“It feels good to say what I want
It feels good to knock things down
It feels good to see the disgust in their eyes
It feels good and I’m gonna go wild
Spray paint the walls!”

We now live in a world of monochromatic routes. Of larger than life XXXL plastic holds and volumes. Of such low problem density that there might not even be enough in the warm-up grades or to fill in the gaps from one grade to the next. Of warp speed turnover that it barely makes sense to even try and project in the gym. Things look very different walking into a gym today than when we started climbing and I only see the problem growing worse with each new release from hold manufactures and trends toward mirroring IFSC setting standards that make the general day-passer question why the heck they even walked into the building. If you want to hear me complain more about the current state of gym setting, you can read the Jams My Cams editorial HERE.

Let’s talk about Spray Walls. The absolute antithesis of modern gym setting and how they can push you harder, smarter, and faster than climbing what the setters put up every week, and maybe even save your sanity. The general thought is to put as many holds on the wall as possible and still have them be usable. This is how many boulder caves in small, hole-in-the-wall gyms started; put all the holds you have available on the small cave and simply start linking moves together. And you can still reap these benefits as most commercial gyms have their own spray walls, whether completely customized tot he gym or one of the fancy new brands of pre-set spray walls from Moon, Tension, or Kilter.

Near Infinite Problem Density

Think of basement woodies, Ben Moon’s original School Room, and the little corner in the back of gymnastics gyms and you’ll realize how much they were able to do in such a small space. This is what most gyms have nowadays in terms of a spray wall, maybe an 8’x8′ or more wall set aside from the rest of the shaped and manicured main area of the gym. Some gyms are so small, that the whole thing looks like spray wall to pack as many possibilities as possible into a small space. The main point is, you can fit literally hundreds if not thousands of problems in a small area and this means that every plum is ripe to be picked with every possible combination. It has gotten so popular and so dense that we now have several app companies like Eat Spray Love, Boulder Creator, and Stokt to help catalog and share the problems you create with the rest of the community. The 2016 Moonboard has over 16,000 problems at just V4! The world is your oyster, now grow little pearl.

Maximum Variety

If all of the possible hold types are available and have been thrown at the spray wall, then you can set the variety you want and/or need for yourself. Bad at pinches? Starting linking those bad boys together to practice. Crimp god/goddess? Set something to impress you friends. Need to practice certain moves like drop knees, rose moves, or dynos? You know what to do. Even better is when a gym can set their spray wall on an adjustable pitch so you can get the full range of vertical to nearly overhanging. That V0 you set 10 degrees suddenly gets bumped up a few points at a 50 degree pitch and the techniques you employ will have to improve, and all you did was change the angle of the wall. My gym does not have this perk, but we do have spray walls at 15, 45, 50, and 70 degrees for maximum training potential, just pick your poison. And you are not confined by the predominant style of the setters. I guarantee that once you have been in a gym for a few months, you can start to identify who set what because the same themes start to repeat, and this is especially true of USAC certified setters here in America, but that is for another article.

Minimal Grade Gaps

One of the best things about a spray wall’s near infinite variations is that you can keep making the same route slightly more difficult to push yourself. Set a problem that is tough but doable for you, then play your own version of take away or try to make the same move to the hold on the next bolt hole and see how hard you can make it before trying to set another problem. This pushes you the same way adding 5lbs to the bar each week in weight lifting pushes, steadily and incrementally rather than big leaps. I once picked 14 holds on the Moonboard and I was able to get 26 variations by doing this before I reached my limit with the final version being 6 holds, and each one was slightly more difficult or forced at least one different movement than the last. Baby steps.

Zero or Minimum Turnover

A good spray wall set has the capacity to stay up indefinitely so long as you keep getting something out of it. Of course, if you get new holds and there is no space left, maybe something has to get replaced so you can tough the new hotness. If you are bored with the set and every move you are capable of doing has been done to death, strip it and switch it. The best part is, if you cataloged the problems with an app or notebook, the same bolt holes are marked, but now there are new holds in new orientations to make it feel fresh and half the work is done for creating new climbs. My gym has a near permanent spray wall with some projects on there have been up for years for people to test themselves against, you know, kinda like the outdoors. This means less work for setters and more bang for your buck for you as you keep grinding.

Sustained Interest

I said it last article and the the same is true here; climbing gyms are a business and the customer needs to be satisfied. Spray walls provide the challenge for the crushers that can flash everything on the main floor and keep them coming back. They also provide a way to train for middle of our bell curve to improve. And finally, it provides a goal for the ones that just walked through the door to one day hope to hang with the strong crowd. The culture surrounding spray walls is one of comradery, both to push each other to get better and to share in their creativity by putting up something new. Everyone is a setter but they didn’t have to get out the ladders and the drills. Sure, people are still psyched to get on the new stuff that goes up every week, but those memories fade when the new batch erases what once was. And those little home walls do the same for individuals or small friend/family groups A spray wall is the closest thing in a gym or woodie that I can find that develops a history between the participants the same way climbing outside does. That’s what keeps us coming back.

Conclusion

Spray Walls are perhaps the best way to combat the problems that have arisen because of monochromatic setting. Monochromatic may look pretty, but training and getting stronger at the sport rarely does, and more often than not it is consistent plodding and tweaking and hard pulling on the dirty holds in the back that see us truly make those gains. So introduce yourself to a little organized anarchy of spray walls or maybe even build one yourself and start your journey. You get to go at your own pace, do what feels fun and best for you to advance, and maybe you will even make some like-minded friends. Plus it feels good to do what you want.

Tylor Streett likes spray walls but hates a beta sprayer.

For more ideas of how to utilize your local spray wall, check out this ARTICLE in Gripped Magazine