FAQ- Memberships
So whats the deal with your different membership options?
Great question! First of all, now is the best time to sign up, our first hundred members will be our "founding members" and get the best possible price for a membership. That being said, we do have a couple options. The Founders Silver Annual, The Founders Silver Annual (support), and the Paid in Full option are going to be the best way to get that sweet sweet membership at the lowest possible price, EVER.
What is the difference between the Founders Silver Annual And Founders Silver Annual (Support)?
We tried to make that clear, but given how every email we have gotten has asked about that, it needs some clarification. Both of these options are great ways to lock in your low price for a founding membership. The Founders Silver Annual is a 12 month agreement, you pay for the first month, and get your price locked in before we become cool, and then once we have been open for one month, your membership starts billing every month like normal. The Founders Silver Annual (Support) is a way you can show love for the vision of the gym and help us bring every part of our dream to life from the get go! You will pay from whenever you sign up, for twelve months. Then however many months you supported us before we opened get added as a credit to your account, so you still get exactly the amount of climbing you paid for, you just help us out before we open. As an additional thank you for choosing to support us before we are open, we also throw in a free ten punch pass that CAN be shared with friends and family, which is a pretty great deal!
How is that different than the Paid in full option?
The paid in full option is the best possible price you will ever get on a membership here at Skyhook Bouldering. At only $595, your monthly cost works out to a crazy low $49.58 a month. This price is so good, that as I am writing this, we are talking about changing it... So if its still for sale online, snag it before we change our minds! Especially because it comes with the bring a guest option the other Silver memberships have, and comes with a ten punch pass. If we subtract the punch pass cost from the price, you are looking at $37.08 a month.... which is nuts! (to be clear, you cannot buy this option without the punch pass, as we want you to help spread the word about our gym, and bringing friends and family is exactly how you can help us do that!)
Do you have any family discounts?
Right now, the membership options we have are the best deal you can get. Once we raise prices, we will add a family membership, but whatever that discount looks like, it won't be as good of a deal as our founding memberships are! So rest assured, now is the time to sign up, you are getting the best deal we will ever offer!
What is a punch pass exactly? How do I know if that is right for me instead of a membership?
A punch pass is a way to try out the gym, at a lower cost per visit than drop in pricing. Normally gyms price their drop in visits at $25 to $30+ per visit. One of our goals is to help make Skyhook Bouldering more accessible than other gyms in town, and part of how we do that is with lower cost memberships, and options for people who don't live close, like our punch pass. If you plan to come even three times in a month, the membership is going to be the best option for you, but if you live an hour away from us, than give the punch pass a shot, that way you can still come try us out and see if the drive is worth it! Normally punch passes can't be shared, but founders punch passes are allowed to be used for whomever you want! Bring all your friends and family to try us out!
Will you really be open for members 24/7? That is amazing!
Yes! We will be open for members 24/7. We can't wait to be the first bouldering gym in Portland, Oregon that is open 24/7, 365! Members who are 18 and older will be able to use a key card to come into the gym any time of the day or night, and climb and train to their hearts content. Our members who are 16 and 17 will need a parent or legal guardian to accompany them, and they too will be able to climb after hours. For those of you under that age range, sorry, you will need to stick to climbing during our more than generous staffed hours with a parent or legal guardian present. People can sign up online, or in person during our staffed hours. Guests of members will need to come in during staffed hours with the member that they are climbing with, and leave when staffed hours are over, or buy a membership to stay after hours.
While climbing is an inherently active and risky sport, we will help keep our members safe and secure with a number of safety features. We will have panic buttons in a number of prominent spots around the facility, we will also have some "help, I've fallen and I can't get up" lanyards that you can clip to your chalk bag or keep on your person, and we will also have plenty of security cameras that are being monitored. In addition, we will have a laser gate that will alert staff if more than one person comes through the door when you swipe your access card, for safety and security, so don't let anyone tailgate their way in! Skyhook is going to be an amazing, unique and magical place, so help do your part to keep us open and take care of your gym.
I am sure there are many many more questions everyone will have about this, so check back in soon as we update our FAQ to answer everything!
FAQ- Facility
So what will the gym offer? I saw your sign, it said Climb, Fitness, Parkour, will you have all of that?
You bet, we will have all of that and more! The building is a pretty cool old Portland building, with a larger taller section in the back that will be dedicated to bouldering, the bouldering section is about 5000 square feet, and the other part of the building is about 4000 sq feet, has a lower ceiling and will be mostly traditional fitness, with some parkour equipment. When we say "some parkour equipment" we are saying that because we will have less than our Tigard location, which is 12000 sq feet and is an even split of American Ninja Warrior, Parkour, and Bouldering, with some traditional fitness and Aerial Circus thrown in for good measure. Our SE location will still have more Parkour than any other place In Portland, as the other little guys around town are less than 2000 sq feet in total for their whole building. We will also have a co-working space (during the week, weekends it will be for small birthday parties), two gender neutral bathrooms with showers, a wood stove, a living plant wall, and space to hang out and exist. We weren't kidding when we said this will seriously be the coolest gym in town. Oh and did we mention we partnered with our Friends over at Sip Coffee to have a full service coffee shop in our parking lot? They make a mean espresso!
So what is the Bouldering area going to look like? What even is Bouldering?
The building is a pretty cool old Portland building, with a larger taller section in the back that will be dedicated to bouldering, which is climbing without ropes over super thick and safe pads. Typically bouldering walls are in the 14 to 16 ft range, and ours are no different. Believe it or not insurance for a bouldering gym is cheaper than for rope climbing gyms! Also bouldering is an official sport with its own world cups and spot in the Olympics as part of Sport Climbing.
Our bouldering section is about 5000 square feet, with some of the craziest angles we have ever seen, in any gym across the country. We will have about 4000sq ft of climbable wall surface, which while not huge is a very respectable size. That is a similar amount of climbing surface to Planet Grani... I mean Movements bouldering area, more wall surface than the SW Circuit, similar to the NE Circuit, and less than the Tigard Circuit. We aim to have over 120 routes up at a time, with a 6 week full gym rotation. Once we hit 300 members, we plan to set 2-3 days a week, so you will always have new problems to try without feeling like you didn't really get enough time to work on the problem you were soooo close to last time. We will be setting with a hyper monochromatic circuit style "grades". Check out the blog post on this, here.
What traditional fitness equipment will you have?
Our goal when selecting fitness equipment was to have enough equipment someone who is not into climbing could still see themselves signing up for a membership here. We will have all the tried and true classics, as well as some fun nontraditional equipment. We will have a full weight area, with dumbbells, barbells, benches, squat racks, back extension benches, etc. We will have a number of machines, such as a cable crossover, elliptical, cycle, Treadmill, and a couple other cardio machines. We will have tons of functional fitness equipment, such as medicine balls, TRX's, pull up bars, bosu balls, yoga balls, and so much more. We will also have a large open training and stretching space, as having equipment without the space to use it is pointless. Looking for something specific? Send us a suggestion when you sign up to let us know what specific piece of equipment you think we absolutely have to get!
What hours will you be open?
We will be open for members 24/7! Come climb morning, afternoon, or night! Seriously, whenever you want to, come climb!
What parkour equipment will you have?
FAQ- Youth
So, why are you guys doing something so different from your first location here in SE Portland? I wanted another Skyhook Ninja to open near me!
This was a long and hard decision, you can read more about our thought process behind it in this blog post: https://www.skyhookfitness.com/post/the-next-chapter-of-skyhook
Long story short, we want to help people. Our first location did an amazing job of doing just that, but we noticed we were not making the impact that we planned to with adults. To try to change this and help out this portion of the population, we decided to pivot and do something a little different for our second location, while still staying true to the values we live by. We honestly believe that while this decision will make some people sad, its for the best, and lets us make a bigger impact than if we were to just copy/paste our first location.
Wait, does that mean you wont have stuff for kids?
Please start by reading this blog post: https://www.skyhookfitness.com/post/the-next-chapter-of-skyhook.
Once you have read that post, you will hopefully get an idea of what we were thinking about. We will have youth programming, in the form of an afterschool program, competitive kids climbing team, camps, and so much more. We plan to roll this our slowly as we have interest, bandwidth and staff. We are proud to say we honestly do not know another gym that offers the same level of quality youth programming as we do at Skyhook Ninja Fitness in Tigard, in Portland, let alone anywhere else in the country. That being said, we will be working very hard for a very long time to get this gym up and running and that means that we have to make some tough choices. Space will be very limited at this location, and we have put a lot of thought and intention into a well-curated programming schedule to maximize everyone's experience. The best way to save yourself a spot in our programs is to sign up yourself and your child for a membership and keep an eye on our newsletter!
One of our biggest values is families being active together, and we want that to be true for both locations, so climb together as a family here at Skyhook Bouldering! That being said, this gym will be built for adults, first and foremost, which means that if that is a deal-breaker for you, please check out our Tigard location. Skyhook Ninja in Tigard is built for kids primarily, but there are adults who train there, with their kids, and without!
So are kids not welcome at Skyhook Bouldering?
Everyone is welcome here at Skyhook Bouldering, we were just trying to be very clear that this location is different from our Tigard location. Kids will of course be welcome in the facility during staffed hours, so long as they have a parent or legal guardian with them supervising, or if they are enrolled in our youth programing, which means they are being actively supervised by our coaches. We pride ourselves in setting really phenomenal and accessible routes for kids, given all of our practice with it at our Tigard location! Youth comp style problems set at a wingspan that makes it doable for children (and shorter adults)? Yes please! Have questions in the meantime? Email our youth program director, Kirby! Her email is Kkahl@skyhookfitness.com
How old does my child need to be to be able to climb without me being there?
We're always excited to welcome young climbers to our community! At Skyhook Bouldering, the safety and enjoyment of all our climbers are our utmost priorities. Our policy is that climbers under the age of 16 require adult supervision while bouldering at our facility. This is to ensure a safe and supportive environment for climbers of all ages.
We have finalized our Youth Programs and young climbers will be able to climb during programing times with a coach. We are leaning towards allowing Youths on our Competitive climbing team to climb during staffed hours without a parent present. That would be a privilege, not a right, however, as safety and comfort for everyone in our space will always be our highest priority.
What kinds of classes will you have for kids?
We plan to launch our youth programming on June 24th, beginning with 6-week foundational programs, summer camps and a team program for young athletes with previous climbing experience. All of our programs focus on the holistic human and climber and are focused on personal growth and development through climbing. While athletes may be encouraged to compete in the USAC Youth circuit, we emphasize that there are many ways to be a climber. We aim to build lifelong climbers and athletes who care for themselves and their community. Programming will be available for ages 3-18.
How do I know what class is right for my kids?
If your child has never climbed before or had climbing instruction; Our summer camps and six-week programs are the best choice. These programs build foundational climbing skills, etiquette and safety. If your child has previous climbing experience or instruction, they may be a great fit for our team program. Our team program will begin as one team but as we have more athletes, we'll split this team into recreational, development and competition team. Our team is for athletes who are excited to develop their skills as climbers while learning new ones, work hard with support from talented coaches, explore climbing movement and build comradery with teammates.
FAQ- Other
You mentioned the concept of a third space, what does that mean?
A third space is the idea of having a place to exist that isn't at work or home. They are disappearing from our society at an alarming rate, and we hope to change that! We want Skyhook Bouldering to be your home away from home here in Portland Oregon. One of my personal pet peeves about many of the other climbing gyms in town is that if you are not actively climbing, you feel like you are in the way, even if you just finished a climb and want to watch your friends climb. Many of the gyms here in Portland were built to increase the amount of wall surface to the detriment of everything else, including the quality of the wall design. We made a conscious effort in the design process to prioritize space for you to stand, sit, hang out and BE, even while not actively climbing. We went so far as adding in a co-working space, and plan to have a mini-fridge and microwave that are accessible to members. We also plan to bring the outdoors in by having a living plant wall. Skyhook bouldering is going to be a mystical, magical place, that is unique in what it offers. We might decide that we were silly and some parts of this dream wont work, but I want to be proven right that it will, and with your help, we can make it happen, together.
Are you guys hiring?
We are not currently hiring for our SE location. If we hire, we'll post on our website and social media first, so stay tuned!
That being said, our Tigard location is hiring coaches, front desk, and custodial staff. Staff who work at Tigard will get first dibs on shifts when we need additional staff in SE. You are also welcome to send us a resume if you are interested.