For the past month and a half I have been working part-time at Kinetic Climbing and Fitness, a bouldering gym here in Columbus. The owner is Tony Reynaldo, a professional climber and one of the world's top holds designers. He has been showing me the ways of running the gym and it has been so fun working there. I mean, I am surrounded by thousands and thousands of holds! How could you not enjoy it.
Tony recently taught my boyfriend to set, who also works at the gym. I will admit I was a little jealous. It was something I had been really wanting to learn about. I finally asked Tony one weekend when we were down at the Red and surely enough the next time I walked into the gym Tony had everything ready for me to set! I was so stoked!
He gave me a quick "class" on everything I needed to know about the bolts, drills, etc. Then he handed me a box of green holds and told me to set my first problem. I could only use what was in the box so I had to make every move count. I was so nervous about what to do, but quickly started piecing together my first problem. I really tried to think about the movement, how other people would think of the route and the distance between each hold. I had to remind myself that my arms and legs are much longer than most, so what may seem like a "normal" reach to me could be very reachy for someone else.
Overall, I thought my first route wasn't to shabby! Tony said he liked it then handed me another box of holds. This time they were orange and I had a rule: More underclings and side pull moves. Challenge accepted! My orange problem turned out much better than my green and I started to think more about the moves and making them more challenging. Then, Tony came out with my name tags and tagged my problems! It was an awesome feeling.
A few days after setting I got a text from Tony saying people really enjoyed my orange route. Then a couple days after that I finally had the chance to go in and climb my problems. Since then I have really payed attention to movement and holds each time I climb. I can't wait to get back in the gym and set more!
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