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Response to: Matt Climber - Safety concerns

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CityROCK

(@crmarketing)

Member

Joined: 5 years ago

Posts: 4

Topic starter 02/06/2022 12:00 pm

Hey climbers!

We'd just like to clarify some things in regard to a video recently shared by Matt Bush (bit.ly/3x3hLEb):

This incident happened a few months back and we very calmly resolved it with Matt at the time. Our staff apologised for the lack of our usual back-up safety cord on the volume (this has not been a requirement on smaller volumes especially when so close to the ground and was weight checked when setting the relevant routes over it), and Matt accepted that he was using the walls in ways other than intended (note that the jugs on which he’s climbing in this video were added to the wall by him).

Following this incident, our setting managers inspected all of our volumes to ensure that no backups were missed; their setting checklists have been re-clarified and optimised to include many more safety redundancy checks to all size volumes and to ensure that this never happens again.

We take safety incredibly seriously and to claim that we ‘cut corners’ in this regard is completely false. As far as the incident involving a ‘large panel’ coming loose on top of a wall – this did not happen. A customer heard some rattling while he was climbing and became concerned, but it was discovered to merely be a ladder stored behind the wall that was making the noise.

We recently had a disagreement with Matt about his behaviour in our gym and particularly his treatment of our staff. It is unfortunate that this is the outcome - we wish you the best in your climbing journey, Matt!

– CityROCK Management Team

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robertbreyer

(@robertbreyer)

Member

Joined: 5 years ago

Posts: 2

02/06/2022 1:02 pm

I personally banned Matt about a decade ago from CityROCK when we were still in Obz. After he threatened to beat me to a pulp. Or maybe he got fired first and then he threatened to beat me up. Can't remember too well, a decade is a long time, my WhatsApp messages don't go back that far.

Matt was only the second person in our 20 year existence to have been banned.

So a year ago Matt approached me personally about buying a pair of La Sportiva Mythos shoes, getting a nice discount, and coming back to climb and coach at CityROCK. I thought that Matt had matured and grown up, it was after all a decade later. And everyone deserves a second chance in life, so I agreed.

For months now we have given him a free membership to our facility. To film his Instagram videos, and to coach people. Over these months he has had numerous run-ins with staff and customers, which we have tried to resolve amicably. (What is interesting is that he has steadfastly refused to tag us, despite being given free access, and us referring some coaching business to him. But we just put it in a balloon).

My take on the volume incident from some weeks ago.

Instagrammer @areeyeseev from the USA called it exactly for what it was:

"For some reason this doesn’t look like the intended beta. The setters probably didn’t think someone would throw their full body weight at that hold in such a dynamic fashion…. This looks like content generation that ended up going south”.

Matt in fact added the the grip that he dyno’d onto, without our approval. But one can argue that’s a bit of an excuse from our side. We need to and will do better than that. (All volumes in the high climbing area have a safety bolt/rope). But that's almost a separate issue. The irony of course is that Chev our gym director and Matt even joked about it at the time it happened.

Fast forward to this weeks' events:

The straw that broke the camels back happened on Saturday, Matt had another run-in with two of our front desk staff.

On Monday, he complained to me about our staff’s behaviour, bypassing our very competent gym management team, and using unacceptable language in describing our staff. He called them 'assholes'. I take exception to our staff being verbally abused, so when he continued to berate our staff I had no choice but to fire Matt as a customer - for the second time. I guess the leopard does not change his spots.

I consider Matt’s recently posted volume video to be in the category of 'sour grapes' or just adult bitchyness. Matt is such a talented climber, he could have been SA's version of Alex Honnold, yet this talent is just lost on a very poor character.

Peace Matt, may you find a gym that will tolerate your monkeynastix and get you a million followers.

-Robert Breyer

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