Tilted Climbing & Fitness
North Vancouver, British Columbia
Specs: Tilted Climbing & Fitness, a board climbing gym, is expected to open in the coming months in North Vancouver, British Columbia. Owned by Peter Dykstra, Tilted has been “a long time in the works,” Dykstra shared. Opening a facility has always been in the back of his mind, but Dykstra had started taking it more seriously in the last five years, he said. “I wanted to do something different,” Dykstra added, so he played around with the idea of a programs- and instruction-focused youth-only gym. Especially as a first-time business owner, though, he felt it would be hard to make the concept work, after running the numbers. “So, the next step was what if it’s for everybody, and what if it sort of runs itself? And that’s how a 24-hour access board gym started to make sense,” Dykstra explained.
Dykstra started climbing competitively when he was about nine years old, and since then he has had to recover from several surgeries, with a silver lining being that he has also “had the joy of discovering climbing twice, which is pretty special,” Dykstra said. He kept coming back to climbing during those periods, where working in a gym coincided with his healing. At the time, he had only been able to work about 15 hours a week but had steadily grown his professional role in climbing gyms. “Over the years, I just kept getting more and more experience,” he said, which included starting as a birthday party belayer at age 14 to eventually managing routesetting programs. So, in recent years, “a number of pieces fell into place,” Dykstra said, which eventually led to starting a gym of his own.
Dykstra decided to launch Tilted in North Vancouver because he thought “the proximity to Squamish is pretty ideal.” Tilted is targeting climbers that don’t necessarily have a gym membership but may be interested in a board climbing, training-focused gym. Dykstra found an available space for the gym in a designated town center in North Vancouver, with bus exchanges, bike lanes and upcoming high rises nearby. He said he is happy with the industrial road in the neighborhood, which is lined with new apartment buildings and several other businesses, including a brewery, ice cream shop and café. As a bonus, the space he found required very little work to be done before it was ready to house the new gym, mainly just needing “a little TLC and some paint, and it was good to go,” he said. “The space I found screams boardroom. The measurements are shockingly perfect. It’s quite bizarre.”
The 5,000-square-foot space will feature 984 square feet of climbing surface on a 24×16-foot Lemur x Kilter spray board, adjustable from -10 to 40 degrees, in addition to 16×12, 10×12 and two 12×12 Kilter boards, which are adjustable from 0 to 70 degrees. The boards will feature three different layouts, including the 16×12 OG, 12×12 OG and two 10×12 Homewall Fullride, which Dykstra said may change over the years. Tilted visitors can access a training area with squat racks, free weights, hangboards and more amenities, which will eventually include a campus board and peg trainer. The gym will also have a stretching area, couch and workstation; a small retail space with chalk, tape and stickers; and a 1980s vending machine with snacks. “Keeping a low inventory is a pretty high priority with the limited space,” Dykstra said, but he does plan to eventually have some display shoes on demo nights. Members will receive 24/7 access, and non-members will be able to climb during staffed hours, from 12 to 9 pm.
Walls: Kilter
Flooring: Kilter
CRM Software: GymMaster
Website: tiltedclimbing.ca
Instagram: @Tilted.Climbing
In Their Words: “The biggest thing I’ve learned is that you can get help and knowledge from just about every single person you encounter. So, asking questions and starting conversations has been huge.” – Peter Dykstra, Owner of Tilted Climbing & Fitness
