Island Rock

Bigger and a nicer ambiance than Brooklyn Boulder. I love the stone work all around. I got lessons and the instructor was quite knowledgable and knew exactly how to break everything down for maximum comprehension.

This was my first experience rock climbing and I must say, I had an excellent time. We had the pleasure of having Curtis as our instructor. He was patient and very articulate with his instructions.
The place is clean and organized, and plenty of parking.
The only negative I could think of is the lack of real food for sale. So, maybe next time I will bag a lunch and take a break at the tables before I continue to climb again.
:)

It’s the only rock climbing gym in eastern Long Island. Hard grades on problems and much smaller compared to other gyms but Its 15 min away from me so I’m not complaining. They are also expanding. I wish there was more of a community feel. I used to go to earth trecks in Rockville and made so many new friends. Here, I made 0… So now I bring my mom! this place is very family friendly, so if u don’t have friends like me, bring ur mom for Mother’s Day or Christmas and try to avoid going 6 – 8 so u don’t get bombarded by kids parties.

Having just moved back to LI from the city, I found Island Rock to be incredibly disorganized as a business and the gym does not hold a candle to the Cliffs or Brooklyn Boulders which are more fun, have better routes, and more knowledgeable staff. However, if you live close, it’s convenient and the price is right.

The first time I went with the family it was fun and exciting. We didn’t mind waiting. Now that we’ve been back a few times the waiting has gotten less tolerable. I don’t like driving an hour and there be a chance I can’t climb. Calling ahead of time doesn’t help. Although most of the staff is friendly, I think it is poorly run. There aren’t many «good» times to go. Weekdays in the summer are busy with camp groups, weekends are packed. It wouldn’t be so bad if they actually had some instructors available for «walk-​ins». They seem to accommodate campers and birthday parties and not people/​families that just walk in. With all that said my boys who are 9 and 10 had a great time and can’t wait to go back. I guess kids don’t see what adults do!

For a first time rock climbing experience, I was very happy!
The staff is amazing, the routes were both fun and challenging and we got lucky with a fairly empty day therefore did not need to wait on anything. I will definitely be going back with some friends :)

I used to climb here years ago, but it was all that I knew. Now that I’ve been to other gyms I find it disappointing. The routes are rarely changed, and the tape has come off, so you don’t know what pieces are on. The holds are old and quite slippery.

Place is really small, but the staff were really great.

From all of the mixed reviews for Island Rock (with most ratings below the A-​OK), I’ve decided to give four stars (actually 3.5 stars). The facility is not as big as other rock climbing and bouldering places but is as challenging.
Island Rock can get crowded but lucky we went on a non-​holiday weekday afternoon (during winter recess). So the place was not very crowded.
For people who are irritated by the chalk dust that can fill the air, Island Rock did not have that problem on the day we were there.
The trainers/​workers there appear to be attentive. Since we’ve been to other rock climbing gyms, we didn’t require instructions and just be familiar with the rules.
I would recommend Island Rock for first timers and will return to try climbing with the harness.

I am surprised with all the horrible reviews for this place. Climbing gym staff tends to be hit or miss any place you go. We went through a quick belay test before climbing, I wouldn’t say the guy was friendly but he wasn’t horrible either. The wall itself is beautiful i’ll be looking to climb more from Solid Rock Wall Systems in the future. The ratings I thought were a little off, 5.8s felt like 5.10s but that’s not a real issue. They do a great job of marking the routes as well as having a card that shows when the route was put up and its expected take down, a great feature that I haven’t seen before.
Overall a place I would be happy to climb at again and a good alternative to the cliffs. Yes there are some kids running around but we did not have any problems with them.

Update on this Business. You can read my previous review for the horrendous customer service I received. However, a shout out must be granted to the General Manager that reached out to me. I received a heartfelt message from him, and that changed my view of the place for the better. Maybe in the future I will give this place another try.

Me and my family have been rock climbing in the passed and we enjoy it. This was our first time going to this place and we enjoyed it, the instructor was patient with my kids and help full. The entrance of the place is a little confusing to find, but that is all that I found about the place that was not good. I will defiantly return here and I will recommend this place as well.

Visited here with 3 friends who have never climbed before. The staff there that day was super friendly and even gave me different shoe sizes for each foot since my feet differ in size. The orientation was brief and the gym itself is well labeled and has a very good variety of paths.
I look forward to returning again soon!

What’s wrong with this place? Pretty much everything. The staff is a hit or miss. You might get someone really nice or someone who just don’t give a crap. I don’t know how some people get belay certified because I could count 5 incidents where I thought someone would die because of bad knots or letting go of the brake rope. The place is dirty and don’t even bother when there’s a birthday party. Kids running around while climbers are descending. Really?
Other than the fact this is the only rock climbing gym I know of on long island, I would not even go here. Luckily the Cliffs at LIC is open again so I would rather go there after work then coming to this place.

I was very happy to learn from a friend that there was a rock climbing gym near where I work. I used to climb a lot during grad school, but hadn’t gotten back into it in several years. Overall, I like Island Rock — there are a lot of ropes and a lot of routes on each wall, giving you options for what you want to climb. It also appears, at least based on my experience, that they have started resetting those routes more often than some of the other reviews here would suggest. There is a small locker room for each gender, including lockers and a shower (for those intrepid enough to need to shower directly afterwards… I’m not that hardcore). And there are ample cubbies up front if you just need to tuck away a jacket and shoes.
A couple things I would note:
1. If you’re going after work, try to go as close to 5pm as possible. The place gets hoppin’ around 7:30−8pm. My buddy and I usually leave by 8:30−9ish because we get frustrated trying to find open walls with lower scored routes.
2. Beware of Sunday afternoons when they have birthday parties. The place is packed solid. (Note to any Island Rock people reading this: Perhaps limit birthday parties to blocked off time on Sat and Sunday mornings?).
3. There are kids clubs for junior climbers. For some this might be a great thing (and honestly, I think it is), but for others this will be slightly annoying because those clubs run on certain weeknights and take up a couple ropes a piece around the gym. Because the kids are kids (though somewhat more prolific than me!), the ropes they take up are usually on mid-​range rated routes, which might be frustrating to the intermediate climber.

This gym has been a great starter rockgym, cool people, climbers and staff, but smaller than ideal and major negative is not clean. So dusty and in need of new mats. Some cleaning and mats easily a 4.5÷5 routes are challenging, staff is helpful, and they have a decent gym set up for a traditional workout that desperately needs some love!
If you have asthma or allergies, bring your meds!

My daughter rock climbs a lot at Lifetime Gym in Syosset. This place is great and brings it to a whole new level. The set up and facilities are well set up and clean. The locker room is well maintained. The staff is the best part. She got individual help and instruction which she really enjoyed and benefitted from.

What a GREAT place! I would recommend this to anyone. Even for people that aren’t climbers. It’s great exercise.
The staff was very helpful, and the price was very reasonable.

Aside from the fact it’s in what I call a random place to be located in, the inside felt a bit small. When crowded or overrun w/​birthday parties, it makes it difficult to navigate around the area even more so.
First thing is that they have the party area in front of the cubbies, so you will probably be hovering over a seated guest when you’re grabbing/​putting away your gear.
Second, that area is only a very few feet away from the climbing areas, so it sucks arse to be climbing all morning and smelling all the food. Yes, i have problems.
Third, a few of the climb zone/​wall/​route are really close together. If you have a group there and someone else too, it is tight and claustro.
For some reason on my first visit the ropes keep getting knotted on the top causing climbers to be stuck and belayers unable to release them. Second time I came, it seemed a little more better, or maybe we keep nudging the ropes to the center and making sure they’re not getting twisted. I feel bad for the staff because that one day, someone was always in need of being rescued (one after another continuously).
There is one most distracting part aside from everything else listed above. I cannot believe the insane amount of climber/​belayer mistakes I witness every single time I come here. Like who «certified» them? I watch a couple girls tie a really horrid «figure eight» or just a plain old crazy whatever goes knot. I see people letting go of the brake rope either because they were just cutting shortcuts or the worst, taking pictures.
Other patrons don’t observe the rule that climbers/​belayers have the right of way. A belayer is concentrating on the climber. If you happen under there, it’s not their fault. NEVER EVER, EVER, WALK UNDER A CLIMBER DESCENDING. Apparently some folks just don’t get it.
If it wasn’t for the fact that it is close to my friend’s house and he wanted to squeeze a climb in, I would not rotate this gym in.
The staff are helpful (literally life savers in knotted jams) and great sense of humor.

Why is everyone hating on this place? I don’t think it deserves 2 stars. Is it a bit pricey the first time you go? Yes. But if you’re a first-​timer, that probably means that you have no idea how to tie a figure eight knot, or a double figure eight, or a safety knot, put on your harness properly, belay, ect.
The «quick start» package is about $ 45 for an individual and includes a lesson explaining all of the above in a step-​by-​step process, and goes over climbing as well as belaying techniques. It also included harness and shoe rental, and you can climb your heart out for the rest of the day.
I have been here twice with my guy, and the first time we paid the full price and had a great time. The second time around, earlier this month, it was a Living Social deal that we purchased way back in April to the rescue. We got all of the above for $ 20 each. Score! The first time was more than a year prior, so we had long forgotten about eights and their respective figures. Not to worry! Our instructor (who, for the life of me, I cannot remember his name) was a doll. So nice, and so informative, going over everything and repeating information, making sure we knew our stuff before letting us climb on our own. He really was very helpful, showed us the bouldering wall (which I didn’t attempt, because I am a klutz and shouldn’t be trusted to climb without being tethered to something) and the upstairs gym which had minimal equipment but gymnastics rings which were fun to swing from.
The rocks were all secured, nothing loose while we climbed, and we each climbed about four paths. It was a ton of fun, and a great workout whether you’re scaling the walls like Spider-​Man or on the ground using your biceps to belay your partner.
I mean, yeah, it’s in a weird warehouse looking location. Yeah, they have some young kids working here and yeah, it can be expensive. If you sign up to their mailing list they send promotions pretty often, and the first time you come in you have the option to sign up for $ 30 for one month of unlimited climbing with shoe and harness rental included. It’s not something I would want to do all time time, and I don’t have much free time right now so I didn’t get the additional month. It was fun to do something different, something challenging and to switch up the routine a bit. Try it out — there really isn’t anything else like it on the Island. I heard other reviews mention Brooklyn Boulders and I’ll have to check it out, but if you’re an islander interested in trying rock climbing, give this place a chance.