UKC

Hi all,

Have an indoor space i am thinking of turning into an indoor home board. It is fairly limited however, with these dimensions, roughly:

8 ft high

9x8 sq ft

I was wondering if anyone has constructed anything of a similar size, or smaller - and how have they gone about utilising the space i.e angle of the board, structure?

Any help, advice or tips welcome! 

I don't yet. Need to finish renovating the house first. But a friend has something similar. The point to think about is can you make the angle adjustable.

I had a similar issue, constrained by the rafters in my garage for height. I built a free-standing wall with a 30 degree angle. The board length was 8ft, with an approximate 8 inch kicker. 

I use a splatter-style setting, you have to be a little creative with your blocs depending on what you are trying to train for. Loop traverses for endurance, straight-up 2 move power problems, diagonals for some longer options. I tend to have small screw-on or minimal friction foot-holds to add some difficulty and keep the footwork honest.

My wall is based on this guy's video. I found it to be the most insightful YouTube video out there, covering the build, materials and tools.

youtube.com/watch?v=UtR56KPKzGQ&

Another good source was Power Company Climbing , they are doing a homeboard series covering things like kicker size, angle, hold types

youtube.com/watch?v=fhBTKiwX6YM&

Hope this helps, good luck on your build.

Jim

If you can extend it, even just a couple of feet, horizontally across the roof it adds to the feeling of steepness without taking any extra space.

That's plenty of space for a simple board at 25-30 deg, just keep the kicker short or don't bother with it. Adding a few holds to the ceiling will extend problems by another move or two.

Alternatively if you like traverse/diagonal problems you could have a significantly taller kicker and a steeper board, the effective angle than changes with which foot holds you use since the wall is concave.

Personally I'd make it adjustable with several hinge lines, much more variety which is valuable.

I've got a small space in the garage and am thinking about building something like the board in this video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9AStmCRAWQk&t=3s

It would probably have to be a fixed angle for me, and perhaps not as wide, but could probably get a good pump going on it.

I'd say that depends on the angle. At 30 degrees I wouldn't bother with a kicker. At 40-45 you lose a lot of climbing space by not having a reasonably sized one. 

For a given angle what you gain at the bottom making space for your heels you lose at the top.

Personally I wouldn't build a fixed board at 40-45deg.

jk

When I had a wall I had a lot of square-ish wooden holds like that on it, I got very strong thumbs and spanked on my local crags which had mostly in-cut slot holds 

jk

Ha! Well, I guess I'd have to make/source holds that'll get me strong for grit slopers and crimps

Got 5K?

https://wideboyz.com/freestanding-wall/

How much height have you got? One of the best things for getting pumped in a small space is using a campus board with your feet on. It's absolutely unforgiving and you only need around 2m height to do one. 

Ive considered that too. I’ve got over 2m, but I liked the idea of different movements rather than a straight pull in one plane. I figured it might be more interesting/easy to commit to in the long run. 

To be honest one of the best things about it is that it doesn't require creativity so you can always get on and smash out a session even if you're mentally fatigued from work etc. Things like this are always going to be training tools so it's best to make them as accessible as possible. A campus board can also be used for power training of course which that system board can't. 👍🏻

Not for that unfortunately!!

good point! noted!

Lots of people constructed boards that were 8*8 feet of climbing surface in lockdown, that's the standard easiest size to make because a standard ply sheet is 8*4 feet. I've always thought that looked a little short but lots of people seem to get on well with them. With 2.4 m ceiling height, if you do a board at 40 or 45 degrees you could add part of a third sheet in so you had a climbing surface that was longer. That's then plenty big enough for a good board.

Personally I don't agree with Mischa's suggestion of building something for FoC, primarily because if your aim is just to have something easy to do that on and get as pumped as you can, then any fingerboard with two rows of reasonable crimps (eg any beastmaker) is just as good.

Can't agree with that tbh, foot on campus doing 1-3-5 with a proper overhanging position and feet on a kickboard is in a different league physically. Not saying you can't get pumped on a fingerboard but it's nowhere near as close replicating climbing and does far less in terms of lock strength etc, plus you can't campus properly on a fingerboard unless you're purely looking for neurological gains and tbh it's not appropriate for the majority of climbers as they don't have the level. 

I've done it on both. You can actually get more pumped on the fingerboard (with your feet on a chair out in front) because the individual moves are easier.

This was the most effective aeropow exercise I have ever done.

Obviously on a campus board if you do 1-3-5 you are getting a bit more upper body work in as well but unless you are very strong you won't be able to get as far into the pump before you fail.

Would a Mini Moonboard fit? Or something of similar size/angle.

https://moonclimbing.com/mini-moonboard-diy-kit.html

 

Completely agree that foot on campussing is a simple and brutally effective training method, but I'm a bit baffled as to why you don't think it would be possible to train power on a board?

Not 'a' board, but this board that Chris above was talking about: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9AStmCRAWQk&t=3s 

It's very small and thereby only really allows for foot-on movements in a relatively limited range of motion. Any training done on this will therefore be inherently limited by the hold size and thereby mainly loading fingers. In comparison a campus board would be cheaper and offer more training possibilities although granted with less variety. Clearly a normal sized woody like OP suggests is much more effective than either. 

I have a combo campus, fingerboard and foot on campus board - https://www.instagram.com/p/B_ur7EeDXmF/?igshid=1jluqql65pxpj - which is really good bang per buck for the floor space (it's maybe 1mx1.2m floor space, needing maybe 1x1.8 or something when in use).

If I had enough space to build an 8x8 board I would certainly want to upgrade though. I know this because I'm currently trying to work out whether I could remove the bed from the spare room and put a board along one edge of it - with a nod to the campus board I've been considering something that's maybe 30 degrees at the bottom and 15-20 degrees at the top to allow me to retain the campus rung and pack everything into one space.....

Having said that, I would also (to your discussion with Si) pick a foot on campus board where you gain some height on the moves over shuffling hands round a fingerboard - whilst acknowledging that both are pretty brutally effective.

My bad, I'd missed that video!

That looks like a really good use of limited space.  As my own idea evolves, and using some of the advice on this thread I was thinking of some sort of campus board with holds to the sides for variety.....just like that! 

Looks like you start pulling pretty low down, but that gives you 'bang for your buck' with limited height to play with. Do you stick a chair behind it or something for the foot-on-action?

How wide is it?

I can start from about rung 2 or 3 campusing. 1 would be quite cramped, you'd start pretty tucked up trying that. But they're all small rungs so having rungs 2-6 accessible isn't limiting me yet.

It's about 95cm wide (the measurements are built around the wood I had at the time) including the outer supports; the actual campus face ply is about 85cm wide I think.

There's a kickboard at ground level which you can't see well in those photos, just by the wall.

That's exactly what I was talking about. It's a really efficient use of space and really easy to do lots of different exercises without feeling contrived or limited. 

Thanks for that 👍

Just finished my board in more or less the same dimensions. I built a c.40 degree board, free standing based on the climberdad video  youtube.com/watch?v=T99ZtfwgEUU&  but removing the kickboard and using 2x6 timber instead of the ratchet straps.

The wall section on mine is c.3 metres i.e. 2 full size ply and one half ply. That is longer than the floor plan of my garage so had to build the frame propped up on saw trestles which is fine with two people but a bit of a faff if you are building on your own.

Materials were about £250 from B&Q. That excludes holds and all the tools I bought.

I am a complete DIY novice - the most I have done before is put together flatpack furniture but it all went up pretty smoothly.