Moon vs. Kilter vs. Tension Board

You'll get plenty strong at whatever style of climbing with any type of board. You can make climbs as hard as you want on any of them. It's a matter of personal preference as to which one people like better so I'd sample each one to see which one is the most fun! 

John Clark wrote:

So, to sum up the thread so far (in order of cost):

Moonboard: fun training with ouchy holds ($)

Tension: symmetric (optional on TB2) good training for real rock, approachable, skin friendly ($$)

Grasshopper: Symmetric wild card with a new filler hold set that nobody has climbed on ($$)

Kilter: approachable with good comfy holds, fun, and applicable training for gym climbing ($$$)

Woods: masochism with a side of #strongboionly vibes (?$)

did I miss anything?

How could you forget the Decoy Board??

The Decoy hadn’t been mentioned yet.

Has anyone tried TB2 yet? I couldn’t decide whether to get TB1 or TB2. It will be for 8x10ft wall.

Conghui Song wrote:

Has anyone tried TB2 yet? I couldn’t decide whether to get TB1 or TB2. It will be for 8x10ft wall.

Yes, it's awesome. I'd go TB2. 

John Clark wrote:

So, to sum up the thread so far (in order of cost):

Moonboard: fun training with ouchy holds ($)

Tension: symmetric (optional on TB2) good training for real rock, approachable, skin friendly ($$)

Grasshopper: Symmetric wild card with a new filler hold set that nobody has climbed on ($$)

Kilter: approachable with good comfy holds, fun, and applicable training for gym climbing ($$$)

Woods: masochism with a side of #strongboionly vibes (?$)

did I miss anything?

Yes you missed that if you don’t boulder real v5 consistently then you are gonna hurt yourself for reals on a moonboard. Moonboard is like paddling out at pipeline. Fun for those who can. Kilter and Tension have a San onofre longboarding option.  

Bryan wrote:

Yes, it's awesome. I'd go TB2. 

Echoing. The footwork and variety of movement at all grades is really exceptional. I think it might get stale at a fixed angle though; the low angle problems are really unique for a board, closest thing to chuffing on real blocs. I will say: the “classics” aren’t as good as you would expect but just sort by most popular, new bangers being uploaded daily.

Just FYI but Beastmaker is also coming out with a board next year. I have a set of their holds on my woody, and they blow Tension out of the water in every dimension: build quality, price, usability, etc. Their Nano Hoist is my absolute favorite little crimp but still super, duper comfortable and not a skin shredder like all the small Tension crimps. Their training holds and CNC'd stuff are both gorgeous and comfortable. A custom full board set is $1,300 USD + customs for 130 holds + 25 footholds, and they'll work with you on the style/difficulty. Really can't recommend them enough, wonderful company.

FWIW I'm just not a Tension fan, and I say that having climbed the TB1 a decent amount and having their holds on my wall. They are very, very, very expensive for what they are. Perhaps TB2 is better quality-wise, but the prices are obscene—$185 for eleven plastic footholds? Are you kidding me?! I'll leave them to gyms and people with tons of money to spare.

I wouldn't sweat the Moon Board's difficulty, because you acclimate pretty damn fast. You don't have to do the set problems exactly as prescribed—get some mileage by adding feet/hands as needed and you'll work up to the lower grades in no time. The 2019 set is great, and definitely the best value among the commercially available board sets.

RE: Wood Holds Outside — It is absolutely out of the question here in Eugene, OR. My board's in a garage, and even so some holds were water damaged last winter by the interminable mega-high humidity. Soft woods will just rot, and hard woods will land somewhere on the spectrum of being unusable, scuffed, or moldy.

i've only used the moon board. I put up a 25 deg. (2019 layout w/ white, black, and wood holds) this past January in our garage to eliminate 3 hr. roundtrips to the nearest good commercial gym.

I should have done it 20 years ago. A 1 minute walk from the house and we are climbing.

I chose Moon for several reasons: they answered all my pre-purchase questions quickly, the database of climbs is huge, the price is best, and they have a track record.

Everything has confirmed my choice: the shipping from the UK was quick and everything came well packaged and complete, the app and installation are simple and well thought out, and the large number of problems makes finding good ones easy. The app itself is intuitive and the list functions make building workouts easy. The holds themselves are well varied and high quality.

If you can afford it, I highly recommend the lights. Scrolling through problems and doing circuits is fast and simple.

Regarding getting hurt on a Moonboard (or any board); that's entirely up to the user. There are so many problems (and setters) that you'll quickly learn the types of problems that might fuck you up (avoid them). Take the grades w/ salt and realize they're inconsistent. 

The movement did require some getting used to if you're a route climber, but that will come quickly if you stick with it (like Dan Schmidt wrote).

I sprayed a bunch of jugs around, especially up high, for a few reasons:

We needed bigger holds to be able to stay on for longer warmup/mileage work.

The jugs up high let you down climb easier after finishing to lessen the drop.

Dan Schmidt wrote:

Just FYI but Beastmaker is also coming out with a board next year. 

Where'd you see this? I'd love to see if there's any mock ups or anything out there yet

Tal M · 1 hour ago · Denver, CO

Dan Schmidt wrote:

Just FYI but Beastmaker is also coming out with a board next year. 

Where'd you see this? I'd love to see if there's any mock ups or anything out there yet

He linked it in his description (where is says full board set). Takes you right to the beastmaker site with the board layouts.  They look great!

scn wrote:

Tal M · 1 hour ago · Denver, CO

Dan Schmidt wrote:

Just FYI but Beastmaker is also coming out with a board next year. 

Where'd you see this? I'd love to see if there's any mock ups or anything out there yet

He linked it in his description (where is says full board set). Takes you right to the beastmaker site with the board layouts.  They look great!

I think those are custom boards they’ll do - you tell them the angle, style, size, and difficulty you want and they’ll give you a custom set of holds - so, not standardized

Oh got it.  I didn’t catch that there will be a new standardized board.   Will be interesting for sure!

RE: Standardized Beastmaker Board — Ned Feehally mentioned it in his Careless Talk podcast interview (not sure this works: podcasts.apple.com/us/podca…).

I have a moonboard and would like to try the tension board 2. The only way Ive found to locate the new boards is through the app, which doesnt have a distinction for tension board 2, any tips?

I'm a big fan of the 2016 moonboard.  I've found it's more interesting to climb on than the tension due to the unique hold shapes.  Also, the benchmarks are really good and fun.  It's made my fingers and shoulders feel a lot stronger.  My gym has a TB1 and I never really found it very fun to climb on (but I hear the TB2 is awesome, so, maybe check that one out).  I went with the 2016 moonboard set because plastic holds do much better in midwest humidity than wood, and the sheer number of benchmarks to choose from.  It's the "classic" as far as boards good, and has stood the test of time.  All boards are probably pretty good as training tools though.

Taylor Owens wrote:

I have a moonboard and would like to try the tension board 2. The only way Ive found to locate the new boards is through the app, which doesnt have a distinction for tension board 2, any tips?

Just click though and bring up a problem on a potential gym’s T-board and see which board pops up. Not a lot of places have the TB2, however, so it might take a while. 

I’m currently on a music tour and have been climbing at a ton of gyms, and I’ll say that it’s a bummer how many -unadjustable- Tension boards I’ve seen. My buddies and I have a 2019 Moonboard and an adjustable Tension board, and the Tension really shines in the 25-35° range. I can see how people wouldn’t love the TB1 at 40°… it renders all the little biter crimps (some of my favorite holds) almost unusable for any but the strongest climbers… I’d take a 40° MB over a 40° TB any day, but the versatility of an -adjustable- TB makes it my favorite training board. 

I’ve climbed on a couple TB2’s now, and it’s admittedly way better than the TB1 at steeper angles- sort of a blend of a TB1 and a Kilter. It’s probably the best board currently out there, but its size and insane cost make it pretty unobtainable for a home gym- and it doesn’t have the biter crimps!

Anthony _ wrote:

I'm a big fan of the 2016 moonboard.  I've found it's more interesting to climb on than the tension due to the unique hold shapes.  Also, the benchmarks are really good and fun.  It's made my fingers and shoulders feel a lot stronger.  My gym has a TB1 and I never really found it very fun to climb on (but I hear the TB2 is awesome, so, maybe check that one out).  I went with the 2016 moonboard set because plastic holds do much better in midwest humidity than wood, and the sheer number of benchmarks to choose from.  It's the "classic" as far as boards good, and has stood the test of time.  All boards are probably pretty good as training tools though.

Man I totally agree. I like the other boards to varying degrees but I’m genuinely psyched by the climbs on 2016 MB. I actually embedded the OG School Holds into my home wall layout just so I could repeat/try the mega classics.

Everything people hate about the holds, especially that they’re not ergonomic, is actually a selling point to me. Like the yellows—the fact that they’re scalloped and too narrow for four fingers means they’re great for practicing accuracy. I’m glad to have more comfortable holds on my board but there’s definitely a place for those.

My two cents as the owner of a 12 x 12 original Kilter Board. Love the texture love the lights. Onerous to go build and assemble. The help from kilter was very limited. My saying is “kilter – if you want it bad enough, you’ll figure it out“. Regarding which one is better for training I can only say I definitely feel stronger. However, I can say when guys who train on moon boards come over they crush the kilter. They seem stronger.
kilter is expensive. Lights and holds- 13k

Ok joining this conversation very late and have read the whole thing.

Live in Canada, eastern Ontario with wet and cold and humid winters.  

Was just in Red River and saw a kilter board set up on an Onsite wall with adjustable angle looked amazing.

I want to do a home wall for me and my kids. Kids all climb indoor and outdoor and are between 4 and 12 years old.

I don’t think Moon is the way to go for us. I also don’t think wood holds will hold up well in my garage, even with insulating etc. 

Thoughts on best set up? We want adjustable wall angle, LED and database of problems. None of us are very strong, climbing up to V6/5.11, but the kids will get stronger obviously with time and training.