The longtime Louisiana climbing gym, The Rok Haus, which opened in 1995, is changing hands and changing names. Arthur Cormier, who became nationally famous for a video of him chair bouldering, is turning the Lafayette gym over to husband and wife team, 28-year-old Kelley Matt, and 29-year-old Jonathon Matt.
The gym will be rebranded as Southern Stone and feature extensive remodeling efforts.
“We were really close with Art and my husband started kind of managing the gym around December. We’ve been in talks for a little bit about the sale,” Kelley Matt told The Advertiser.
According to the Acadiana Active, the Matts have both previously worked as route setters at The Rok Haus and Jonathan has been managing since December.
Kelley said, “Our previous owner is moving to Yosemite to continue climbing, and he didn’t want to leave the Acadiana area without passing his baby on and continuing to grow the climbing community, so that’s where we’ll take over.”
“We are doing so much,” Matt said. “We knew that the Rok Haus had this great legacy because of Art. We wanted it to continue to be with climbing, but keep it fresh. We want to still continue a lot of the principles and things that Art did.”
The gym has been closed since June 4 for the remodel and has their re-Grand Opening last weekend.
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