WHY SYNROCK HOLDS RULE!

You can change the texture of a SYNROCK hold. A hold or any part of a hold can be made as rough or as smooth as you want - and you can change the texture over and over again.

You can make the texture rougher. If you put a synrock hold in a dilute solution of acid, it slowly dissolves away the binder, leaving the sand we use as filler exposed. To acid etch a hold stick one in a bucket of dilute acid for about 15 seconds, take it out, wash it off, and brush it with one of those green scrubby pads (I don't recommend a wire brush). The more you repeat this process, the more aggressive the texture becomes. An acid etched hold is virtually indistinguishable from real sandstone.

You can make the texture smoother. To go the other way and smooth a hold you can use sandpaper. We use a 70 grit diamond and kevlar sanding pad. These things last forever and sand down this stuff like it is wood. This lets you make the hold or any part of the hold smooth.

The texture from the mold is awesome! We use a very mild texture compared to plastic holds so they are extremely comfortable. After a day at sandstone crag you can come home and actually train on SYNROCK holds while plastic hurts to touch.

SYNROCK has better friction than plastic. If you sand one of these down completely smooth it still feels pretty grippy compared to a smooth plastic hold. This is one of the main reasons SYNROCK is much more comfortable than plastic. SYNROCK holds don't need an aggressive, skin-ripping texture to provide grip.

SYNROCK doesn't burn the hands on extended workouts. This is mainly because synrock is not an insulator like plastic, so it can remove heat from the hands. Heat is what causes the skin damage. I first realized this during a massive plastic workout in a friends garage one winter. When I wasn't climbing I found my self unconsciously grabbing pieces of cool metal like a bike frame to cool down my hands. When you are rock climbing, the rock keeps your hands cool. Plastic doesn't do this, and this limits your workout time.

SYNROCK holds don't rotate like plastic holds because they have a rough back. It takes very little tightening to lock these holds into place. This saves wear on your T-nuts.

SYNROCK holds don't get caked with chalk as easily as plastic so they are less maintenance.

SYNROCK shapes don't suck! Our hold masters are made from synrock so we climb on our hold masters before we make a final mold out of them. Over half of the shapes we have made didn't measure up - so we didn't make them. Most of the shapes we did like needed some degree of fine tuning. We use diamond tools to carve, shape and smooth our synrock hold masters until they feel perfect WHILE CLIMBING.