UKC

Hello,

I'm trying to build my own easy wall for ARC training, but I'm not sure what to do about the holds. They all seem incredibly expensive, like 5 pounds each. What did you (home wall owners) do about this? Did you just pay, or make your own holds, or what?

Thanks 

Bought a bunch from Euroholds which were pretty cheap, and made the rest out of pine which were pretty good, but a lot of effort to make anything complex. I regretted not tee nutting it as that gives you far more options for holds. Sometimes climbing walls will be selling off old ones. 

a few new, a load of second hand supplemented with a bunch of home made ones. I found a massive lump of iron hard driftwood on the beach and made a load out of that. Circular saw, hand saw, couple of chisels and a bunch of grinder flap discs and an afternoon sipping beer and being all manly. Its really quite fun - you can get quite imaginative.

Just my tuppence worth:

• Wooden holds are so much nicer to train on than resin if you're doing multiple sessions a week
• If you're buying resin, keep your eye on ebay/ facebook marketplace for second hand
• Crusher holds - good quality wooden holds, relatively cheap (£2.50 - £3 a hold): good for filling a board
• If you get into it, you can then identify the more expensive holds that will be beneficial to you e.g. small crimps/ pinches/ pocketsand gradually add them on. There are lots of hold makers out there and some of them will probably just appeal to you more than others based on the aesthetic as well as price
• You can make your own: I made some out of an old bed, just chopped them down and then used a palm sander. They're definitely 'functional' but again just add options
• Footholds are just as important as hand holds. If  you start out out with some bigger/ positive ones then you can always add small ones (e.g. Core Geo board) so the warm ups become projects! 

often possible to pick up secondhand holds from climbing walls. Also worth keeping an eye on eBay, sets often turn up. Also You could populate a wall with some of the basic edges from Crusher Holds which are well made and good price. You don’t need a lot to populate a workable wall for training rather than trying to emulate routes at a commercial wall.

as far as making them yourself, there’s a lot to be done with off cuts. Some of the classic problems at the school Room were on bits of sawn up bannister rail

For Resin holds, www.kongholds.com Currently have a summer sale on. In terms of value for money the KONG branded holds are great and they are classic shapes that appear in most climbing gyms. KONG Holds also stock other brands. such as Ibex, Digital, Agripp, Incurvo and Arctic. 

Full Disclosure, I work for Kong Climbing

As said above, a lot of second hand holds crop up on ebay. My wall is entirely second hand holds from there apart from the screw ons which are cheap enough to buy new.

For simple standard holds (flat edges, rails, incuts, pinches, etc. like you get on a system board), I would advise making your own from wood. It's really easy and they're nice. Plus the process of making them is fun. If you want to get fancy you either have to pay or get an angle grinder and a carving disc and be prepared to put some time and effort in to making them. You don't need loads though. 

For feet, you can make them out of just about anything but little wooden chips are very easy.