Sender One Climbing & Sender City - Santa Ana — Attraction in Santa Ana

Review scope limited to the Intro to Lead Climbing class only.

tldr: On 6/12th and 6/19th, my friend and I took the Intro to Lead Climbing class offered at the Santa Ana Sender One (SO) and found the instructional quality lacking and the learning environment distracting & unsafe. Most importantly, we felt ill-prepared for the lead certification test and didn't see a path forward. So we reached out to the SO management with our concerns. As a remedy, we were offered supplemental private instructional opportunity, at no additional cost. The instructor (Czar Goss, Training & Development Manager), who normally doesn't teach lead instruction, turned out to be a fantastic lead instructor. As a result, we became lead certified on 7/12th and feel much better prepared to lead climb/belay.

However, I'm steering my friends to take the Intro to Lead Climbing offered by my other gym (another local chain climbing gym with a much cheaper membership). Why? Cuz it's cheaper, offers 4 additional instructional/practice hours compared to SO, and you're certified by the end of 9 hours of lead instruction. Afterwards, go to SO and test out for free for lead cert. No brainer.

Here's the reason for the 3.5 stars (an average of the following): 2 stars - Disappointing initial experience with the Intro to Lead class 5 stars - Remedy provided by SO management

*In case you're still reading and interested in further details:

The class instruction (two 2.5 hr sessions) did not cover the verbal commands (except for "tension" and "falling") though communication is such an important aspect of lead climbing. (Our supplemental private instruction covered "clipping", "clipped", "slack", "watch me", "got you", "falling", "watch your leg"...)

There was very limited practice time on the wall, totaling @ 3 mock lead climbs/belays and 3 falls/3 catches. During the fall & catch practice, key instructions were not provided to some participants and/or not in a timely manner.

No initial vetting of participants to ensure that everyone met the prerequisites, which resulted in the participation of a climber with only 1 month of climbing experience, w/o fundamental knowledge of tying a figure 8 knot, properly load and operate the gri gri, take in slack in a timely manner, and being lowered safely by leaning back on the harness and letting go of the holds. Not only did this result in delaying the class significantly, but it put all the participants at risk. When being lowered, this person started downclimbing rather than letting go, and when the instructor told them to let go, they did so after much hesitation. With some rope slack introduced from the downclimbing, which confused the belayer, when they finally let go, they experienced a free fall of 10 to 15 feet before the fall was arrested by the belayer on a gri gri.

Also, the location where the mock lead was practiced (near the pillar) was very distracting and unsafe because we were constantly dodging lead climbers being lowered around us and their ropes falling over our heads. Often we would miss a portion of the instruction because we were frequently looking over our heads when someone shouted.

One participant in our group of 4 was taking the class for the second time (told at full price). He was unable to get lead certified because he couldn't find a partner to get sufficient practice after the initial set of instructions was completed, and over time, felt unconfident so signed up for a refresher. Ideally, the classes should have been set up such that all participants would get certified by the end of the instruction, like at my other gym.

In an email, SNA SO management indicated that they will be meeting with the instructors to figure out the best way to screen students' prerequisites. Additionally, they will be reviewing the lead class curriculum & provide instructor refresher to ensure consistent instruction. Until this happens, I won't be recommending the Intro to Lead...

Oh to be young and free. To climb and live life with abandon. Gone are those days for me and probably for most people when they come here they don’t feel nostalgia like I do. That’s because most didn’t climb every moment they could, work and sleep at a climbing gym and fully immerse themselves in the subculture that was the climbing community. A tendon injury forcibly removed me from it. Being years removed from that life has taught me many things, but my first thought was “wow”.

The notables. It’s huge. Like 3 times the size of my old gym and taller. Top out boulder, hi tech walls, brand new holds, top notch setters, tons of staff, lessons on the hour. Expensive. Everyone is so young here. Still very bro-centric being in Orange County, it’s much less dirty bag climbing life. Hi tech logins, finger print scanning, it’s more than a climbing gym, they’ve got Yoga, showers,etc.

My climbing journey started in my early 20’s where I went from bouldering to setting, to sport climbing to trad, rescue and onto free soloing. It was about the outdoor experience. Now people use the gym to stay strong for outside, not as a fall back to when they could not get outside. I’ve seen and done it all. The old saying “gym make you strong like bull, dumb like wall”. Climbing colored and taped holds is one thing, but much less pure than climbing outside.

Some cons are the ergo of it, doesn’t flow, no traverse, no non climbing specific workout machines, way too much spray, like from everyone. Where I come from and from when I come from you climb, spray your beta somewhere else members because I may not have the strength and endurance I use to, but my technique is still above average and I still think like a climber, not a gym boulderer. It’s poor form. There is a social aspect in the gym you can’t get away from, but if I’m climbing 2’s in the corner with my headphones on, don’t bother me. Kids these days don’t learn the etiquette of real climbing when they stay in their gym. Top ropes use gri gri’s, both those and lead require separate certs, though I saw some pretty questionable technique from certified members and instructors teaching. Strong ties to local soler Evolv which is great.

If your looking to get into climbing, come here because it’s new, hi tech, modern and legit. If your looking to get into rock climbing you may needlessly be wasting quite a bit of money by getting your...

I am rating Sender City (Funtopia) specifically. I brought my kids here last weekend and was appalled at the lack of safety procedures and staff training/awareness. We did not go to Sender One (the climbing gym side).

I am a climber and my 5 year old son is just getting into the sport. We brought his harness, and I asked the staff if it would be ok to use it, instead of the house harnesses. A staff member said that would be fine. At Funtopia, a staff member clips your child into the rope (auto-belay) with a big locking carabiner. Most of the house harnesses have a metal ring to clip into. My son's harness is a slightly different design and does not have the ring. I watched as a staff member fiddled with his harness and instead of clipping him in, decided to add an extra carabiner to make things quicker and easier. She returned with a non-locking carabiner and clipped that to his harness, and then to the rope. Climbing safety 101: that is a major no-no. I had to stop him from climbing and fix the connection so that it was appropriately safe. Someone who isn't familiar with climbing equipment might have gone blissfully unaware of this unnecessary risk.

The odds of a non-locking carabiner opening up are slim. But it can and does happen. It's possible that this particular employee made an error, but based on my interaction with the two different staff members I spoke to, there was a general lack of awareness of what was going on, or the problem that I was addressing. These were mostly young adults (20-somethings) that appeared to be running a carnival type atmosphere. Which is all fun and fine, until someone makes a mistake and your kid falls 30 feet to the ground and breaks his back. Most climbing gyms take this sort of thing very seriously - I got the feeling that the Funtopia side of things is run very different than a climbing gym. Which would be fine, except that they've got kids in harness and auto-belays climbing 30-40 foot high. So, it is a climbing gym.

This place is catering to kid's parties and with all the children running around, it is a chaotic environment. I am sure it's difficult to make sure that safety procedures are being followed in every corner of the facility. Considering the height of the walls, I don't think there is any excuse for mistakes, though. They need better screening and/or...