Kouba Climbing Gear

Who Are They?

Kouba is a climbing hardware manufacturer with 20yrs experience making gear mostly in Europe for Rock Empire and Omega Pacific. Their gear includes a selection of differently designed cams, nuts, offsets and accessories. New to the UK market I got hold of a selection of their gear and gave it a spin on some Swanage limestone.

Whats Their Gear Like?

The most important question of all!
The Vector Stoppers (offsets) (Full Set £34)
Sized very similar to the DMM set and sit in the rock brilliantly. The colour coding is nice for just looking down and being able to find the right piece. The set has a good spread of sizing so that you will normally have a piece that will fit into that important crack before you make the next move.

* Vector Stoppers (Full Set)
* Horn Stoppers (Full Set)
* Flex Cams size 1 & 3

Racking up at the top of Subliminal

Horn Stoppers (Full Set £45)
These where possibly my favourite bit from the selection, the convex and concave nature of the head seems to be perfect for swanage limestone where the cracks are sometimes slightly curved meaning when placed correctly make bomber runners. The sizing again is very comprehensive, with coloured tops making identification easier.
Flex Cams (£43-£48)
I only got two of these, size 1 and 3. Feel brilliant in the hand for a single, flexible stem cam when placing in deep and shallow cracks. They seem to bight really well on the rock, with the extendable slings making racking easier and allowing you to carry less extenders.

Should You Buy?

The short answer is yes! Everything seems really well made, sits snuggly in cracks and racks up pretty well. Their gear is just as good as competitors and with the lower price tag, makes climbing that ever so slightly more affordable for the person that has multiple hobbies or just wanting to build their selection of cams for grit.

Kouba Climbing Uk Website Link: http://www.koubaclimbing.co.uk

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