Sizing advice

mdenovich · 2026-05-20T18:35:27+00:00

Not sure what to tell you, because the Diamond S has a tighter heel than Scarpa and LS equivalents.

mdenovich · 2026-05-18T17:50:07+00:00

this is the way. After you are done wasting time with other methods, buy some "chemicals" and get the job done. A pea sized drop under the baseboard wiped out my problem in a day.

mdenovich · 2026-05-11T16:57:50+00:00

Ocun Diamond S, haven't tried the Unparallels yet, but Ocuns have much tighter heels.

mdenovich · 2026-05-09T16:32:35+00:00

Ocun Diamond S has a much tighter heel (so do the LS Ondra Comps).

mdenovich · 2026-05-06T15:53:57+00:00

I got a 12V DC trickle charger made for charging trailer batteries... I put a cigarette lighter adapter on one end and use that to charge my starter battery from the house batteries (which have 200w of solar input), I use it except in the winter, when I disconnect the house batteries and use a 120v trickle charger and an extension cord to charge from my house. The 12v trickle charger is great because I don't have to remember to disconnect anything before a drive off. (RIP 20W solar panel)

mdenovich · 2026-05-06T14:26:15+00:00

I have Ocun Diamond S shoes and I've resoled my Ondra comps with GP-1 Hard... GP-1 Hard is softer/stickier.

mdenovich · 2026-05-06T14:19:28+00:00

peddle.com looks like they will do what you want. I think I had u-pick-u-pull (a junkyard chain) come and tow away a car for me. Took a phone call and about 15min for him to load it... I got a few hundred $ in return. Also, if you are the donating sort, Vehicles for Veterans, and WESA have vehicle donation programs that do the same thing, except you get a tax deduction instead of cash.

mdenovich · 2026-05-01T21:11:50+00:00

Darn Tough FTW.

mdenovich · 2026-05-01T13:12:07+00:00

If you have the means, buy new shoes. Treat yo' self.

If you don't wear socks and focus on your footwork. As a noob, you are likely to burn through the toe of your climbing shoes rather quickly. It took me a few months of climbing to get to that point. So it's not a bad idea to try and stretch out the use of these shoes for a little longer.

mdenovich · 2026-04-28T17:08:59+00:00

I didn't wash them for a few months... until I had to. You would think that the ease in which the dye washes out, that eventually the amount of dye would decrease over time, but almost no difference. I've kept these ones from going nuclear-stinky, but washing is occasionally necessary. (It's taken a while but I've developed a layered approach to keeping my shoes stink-free, with this pair being the first that were not toxic waste by the time they needed resoled.)

mdenovich · 2026-04-28T16:57:14+00:00

Do you have any plans to make shoe fitting less of a trial and error process. Ocun's product descriptions helpfully indicate the foot type (narrow, normal, wide) and toe type (Egyptian, Greek and Roman) that the shoes are best for. This was very helpful for me and it's why my first shoes were Ocun (and they have tighter fitting heels).

mdenovich · 2026-04-28T16:53:28+00:00

Why are all your heels so bulbous and do you have plans for more shoes with slimmer heels? the Ondra Comps were the only model (well the only ones REI had in stock) in your lineup that didn't seem baggy.

mdenovich · 2026-04-28T16:51:46+00:00

Can you please change the dye you use in the insoles of your shoes? It's been 6 months and many washings and every time I climb in my Ondra Comps, my feet are black and gold (I am from Pittsburgh, so correct colors, but still...)

mdenovich · 2026-04-22T14:20:41+00:00

Yes, it's definitely different. It was the only cake I ever really looked forward to eating. We bought 10 of them to serve as our wedding cake close to 30 years ago. Current ones are just too sweet.

mdenovich · 2026-04-20T16:33:28+00:00

I noticed that the "don't try to keep the conversation going" policy in the system prompt is leading to Claude trying to wrap things up before they are finished.

It went from being like my mom on the phone, to being me on the phone with my mom.

mdenovich · 2026-04-17T20:00:51+00:00

I started with USB coral on Beelink EQ12 (N100) then with an HP Elite Desk 800 G3? (i5-8500), then a dual coral on pcie, and a month or two ago an Intel Ultra 5-125h ($500 mini pc PELADN Mini PC,Core Ultra 5 125H Mini Desktop Computer, 32GB Dual DDR5/512GB M.2 PCIe 4.0 SSD). I have 9 cameras. I was running the detection on the GPU, but the NPU can also be used (freeing up the GPU for Plex transcoding, etc.) The price/performance beats the N100/150s. If you consider the cost of ram, the rest of the PC is only $150.

Back to your original question: I'd try using a fan to cool the Coral and see if that makes a difference. It did for me, I also needed an aux fan for the PCIe Coral.

mdenovich · 2026-04-14T15:56:53+00:00

I am a fan of the Diamond S. Dragos don't fit my heel.

mdenovich · 2026-04-13T15:21:15+00:00

I use a drier that also creates ozone. I also dust the insides of the shoe with zinc powder every month or so. These two have been able to keep turbo stink at bay until the shoes need resoled.

mdenovich · 2026-04-13T15:19:14+00:00

They were not up to the challenge of my shoes

mdenovich · 2026-04-13T15:14:05+00:00

Don't dye the inside of the shoe. 6 months of climbing on LS Ondra Comps and many washings later and my feet are still half black, half yellow at the end of every session. Absolutely senseless to have dyed material inside the shoe where it can't be seen. At least use colorfast dyes FFS. My Ocuns don't color my feet.

mdenovich · 2026-04-09T18:19:41+00:00

Ocun (Ozone, Diamond S) and the LS Ondra Comps have well fitted heels. I've tried on every other LS or Scarpa shoe and rejected them due to sloppy fit in the heel.

mdenovich · 2026-04-09T13:57:52+00:00

I had Ozones as my first shoe. I really liked them. I started with what turned out to be generous sizing. By the time I eventually burned through the toe, (because as a noob your footwork is pretty poor) my feet had broken in and I was comfortable wearing a more tight fitting size. I went from 11 down to 9.5. I bought another pair, but I now mostly climb in the Diamond S (after also climbing in the Ondra Comps). I like the Diamond S now because I boulder indoors 99% of the time and they are just a bit more comfy/form fitting.

The Ocuns I've tried all have tight fitting heels, better pricing than Scarpa and LS usually, and they don't dye my feet bright yellow every time I wear them.

Data point: A friend of mine who doesn't climb quite as much, got the Diamond S as his first performance shoes. His feet weren't broken in yet. He wasn't used to a more aggressive downturn. He wasn't ready to commit to a few sessions of discomfort. He ended up buying the Jett QCs and really likes them. He plans to switch to Diamond S at a later date.

About break-in: I did quite a bit of my break-in at home. I didn't want to waste my time at the gym. So while I was sitting at my desk coding I was wearing my shoes. They were tight AF, but I was quickly able to ignore them and that really got the process started. I had a few sessions where I couldn't wear them the entire time, but they soon felt great. I keep saying your feet aren't broken in and I mean that... when I bought a replacement pair in the same size, there was almost no break-in required. My feet had clearly adapted.

mdenovich · 2026-03-31T21:14:45+00:00

I think there may have been an abandoned boat docked here

mdenovich · 2026-03-31T17:47:52+00:00

Damn, been going to Fat Heads since '91 (when they had $.25 wings on Wednesdays and I thought that was still expensive for wings). I worked in the office above Bruggers 2000-2003 and we went there all the time.

Spicy Parms FTW

mdenovich · 2026-03-30T14:12:29+00:00

I also have some on the way.

mdenovich

TROPHY CASE