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!