Sharing our love of rock climbing with Mississauga, Oakville, Etobicoke and Brampton
Gym Members Could Bring Two Friends for Free Climbing Each Day
On Saturday and Sunday February 23, 24th 2019, Hub Climbing Mississauga broke all attendance records with their Grand Opening Climber’s Party. Outside the complex at 3636 Hawkestone Rd Unit 1 both parking lots, front and back, were filled with cars. It was only slightly less busy inside the gym. People came in from all across Ontario. Friends met to get free stuff, attend workshops, watch featured entertainment and climb tall walls together.
The gym was filled to the brim both days as Hub Climbing Mississauga let members bring up to two friends each for a free climbing, and anyone else who walked in off the street could get a full day of climbing for $23+tax (Rentals not included). Members were emailed and Instagrammed the graphic invitation displayed above which encouraged them to bring their pals and come explore our new property . We worked real to get hard to get the message out, and to prepare for the landmark day. Our event planners lined up eighteen hours of fun-filled activities designed to challenge and inspire all participants.
Grand Opening Events at a Climbing Gym
At Hub Climbing Mississauga, just like in Markham, we’re on a mission to grow the climbing community in Ontario and across Canada by hosting unique events and by becoming a central ‘hub’ for athletes and climbing activities of all descriptions. But the facility was designed to accommodate other exercise disciplines that don’t involve scaling tall walls. Fundamentally, we hope our new facility will act like a beacon to attract new people to the sport of climbing. Once people catch the thrill of a clever ascent they’ll never want to quit. That’s why we work so hard to create a non-intimidating atmosphere for people who have never climbed before but want to try their hand at this popular sport. All weekend long we laid out photo challenges and workshops and live performances by skilled entertainers. Both days started with friendly competitions in top rope climbing, lead climbing and bouldering. Then in the afternoons there were workshops including an Introduction to Speed Climbing workshop that occurred at 1pm which was the day’s most popular clinic.
Rachel taught a well-attended Tips for Beginners – Introduction to Climbing workshop at 2:30 pm which covered the different names of things and various climbing techniques.
Kids Love hanging Out at Hub Climbing
Some members brought their whole families to the gym that weekend. When parents and kids come to the climbing gym, staff members are ready to help them get started. The first lesson we teach young climbers is that what goes up must come down, and the best way to avoid injury is to practice falling and landing properly on the mats. Next thing is to set expectations, and be ready to congratulate their successes. There are whole walls with climbs set out for folks with shorter reaches, but that doesn’t mean they are any less challenging. We were delighted to see our youngest guests try and succeed here, climbing for the first time, tasting a thrill that will tempt them for a lifetime.
The Master of Ceremonies asked participants to submit videotaped records of their ascents in Speed Climbing, Bouldering, Top Rope & Lead Climbing. These all ages, all -skill level competitions were strictly for fun but of course we did award prizes.
Prizes & Winners at Grand Opening Party
When the dust settled our Judges had over 300 competitors in eight separate challenges to evaluate, and in total we gave out twenty awesome prizes to reward the winners. The winners were,
Saturday -Bouldering Ryan Meghdies, Speed Climbing, Cornelius Froese, 5.68sec. Top Rope Climbing- Shaolin Rose Gawat. Lead Climbing – Shaolin Rose Gawat
Sunday- Bouldering: Justin Leung. Speed Climbing: Brandon Barraclough 5.31sec. Top Rope Climbing: (Tied for first) Marc Sirizzotti, Jordan Querino, Crystal Chan, Taylor Galloway. Lead Climbing – Lien Mike Chen
Congratulations to the winners and thanks to everyone who participated.
Sponsors Came to Party with Climbers
Right inside the front door, Mountain Equipment Coop, which goes by the name MEC now was there giving out Cliff bars and key chains. Deeper inside the complex, other retailers brought niche climbing gear for show & sale at the exhibition. Some of our members purchased apparel which they donned on the spot. T-shirt vendors were busy all day selling soft climbing shirts adorned with fresh designs by Michelle Ang.
Michelle Ang or Michyllica is a rock climber & artist located in Toronto, Canada. Her designs have recently won international recognition having been selected as logos for major climbing competitions. The clever image of a human heart wrought from rope was the top-selling T-shirt design at Saturday’s show and sale.
Sender Gear at Mississauga Climbing Gym
The Sender vendors proffered a wide array of high quality Tenaya climbing shoes available for free trials. This team was smart to park themselves in a prominent corner of the gym and once there they let Hub Climbing members try out their climbing gear for free. This is a great way to get people talking about your goods, especially if you’re absolutely certain you have the best performing footwear in the marketplace.
Sender Gear is an official retailer of Tenaya climbing shoes which is a well recognized brand on five continents, and their booties have helped top ranked athletes boulder up some of the planet’s hardest routes in record times.
Tembo Chalk gave away twenty pounds of rock climbing chalk, one scoop at a time.
Tembo Climbing Chalk was prominently featured at the party, occupying prime real estate between the front door and gym floor. You couldn’t ignore them, or their offer of free rock climbing chalk. Anyone with a pouch got six ounces of the white stuff to do with as they pleased.
What exactly is climbing chalk made from? We asked, and Matt Fudge told us that while most climbing chalk you’ll find is made from Magnesium Carbonate, his recipe is distinctly different. But he wouldn’t say much more than that. It’s all very hush hush.
Normal climbing chalk is similar to the blackboard chalk you might remember from grade school, and is the same compound that gymnasts, weightlifters, and other athletes put on their hands in order to improve friction and grip. How could Tembo have anything different? And how is it any better? Only the climbers who tried the free samples would know.
Sydney Park, a Local Boulder Champion Was Spotted on the Walls
Sydney Park made short work of the tallest wall in the gym. She is the 2019 Boulder Champion (Nationals) Youth Group B. This author is not entirely sure if that’s the correct competition title for Sydney, but regardless it was fun to watch this young competitor scale the walls. The girl is a natural climber and a natural speed climber.
Glory Dearling Performed Aerial Silks at 4pm
At 4pm in the afternoon, party goers were treated to a spectacular aerial silks show created and presented by aerial performer Glory Dearling of The Circus Fix. Curious onlookers corralled into in the carpeted auditorium below the premium lead climbing section of the Mississauga gym. The stairs here are soft seats that face the Dragon. Indeed this is the Dragon’s Lair, a pit dug into the floor special to produce the tallest competition climbing walls in the GTA.
It was in this central area of the gym that Hub Climbing staff rigged two parallel lines of fabric from the tip of the dragon’s snout down to the ground, a vertical distance of about forty feet. This was probably more space than Glory is accustomed to having, as few other Mississauga venues would offer such heights.
Aerial silks are a relatively new thing; they were only just invented in 1996 by circus mentor André Simard. The athletic art form was produced as a result of Andre being commissioned by Cirque du Soleil to research and develop visually attractive acrobatics as early as 1987. His job was to discover imaginative ways to inspire audiences to buy tickets, and to wow them once they got to the shows. His description of this midair dance as, “The beautiful yet dangerous art of aerial silk” perfectly encapsulates the spectacle.
Aerial silks also known as aerial contortion, aerial ribbons is a type of performance in which one or more artists perform aerial acrobatics while hanging from a piece of fabric. Some performers use dried or spray rosin on their hands and feet to increase the friction and grip on the fabric. Glory did not apply anything to her hands or feet.
The fabric was hung as two pieces, but its not uncommon to see performers use only a single piece, or one folded to make a loop, (that’s called a hammock silk).
Just like Andre Simard, aerial silks performers like Glory Dearling are athletic artists. Glory climbed the suspended fabrics without the use of any safety lines. She relied on her training and skill to execute the most complicated midair maneuvers this author has ever seen. The performing artist swirled the fabric below her frolicking body as she rose up and down the line, contorting herself in all directions. Glory amazed the audience by using the fabric to dance through the air, striking poses, telling a story in the sky.