Boulder Movement Tai Seng

“Tai Seng stands out for being lit by abundant natural light. The walls and mat feel and look clean. Located just above the Tai Seng MRT, it connects to the entire North East area through the NEX interchange. For someone staying in the Northeast, this is the most well connected climbing gym with a host of cafes and restaurants in the same building. Some of the design decisions gave me pause, but my interpretation is that the place gives what you need and nothing that you don’t. The lockers have no locks, since all the lockers are in plain view of everyone who is climbing. That the establishment dares to have lockers with no locks suggests a kind of open, warm, family like community that the management has managed to build up. I brought my phone with me though, so that I could have someone take videos of my climbs. The philosophy of providing focused amenities seem to extend also to the design of the walls. A short conversation with the friendly staff would have you realise that this is not the place to bring kids. They are simply not their target audience. There is no separate pricing for them, and none of the routes are designed with the shorter reach of smaller bodies in mind. My approach to this is to place my kids at another climbing establishment, and treat the Tai Seng facility as my practice zone with the wife. The showers are clean during the off-peak times that I visited, and there is hot water. Shower gel and shampoo containers were full and their offerings carried a pleasant fragrance. There is a changing room which is equipped with a hair dryer. Water cooler for your water bottle is available. There is a towel service here, where you can get a clean towel for $2 (the charge is waived if you sign up to be a long-term member). All bookings are done through the Boulder Movement app which functions well in its critical areas, although some of the transactions require some faith in it ( you have to scroll down on some of the pages or else it will not refresh, showing you only a blank screen that makes you wonder where you took a wrong turn). I am also a little bugged (pun intended) that the app does not allow you to book a climbing session once the starting time has arrived, even if there are open slots. BM offers a trial subscription which allows you to sign up for five sessions of climbing time( of three hours each) or bouldering classes. If you are like me, you will want to use all of the trial sessions for the classes. This is because climbing passes go for around $25 per session if you buy them in a pack of ten, which is the cheapest it goes, while class passes retail at $45. So going full in for the classes meant that you get $225 worth for your trial, while all climbing time utilisation will only get you $125 worth. I want to interspace the classes with climbing time to practice what is taught. So the way to do that is to either sign up as a member, which allows unlimited entry to the facility, or to buy the passes. However, where this requires a bit of jiggling with the staff as that the app is not too clever, and may use the trial credits for the climbing time, instead of the passes or the membership that you bought. So option 1 is to sign up for all the classes before you sign up as a member, or you can buy the passes, and get the staff to manually key in your desire to use the passes for the climbing time, while saving your trial credits for the classes. Throughout my cheapo efforts to get the most bang for my buck, I communicated extensively with the BM staff and found them very accommodating and communicative to my requests. At no point was I made to feel cheapo/kiasu about my questions (even though I was lah, singaporean mah). In a nutshell, a great place to climb, with extremely accommodating and professional staff whom you can have a real conversation with about the sport.”

“I like that it was bright due to the glass window/door, natural light made the place feel 'alive'. The walls were pretty tough for me being a beginner but I tried as many as I could and had fun. My son totally enjoyed his climbs. The washroom and changing rooms were clean. But I would suggest that slippers be provided for the restroom as barefoot restroom just doesn't feel hygienic as there will always be somebody who misses the aim and that will land on the restroom floor. And.. if like me you happen to injure yourself there, they have plasters for you. 😆”

“This is my first time joining the single entry pass at the Tai Seng branch. I love the clean and cozy concept here. They provide a shower room with soap, lockers, and a changing room. Also you can easily purchase the class via application/website.”

“Overall a good gym! Only minor gripe would be the amount of climbs here are quite limited AC is good here Climbs are a little more technical here so it’s a big plus The major con is their ridiculous app which is so buggy and the booking system which is so troublesome but fair enough cause it’s a small gym but at least make it easy”