Three Ball - One of a kind holds
- These holds are totally awesome!!
Steve created a few different size tortilla flat molds. Create a base that can be made out of anything that will support the floppy tortilla mold which will hold the poured in liquid like a bowl. Once the liquid is dry, the bolt hole is drilled into the hold afterwards.
Small size tortilla Three Ball climbing hold mold.
One side of the mold is smooth, the other side of the mold has a grain pattern. Both results from this smaller mold can be seen on the two black holds.
Megan and Joel displaying the large tortilla Three Ball climbing hold mold.
Three Ball - Tortilla hold mold with cinder block pattern
Three Ball - no grip holds - super slick texture
- The smaller hold glows in the dark!
Three Ball - hold made of rubber
Three Ball hold, that turned into a ENIX hold, then was used as a prototype using a new spray on texture technique, then the spiderweb was added, then donated to the museum and yeah.... I think that's the story!
Three Ball, hold shape inspired by boulder problem Crash Test Dummy at Hueco Tanks
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MK: -  text 2/2025 - Good morning!! I pulled out this climbing mold today and washed it and. …..what is this mess of a climbing mold?

SD - You know the big tree down the hill from the Rail? I molded the big knob down around shoulder height, I wanted to make tree texture climbing holds.
(V6 The Rail - AZ - Queen Creek/Oak Flat bouldering).

MK -  So you used that mold to produce these wood texture holds, then once the hold was made you remolded the hold so you can make duplicates of it?

SD -  I used it to make the top one in the first pick but all the rest of those were made by molding a big chunk of pine bark. The really long one is the original, and then these other juggie ones are tweaks of that original one.
MK -  I also have these smaller tree bark versions, different sizes of the same mold. Did you offer these holds to the public? Or something you were experimenting with?

SD -  No never to the public I was just getting the line started…
MK -  I also have these tree branches holds. These holds are more friendly to the skin than the tree bark holds. I am amazed how bright the elbow branch glows in the dark!

SD -  Yeah we cleaned up that branch quite a bit before molding it, it was a good trapeze bar.
MK - text 3/2025 - Greetings Sire!! Came across this hold today in the museum storage. Does this hold have a name, and what was the concept in its design?

SD - Yo! That was a volume concept I developed for mike covington. The grips all have a hemisphere back, so they fit inside those hemisphere cavities. You grab inside the hole instead of grabbing these old knobs sticking outside of the volume. When it came time to purchase, Mike didn’t want to spend the money, so we never made any more.

MK - So this is a one of a kind prototype or did you also make a few others? I have never seen the actual holds with the hemisphere backs. Did you make them and how many different hold shapes did you create?

SD - What you’ve got is the one and only, the prototype. I made a couple of the hemisphere grips, a jug, a pinch, a crimp… I don’t know what happened to them…

MK - Would have been a interesting hold for sure, having many hold options. Great prototype for the museum though!! Thanks!!