UKC

Ocun are an exicting and innovative Czech brand, who are realitively new to the UK market. They manufacture a broard range of climbing equipment including hardware, harnesses, rock shoes, bouldering pads and clothing. 

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In reply to UKC Gear:

I have Ocun bouldering mat and couple of Hawk wiregates. Wiregates are nearly the same as DMM Spectres, but with slightly stiffer gate opening.

Both are brilliant and I would say that the quality is really good. I hope to see more of their products in the UK.

In reply to UKC Gear:

Crack climbing gloves? Are these for people who can't jam?

Alternatives:

1. Learn to jam
2. Toughen up

In reply to Martin Brierley:

an alternative to taping up

suppose you'd suggest the wideboyz man-up and learn to jam properly!

In reply to Martin Brierley:
Maybe as an experiment you'd like to lead The Vice with a crack glove on one hand and a no glove on the other?

I'm a pretty competent hand jammer and was very skeptical before I tried a pair, but they do make jamming quite a lot easier/less painful.

For longer routes, or repeated days of crack climbing they are well worth considering. I recently did the 1989 Stanage VS challenge, with out gloves, My hands were pretty shredded by the end of the day. Had I worn crack gloves I have no doubt that they would have been in much better shape. For a trip to somewhere like Lofoten or Squamish I would take a pair for sure.

They last a lot longer than tape gloves and are much easier to take on and off. This makes them a great option for crack climbing in the alpine environment, where traditional tape gloves reduce circulation and make already cold hands colder. Think Grand Capucin or Patagonia.

Full disclosure: I work for the company that brings Ocun into the UK, but view is my own.

Tom

In reply to Martin Brierley:


Nope, I think they are best for people who love jamming (like me) and tend to jam at every possibility. All my hardest leads have been routes that were solely or mainly cracks, I used to use tape gloves (I've found you can get a couple of weeks of climbing out of well made pair) and now have a pair of crack gloves - Singing Rock, although loads of mates have and like the Ocun ones. There is a reason why people tape up in places like Indian Creek or Yosemite - no matter how good at jamming you think you are, you will get some cuts or scratches on, these can get infected, but worse is the bruising and swelling you get from multiple pitches of jamming. Maybe you will get through a long day fine, but if you are holiday somewhere for, say, a week and want to climb more cracks the next day, your hands will be really sore making it much harder.

There are also some forms of granite - never come across it in the UK but there could well be some - which is very crystalline and will rip your hands up jamming all too easily. Crack gloves are great then - they are very common among Helsinki climbers for instance for exactly that reason. Helsinki granite can be vicious like that, its just a shame no one has found a way of stopping boulderers shredding their tips on the same type of crystals!

In reply to PPP:


There you go http://www.holdbreaker.com/

In reply to Tom Ripley Mountain Guide:
I bought a pair last week in Outside, as much out of curiosity as anything else. Amongst the other routes I've done in them during the last few days, The Vice (actually my first time on this little b....) takes pride of place in the blood-saving honours. In the hot, humid conditions I think I would have pretty much torn my hands to pieces without the gloves (or lots of tape).

Absolutely. I didn't really get the gloves for trying notoriously painful jamming cracks in the worst conditions imaginable for Grit, I got them so I could enjoy doing lots and lots of crack pitches in good conditions, without blood stopping play. A wimp? Probably, but there are worse things in life than having to glove/tape up...

Actually I still need a bit of tape, even with the gloves. I've been putting a single wrap around the wrist to secure the velcroe fastening, not because it looks particularly weak, but because it might come undone when dipping into the chalkbag (or reaching for a jam in the depths of a wide crack).

I'll be interested to see how they last. The materials look tough and the construction is excellent, but with routes like The Vice around...

Pete.

In reply to Pete O'Donovan:

My only issue with them is they're not available in small enough sizes for smallhanded folks
tried a pair anyway but ended uo giving them to a friend as they just weren't tight enough across the back of my hands .

In reply to pebbles:


I don't have particularly chunky mitts but the 'Large' fit me perfectly. Actually I think the sizing chart displayed in the gear review is a bit misleading — to me the crucial measurement determining which size you need is the distance from your wrist to the base of your fingers.


That's a shame. Maybe they'll start doing XS at some stage?

Pete.

In reply to PPP:

I wonder if these are made by DMM. Ocun does stuff like harnesses and slings for DMM, so maybe they cooperate?

In reply to pebbles:

I don't know if they are easily available but the singing rock ones http://www.singingrock.com/chocky might be smaller? I'm pretty certain a number of my female climbing partners in Finland had the singing rock ones and I don't think any of them had particularly big hands.

In reply to TobyA:

I was just talking to my pal yesterday about sharp Granite that id climbed in the UK that shredded my hands in the early days of my climbing,cant remember where though....most frustrating!

In reply to jon_gill1:

Sennen...

In reply to TobyA:

To me, the Ocun ones seems small. I'm either M or S on gloves, yet in the crack gloves I need to use L.

In reply to HeMa:

Not sure as I've been there quite a bit so think I'd remember that.where ever it was it drew blood and lots of it!

In reply to jon_gill1:

Well, to me Sennen reminded me quite a bit of Paradiset in Lofoten. Highly similar texture in the granite... big crystals.

But nothing compared to some of the rock in Kustavi.

I think the main reason is the fact that some places really do not have any other holds (even for the feet) than the crack -> you really need to hang from your jams. Stuff in Lofoten tends to be slabby (so you can actually stand on the rock, meaning less weight on the hands) and Sennen did seem to have more holds outside of the cracks, again meaning that less weight on the hands were needed.

In reply to TobyA:

thanks Toby, I'll take a look.

In reply to HeMa:

Yes your right,maybe it was there and I was just bad at climbing. Still i normally remember things regarding climbing so it frustrating to have forgotten. I guess the longer i climb the worse my memory will get!

In reply to TobyA:

Toby, you're right.


Tape gloves are better in almost every sense than cheater gloves... but at least for a weekend warrior, the tape gloves ended up costing quite a bit... as I kept misplacing them and had to make new ones nearly every weekend .

In reply to TobyA:

ah but I DO climb cracks a lot. specially grit cracks - I love them. usually dont tape up , but for those nasty ones with big crystals you do want something. and the advantage of crack gloves would be that on short outcrop or seacliff crags youre not lumbered with making a pair of tape gloves for a single route but not wanting them the rest of the day

In reply to Martin Brierley:

I've had a pair of the Ocun gloves for a few weeks and so far I'd say they work really well (SW granite, Chew Valley grit, etc.) - much easier than taping up every time. I've climbed a fair bit in the US and it would be relatively rare to see someone climbing without tape on long, hardish cracks - even rarer to see someone with neither tape nor a lot of blood...

In reply to Mr Lopez:

Damn, Ocun Kestrels are 4.50 (or a fiver, but almost everyone is eligible for a discount) at Tiso! They are even 3g lighter than DMM Phantoms.

That is... incredible.

In reply to PPP:

Ive just bought some for £3 off ebay and I can say they are comparable in quality to DMM.
slightly stiffer gate opening but very well made imo

In reply to Mr Lopez:

I'm reviewing a pair of Ocun Ozone QC Plus shoes for UKC currently - very nice they are too so far. Anyway I notice on your site they are 85 quid which is pretty good a price for technical rock shoes these days. I saw Outside in Hathersage had lots of Ocun stuff in today and some chaps were discussing the crack gloves, saying the made the Vice pleasant! I'm gonna have to give it go sometime soon now.

In reply to TobyA:


It was, and you should.

In reply to HeMa:

I don't remember you doing that. It wasn't in your logbook was it?

In reply to TobyA:

You're right... I was talkin' about the File.

In reply to HeMa:

I think I did the file sans tape, but it is so well loved (like the *** route I did on Stanage today) that the crack is actually really smooth and comfy to jam. I hear the Vice still has plenty of crystalline nastiness in it!

In reply to Martin Brierley:

Yes, Tommy Caldwell just doesn't know how to jam...
http://www.epictv.com/media/podcast/tommy-caldwell-cranks-his-whole-body-on...