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Zlagboard Contest at the Arco Rock Master Festival

The fourth Zlagboard Contest takes place from 29 - 31 August, during the Arco Rock Master Festival in Italy, to test your finger strength.

Planetmountain

August 2014

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Patxi Usobiaga with a Zlagboard

Vertical-Life

Zlagboard?! Ever heard of it? Well yes, perhaps, it's that wooden finger board that connects up to a smartphone to automatically time your hangtime. Training results are registered and can be shared with friends and even compared with those of the strongest climbers in the world. Nothing but a game? Possibly, but it's also a serious game and an innovative approach to training that – in this so social era – even convinced the jury of the Friedrichshafen Outdoor trades fair in Germany to win the prestigious Outdoor Industry Award 2014.

So how does it work? The smartphone is connected to the training board via a specifically designed mechanism that activates the sensors of the smartphone as soon as you start to hang and stops the clock when you put your feet back on the ground. This precise training mechanism allows climbers to carefully track and improve their training. Thanks to the standard grip sizes and the social-media-link of the app the results can be shared worldwide. It's worth noting that training plans have been devised with pro climbers, including Spain's Patxi Usobiaga, the 2009 Lead World Champion, winner of the 2007 Lead World Cup and the first climber in the world to onsight 8c+.

Apart from training at home or in climbing gyms, there's also an international Zlagboard tour that provides the chance to have fun and compare results with all the rest. After the stages at Friedrichshafen, Val Gardena (at the MOVE Festival) and Munich (during the Bouldering World Championships) the contest will take place at Arco during the world's most famous climbing Master. Everyone will get the chance to hang on the board and receive numerous prizes, including a Zlagboard for the winner.

Zlagboard Contest Arco
From 29 - 31 August at the Vertical-Life stand, at the Climbing Village in the centre of Arco.

INFO: www.zlagboard.com