Announcements Archives - Page 4 of 5 - Sender One Climbing
Community Update: Health & Safety

Community Update: Health & Safety

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A new announcement has been released about the temporary closure of all Sender One facilities. Read more HERE.

Please note that this is an older version of updates and some things may have changed. Use this as a resource, but please read our most recent update HERE.
The latest section of this announcement was added on 3/14/20.

3/10/20
With the recent outbreak of COVID-19, we want to remind you that the health and safety of our community is of utmost importance. We do not believe there is a need to disrupt your climbing routine, planned yoga class, or reserved Sender City session at this time. However, we'd like to offer precautions and recommendations to our community regarding health practices during this flu season. Preventative actions are also in place at all Sender One locations to ensure our customers will continue to receive the optimal climbing experience.

As climbers, managing risk is a normal part of our sport. The new coronavirus is forcing us to manage a different type of risk. Here are some precautionary tips and reminders that will help prevent the spread of germs and illnesses.

Stay Healthy. Keep Climbing.

Here are some friendly reminders so you can avoid the spread of germs and continue climbing.

• Cover your nose and mouth when coughing and/or sneezing with the inside of your upper arm or a tissue.
• Dispose of used tissues properly after use.
• Regularly wash your hands with soap and water.
• If you have flu-like symptoms, seek medical attention immediately and stay home from work, school, the climbing gym, and other crowded places.
• Clean and disinfect frequently touched objects and surfaces before and after use.
• Avoid hugging, kissing, shaking hands, and fist bumping when greeting. Instead, use jazz hands to say hello!
• Avoid touching all areas of your face with unwashed hands.

Remember, it's important to properly wash your hands
BEFORE
: Climbing, Sender City, Working Out, Taking a Yoga Class, Eating, Preparing Food, Treating a Wound
AFTER: Climbing, Sender City, Working Out, Taking a Yoga Class, Eating, Preparing Food, Treating a Wound, Using the Restroom, Sneezing, Coughing, Blowing Your Nose, Petting a Cute Animal, Taking Out Garbage

Your health means a lot to us! So much that Sender One will continue to provide sanitary wipes, hand sanitizer, and hand soap for our guests. We've also ensured that our staff will continue to regularly wipe down non-climbing surfaces and areas with cleaning spray. Additionally, we've notified all staff to stay at home if they are not feeling well and/or have flu-like symptoms.

Stay classy and stay healthy, Sender One Community.

UPDATE 3/12/20:

In light of recent announcements by the California Department of Public Health and California Governor, Gavin Newsom, Sender One has the following updates to our programming and offerings.

  • The USAC Youth Sport Local that was scheduled for Saturday, April 4th at SNA is canceled.
  • Sender One’s Bouldering League at LAX, scheduled to start April 8th, is postponed until further notice.
  • All community events involving large gatherings at both SNA and LAX are cancelled until further notice.
  • All community events involving food will be cancelled until further notice. This includes Pi Day and our Member Appreciation Night at Sender One LAX, which will be rescheduled.
  • We are reducing staffing and staff positions in response to a reduction in large group offerings.

Additionally, effective immediately, we are making the following community recommendations:

  • During busy weekday evenings and weekends, please limit your gym visits to a maximum of three (3) hours.
  • For Sender City sessions, although we sanitize our helmets regularly, if you feel more comfortable using your own helmet, you are encouraged to.   
  • For climbing camps, you are encouraged to provide campers with their own snacks as we are reducing group meal times.  

To reiterate, Sender One is continuing to take all reasonable precautions recommended by health and government authorities to curtail the spread of the coronavirus while safeguarding. Read our full letter here.

UPDATE 3/14/20:

Sender One locations will continue to hold a number of yoga classes until further notice. Sanitization and cleaning of the yoga studios will continue to be a top priority. Additional changes to our programming is to follow.

  • Acro Yoga Classes and Acro Jam Sessions will be canceled at SNA and LAX until further notice.
  • Class sizes will be capped at half-capacity at SNA only.
  • Yoga blankets will be temporarily removed from all yoga studios.

Beyond these changes, here's what you can do to help keep our yoga community healthy.

  • Please try to bring your own yoga mats to class. We will continue to offer sanitary wipes for all yoga mats.
  • If you use a yoga mat provided by the gym, please thoroughly wipe it down with a sanitary wipe after use.
  • We will continue to provide yoga blocks to use, but please use a towel to cover the blocks while in use if possible.

For more updated information and resources about our global health situation visit these websites: City of Los Angeles, Department of Public Health, the Centers for Disease Control, and the World Health Organization.

Sender One Playa Vista – Update!

Sender One Playa Vista – Update!

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Sender One's next newest facility and first-ever bouldering only location is ready to serve the Playa Vista and Sender One community this summer!

We are very excited to share with you new visualizations of what the climbing walls by Walltopia will look like. These walls are inspired by the nearby ocean, California sunshine, and coastline sailing - elements that complement Playa Vista and neighboring cities.

Follow our Sender One Playa Vista progress on the new location's Instagram @senderone_playavista and sign up for our newsletter for updates.

Enjoy! We can't wait to climb with you this summer.

NOTE: These are only renderings of the climbing walls. The actual facility appearance is not finalized yet!

 

 

Parking at Sender One LAX – We Hear You, and We’re Here for You

Parking at Sender One LAX – We Hear You, and We’re Here for You

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Since Sender One LAX opened three years ago, the community has grown and flourished. We are grateful for the climbing experiences that we share with our Sender One family every day!

With more and more people joining the fun, we know a frequent challenge is finding a place to park.  We wanted to let you know that we are working on improvements.

As a first step, staff will no longer park in the gym’s lot during peak weeknight and weekend hours.  At the same time, we are in discussions with our neighbors and nearby parking lot owners to make more parking available to everyone in our community.  Please check out our parking map on the right for options outside of Sender One LAX’s general parking. 

We sincerely appreciate your cooperation, patience, and understanding while we work to make parking more accessible for Sender One LAX’s members and guests. 

We always want to hear your suggestions. If you have other thoughts related to parking or any other topics, we have suggestion forms available on our community board.  You can also reach out to us through our various electronic channels. 

Thanks for being awesome!

Introducing the Sender One Training Center

Introducing the Sender One Training Center

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Updated 1/14/21

This spring, we're opening the doors to the Sender One Training Center! With climbing continuing to rise in popularity, we wanted to dedicate a space with a purpose to help build climbers for life by gaining strength, learning new skills, and practicing climbing ethics.

The Facility & Location

The Sender One Training Center will feature beautiful bouldering walls provided by Vertical Solutions, including two adjustable climbing boards, competition-focused routesetting and holds, hangboards, campus boards, climbing training tools, and more (note: due to the pandemic, some features may be delayed)! Located only a short walk from our first location, Sender One SNA, at the McFadden Place complex -- 2100 Wilshire Ave Unit B, Santa Ana, CA 92705,  the 7,000 square foot space will also host special events, clinics, and climbing competitions.

Why a Training Center?

Our community has grown rapidly over the years, which we're sure many have noticed on a typical weekday evening.  We believe by creating a space focused on our dedicated trainers and our competitive climbers we can better meet our community’s current needs, as well as promote climbing’s future.  As a side benefit, by creating a home for training and competition climbing, Sender One SNA will have more capacity during both peak weekday climbing hours and busy weekends.

Soft-Opening Spring 2021

The Sender One Training Center is currently in the works!  It is slated to open spring of 2021. Follow along for updates through InstagramFacebook, and the Newsletter. Once the Training Center opens, we plan to open it first to our youth climbing teams and adult training programs.  As we learn and grow into the space, we plan to make the Training Center and its amenities open to members.

Sender One Assisted Braking Device (ABD) Policy

Sender One Assisted Braking Device (ABD) Policy

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EFFECTIVE FEBRUARY 1ST, 2020, SENDER ONE WILL REQUIRE THE USE OF ASSISTED BRAKING DEVICES (ABDs) FOR BELAYING

Clinic Dates

For those of you who are only familiar with tube style devices, fear not--with this policy change comes the opportunity to expand your climbing-gear knowledge. Throughout February, Sender One will host free clinics on three ABDs:

  1. Black Diamond’s ATC Pilot
  2. Edelrid’s Jul
  3. Petzl’s GriGri

Spots will be limited, so make sure that you reserve your spot through our *website (or at the front desk).
*Sign-ups will be available soon!
NOTE
: these clinics are not “belay classes” - if you have yet to learn how to lead climb, please look into the “Intro to Lead (LAX or SNA)” classes that we offer. 

 

LAX

LAX :

  • Monday: Feb. 3rd, 10th and 17th
    • 6 PM - 7 PM
  • Tuesday: Feb. 4th, 11th and 18th
    • 6 PM - 7 PM
  • Wednesday: Feb. 5th, 12th and 19th
    • 7:30 PM - 8:30 PM
  • Thursday: Feb. 6th, 13th and 20th
    • 6 PM - 7 PM

Signup Here!

SNA

SNA :

  • Monday: Feb. 3rd, 10th and 17th
    • 7 PM - 8 PM
  • Tuesday: Feb. 4th, 11th and 18th
    • 7 PM - 8 PM
  • Wednesday: Feb. 5th, 12th and 19th
    •  
    • 7 PM - 8 PM
  • Thursday: Feb. 6th, 13th and 20th
    • 7 PM - 8 PM

Sign Up at the Front Desk!

Important Dates

February 1st - All belayers and tests will be required to use ABDs

In addition to the clinics detailed above, Sender One will be offering a 30% discount on all belay devices in our shop throughout February.

What does ABD mean?

ABD stands for "assisted-braking device", or also called self-braking/locking and auto-braking/locking devices. ABDs have a friction (camming) brake in the system that is designed to lock down on the rope when the climber suddenly falls. The amount of friction is important in certain aspects of the climb. The more friction involved allows the belayer to have control of the load in case of a fall and the less friction involved helps move the rope through the system (i.e. lowering the climber).

So...Why the New Policy?

Climbing is a fluid and ever-evolving sport. Just as the bounds of climbing difficulty continue to push ever further, so too do the tools and technology we use in our sport. One of Sender One’s core values is to “learn from your projects...and send them.” Just as climbing and its tools push forward, we try to do the same.

At the time Sender One opened its first location, the two most commonly used belay devices for sport climbing were the Black Diamond ATC and the Petzl GriGri. Despite the GriGri’s inclusion of assisted braking, many people choose to continue using their ATC’s for a number of reasons, including cost, familiarity, and simplicity. Despite the absence of any popular consensus on the effectiveness of assisted braking devices (ABDs) like the GriGri, we decided that all top rope belay at Sender One would take place on GriGri’s--and attached a GriGri to all of our top ropes. About a year later, we chose to stop teaching lead belay with ATC, switching to teaching lead belay with GriGri. And then about a year after that, we phased out the sale of belay devices without assisted braking from all of our retail shops.

Based on our own observations and experiences over these past few years, we believe it is time to embrace fully the promise of ABDs. GriGri’s are now familiar and ubiquitous, particularly at Sender One. And in recent years, equipment manufacturers have given climbers a bounty of lower cost ABD alternatives to the GriGri, such as the ATC Pilot and Edelrid Jul.

(Sidenote: Edelrid ceased manufacturing belay devices without assisted braking not too long ago).

Is there still a place in climbing for tube-style belay devices? Absolutely. The analogy that comes to our minds is anti-lock brakes and traction control for your car. Can you drive a car safely without either of those? Absolutely. However, when used properly, particularly by the masses, both anti-lock brakes and traction control dramatically reduce the risk of driving your car. Similarly, while not foolproof, when used properly, ABDs reduce risk to the climber and the belayer over and above what a non-ABD can provide. Following the lead of some other climbing gym operators, notably the Front in Salt Lake City, we think it is the right time to mandate ABDs-only at Sender One.

View the list of belay devices below that are allowed at Sender One, beginning February 1st, 2020.

Belay Devices Sold in our Retail Shops

Tiny Holds is at Sender One Climbing!

Tiny Holds is at Sender One Climbing!

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Words and Pictures by Britney (IG : tiny_holds)

Give a backstory of yourself - "Who Am I?"

My name is Britney Berkstresser and I am the creator and owner of Tiny Holds. I am very tiny myself, all of 4'9". I'm a dog mom who is obsessed with bouldering, kombucha, living a healthy lifestyle and of course, making tiny holds! I got bit by a bug... I contracted Lyme. I spent 10 years in a body  riddled with health conditions. Everyone said...you’re working too much, you’re stressed, you’re going to college, you’re fine, you’re bat shit crazy, nothing is wrong with you. I lost the ability to take care of myself for the next 4 years. It was a battle of life and death as no one knew what to do, how to help me or how to heal me. At times I even lost the use of my brain, my speech, my arms and legs, everything was gone. I did everything holistic I could to try and detox my body of this disease with no known cure. My family was there to help and support me every step of the way. I started making progress with diet and herbs. I was told I would need my wheelchair and someone to take care of me for the rest of my life. My sister thought differently. She said, "you’re going to rock climb." We both had never tried it, so we went to our local gym Sender One Santa Ana and I made it 3/4 the way up a V0 with a 102 fever, shaking and said, "Ok, I wanna do this." I started going to the gym every day. The community at Sender One welcomed us and here I am now! A living, breathing, walking, rock crushing, bouldering, strong and healthy climber.

How did you start Tiny Holds? (broad question, answer however you like)

Tiny Holds kinda started as a joke. I spent a solid year training almost every single day mainly inside the gym to help heal myself from an illness. One day while climbing, I told my sister I wanted a pair of climbing hold earrings. We looked online and couldn't find anything.... sooo I made my own! After tons of trial and error, I had my first pair of Tiny Hold earrings! I was not able to work full time, so I was in need of some extra income to pay off medical costs. My climbing friends motivated me and inspired me to sell them at an event at Sender One because they wanted some for themselves. I did it and now here we are!

What inspired you to start Tiny Holds?

Being so tiny myself, I love anything Tiny! Gym climbing means the world to me, it helped me heal mentally and physically. I wanted a piece of that love with me at all times. I felt I needed a way to be able to share the same feeling I got from making and wearing my personal Tiny Holds with everyone else.

How long have you been climbing?

I started climbing in June of 2018...and probably only touched a rope all of 10 times...I think I want to boulder for the rest of my life!

What other hobbies do you have?

Besides Tiny Holds and Climbing... I'm a full-time dog mom and "Boochtender" (kombucha bartender) at Zama Tea and Kombucha. I absolutely love Kombucha and most people refer to me as a "Kombucha Snob". I love hunting down Kombucha bars and healthy foods...I love to eat!

What drives your creative mindset?

My creative mindset is driven by climbing. Every time I set foot in the gym I nerd out on all the holds and routes. Not only to figure out beta (lol), but to inspire the designs. Gym climbing changed my life, so it is imported to me to be able to make a piece of this sacred space that everyone can have with them all the time.

 

Britney also has a personal IG showcasing her passions in life. Check it out here!

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