Sometimes it takes more than one visit to feel familiar and comfortable with a place or activity. For my daughter, it took two. We first visited Sender City, a child-focused (but adult-friendly) area inside the massively awesome rock climbing gym Sender One near LAX (Los Angeles international Airport) for their soft-opening media event in February. My husband and I took turns playing on the obstacles and wall activities because our daughter said she was too scared to participate. I can imagine how intimidating it can feel for a small, young child in a setting (as cool as it is) such as Sender City.
Our second (and more recent) visit was two weeks ago (Saturday, March 18th) at Sender One‘s official grand opening. My daughter’s attitude was a total 180! She was ready and willing to climb the walls without any prompting or encouraging from my husband or myself. She happily let the staff attach and triple check the harness and helmet. I explained the auto-belay feature to her a couple times so she understood (it adjusts to your weight when activated, allowing a slow and gentle descent). I also told her to take a deep breath and breathe out slowly if she gets scared or nervous when climbing.
She was drawn to the “spiderweb” and stuck to climbing it almost the entire time. I admit I was a little nervous, but I was overjoyed and proud to see her enjoying and learning a new skill. She became so confident, she even challenged her dad to race her to the top.
Sender City is an amazing place for kids, and and wonderful parent-child bonding activity.
More pics from our visit:
I took a break from taking pictures to climb some things
This was one of the many “fun walls” at Sender City – each has a different theme for the holds and background scene.
The auto-belay:
Sender City at Sender One
Two locations:
Sender One Climbing, Los Angeles
11220 Hindry Ave.
Los Angeles, CA 90045
Sender One Climbing, Orange County
1441 S. Village Way
Santa Ana, CA 92705
Sender One Website: senderoneclimbing.com
Sender City Website: Sender.City
Prices and programs vary, please see website for details
Disclaimer: My family and I attended the event as a member of the press in order to facilitate this review. All opinions are my own.
