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Review > Asana > Joes

Asana has been in the holds business for a short time now and they have been able to create some unique shapes from their shop. They offer a hold of the month club so we hold junkies can sample the latest abominations to come fresh out of the mold. The Joes’s are modeled after the sandstone boulders found in Joe’s valley, Utah. So throw away your chalk bag, you won't be needing it to stick to these holds. After an afternoon of climbing on these we lost a couple layers of skin. From shallow jugs to crimps, this set has a bit of everything. They range from large to small, so you get a mixed bag when you pick these up.We've had these around the wall for a while, from some simple bouldering problems to full on get over the roof screaming your heart out routes, and there is one thing that is going to become painfully clear... painfully clear... these holds hurt. Not just hurt a little, they hurt a lot to climb on! I thought that it was just me, but Noodles has backed off of some of the problems that we've set because as he said "I like my skin to stay where it is!", he even backed off of the route in the video that's below a couple of times just because where he was gripping one of the holds (one of the biggest in the set) as his thumb was getting bruised quite badly.Now maybe it's because we set the holds across the roof, but I'm afraid it's not, we set simple problems with a traverse and found that they still hurt. There are good things to be said about the holds thou, they do work on most angled walls but anything over 45 is going to start your skin hurting more than normal, they even work on the roof, if you're brave enough (Or a sadist)

As you can tell by the picture these holds do not have a nice smooth texture and aren’t made to be sweet on the hands, although when you’ve got in your grip they won’t let go, which is why sometimes when you do get off of the wall your fingers will be screaming at you for mercy. We've had small holds on harder routes across the roof and haven't had this kind of skin pain from them, I guess it's just the nature of the beast :)

Now Noodles spoke to Jamey over at Asana and was mentioning that we found the holds painful, and this is what he said "I shaped these holds after I came back from Joe's Valley. They were shaped because I got my ass kicked and I wanted to train specifically for the area", so there is method behind their madness!

SUGGESTED USES




We suggest the above angles for the holds, which as you can see is everything from slabs to 45 degrees over. But the steeper the angle the more your fingers are going to hurt, so bear that in mind.. we didn't include anything steeper than 45 or suggest using them upon a roof unless you're well warmed up, know what you're doing. We're obviously going to try to get them on the roof and the opinion is pretty unanimous over here that they shouldn't really be up there!

Incut and very dimpled!! The Joe's are positive enough they include everything from a big two hand match to small crimpers. The texture and shape of these holds allows you to crimp down on them or use it as pinches. We were able to match every one of these holds although a novice climber will find it challenging to match some of the smaller holds of the set, but you pay the price with skin loss pretty much most of the time :(

OVERALL BUILD
I'd love to see who ever shaped these, they must have been a pain in the ass to make, mind you I think that getting these out of their molds must be a challenge everytime they pour!

The urethane holds up pretty well, and considering that some of the holds have quite shallow areas I was expecting there to be some bending, but there wasn't any that we noticed (and it got pretty warm in the wall). The bolt placements are nice and clean, we didn't suffer from any spinning holds even when we were matched on one side of the largest hold.

The backs of the holds are flat, and there's no big bubbles in the urethane so the mix is nice and consistant. There aren't any huge burrs to mention other than the obvious Joes Valley texture which we found to be pretty hard going on the finger tips. And this being said, if you chalk up alot these holds will take a lot of chalk in the dimples and do take a fair ammount of brushing to get clean.

These holds are a deep red that i've not seen before, so they do stand out on the wall, they are a little dark but at least the red is different from the other shades on the market so you can see the holds when you're chucking to them

RATING
NOODLES SAYS
The latest edition of Urban Climber (Issue 23) has the Joes in there on their gear review page, and here's what they had to say about the Joes:
"Gritty, gnarly, pock-faced Joe's Valley inspired grips. One minute you're sweating blood, biting down on itsy bitsy razor crimps, praying for relief - and the next you're moving off welcoming jugs to, well, more crimps. It's a vicious cycle for the send, but one thats completly worth fighting for. Bring it home"

Thought inspiring text... but I have to agree. I backed off of some of the routes we set on our 30 degree wall and the roof just because the holds were biting my fingers, I wasn't enjoying the pain... outside is a completly different kettle of fish as you'll do anything to get the send, but indoors I prefer to keep my digits with skin on them so I can climb more rather than less. I've got a wicked bruise on my thumb from where I was bearing down on one of the holds on the roof and it just dug in so well I had to drop off (This is why you don't see me in the video, because I get onto the roof and then go "ow" and just let go)

If you're sensible in your setting and don't mind a bit of pain then you'll like these holds, but for me unless i'm taking it nice and easy (moves and angle of wall) and not dynoing to them they're fine, steep walls and roofs on these holds are out for me just because i'm a big girl.

CHRIS SAYS
The larger holds of the set work well on overhanging terrain but aren’t quite big enough to set on a roof. Being the crazy yahoos we are we put them up in the roof anyways. Our problem started on a small crimp undercling and went straight into the roof. It continued into the overhang and back onto the vertical. Initially we put the three biggest holds of the set into the roof. Our sequence went through a couple of overhauls before we realized that they were not meant to be bolted onto the roof. Our test: try hanging on them with one hand, result: FAIL, but here at climbingholdreview we like a challenge so we continued working the sequence. The moves throughout the route are long and the roof is no exception. Although the big boys of the set are positive they don’t go in very deep so when we were on the roof it required the use of our thumbs. I guess that would classify them as crimps on the roof and jugs on a vertical. Even with the assistance of our thumbs we couldn’t manage to get through the roof so we decided to switch one of the jugs with a smaller hold that had a bigger thumb catch. It worked. This made our roof sequence easier to execute and we were able send the project.

When I say easier, I mean painful, the route got sent once and then we dropped it because it's just too painful to have up all of the time. The Joe's are staying on the wall but as parts of easier routes for now, if you're a huge fan of Joe's then these are a great buy, if you're a fan of skin... then we'd shy away from them and would suggest the "Nut Jobs" from the Asana line!

PROS

• A good mix of hold sizes for a good price
• Solid construction
• If you've been to Joe's valley these seem like a good representation of the terrain, that's what they were made to do, and that's what they do do!
  

CONS

• Not skin friendly
• Are ok on most angles, but the steeper you go the more skin you'll probably loose
• These aren't holds that you want to train on for prolonged periods of time
  

PRICE
The set costs $39

Review > Asana > Sharks (Teeth)

These bite size crimps from Asana are actually named Sharks, but we took the liberty to call them Sharks Teeth cause they bite and when we saw them that's what Noodles said they looked like, so we had a little fun at the expense of the movie Jaws.

At first glance the Sharks from Asana are, for lack of better terms, tiny. These holds are very similar to the Contact Hex and Rex that we reviewed some time back in that they're quite positive. Although the Asana Sharks could be put up in the roof, we came to the decision that one crimpy roof sequence on the wall was enough, besides my fingers have finally had enough of the strains and pains of bearing down on crimps. Hats of to you noodles, you were right:P

The color of the holds that Asana sent us are in a cotton candy pink and beige/brown tone. Since we like to have our holds in primary colors so we can see them on the wall, we weren't to keen on the colors that Asana chose for us. We also noticed the back of the holds were not flat, in some cases we were able to jam the tips of our fingers into the space between the wall and the hold.

Asana only sent us five out of the ten holds in the set. This made it difficult for us to set a problem so we decided on using some intermittent holds (also from Asana) to not only make it longer but to relieve some stress on our fingers. Out of the five holds that we received, all of them were crimps with the exception of one tiny sloper but thankfully Asana have designed this hold with a small thumb catch so I guess we can classify this hold as pinch as well

Like I said we chickened out on sticking the Asana Shark teeth in the roof so I started the problem on the overhang and ended it on our newly built box of death :) I set the problem so that we can bump off of each one of the crimps. My fingers hurt and I don't think they would hold up to the stresses of matching or crossing into another crimp. To my surprise Noodles was able to flash the problem quite gracefully. Then it was my turn. The Shark Teeth are much bigger than I had expected. Now that I think of it, I should have put a match in the problem or thrown them on the roof....Ok...maybe not the roof....that's just plain evil!!

SUGGESTED USES






Vertical terrain always works best with any crimp but with the help of the thumb catch, the Teeth can be used on angles from vertical to 15 degrees. These are not for the roof! The Asana website suggests that they be used for feet and vertical walls and I know that when we're done with this review they're going down low to be used by our toes only.

Depending upon the hold they're either incut or slopey, but these holds are small, you're looking at maybe a half pad at best. The thumb catches help an awful lot in making these holds better than you'd expect.

OVERALL BUILD
So far we've done four reviews for Asana: The Waffle, The Logo, The Joes and The Teeth. Out of four sets only the Joes and Waffle hold would sit flush on the wall while the remaining two sets could use some more work with the belt sander. So Asana is batting a 50/50 on the sanding. Remember that all of these holds turned up at the same time, speaking to Jamey over at Asana he assures me that they've sorted the problem out and the sanding issues that they've had have been fixed. We've got some more sets on the way, so we'll see what's up.

The urethane mix that Asana uses is solid and the holds didn't want to rotate even though the backs weren't completely flat, bolt placement is nice and clean and in the centre of the hold. You're going to want to run cap headed bolts in these holds as a normal socket head does stick out, so you've not got any of these bolts make sure you pick some up! These puppies don't exactly have the best coloring, but they do the job well enough.

RATING
NOODLES SAYS
((Considering in the same evening I managed to semi rip my index finger's tendon as we were climbing, and then had to leg it to the hospital you'd wonder if I'd ever go near a crimp again! And know what, I didn't even nail my finger on these tiny holds, it was on a jug!))

The Sharks a.k.a: Sharks Teeth aren't as bad as you think, they're by no means huge and aren't for most people, unless you're rocking them as feet, but on the whole I was impressed by them. What makes these a little different from most tiny crimps is that these have some nice shallow thumb catches on them that allow you to hang on a little bit more. I'm going to be taking some time off of small stuff for a while whilst my finger gets back to full strength so these holds will be getting moved and will be used for feet!

On the sanding front they were a little bit off, for larger holds you notice it, on smaller holds you don't, but there's really no excuse for these not being flat. But like Chris says, even with the sanding not being on par these didn't spin.

CHRIS
When I first laid eyes on these holds my thoughts were I hope this is the last crimp review that we do for a while. My fingers are screaming at me. I like working on crimps because when they are under my fingers I feel that there is no way I will pop off the hold. The Teeth are no exception. Now that I've climbed on them I would say that they're on the bigger side when it comes to crimps. (Actually Noodles informs me that these are about the same size as the E-Grips 2-Tex pure crimps, and a big smaller than the Contact Hex and Rex's) So big enough for the roof you might ask? Now that both my hands have some degree of tendon strain I'll have to say no, these are a set of holds that aren't going up there at all!

The texture was good and my fingers didn't burn after the send, which is good when you're on crimps as you bear down on them more than normal holds!

PROS

• Looks can be deceiving, they are quite big for crimps.
• The set included crimps, pinches and slopes
  
• Great for feet
• Well priced at $35 for ten holds
  

CONS

• The back of the holds aren't flat
  
• Not for beginners
• You're not going to put these on much more than vertical or 15 degree overhangs
  

PRICE
$35.00 gets you ten holds, which is a great price for holds, even if you use them only for feet!

Review > Asana > Waffle & Logo

Firstly we'll start with everyones favorite treat... waffles (They're kind of hard to find in Canada eh?) in the blue corner we have the Waffle, straight out of...the Waffle house, a fully paid up member of the:we have from Boise Idaho we have the Waffle!!!!Now Asana haven't been in the hold game for all that long, but they've got game. This is the second Waffle that we've had from them because Canada Post like to play full contact hockey with parcels. Think I'm joking? Nope, fraid not. The postal service did a fairly good job of nailing the parcel, so much so that even with packing this hold had a huge crack in it when we got it. Normally i'd not worry about a crack, i'll run some glue down the fissure and climb on it anyways, this time I noticed that the crack was bad enough that I could snap the hold, with my hands....No seriously...Thanks Canada Post! Bunch of monkeys.... I talked to the guys at Asana about this and they had another hold to me in a matter of days (even thou it wasn't their fault)... this time it was unscathed! Asana have great customer service, they come back to you real fast and they'll make sure you're happy with what you've got. This in a world full of people ready to sue you for anything is great, I'm always happy to sing the praises of any company that go's out of their way to make you're pleased.

And then the session began...The Waffle can be put up anyway you want... ANYWAY! Upside down, it's brutal the Waffle texture is wicked to try to hang onto, I spent a good hour just sessioning one move from one hold to this!!!Stick it vertically, and you've got some wicked matches. Which ever way you put the hold its super fun to hold onto, some ways are going to be better than others, we span the hold all over the place....Hang it, chuck it into the center of a route, spin it... hell do whatever you want with it, get enough of them you could use them as campus rails. The hold has become a staple of the wall, normally it stays on the overhang, but if you've got some lower grade climbers round bolt it onto the vertical wall and they'll have a blast! It's got a huge bag of tricks, some people will complain that it doesn't have a purpose, it's got too many ways of holding it but I see this as a mute point, the beauty of the hold is you can do anything with it :)

Next to the Waffle, from the Red corner... we set up the Asana logo hold... ...it's a tricky one, lots of potential for matching, lots and lots of matches and some really nice edges, again this depends upon which way you spin the hold. There was a small problem with the hold...
...the sanding was a little off, so we're getting the sander out this weekend and we'll sort this little problem out. Either way it went onto the wall, we applied a rule of no grabbing round the edge :P
On the overhang its pretty hard, thankfully you can get two hands on it most of the time so you've got a fair ammount of leeway for what you want to do with it!
Grab a corner, pinch the middle, hell if you're feeling strong undercut it, heel hook it and just go wild... Again it's got so many use's you can just spin it whichever way you want and have a good session!It's again one of those holds that does everything, its harder than the Waffle, but what it does do it excels at, again it's not going to be on roofs but on steep terrain or on the vertical it's great.

RATING
NOODLES SAYS
Ok, Canada Post playing chuck the parcel and some sanding that I called them about and has been sorted, Asana have been nothing but helpful with whatever questions I had, gripes aswell! Their customer service surprised me by being both quick and effective whenever anything arose, this is important when buying holds!! I like both the holds because I can just spin them around and tweak a move out to make it harder or easier with just the spin of a wrench. Both holds have enough variety that you can use them however you really feel.

The Waffle has a texture that I've not seen before and it is very Waffle-like, it's super fun to haul on even when you're on the slopey side, I love using it as a side pull and matching it.

The Asana logo quite simply for me is a pinch-fest, I was grabbing the hold all over the place, falling sometimes, grinning the rest of the time.

Overall for a company that's not been making holds I'm very impressed, I know that there are going to be great things coming from this company! We may have to wait a while, but it's sure as hell going to be worth the wait....

CHRIS SAYS
A hold that's been named after a breakfast item
a) makes me feel hungry
and
b) makes me want to see what the hell Noodles is talking about when he calls me about new holds
Seeing the hold the first time I looked at the texture and wondered how brutal it was going to be on the fingers... answer, it's actually nicer than some holds out there. It catches a little bit, but nothing that a climbers hands can't deal with.... I like the hold, I was rotating it a lot and it's easy some ways and super hard on others! I'm looking forward to getting the POW hold soon, I think its going to be a bunch of fun

The Logo hold if you like pinching and thin ledges is a good all rounder, it's almost suited to being a system hold, seriously a bunch of these would cover ledges and pinches for a wall. On sighting this hold will be a beatch, and even when you know where to grab it, I don't think that that's a bad thing being surprised by a hold you know is always going to be interesting :P Both holds clean up really well, we know we chucked chalk all over them!

PROS

• Both holds have variety written all over them, spin them about as you wish
• The Waffle has a unique texture that you'll not see anywhere else
  
• Two tone always looks wicked on a wall
  

CONS

• Neither hold is suited to roofs, but everywhere else they're great
• Sanding was so-so on the Logo hold, but that's been fixed back at Asana HQ
• You can't really use either hold to force a move (But the Logo is going to be tough to onsight at a comp)
  

PRICE
The Waffle is $30 and well worth a look
The Asana logo is $52???