorry you didn't have a great time - I agree with you the gym's not at its best on a
wet Sunday. That said, all climbing gyms have to let everybody in - they can't survive
from just the climbing population.

Wet weather brings in the punters and its not always possible to get more staff in at late
notice, but we'll look into it.

On 8/02/2010 Pommy wrote:
>Rant Mode On:
>
>Will the new gym be called "Kidz Partyzone 2"?
>After my annual visit to St Peters yesterday, it's seems the management
>is solely focused on squeezing in as many kids parties as possible.

No we really don't focus on squeezing kids in - we prefer to have climbers, but the
parties etc help pay the bills...
>
>So we drive and hour and a half to get there, and yes it's a rainy Sunday
>so you'd expect it to be quite busy. We get there and it's pretty crowded,
>but there are a few ropes free, so we pay our cash (and my partner a $4
>joining fee? - sounds like something from the big 4 banks) and go inside.

The joining fee covers the belay check/lesson that for some people takes quite a while,
and as a joining fee $4 is really cheap (try Fitness First e.g.)

>
>The 6 or 7 free ropes are actually out of order because........ it's raining!
>wtf - does it not normally rain in Sydney??
>Do the ropes have to not work in drought conditions before they are deemed
>too fluffy and have to be replaced??

Thats unusual so many were sticky - they swell up in really wet weather, we're replacing
those ropes today.
>
>Anyway, no problem, I have a lead rope in the car and most of the lead
>walls are free. So I ask a staff member if they can give my partner a quick
>check so she can get her lead pass, and get the usual bullshit story about
>how busy there are, but they'll try and fit us in.

Fair enough, they should have tried to fit you in within that time, but they've been trained
to take these lead checks seriously and they won't just rush though something. They
were under the hammer...

>Four hours and numerous polite requests later ("sorry we can't do you
>now, we have a party coming in a 4:00, and 5:00, oh and another one at
>4:30) we are still top roping crowded vertical walls.
>It would have taken, what, 3 minutes to do the check?

No its more like 15 min, depending on the competence of the climbers.

>I spent much more
>time than that telling confused mothers which end of the rope they should
>be holding.
>
>And either the grades are very soft there, or my onsighting skyrockets
>when I'm pissed off.

Well you should be pleased with your climbing at least! Grading's always a bit variable,
there are some sandbags here at the moment as well.
>

>Rant Mode Off:

Pommy

8/02/2010
11:55:07 AM

Thanks for the reply Mike.
Sorry for the harsh feedback - I probably just had bad PMT that day, and every time I go into Sydney the place aggravates me.


MonkeyBoy

8/02/2010
1:20:09 PM

I was also at St peters yesterday and really think in those kind of situation 1 or 2 more
staff members would really help. The ropes being closed on componded the busyness
problems but after chatting with a staff memeber understand why there were closed.

There are 106 messages in this topic.