Blogs

I've been testing the new Scarpa Instinct Shoes (which come in slippers and lace-ups) for a good couple of months now, and I'm happy to say that the Lace Ups are now in the shops, well more precisely in the Climb Newcastle shop, ready to buy.

The two Instinct shoes are very different in their performance (the Lace Up certainly being the shoe of choice for small edges), however they are very alike in that they are both very very comfortable considering the performance they give. I for one am struggling to get used to Boosters after the comfort of wearing these! This is good news as a climbing centre/shop owner too as they nicely fill the gap between the Force and Booster/Magos on our shelf.

You can check 'em out and buy them online here.

Image: Salesman extraordinaire Chris in action.

Back in October I was given some Accapi Nexus products to test out, including t-shirts, an elbow support and a 'photonizer' water bottle cover. All contain the unique Nexus fibre which aids in blood circulation resulting in all sorts of benefits particularly improved recovery and even performance. More info on their website.

I quite often get very bad elbows when training lots and in a funny way I was looking forward to testing out the elbow support for recovery.

After 3 days of setting and testing 70 near world cup standard problems at Climb Newcastle in preparation for the British Team's visit last weekend (see last post) it's fair to say my body and particularly my arms took an absolute hammering! In fact by the time we tested the last men's problem on Friday I was on the floor in agony with pain in my right arm from my wrist to my neck!

3 days (of Accapi elbow support) later and I'm back training again and I've been astonished to find that not only am I getting no pain either during or after climbing but I'm pushing myself more than ever. I have to say I'm impressed!

We now sell Accapi Nexus products in our centre shop and also on the Climb Newcastle website, admittedly they aren't cheap but then again they've probably already saved me a visit to a physio!

Absolutely knackered after setting nearly 70 new problems at Climb Newcastle with Andy and Suzan in the past week, in preparation for the British Bouldering Team's training weekend.

Here's a little beauty from our red set... Red Roof @ Climb Newcastle - December '09