Original post by Pia on substack - reposted here with permission

...

Let me set the scene.

Covid restrictions are loosening, after a year and a half of being trapped in the city you chose to start a new life in you can finally visit your hometown. You go home and discover all of your friends have gotten super into… rock climbing?

They invite you along to the gym and pretty soon after you’ve got the climbing bug too and are about to become super annoying about it. The ‘you’ in this theoretical situation is me, and shortly after my hometown trip I signed up for membership at Climbfit.

Considering when I started climbing at St Leo I was barely able to get up a 2 on the bouldering wall but by the time I left I was projecting 10s… I can say with honesty that I owe a lot of my journey to the gym, the community and the home I had around the corner for my actual home.

I don’t think I can really say in words how thankful I am for the silly gym around the corner, but I thought I’d share some of my favourite memories.

Waking up early to go to Pilates class with Jane was such an awesome part of my week when I was building a fitness routine. Getting a workout in and moving my body first thing in the morning wasn’t something I had ever done before. I remember being so excited that Climbfit had gym classesGym + Classes because it gave me a chance to learn about pilates, yoga... the gym in new ways.

Jane is always a friendly face and a wonderful part of the community, but she was also one of the first people in my life who realised something was wrong when my dad was sick. I hadn’t told many people yet because I didn’t know who to talk to or how to talk about it but eventually, she asked me what was wrong. I told her my dad was unwell and I didn’t really understand what I meant or what was going to happen. She was a safe person to tell this, pointing me in the direction of some really helpful resources and explaining there were other climbfitters who were on a similar journey to me.

Jane is special and makes Climbfit special. Climbfit is special because there is a carefully curated community of people who really care. Because the community is built by showing up over and over again. I miss doing Pilates with Jane (heartbroken when the class ended) but I still get to see her around the gym sometimes. Friendship is an amazing thing.

The cool thing about living around the corner from St Leonards is that I could walk there in my pajamas.

I didn’t go in my pajamas too often, but I did when Reel Rock was on in the gym or there was a movie night. I would do the short walk in my PJs, bring a vegan tiramisu from Green Gourmet and curl up in a chair at the back to watch the movies. Somehow I never won any spot prizes (just my luck)! But I always found the movies gave me a sense of inspiration and awe for adventure sports, giving me new and exciting ideas of things I could do in the future outside of the gym. It’s also just such a cool way to use the gym space.

I loved that I could go to these movie nights at my gym and didn’t feel pressure to bring a buddy. I could just go by myself because that’s my gym and why wouldn’t I?

Which leads me to my next point.

Sometimes (maybe a lot of the time), I just want to be by myself.

Especially in the gym, I want to be able to go in and have some time that is exclusively for me to do the thing that I enjoy and work on myself. I’m super community oriented in my day-to-day life, always going above and beyond to ensure others are included and respected. At the end of the day every day, I want to go work out and not think about anyone else for a few hours. Just me.

Contradictory to what most people love about climbing, I love that at Climbfit it was a playground where I could be on my own. Headphones on, there was everything I needed: A gym, bouldering, autobelays, hangboards, board climbing... autobelays... There were a lot of great sessions (some of my best) where I didn’t say a single word to anyone at the gym. Sometimes that is just what you need.

I am not someone who learns well while observed. Having time and space on my own to figure out what type of climbing I enjoy, how to effectively train, how to work around my schedule allowed me to find my strength on my own so I could use it confidently around others.

Despite my previous paragraphs implying I hate everyone and have no friends, some of my closest friends are from Climbfit. While I didn’t do a lot of social sessions, by the end of my time at Climbfit I had standing plans for a Thursday sesh with a bunch of climbers who I knew would be there every week, no pressure, no questions asked. I now live with someone I met at Climbfit, my main climbing partner is from Climbfit, some of my best friends are from Climbfit.

People like Tommy and Ben have become a big part of my world, slowly getting to know them over the years as a regular and eventually forming strong friendships with them. We go swimming, we have movie nights, we climb, we gossip. We are real true to the word friends. Climbfit let me build a world of climbers around me who are on the same wavelength but also introduced me to climbers outside of my demographic. There are so many strong women who climb at Climbfit, older trad dads, people at all different stages of their lives... they showed me that there are many possible futures and lots of ways to be an adult.

They also showed me that I will be able to climb until I’m old and wise. Or old and making the same mistakes, depending who you ask.

I probably can’t talk about my time at Climbfit without talking about Sam.

As I started to take climbing more seriously I wanted to be able to get a handle on specific parts of my fitness that were holding me back. Sam is a weapon, a wonderful trainer but also just a generally positive person. He saw me come in injured over and over and over again and showed me that I can keep training through injuries, I just need to pivot to match the tempo of those injuries.

There was a point last year where a bunch of guys in the hardcore and metal scenes were all asking ME for gym advice on how to get their backs looking like my back (impossible for them, they don’t know that yet).

Sam is also someone who followed up with me time and time again when I got seriously injured earlier this year. Even though I can’t train with him anymore, he put effort into showing me care and making sure I knew he was there when I’m ready to try figure shit out again.

What I’ve explained here is probably what a lot of people feel about their climbing gyms or gyms in general. I’ve heard a lot of people talking about third spaces in recent years and the desire for people to have somewhere that they can connect with others outside of home or work, gyms are that place.

I appreciate climbfit as the place where I really became a climber. The focus on building community and encouraging people to explore, rather than falling into whatever is trending in climbing at the time (paddle dynos), really sets Climbfit apart for me. Climbfit gym goer to outdoor crusher pipeline… real.

I feel like I’m breaking up with someone.

I will be getting a 10 pass and popping back in sometimes, you can’t get rid of me that easily. It’s only a 45 minute drive to Mac anyway...