When climbing the rock faces like those at Yosemite, a lead climber puts devices into cracks in the rock, and then connects the rope to the devices. These devices are intended to catch a falling climber. There are different shapes and styles of these devices, and just as many companies that make these different devices. Every climber that wants to do this kind of climbing needs to buy many of these devices and the climber's collection is called their "rack."
Why am I talking about this? Well, on my 35th birthday my wife organized a trip to the local climbing gym. I was hooked right away because it offered consistent hours, convenient location, and physical challenges, among other things. Last weekend I took a two day class to learn the skills to climb outside. Now it's time to build my own rack. For the price of a new surfboard I can have a decent starter rack that would get me outside. That's still around $500, which isn't money I can throw around, so I'm considering selling off some of my quiver to build my rack. My goal is a multi-pitch single day climb in Yosemite, and it may happen this summer or next. After that I'll be able to re-asses my interest in the sport. My concern is that the rock doesn't change so after doing a particular climb a few times it may become boring. In that case to find more excitement you have to go find a different rock somewhere. The advantage to surfing is that once you find a surf spot, every day and every wave is a bit different. Ocean Beach is the extreme example of this.
At the moment I'm more interested in buying the climbing gear than selling some surf gear, but I think both should happen. I'm ready to clear out the kneeboard, the spare 70's backyard board, and the Buttons board. That would leave me the flexspoon project, the GeeBee, the Haut2, the QQ Hess and the Pacheco Hess which is on the way. I'd move the Haut2 to Santa Cruz to have in case I'm ever there without a board. I'd be willing to part with the QQ if I could get a reasonable offer, and the 4 board massive reduction in quiver size would help justify the purchase of a Hess SFOB semi-gun for those 8-12' heavy current days. I'm not sure if I would be able to handle those days even with the right board, but I'd like to be able to. Hopefully climbing will keep me in a bit better shape for surfing (as compared to doing nothing.)
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