Dear Gayholdreview,
It's interesting that you come across as a very bitter person and believe it or not your opinion matters little to me. But as I have a few minutes spare I figure what the hell I'll reply anyway.
STATEMENT 1:First, you are not a routesetter. At least, not a routesetter in the sense that you set creative, thought provoking sequences that encourage a climber to think about what they are doing and learn a new skill. You set traverses and ladders under the guise of "routesetting" - and all with holds that pull straight down. And your traverses typically have a no hands rest in stemming corner, which brings us to...
REPLY: Infact I used to be a RS, so you're wrong there. We (as in myself and my friends) set routes for ourselves, not for anyone else. We don't try to teach technique (That's Eric Horsts domain) and we set far more than you probably do. Most of my evenings are spent spinning wrenches, at home, setting with holds that are either coming out onto the market or already are on the market.
STATEMENT 2:-Your home wall sucks. It is the size of a closet, and it consists of vertical walls that intersect each other or a horizontal roof. Both of these angles are not exactly cutting - edge, to put it nicely.
REPLY: If you'd like to find me a bigger apartment and would like to pay for it, please feel free. I feel I've done the best with the space that I have, I don't have a huge house and in case you're wondering the wall has a 30 / 45 / 70 / flat and a roof. If you'd like to design me a wall that packs more in then again please feel free.
STATEMENT 3:-You are not a very experienced or skilled climber. What I am saying by this is that it is difficult to be a creative and gifted routesetter if your climbing ability maxes out at about v3 or 5.11. You just don't have the movement repertoire to be good.
REPLY: Really! I guess you know me then, you know me personally and you know what grade I climb... good for you... and your name is what? Fraid I play in the 12's and have started working on some V6's. But a good guess overall
STATEMENT 4:-You post videos that are dumb. Your hold reviews contain little to no useful information about the quality or usability of the holds in a commercial or a competition environment. You post "how to" videos that are amateurish - not in video quality or editing, but in content. Case in point: Your "how to drill a pilot hole" instructional video. #1. Teknik holds don't really need pilots - their urethane is top notch. #2. You don't need three drill bits of different size to do the work of one countersink bit. #3. This "how to" video is based on the fact that a.)you know what you are talking about and b.) Teknik holds need a pilot for a set screw. Neither of these assumptions are true. FAIL.
REPLY: If you feel you can do better I suggest you get off of your ass and do so. Shut me down or something. As for competition environments we film the Tour De Bloc and a lot of the holds we review end up there from time to time. We work with an experienced RS who gets the holds and he's bringing his comments over the next few months... so we cover some more bases than what we already do.
As for the Teknik set screw, sure we used a few too many steps and sure we used some more drills than was necessary but our screw holes are nice and counter sunk and look like they were there in the first place. We don't just chuck in a screw here or there (Which I guess you do)... and who knew that Tekniks mix would take a screw without blowing up; it's not mentioned on their site anywhere about being able to take a screw. Again, I suggest that if you can do better then you do so
STATEMENT 5:-You try to post "insider" information about holds that are coming out or you try to respond on behalf of hold companies that you work as a sales rep for. Typically, this information is not necessarily true and you don't really know shit about the topic at hand. I remember a Project thread where you responded on behalf of Project Holds and tried to get everybody to believe that Project (and you as a sales rep) had their shit together and their difficulties in quality control and order fulfillment were temporary. Well, guess what, they are not temporary issues that Project has been having. I also remember you posting a response on the quality control issues that Metolius has been having recently and saying that it was an issue across the board when companies outsource their production. It is NOT an issue across the board, and you do nothing for our industry by making false statements such as this. (actually, your above post is what made me actually write out this whole response - that tufas are coming out in November from someone blah blah blah and you have secret insider information about it blah blah blah...it may come as a surprise to you, but possessing this information doesn't somehow make you cool. It makes you look like a hold dork.)
REPLY: Project Holds should be absolutely fine, I've had no issues with orders. Insider information... no not really, people were asking what they'd like to see, I know that someone is currently molding some and they should be ready mid-november.. just a simple fact; nothing more nothing less. Metolius... as soon as I saw the post I mailed it on over to them so that they could see that you guys were talking about the issues you've been having: they are looking into the issue. So in fact I did you all a favor by alerting them about the issue... did you mail them to let them know? Or did you just complain when a hold broke?
I feel that, and please correct me if I'm wrong on the entire issue of "outsourced production" that as soon as the person who has shaped a hold hands it off to someone else to mold and then to pour they are out of the loop and if there are any issues the company that is pouring the hold (probably for little money) are more than likely to just send the hold out rather than re pour the hold as it cuts into their profit. I'm not saying this is the case, but unless the hold company owner etc etc is riding on the coat tails of the manufacturer all of the time checking that the holds are being molded / poured and sanded up to their expectations then you can almost expect a slight decrease in quality. It has happened.
Unless the production company is amazing then there are issues with a product that is hitting the market... kinks to be worked out as it were... and any company that has outsourced their products have had times like these. IMHO: I think it's a topic that should be discussed way more than right here right now... hearing the people that own the company's and the issues that they've had in outsourcing. (Maybe you should start that topic)
Sincerely,
Climbingholdreview
p.s: I can post wherever I like on whichever forum I like. If you don't like my reply's I suggest you just skip them.
p.p.s: I do love the way you use your real name, that's very big and very clever of you... therefore your opinion isn't really doing much, if you actually were a person, with a name, that posted under that name then I'd take you a little more seriously