Indoor Boulder with Foam Pit

How does a big highball indoor boulder surrounded by a foam pit sound? I’ve been watching a lot of Rob Dyrdek’s Fantasy Factory and another such shows; Nitro Circus, Dirt Demons, etc... and it has made me think that it would be sweet to see a gym put up a really unique and highball boulder with a foam pit surrounding it. That’s all; I think it would be cool.

It would be really cool, but it wouldn't make much sense at a commercial gym. Most gyms only have space for 40 foot walls anyways, and to have a real foam pit for anything shorter than about 30 feet is kind of silly. With the right kind of movable pads that most gyms already have, you can fall from 25 feet or so without getting hurt.

Plus, a foam pit would take up so much floor space that I'd think it would kind of ruin the layout of the gym. Less climbing, less space to belay, less places to hang out and complain about the weather or how bad your fingers hurt.

Maybe a gym w/ like 80 foot walls and no ropes anywhere... that would be kind of fun. Like DWS indoors.

That thought has crossed my mind a few times, could be a lot of fun!

For my first indoor homemade wall back in 1990, I was without a belayer most days. Bought a 6 X12 ft.section of pole vault pit and it proved to be fabulous. Easy to drag around, or to stand up on edge to push aside for saving space. It was affordable back then too...
( cost of 2 modern bouldering pads)

It's been done, pretty fun. Freddy Harth -- Holdistic climbing --created this setup ~3 years ago.

Here is a photo of Holdistic and Emily Harrington that I bookmarked a long time ago that is this exact thing:

http://andrewchasteen.blogspot.com/2009/04/emily-harrington-gif-at-holdistic.html

I used to be a gymnastics coach and foam pits are handy to have but are expensive to maintain and a pain in the ass to get out of. Not to mention it just makes it more difficult to set routes.

JB

It takes a keen sense of body dynamics to land in a foam pit safely. I can't imagine the insurance companies would embrace a foam pit with 28 ft walls. I dunno, maybe climbers in OK are smarter than around here, but I'd guess it would be a week or two before someone fell badly and tweaked an elbow or neck. Great idea for a private facility, but I wouldn't expect it to fly for a commercial gym. Or maybe I am not giving the legal eagles in the ins. industry enough credit.

Hey I have a great solution to the dilemma of high bouldering and the overall lack of efficiency of a foam pit. Use a rope!

kovacs69 wrote:I used to be a gymnastics coach and foam pits are handy to have but are expensive to maintain and a pain in the ass to get out of. Not to mention it just makes it more difficult to set routes. JB

I think several of us have a different mental view of a 'foam pit'. As a gymnastics coach it was a true 'pit' in the floor with huge chunks of foam blocks to land within. My reference and interpretation of 'pit' comes from the brand name PortaPit, which makes one piece landing mats that are 24 to 30 inches thick and at least 6 by 12 feet in size. THAT's what I picture being hauled about the gym to allow for a flat out back side landing from 20 feet or more. Vaulters can do it, so why not climbers.

How about a deep water soloing gym/pool?

JJNS wrote:How about a deep water soloing gym/pool?

Our new rec center has a small, maybe 10 ft tall climbing wall in the pool, it's all jugs but surprisingly hard, not really meant to be just for the climbers though

Vertical Heaven Climbing gym in Ventura, used to have a highball bouldering event with an airbag, don't see anything on their website so I'm assuming they don't do it anymore.

Foam pits have always grossed me out, all sorts of sweaty people jumping in there, seems like a great place to pick up some sort of fungus or something. If you really want to highball at the gym, I think a DWS would be better.