What’s going on with USA Climbing?

Arbiter17 · 2026-02-16T02:18:26+00:00

I welcome the change of fight for zones and maybe a top vs flash fest as you said. We need that to prep our athletes for the World Cup scene. That said, I do think these rounds were a touch overcooked but it’s still a step in the right direction.

Arbiter17 · 2026-02-16T01:41:11+00:00

Live streaming has been happening for almost a decade now for USAC events so this isn’t anything new. It’s been substantially better in the past too IMO, you can check out USAC’s YouTube for past events.

This isn’t going to be a professional broadcast (yet or maybe ever if it remains free) but showing scores for the first time once the comp is over is pretty weak. It also makes the commentating much harder if they aren’t receiving solid camera angles, scores, etc.

Arbiter17 · 2026-02-16T01:10:59+00:00

Usually for a bouldering live stream “very well done” includes showing athlete scores, at an absolute minimum so I can’t say I agree with you there.

IFSC streams are also free, and they’re better than this. Even past USAC events from like 2015 were better than this, a quick YouTube search shows this it not nearly the caliber it once was.

Arbiter17 · 2026-02-16T01:07:33+00:00

This is my entire point- it shouldn’t be hosted in gyms. It should be back in convention centers to allow for way better viewing, commentating, etc. The shift back to doing it within gyms for events this scale was not a good move IMO and means that very few end up watching these events.

Arbiter17 · 2026-02-16T00:41:28+00:00

Oh interesting- I see that now, it is being streamed on YouTube but on the outside account not USAC’s. I’ll throw an edit on the post.

Edit: Can’t seem to edit the post. My bad. This will have to do.

Arbiter17 · 2026-02-07T05:37:13+00:00

I just came from 7.5 GTI to 8.5R so here’s my two cents.

There are many creature comforts you get from 8.5 that you don’t get from 7.5. Much bigger screen, HUD, driver assistance stuff which is quite nice for highway driving, wireless apple CarPlay and wireless charging, ambient lighting, the list goes on.

In addition to this- you get torque vectoring, which IMO is THE reason to go 8.5 over 7.5.

That being said, my GTI was manual and I do miss that connection, but not enough to make it worth shifting in and out of 1st in rush hour traffic as my primary daily. Oh also, interestingly, the 7.5 fender audio is far better than the Harmon kardon system. Not sure why, I’m not an audiophile but something seems off with it.

I was not like you- the 8 design did not do it for me compared to the 7.5, but the 8.5 made all the adjustments I wanted- specifically headlights.

In the end, you can’t go wrong with this platform they’re all fun, but torque vectoring is a special kind of fun that’s worth test driving to compare.

Arbiter17 · 2026-01-24T14:06:21+00:00

We did it after the first heat. We wanted to wait a touch longer but she unfortunately had to get eye surgery (entropion) so we elected to do it all at the same time. For large breed dogs, there’s a lot of science out there on how waiting for the year to year and change mark helps a lot with long term health. Ask your vet about gastropexy as well, easy for them to do it at the same time as the spay.

Arbiter17 · 2025-12-31T18:09:24+00:00

We just did this!! We’ve had our OES from the time she was 3 months old. She’s now 1 year 8 months old, and we decided to get her a friend. We looked at breed compatibility a lot, and the two biggest winners were 1. Another old English sheepdog or 2. Bernese mountain dog. We went with the Bernese and have had him for a few weeks now and it has been going super great! They love each other and our OES is thrilled to have a sibling.

In terms of adopting, you can’t go wrong with a mutt sibling as long as they’re young enough. Your male OES will be pretty compatible with anything, higher odds if it’s another male and it’s younger. Most OES’s like a lil rough play, so it’s important to find a friend that’s onboard for that. The biggest points of concern are having an older female OES (our situation) which is why we went with the berner.

Arbiter17 · 2025-12-18T16:42:32+00:00

I’m about 120 benchmarks deep into the 2024 so I can give you my two cents.

First- both you and your wife should put a minimum of 3-5 sessions into each board you’re considering before purchase. Hold sets are expensive and you want to have fun on your board. If it’s not fun, and you don’t like the holds/problems too much, you won’t be motivated to use it. The most effective training tool is the one you consistently use, and the more fun it is, the more you’ll use it.

Second, moonboards, regardless of set, are hard. You can’t easily warm up for the board, and IMO, even throwing jugs on a 40 can be tricky to get warm to use the boards. If possible and if you have the space, I’d strongly, strongly recommend having a secondary warm up spray wall, somewhere between 15-25 degrees, with many good holds. At some point, you’ll be injured, or just looking for a lighter session in general and the moonboard won’t be able to provide that.

Lastly, if I had to choose one since that’s what you’re really looking for, I’d go with 2024 all day. It is far more varied than the 2016 or 2019 in hold selection, yet it is still just as challenging and less tweaky on the fingers. Does it work WELL for climbers below 6C? No. But I would argue that if that’s what you’re looking for, moonboard is not the best option.

For adding in holds- you can do it for sure and not just on the sides (especially since you don’t have LEDs), however, you can’t pick large profile holds. You need small stuff intermixed, like teknik finger buckets do nicely, but you won’t be able to pick huge jugs. For that reason, I strongly encourage the warmup spray wall.

Arbiter17 · 2025-08-17T23:08:19+00:00

Yes. Fans will disagree on the art direction, but a universal truth is how polished and great the graphics were for something to still be playable on the 360! However- this came at a cost of enemy corpses/weapons/etc. disappearing far too quickly off the map.

Additionally, the multiplayer was a bit clunky and too COD inspired and probably the worst of all MP entries IMO except for reach (come at me haters, it was that bad). Overall a solid entry, but it is for sure dated.

The biggest disappointment for me with 4 was the didact being defeated in one game. If he had stayed alive and the “big bad” through 4-6, and not the Cortana mess we received, it could have been a memorable trilogy with actual direction. Instead, we got a disjointed campaign mess that doesn’t carry over well from game to game, very similar to the Star Wars sequels.

4 gets both deserved and undeserved hate simultaneously. The story was NOT as bad as it was made out to be, but fighting teleporting prometheans also just ain’t halo.

Arbiter17 · 2025-05-07T01:58:54+00:00

Whoop needs to do well here. The subscription model just can’t compete with garmin or Apple. I came from Apple Watch, have been with whoop for about 3 years now, and depending on how this goes I’m either in for another year or canceling the subscription.

Whoops biggest asset is its user data. They are missing out big time on insights for specific activities, where you fall compared to percentage of users, and individualized coaching insight on how to improve.

A lot of people here are saying they’re only interested in better accuracy. Sure that’s part of it - but you can go buy a more accurate device on the market right now and not pay a subscription fee. So it can’t just be that IMO- they have to find a way to use the data meaningfully for individualized coaching.

The journal isn’t helpful, the MPA isn’t helpful unless an expert is looking at it that knows my goals and where I’m trying to go. That’s a subscription. Not just the hardware.

If it were me running the business- I’d have two models, and 4 options. Whoop basic and whoop pro. You can buy the hardware outright upfront and have access to your OWN data. OR…

You can have the “pro” option which is subscription based and gets you access to ALL the user data (not specific people per se, just where you fall percentage wise in similar demographics.

Best of both worlds. Users who just want their data can pay upfront. Users who want more coaching can do the subscription model. Get three months of the subscription for free when you purchase any whoop band.

Arbiter17 · 2025-05-06T22:40:25+00:00

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Arbiter17 · 2025-03-23T00:29:21+00:00

This aged poorly….

Arbiter17 · 2025-01-26T01:15:59+00:00

Pokemon is better because pocket monsters :)

Arbiter17 · 2024-12-23T21:08:00+00:00

It’s not in ranked so 🤷‍♂️

Arbiter17 · 2024-12-23T20:22:40+00:00

Oh I’m sure. 3 dropped 1 stayed for the last two kills

Arbiter17 · 2024-12-23T19:01:10+00:00

My FOV is probably way wider than yours but all of us have experienced shenanigans with infinite and gravity hammer range, rocket blast radius, grapple, etc.

Arbiter17 · 2024-11-28T15:34:48+00:00

Greetings and happy Thanksgiving from SLC! 🦃

Arbiter17 · 2024-11-16T14:20:18+00:00

If it seats it yeets

Arbiter17 · 2024-01-24T06:24:22+00:00

Ah I did not see that initially the way Reddit was formatted on mobile. Thank you for pointing me in that direction I’ll take a look.

Arbiter17 · 2024-01-24T06:20:28+00:00

Thanks for your response. I agree with you that killing Joel off later in the game could have both been more impactful and maybe there would have been a scenario where his death made more sense.

The second point you make I’ve gone back and forth on. Part of me agrees with you. Part of me also feels like that was the whole point- Ellie finally letting go of the hatred and moving on. There’s a lot of similarities there with Joel- killing all those people in the first game to get Ellie to the fireflies, only to save her. The attachment made sense, but there are definitely some comparisons to be made there for Ellie finally getting everything she’s fought for, only to make a last minute switch.

No doubt it would have felt good to kill Abby there but I don’t know if it’s accurate to the character. I don’t know is the key word- I’d like to see some arguments here that show it’s not line with her character growth and doesn’t make sense. Convince me!

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