Tips for offwidth

I am determined to start off width climbing and have no idea where to start, let alone good climbing area for it that are near California. Does anyone have any tips or information?

Wear cheap, high-friction (cotton) clothes that cover your arms and legs. Socks, too, if you don't have hightops. 

Make sure your shoes fit comfortably and your toes don't curl.

You can get thin compression kneepads from drugstores for cheap. These are best placed over your shins for #4's and just above your kneecaps for chimneys.

Wide climbing is a game of inches, so set small goals and don't be too hard on yourself.

Ultimately, have fun and be honest with yourself if offwidths end up not being your thing. They're a steep learning curve and not everyone is PSP.

Plenty of good opportunities in CA, there's an offwidth at pretty much every crag in the Sierra.

Start as easy as possible, offwidth is a completely separate skill from other crack climbing and you will want the ease to learn the skills.

Wear clothes you don't mind tearing or getting bloody.

think of using your arms like legs and your legs like arms.

As fritz said, an inch at a time.

Having a really large bank of techniques to draw from will help significantly when it comes to a crack changing size. The difference of 1/2” can change what you do with your body, it can go from cruiser to sufferfest.

Your outside leg is often your pusher that gives you upward progress, your inside leg is your locker and keeps you in place.

Move one body part at a time.

Cory N wrote:

Your outside leg is often your pusher that gives you upward progress, your inside leg is your locker and keeps you in place.

This. Also, most likely you'll be learning on California granite so this won't be an issue, but be sure to learn old-school armbar/chickenwing/heeltoe techniques and don't get caught up in Leavittation stacking too soon.

If you're in the bay area a couple of the gyms have great offwidths to practice on - specifically PG SF and Sunnyvale. Then get to the valley and get after it!

Stiff shoes can be nice.

All the above advice is good, too!

Work on the core.  

Where in California?

Yosemite and Joshua Tree have well established offwidth circuits/progressions that should take you from beginner to expert.

Steve Williams wrote:

Work on the core.  

Underrated comment. Front leg raises, high touches, lots of stuff for the lower abs and hip flexors. On near vertical and above there is a lot of core engagement in being able to move both hands at once, good conditioning will allow you to concentrate better on your technique while you learn. Also, when learning the technique concentrate just as much as what is not engaged with the crack as what is, the hardest thing for me to learn was how to relax stuff that wasn't actively helping me stay in. It can be similar to over-gripping a hold but you're doing it with your whole body instead of one hand.

Find a friend who weighs 3 times as much as you do and wrestle them for 1 hour 3x week.  You both will benefit.

Pete Whittaker's "Crack Climbing" book is worth its weight in gold, and so are knee pads.

I like Kent Pease's technical exposition of wide skills in The Crack Climber's Technique Manual . Kent is an engineer and a desert offwidth OG with forty+ years of jamming experience.