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bouldering mats


alrob

19-Jan-2007
2:48:54 PM

On 19/01/2007 M9iswhereitsat wrote:
>I agree with you though that mats are expensive items and one needs to
>be dedicated to the genre to invest in same.

I've spent more money on my cams, that get less use then my mat. but i still see them as a worthy investment. you don't have to be bouldering all to get value out of your mat. a pad is what, $300-400. for that initial outlay, it'll last for years, and you always have the luxury of being able to go for a bouldering weekend with mates whenever you like. rather then wait for someone else with a pad to ask. If you think you'll want to go bouldering at least half a dozen times outdoors, buy one. worth every penny. Mines definately paid for itself hundreds of times. but my nice big TOTA pads looking a little worse for wear these days.


IdratherbeclimbingM9

19-Jan-2007
2:54:57 PM

>If you think you'll want to go bouldering at least half a dozen times outdoors, buy one. >worth every penny.
6 times outdoors?
Once would be enough if it saves you breaking a bone / receiving other nasty type injury?

Post edit
Beep, beep; ... thread hijack warning!
I find it ironic that something which started out as minimalist and freedom from the rack'n'rope'n'partner, now involves mats/mates/brush/guidebook/ and possibly fashion statement colour coded beanie! or worse yet, a bush saw!! (tongue firmly in cheek; but it has happened).
Marketing and the next generation. Ya gotta luv em!
Heh, heh, heh.
;P

dalai

19-Jan-2007
3:16:32 PM

Like selective gardening hasn't happened with other forms of climbing M9?

Post edit - Also good to see equipment that makes climbing safer in one facet of climbing like the bouldering mat is frowned on and commented on as destroying the sport yet equipment such as sit harnesses, cams etc are an advancement?


IdratherbeclimbingM9

19-Jan-2007
3:33:54 PM

Ah c'mon.
Aid has always been gear intensive.
Trad requires as much as the boldness takes.
Sport, ... well what can I say !
Mountaineering? Expensive. nuffsed.
Gardening? Who-me officer?
Trundlers of the world unite!
Snort, snort*.
(*said while leaping off the crampon scatched lino floor onto the kitchen table & punching the air with closed fist, after envying the latest ice axe in climbing mag advert).
8-O

widewetandslippery

19-Jan-2007
3:54:08 PM

I have just bought a mat after many years of not owning one.

Firstly you DO NOT NEED A MAT TO GET OUT bouldering. If the idea of getting hurt stops you from any form of climbing don't do it. You do not need a mat to go bouldering.

The mat stops erosion theory I find laughable. Mats make bouldering more popular. More people. Being rude and unpleasant to people is the way to stop erosion. Make em scared, make em f0ck off.

I, now after owning a mat do not need a pee bucket next to the bed coz i'm unable to negotiate stairs with nuked knees, i can make it to the toilet. $ well spent. (missus didn't like the bucket, passers by didn't like the window).


nmonteith

19-Jan-2007
4:54:48 PM

On 19/01/2007 widewetandslippery wrote:
>Firstly you DO NOT NEED A MAT TO GET OUT bouldering.

Yere - i have certainly had great times bouldering without any so tof mat at places like Font, Owens
River, Yosemite, Sissy, Stapylton, Araps to name a few.


IdratherbeclimbingM9

19-Jan-2007
5:19:30 PM

I agree.
As I said; Gotta luv that marketing!

dalai

19-Jan-2007
5:35:58 PM

Not marketing, just sensible. Yes you can boulder at places like Font with just a door mat to wipe your shoes clean because most landing are flat sand. Though even there, many proplems can have exposed tree routes and boulders in the way too.Or any other place Neils listed can be climbed at sans pad.... at many of the above I have.

But when you start pushing yourself, doing sitstarts, highballs, lowballs with bad landings etc where you are guaranteeing falling it's not marketing but just saving your hide!

It's comparable saying then portaledges are just marketing. Guys have slept in slings on the walls for years. Someone designs a portable ledge to make life a little more saner and because it wasn't used before it should be derided and sold as merely marketing?


IdratherbeclimbingM9

19-Jan-2007
6:01:44 PM

Arrrgh me hearties. Where's cap'n philthy when tha tides a turn'n an' they a be bit'n?
Yes, portaledges are marketing too, as well as being ballast!
Crux2, Rocks in the Head by Twang, sums it up well; ...
"seen any nanas?"


HM33

19-Jan-2007
6:16:21 PM

you dont need a rope to climb either but its sensible to use one if you fall.

I much prefer a soft foam landing when i occasionally boulder than the sudden stop that hard ground affords.


climbau

22-Jan-2007
8:55:29 AM

Mats tend to fill the gaps between the sharp backbreakers at my local bouldering spot. I like mats. Mats keep me walking, because I am surely S@$t at climbing and need to do something well.

PSD

3-Feb-2007
11:33:58 AM

On 19/01/2007 nmonteith wrote:
>I just bit the bullet and bought a flashed mat today. i'll let you guys
>know how it goes

The write up in the latest issue of Climbing on mats has got me thinking about shelling out for one of these. So how about a review Neil?


nmonteith

5-Feb-2007
9:57:59 AM

Super fast review...

(disclaimer - this is about th eonly mat i have ever used)

Firstly, it seems like a clone of one of the Black Diamond matts. Simialr features from what i could see. I
could fall on it and not break my ankle. It appears to be well mad , although the velevty material on the
top side looks like it might not last that well. Buckles etc are strong.


cheesehead

5-Feb-2007
11:27:08 AM

(I think he meant a shootout in the mag)


mousey

5-Feb-2007
1:31:32 PM

well im keen if you're keen- issue#4 sees the CRUXlab take on the bouldermats? lets do it

psd

5-Feb-2007
2:23:42 PM

On 5/02/2007 mousey wrote:
>issue#4 sees the CRUXlab take on the bouldermats?
>lets do it

Sounds good!


cheesehead

5-Feb-2007
6:00:48 PM

Yeah, alright then


alrob

5-Feb-2007
6:07:52 PM

i've jumped off the top of the picnic shelter at stapylton campground onto the black diamond mondo pad. felt pretty cushy.


IdratherbeclimbingM9

5-Feb-2007
9:35:11 PM

>felt pretty cushy.
... could've been nasty if it wasn't cushy.
Interesting way to test mats alrob.

I wonder if Ti got her research done (yet to be completed?), with the same tactics?


alrob

5-Feb-2007
10:17:27 PM

On 5/02/2007 M9iswhereitsat wrote:
>>felt pretty cushy.
>... could've been nasty if it wasn't cushy.
>Interesting way to test mats alrob.

we guessed the shed was about 12 foot high? still got 8 feet to play with!

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